Feed Type Link http://www.venturedeal.com/Search/SearchResultTransactionDetail.aspx?TransactionId=f4ea2477-16e0-4e9d-9105-fcf4a768be7f&Preview=1 Date 1/19/2012 Company Name SmartRecruiters Mailing Address 330 Townsend Street San Francisco, CA 94107 Company Description SmartRecruiters was founded in San Francisco in September 2010 by Jerome Ternynck, a recognized recruiting expert and pioneer of the recruiting software industry. We raised $1m from several angels in October 2010 and are now … Continue reading “SmartRecruiters Secures $5,000,000 Series A Financing”
Category: San Francisco
FDA’s Shuren Makes West Coast Swing, Talks About Regulatory Reform
Since he set out last year to revamp the way the FDA reviews medical devices, Jeff Shuren of the FDA’s Center for Devices and Radiological Health (CDRH) has often met with industry leaders to hear their feedback and ideas for how to improve medical device regulation. Last week, he met with industry leaders in San … Continue reading “FDA’s Shuren Makes West Coast Swing, Talks About Regulatory Reform”
SOPA-PIPA Protests Blossom Across the Country
It’s not just Wikipedia that’s throwing its weight today behind the movement to stop the controversial anti-piracy bills moving through the U.S. Congress. While the English version of the world’s most-visited encyclopedia site has gone dark for the day to call attention to the perceived dangers of the Stop Online Piracy Act and the Protect … Continue reading “SOPA-PIPA Protests Blossom Across the Country”
Amazon Web Services Adds DynamoDB for Database Scaling
Amazon Web Services is unveiling a new service that it says will allow developers to adopt fast-scaling databases to handle the explosive growth that can squeeze digital companies. It’s called DynamoDB, and is designed to give customers a simple interface that will allow them to quickly dial up or down the performance they need from … Continue reading “Amazon Web Services Adds DynamoDB for Database Scaling”
Evernote Wants to Make Your Memories More Magical
Cloud-based notekeeping service Evernote found its first 20 million users through sheer geek appeal. Hardcore users (full disclosure: that includes me) love the ability to upload Web clips, documents, images, audio files, and other materials to Evernote’s online notebooks, then search and retrieve them at will, from virtually any device. They also like features such … Continue reading “Evernote Wants to Make Your Memories More Magical”
Cadence Biomedical Snags First $1M to Help Disabled People Walk
One of the co-founders of HealthTech Capital, Don Ross, offered Brian Glaister a blunt assessment last summer when the young entrepreneur came pitching a new device to help disabled people walk. Ross responded that his wife, Donna Jang, is a stroke survivor who struggles to walk more than a couple minutes at a time. She … Continue reading “Cadence Biomedical Snags First $1M to Help Disabled People Walk”
What Should Students Study? Read the Xconomist Report on Education
Yesterday Bob told you about a special report we put together by canvassing the Xconomists—some of the world’s leading innovators, entrepreneurs, and investors—for their thoughts on what students should study to be prepared for the future. Well, the report is now live, here, with 22 thought-provoking responses. Computing, the scientific method, culture, Chinese, and how to start … Continue reading “What Should Students Study? Read the Xconomist Report on Education”
The World is Your Campus: Study with Rigor, Be Entrepreneurial
Two trends are driving the current job market: globalization, where everybody is becoming part of the economy, and innovation, which increases productivity and allows fewer people to do the same jobs. These two trends will not slow down during the next few decades. How should students train in college to build careers under these conditions? … Continue reading “The World is Your Campus: Study with Rigor, Be Entrepreneurial”
Merging Hand and Mind
My pat answer is mathematics (the universal language), biology (in order to master non-linear, dynamic thinking especially related to complex systems and ecosystemic issues) and Chinese (since in 10 years Chinese will be even more important than it is today in both the commercial and scientific domains). But let’s peek around the corner. Both design … Continue reading “Merging Hand and Mind”
Critical Thinking and the Scientific Process First—Humanities Later
If luck favors the prepared mind, as Louis Pasteur is credited with saying, we’re in danger of becoming a very unlucky nation. Little of the material taught in schools today is relevant to the future. Consider all the science and economics that has been updated, the shifting theories of psychology, the programming languages, political theories, … Continue reading “Critical Thinking and the Scientific Process First—Humanities Later”
Turning Data into Meaning
More than anything, they should be studying math, including statistics and probability, and programming. No matter what the subject, we will have huge amounts of data about it, and will need these tools to get meaning from the data. The areas I’m thinking of include medicine, genetics, nutrition, and neuroscience; human behavior; energy management and … Continue reading “Turning Data into Meaning”
Not All Tech Companies Are Alike
From cloudy Seattle to the vast suburbs of Silicon Valley, we covered a lot of ground on MIT Sloan’s recent technology trek, which concluded with a leg in Boston. The first stop was Seattle where it was predictably raining. Visiting Amazon, Microsoft, and Adobe, we came away with an appreciation for how much tech activity … Continue reading “Not All Tech Companies Are Alike”
Learning Across Disciplines and Cultures
The world is only going to become more technological and more global in the next decade. Students should be getting a solid enough grounding in mathematics, probabilistic thinking, physics, chemistry, biology, and engineering that they understand these ways of thinking and the values of these fields. They also need a liberal arts grounding and, particularly, … Continue reading “Learning Across Disciplines and Cultures”
CS + X, for all X
The impact of information-based technologies will continue to grow—probably at an accelerating rate. In nearly every segment of society, we see both quality and productivity improvements because of increased use of automation and digital communication. The impact is obviously huge in some sectors such as finance and publishing. And it will only grow in the … Continue reading “CS + X, for all X”
From AI to Bioengineering
First of all, students should be studying what they are passionate about. Clearly, computer science will continue to spread into all aspects of human life. Within computer science, I believe machine learning and AI are perhaps the biggest study opportunity today. Biology and medicine are also undergoing vast changes. Personalized medicine will become a big … Continue reading “From AI to Bioengineering”
Study the Boomers!
The Who once sang, “I hope I die before I get old.” Despite their best efforts to exit the planet early, most of them didn’t. They and their fellow Baby Boomers represent the greatest technology and business opportunity of the 21st Century. It is typical for each of us to be drawn to areas for … Continue reading “Study the Boomers!”
The Convergence of Biology, Medicine, and Engineering
I think learning the fundamentals of a discipline is the most important thing that students can do to prepare themselves for jobs both today and tomorrow. That discipline may be biology, bioengineering, chemistry, chemical engineering or others. I also think doing research is great preparatory experience. Furthermore, I believe the opportunities offered by the convergence … Continue reading “The Convergence of Biology, Medicine, and Engineering”
Computing and-Chinese
My initial response to this question was, “Chinese!” I was only half joking. English is the most popular second language in the world and in our increasingly connected world, the people who have an understanding of other languages—particularly Chinese—will be better equipped. As far as computers go, I studied computer languages in school and even … Continue reading “Computing and-Chinese”
Writing, Literature, and Computer Science
Whether you major in it or not, a fairly non-trivial amount of computer science would be helpful. The other thing is communication. One of the main things we look for when we are hiring people is their ability to write. It’s something that the average person is pretty poor at, but so much of every … Continue reading “Writing, Literature, and Computer Science”
Anything They’re Passionate About
Anything that interests them and they are passionate about today. What they will need to know in 10 years does not exist now, given the exponential growth of knowledge.
Data Analysis and Sensing
How to sense and make sense of subtler factors that govern our behaviors, the choices we make as individuals and as part of groups. The point here is that there are some obvious physically measurable; things like body weight, miles driven, CO2 let out, around which we can develop diagnostics and policies. But these measurables … Continue reading “Data Analysis and Sensing”
Learn to Learn, and Embrace Serendipity
Here is my advice to students considering pursuing science: —Learn how to learn (science is progressing so rapidly that whatever field you are focused on today will inevitably be different 10 years from now) —Learn how to develop focused attention (i.e. avoid modern day distractions like Twitter) —Master multiple science disciplines—If you can bridge disciplines … Continue reading “Learn to Learn, and Embrace Serendipity”
Learn By Starting Things
Students should be studying how to start things-how to create and grow new products, initiatives, ventures, and enterprises-a skill set that never goes out of style and that is fundamental to our nation’s future well-being and prosperity. And the best way to learn how to start things is to actually try to start things-whether it … Continue reading “Learn By Starting Things”
Marrying the Humanities and the Sciences
Liberal science and technology. We need a new major that prepares the future workforce for constant change by teaching broad-based knowledge in many disciplines. This major would consist of, among other disciplines, the basics of engineering, biology, chemistry, physics, law, business, humanities and communications. This curriculum should be group-based, where students teach each other, which … Continue reading “Marrying the Humanities and the Sciences”
Engaging “Productive Stupidity”
I recently came across an article in Cell Science that intrigued me and gets to the core of this question. The title—“The Importance of Stupidity in Scientific Research”—was reason alone to pique my curiosity. What I didn’t expect was to find a powerful insight into student learning in today’s highly uncertain world. Martin A. Schwartz, … Continue reading “Engaging “Productive Stupidity””
Be Students of Life
Themselves. Technology, markets, financial vehicles, business methodology, government regulations, entertainment, media, and so on, all aspects of our professions and our entire lives will change at a continuously increasing rate in perpetuity. Which technology, market, industry should I commit to? I don’t believe this is the most relevant question for a student. More relevant questions … Continue reading “Be Students of Life”
Biology 101
Biology 101 and beyond. I would take as much biology as possible, it’s exploding and changing faster than anyone could have expected. Especially our understanding of the “central dogma” itself, where RNA is playing a more critical role than ever thought before. WOW!
Culture, Science, and Problem Solving
As a father of two girls, I have actually been thinking about this quite a bit. In general, I want my kids to be prepared for a world that is going to be very, very different from the world I grew up in, largely due to the travel, communications, and the Internet. I would recommend … Continue reading “Culture, Science, and Problem Solving”
Meta-Processing
Both what we are teaching and learning, and how we are teaching and learning, are changing, very, very rapidly. The notion that there is a gold standard—a favored text or tome, a single subject-matter expert, or a single corporation with the single best practice, in any discipline—is really outdated. The ‘new normal’ is generation of … Continue reading “Meta-Processing”
Global Healthcare
College undergraduates today are faced with many choices of where to concentrate their studies. It is important to look down the road to determine where the major unmet needs of society will be. The healthcare industry offers many opportunities and challenges over the coming decades. As I look to the future of healthcare, there are … Continue reading “Global Healthcare”
Digital Chocolate Secures $5,000,000 New Funding Round
Feed Type Link http://www.venturedeal.com/Search/SearchResultTransactionDetail.aspx?TransactionId=d46302d9-0fd8-4970-a68e-0398f3185097&Preview=1 Date 1/18/2012 Company Name Digital Chocolate Mailing Address 1855 South Grant Street 2nd Floor San Mateo, CA 94402 Company Description Digital Chocolate has established itself as the recognized leader in developing and publishing many of the world’s most popular and top-rated games. The company has already earned eight Game of the … Continue reading “Digital Chocolate Secures $5,000,000 New Funding Round”
Plastic Jungle Lands New Funding
Feed Type Link http://www.venturedeal.com/Search/SearchResultTransactionDetail.aspx?TransactionId=ee7099e0-3533-4a84-9459-4475a0c477fe&Preview=1 Date 1/18/2012 Company Name Plastic Jungle Mailing Address 204 East 2nd Avenue San Mateo, CA 94401 Company Description Plastic Jungle is the leading Web site for gift card exchanges — whether you want to buy gift cards at substantial savings, sell them for cash, or trade pre-owned gift cards with others, … Continue reading “Plastic Jungle Lands New Funding”
Retailigence Garners New Funding Round
Feed Type Link http://www.venturedeal.com/Search/SearchResultTransactionDetail.aspx?TransactionId=17a06408-2237-422f-96ea-88ba8572dde2&Preview=1 Date 1/18/2012 Company Name Retailigence Mailing Address 480 Lytton Ave Palo Alto, CA 94301 Company Description Retailigence is a venture-backed company that powers location-based shopping. Website http://www.retailigence.com Transaction Type Venture Equity Transaction Amount Undisclosed Transaction Round Undisclosed Proceeds Purposes The funding will be used to advance the development of the service, … Continue reading “Retailigence Garners New Funding Round”
Trigger Garners $1,000,000 New Financing Round
Feed Type Link http://www.venturedeal.com/Search/SearchResultTransactionDetail.aspx?TransactionId=c6b7d9d9-6570-40df-975f-a3401dd0b07b&Preview=1 Date 1/18/2012 Company Name Trigger Mailing Address 149 9th Street San Francisco, CA 94103 Company Description Trigger.IO is a Y Combinator-funded startup launched in January 2008. It provides the simplest way for web developers to create native iOS and Android apps from a single HTML5 codebase. Website http://www.trigger.io Transaction Type Venture … Continue reading “Trigger Garners $1,000,000 New Financing Round”
Tidemark Lands $24,000,000 Series C Financing Round
Feed Type Link http://www.venturedeal.com/Search/SearchResultTransactionDetail.aspx?TransactionId=e947d13d-6c61-4fa1-b9fe-b09c55c9bded&Preview=1 Date 1/18/2012 Company Name Tidemark Mailing Address 2200 Bridge Parkway Redwood City, CA 94065 Company Description Tidemark went back to the analytics drawing board to deliver unified performance management apps that exceed organizations’ wildest dreams for power, usability, mobility, and cost savings. Using 21st-century technology, Tidemark apps offer on-demand performance management … Continue reading “Tidemark Lands $24,000,000 Series C Financing Round”
Kiwi Crate Receives $5,000,000 New Funding
Feed Type Link http://www.venturedeal.com/Search/SearchResultTransactionDetail.aspx?TransactionId=442a0d40-c027-487c-99a7-f464ab6e6930&Preview=1 Date 1/18/2012 Company Name Kiwi Crate Mailing Address 244 Merritt Road Los Altos, CA 94022 Company Description Kiwi Crate was built out of a passion for hands-on fun that encourages creativity and curiosity in children. I had a deep appreciation for these projects, but often found that my greatest intentions fell … Continue reading “Kiwi Crate Receives $5,000,000 New Funding”
Nexenta Systems Lands $21,000,000 Series C Financing Round
Feed Type Link http://www.venturedeal.com/Search/SearchResultTransactionDetail.aspx?TransactionId=9bd9152c-2e06-45a3-a7a8-f807e5d37541&Preview=1 Date 1/18/2012 Company Name Nexenta Systems Mailing Address 444 Castro Mountain View, CA 94041 Company Description NexentaStor provides enterprise class unified storage capabilities via a software solution that ends vendor lock-in while delivering superior storage management functionality with a particular focus on virtualized environments. Website http://www.nexenta.com Transaction Type Venture Equity Transaction … Continue reading “Nexenta Systems Lands $21,000,000 Series C Financing Round”
Onyx, Bayer’s Next Cancer Drug Shows Slim Survival Edge
Bayer and Onyx Pharmaceuticals looked like they hit gold last fall, when a study of 760 patients showed that one of their new cancer drugs was able to help patients with colorectal cancer live longer. Today, researchers got the first glimpse at the detailed results, and while it’s encouraging news for the companies and for … Continue reading “Onyx, Bayer’s Next Cancer Drug Shows Slim Survival Edge”
World Pharma Innovation Congress USA
From the event site: “The World Pharma Innovation Congress USA attracts senior executives from pharma and biotech, who are committed to reshaping the pharma industry to drive R&D innovation. It is the place where innovation is showcased, learning is done and new contacts are made. The World Pharma Innovation Congress USA provides an unrivalled platform to revolutionize open innovation … Continue reading “World Pharma Innovation Congress USA”
pariSoma Edutech Mixer
From the event registration page: “pariSoma invites you once again to the latest iteration of the Mixer Series: The EduTech Mixer! Our last Mixer was so successful — with almost 200 attendees and 15 demoing companies — that we couldn’t resist the urge of hosting it again! So come on over to rub shoulders with … Continue reading “pariSoma Edutech Mixer”
Notes From the Detroit Auto Show: Connectivity is King
Though the North American International Auto Show just opened to the public Saturday, I was able to preview it last week with other reporters from around the world. Unlike the past few years, which were dominated by austerity and green tech, the feeling I got this year is that the car companies are seeking to … Continue reading “Notes From the Detroit Auto Show: Connectivity is King”
Xconomists Peer into the Future, Suggest How Students Should Prepare
[Updated, Jan. 18, 2012—The Xconomist Report on the Future of Education is live—click here.] As the presidential race picks up steam, you know that we will be hearing a lot—a lot more, that is—about the need to create jobs. But where will those jobs come from, and what fields are really likely to spur growth … Continue reading “Xconomists Peer into the Future, Suggest How Students Should Prepare”
Symantec, PivotLink, Splunk: Bay Area BizTech by the Numbers
It’s time for our irregular, data-driven roundup of high-tech fundraising, M&A, and IPO news from around the San Francisco Bay Area. $100 billion—The potential valuation of Facebook in an IPO tentatively planned for late May, according to a story yesterday from Kara Swisher at AllThingsD. Facebook hopes to raise $10 billion in the offering, according … Continue reading “Symantec, PivotLink, Splunk: Bay Area BizTech by the Numbers”
Medivation Fails Alzheimer’s Trial, Pfizer Drops Out of Partnership
Medivation’s long shot for Alzheimer’s came up short today. The San Francisco-based company (NASDAQ: [[ticker:MDVN]]) said today its Alzheimer’s drug candidate dimebon failed in a pivotal clinical trial. Medivation and its collaborator, Pfizer, said they plan to quit developing the drug. The bad news came from a trial known as Concert, which enrolled more than … Continue reading “Medivation Fails Alzheimer’s Trial, Pfizer Drops Out of Partnership”
Genentech Pours $95M Into Constellation’s Drug Platform
Cambridge, MA-based Constellation Pharmaceuticals is announcing today that it has formed a major partnership with Roche’s Genentech unit, based in South San Francisco, to develop treatments for cancer and other diseases. The deal is worth $95 million to Constellation in the form of an up-front payment and research support over the next three years. Constellation—which … Continue reading “Genentech Pours $95M Into Constellation’s Drug Platform”
Reinventing the Board Part III: The Agenda
CEOs, investors, and board members frequently complain about ineffective board meetings. Steve Blank, Jeff Bussgang, Brad Feld, and Fred Wilson each have suggested board meetings could be improved by changing the format, process, or content. Having good meetings starts by having the right people in the room (as discussed in the first installment of this … Continue reading “Reinventing the Board Part III: The Agenda”
Sanofi CEO Viehbacher on Stirring Innovation in the Era of R&D Cutbacks
Chris Viehbacher has seen plenty of ideas come and go from people trying to shake up the pharma R&D model. No matter how much people have tried to fix things, it still takes a notorious amount of time, money, and risk to create new drugs. Now, as the CEO of Paris-based Sanofi (NYSE: [[ticker:SNY]]), Viehbacher … Continue reading “Sanofi CEO Viehbacher on Stirring Innovation in the Era of R&D Cutbacks”
Nuvosun Garners $28,845,345 New Financing Round
Feed Type Link http://www.venturedeal.com/Search/SearchResultTransactionDetail.aspx?TransactionId=89247318-c221-44e2-863d-137c0c670327&Preview=1 Date 1/17/2012 Company Name Nuvosun Mailing Address 1565 Barber Lane Milpitas, CA 95035 Company Description NuvoSun is a second generation innovator of thin-film photovoltaic (PV) cells and modules based on flexible Copper Indium/Gallium di- Selenide (CIGS) technology. NuvoSun’s mission is to redefine the cost point for PV cells and modules and … Continue reading “Nuvosun Garners $28,845,345 New Financing Round”
AppDynamics Secures $20,000,000 Series C Round
Feed Type Link http://www.venturedeal.com/Search/SearchResultTransactionDetail.aspx?TransactionId=eb7fd5ed-a1a8-4b29-9b96-daa1b1f30966&Preview=1 Date 1/17/2012 Company Name AppDynamics Mailing Address 303 Second Street North Tower San Francisco, CA 94107 Company Description AppDynamics is the next-generation Application Performance Management (APM) company that delivers rapid problem resolution for highly distributed applications through easy-to-use transaction flow monitoring and deep diagnostics. Website http://Www.appdynamics.com Transaction Type Venture Equity Transaction … Continue reading “AppDynamics Secures $20,000,000 Series C Round”
Bionic Panda Games Lands Seed Financing Round
Feed Type Link http://www.venturedeal.com/Search/SearchResultTransactionDetail.aspx?TransactionId=c393d574-9ce5-4418-86ca-dcc0699ba845&Preview=1 Date 1/17/2012 Company Name Bionic Panda Games Mailing Address 139 Townsend 3rd Street San Francisco, CA 94107 Company Description Bionic Panda Games is an Android-focused mobile social games company based in San Francisco, CA. Founded in 2010, the company has assembled a strong team with deep backgrounds in mobile and social … Continue reading “Bionic Panda Games Lands Seed Financing Round”