Category: Boston

Cloze Goes Live with Mobile App to Combat E-mail and Social Overload

Got e-mail problems? Tired of trying to keep up with all the latest social-media updates? Then retire and move to Fiji. But if that’s not an option, well, keep reading. Yes, the race is on to help people better manage their inboxes and contacts, particularly on mobile devices. With this month’s release of Mailbox, the … Continue reading “Cloze Goes Live with Mobile App to Combat E-mail and Social Overload”

The Reimbursed Personal Genome—-Five Years Away?

Genome sequencing will be a routine diagnostic test for patients at the new Institute for Precision Medicine in New York City, a joint project of the Weill Cornell Medical College and NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital. Doctors will be searching for new genetic clues about disease by taking an unbiased survey along the genome, rather than scanning only … Continue reading “The Reimbursed Personal Genome—-Five Years Away?”

High Hanging Fruit

Let’s face it. There are tens of thousands of super smart, tech-savvy, funded teams out there chasing the next Massively Viral consumer Internet phenomenon. Think of it like an incredibly parallel search algorithm where every conceivable customer acquisition twist and hook is being explored with effectively infinite resources of fine young minds backed by the … Continue reading “High Hanging Fruit”

Biotech & Pharma Whining About Talent: That Makes Me Mad

Pharmaceutical and biotech companies axed something like 150,000 workers from 2009 through 2012. Now guess what? Those same companies are complaining, in a recent report from the consulting firm PwC, that they are unable to find enough qualified workers to fill key positions they need to grow. Sometimes, you come across a message in one of these … Continue reading “Biotech & Pharma Whining About Talent: That Makes Me Mad”

Saphena Medical Lands $3,000,000 Series A Funding

Feed Type Link http://www.venturedeal.com/Search/SearchResultTransactionDetail.aspx?TransactionId=213271f7-8582-489d-b06d-6e53dbeafa02&Preview=1 Date 2/16/2013 Company Name Saphena Medical Mailing Address 75 Mill Street Stoughton, MA 02072 Company Description Saphena Medical, Inc., a new cutting edge medical device company focused on Endoscopic Vein Harvesting technologies. Its OnePass™ platform delivers single-step, minimally-invasive harvesting of veins used for coronary artery bypass grafting. Website Undisclosed Transaction Type … Continue reading “Saphena Medical Lands $3,000,000 Series A Funding”

You, Me, and the I.D.

A social mixer for companies and others interested in the development of Boston’s burgeoning Innovation District. Complementary refreshments, drinks, and prize raffles, along with good old-fashioned socializing. Organized by Sample6 Technologies founder Mike Koeris. Tickets and more details available here.

MassTLC Annual Meeting

Gov. Deval Patrick headlines the program at the Massachusetts Technology Leadership Council’s annual meeting. This year’s theme is building a tech workforce, from education up through recruiting, along with keeping the people you’ve got—a hot topic for all technology businesses these days. More details and registration here.

East Coast Life Sciences Roundup: Jounce, Tokai, Lux, & More

Companies in the life sciences centers around Boston and New York made news this week with movement on cancer drug programs and efforts to create therapies by influencing the immune system. Maverick VC firm Lux Capital raised another $245 million, and health care companies will share in it. Meanwhile, scores of New York City health … Continue reading “East Coast Life Sciences Roundup: Jounce, Tokai, Lux, & More”

Prostate Cancer Drug Winners and Losers at ASCO GU

The latest clinical research in prostate cancer is being presented at the American Society of Clinical Oncology Genitorinary Cancers Symposium (ASCO GU) in Orlando, FL. Presentations started yesterday, and run through tomorrow, but here’s some quick commentary on three of the early “winners” and “losers” in the oral presentations. Winners San Francisco-based Medivation (NASDAQ: [[ticker:MDVN]]): … Continue reading “Prostate Cancer Drug Winners and Losers at ASCO GU”

Mailbox App Is Fun, But There’s Only One Real Fix for E-Mail

I have some difficult news to share. Your e-mail overload problem is here to stay. We’d all prefer to spend less time managing e-mail, and every so often a new app, service, or time-management system comes along promising to help. The latest one is called Mailbox, and it’s been generating a lot of buzz over … Continue reading “Mailbox App Is Fun, But There’s Only One Real Fix for E-Mail”

Angel Investor Semyon Dukach Stirs Up Trouble with New Award

If you’re a troublemaker in training, you could do worse than follow the lead of Semyon Dukach. The former MIT blackjack team leader has made his name beating casinos, leading unconventional startups, and selling companies for tens of millions—all with a strong anti-establishment undercurrent. Now Dukach is unveiling a new “Troublemaker award,” and its first … Continue reading “Angel Investor Semyon Dukach Stirs Up Trouble with New Award”

Corporate Compliance Programs: The Importance of Being Effective

Now more than ever, pharmaceutical companies must not only have an effective Corporate Compliance Program in place, but senior management and boards of directors at these companies must ensure that their Corporate Compliance departments evaluate the effectiveness of those Programs. The federal government has sent numerous signals of its intent to hold the highest levels … Continue reading “Corporate Compliance Programs: The Importance of Being Effective”

Mascoma Secures $2,087,902 New Financing

Feed Type Link http://www.venturedeal.com/Search/SearchResultTransactionDetail.aspx?TransactionId=891685be-4a86-4589-b16f-b7d96089f9d3&Preview=1 Date 2/15/2013 Company Name Mascoma Mailing Address 67 Etna Road Lebanon, NH 03766 Company Description Recent advances in cellulosic ethanol R&D have led to the development of a new generation of enzymes, microbes and processes for economical conversion of cellulosic feedstocks into ethanol. With the combination of R&D advancements and increases … Continue reading “Mascoma Secures $2,087,902 New Financing”

Amazon, eBay Wrestling Over Newest Online Sales Tax Plan

This looks like the beginning of the end for tax-free online shopping. Federal lawmakers from both parties today are unveiling their plan to close a loophole in federal tax law that has let retailers like Amazon and eBay avoid charging sales tax to shoppers in many states. Amazon has long said it would support a … Continue reading “Amazon, eBay Wrestling Over Newest Online Sales Tax Plan”

Boundless Wants Trial in Copyright Lawsuit with Textbook Publishers

The legal fight over the publishing practices of Boston education startup Boundless is getting kicked up a notch. This week, Boundless asked a federal judge in New York for a jury trial in a lawsuit accusing the startup of copyright violations. Three big textbook publishers sued Boundless last year, saying the company’s free “versions” of … Continue reading “Boundless Wants Trial in Copyright Lawsuit with Textbook Publishers”

Why Conveying a Clear Vision for Your Startup Is Important

Can you see the forest for the trees? If you can’t, and you’re an entrepreneur seeking out seed money for your business, it’s likely you won’t succeed. Recently, an investor friend of mine approached me and asked that I review a company slide deck for him. He said he was considering an investment in the … Continue reading “Why Conveying a Clear Vision for Your Startup Is Important”

The Holy Grail of Drug Development: Small Molecules with the Power of Biologics

FDA new drug approvals hit a 16-year high with 39 drugs approved in 2012; the highest number since 1996 when 53 drugs were approved. Of those, 18 or slightly less than half, were biologics up from 12 in 2011 but still surprisingly low when you consider an industry report citing that nearly 40 percent of … Continue reading “The Holy Grail of Drug Development: Small Molecules with the Power of Biologics”

Third Rock’s Latest, Jounce, Grabs $47M For Cancer Immunotherapy

Scientists have been striving for decades to find a way to stimulate the immune system to fight cancer, with only a couple of recent success stories to show for it. Now Third Rock Ventures, the Boston firm drawn to the biggest and edgiest ideas in biotechnology, is making its biggest up-front investment yet on cancer … Continue reading “Third Rock’s Latest, Jounce, Grabs $47M For Cancer Immunotherapy”

Jounce Therapeutics Garners $47,000,000 Series A Financing Round

Feed Type Link http://www.venturedeal.com/Search/SearchResultTransactionDetail.aspx?TransactionId=fbbaf292-bb6c-428e-84b3-458028c07fd7&Preview=1 Date 2/14/2013 Company Name Jounce Therapeutics Mailing Address 1030 Massachusetts Avenue Cambridge, MA 02138 Company Description Jounce Therapeutics is focused on the discovery and development of first-in-class cancer immunotherapies designed to work not by treating a patient’s tumor directly, but instead by harnessing the patient’s immune system to seek out and … Continue reading “Jounce Therapeutics Garners $47,000,000 Series A Financing Round”

Infinio Obtains $10,000,000 Series A Funding Round

Feed Type Link http://www.venturedeal.com/Search/SearchResultTransactionDetail.aspx?TransactionId=3e961814-4bba-4b14-98a3-c47c7538823b&Preview=1 Date 2/14/2013 Company Name Infinio Mailing Address 222 Third Street Cambridge, MA 02142 Company Description Infinio Systems, Inc. is building solutions that improve the data storage performance of virtualized environments. Website http://www.infinio.com Transaction Type Venture Equity Transaction Amount $10,000,000 Transaction Round Series A Proceeds Purposes The new funding will support additional … Continue reading “Infinio Obtains $10,000,000 Series A Funding Round”

Twitter’s Crashlytics Goes Free—Part of Bigger Mobile Strategy?

I’ve been trying to get my head around Twitter’s recent acquisition of Crashlytics, the mobile app crash-reporting startup. It didn’t make immediate sense to everyone, which probably means there’s some real strategic thinking behind it. Now we have another clue in the ongoing mystery. As of today, it looks like Cambridge, MA-based Crashlytics is making … Continue reading “Twitter’s Crashlytics Goes Free—Part of Bigger Mobile Strategy?”

Boston News Roundup: UMass, Infinio, CallMiner, Avid, & More

Lots going on in the Boston-area innovation scene in the past week. —UMass Lowell has unveiled a new testing center for robots, saying it will aid a growing group of robotics companies in the Northeast. The facility is called the New England Robotics Validation and Experimentation (NERVE) Center. The center is led by Holly Yanco, a computer … Continue reading “Boston News Roundup: UMass, Infinio, CallMiner, Avid, & More”

Cambridge Innovation Center to Expand in Baltimore, Other Cities

The Cambridge Innovation Center, a longtime fixture of the Boston-area startup scene, is expanding its entrepreneur-friendly office space business to new cities—just as it continues to build a larger footprint in its hometown. The CIC, which rents office space and related services to more than 500 companies in seven floors of a building near MIT, … Continue reading “Cambridge Innovation Center to Expand in Baltimore, Other Cities”

Tokai Looks to Follow Fast Behind J&J, Medivation in Prostate Cancer

Johnson & Johnson (NYSE: [[ticker:JNJ]]) and Medivation (NASDAQ: [[ticker:MDVN]]) shook up the prostate cancer world the past couple years by introducing two important new FDA-approved treatments. Now Cambridge, MA-based Tokai Pharmaceuticals is looking to see if it can go a step further, by combining the best features of each of those drugs into a single … Continue reading “Tokai Looks to Follow Fast Behind J&J, Medivation in Prostate Cancer”

Small Businesses Aren’t Too Small to Go Mobile

Shifts in technology often occur first in large organizations and trickle their way down to small businesses years later. During the Internet boom of the mid-to-late 1990s, most small businesses avoided having a Web presence. In the early-to-mid 2000s, while these companies finally ventured into the Web, the overwhelming majority didn’t offer e-commerce solutions to … Continue reading “Small Businesses Aren’t Too Small to Go Mobile”

Consumers United Obtains $52,500,000 New Financing Round

Feed Type Link http://www.venturedeal.com/Search/SearchResultTransactionDetail.aspx?TransactionId=54c722f6-1b6f-487a-92bb-c82136837fd4&Preview=1 Date 2/13/2013 Company Name Consumers United Mailing Address 31 St. James Ave. Boston, MA 02116 Company Description Consumer United is a savings-driven, grassroots group that’s spearheading a network of ordinary consumers, folks like you, who have joined together to identify the best service providers, negotiate better deals and simplify their lives. … Continue reading “Consumers United Obtains $52,500,000 New Financing Round”

Olejo Turns a Dormroom Hustle into a Growing E-Commerce Business

From the time he started working as a bus boy in his family’s restaurants in upstate New York, Dan Dietz grew up thinking about business. So it shouldn’t have been a surprise when, as a 20-year-old college student, he watched his friends moving off campus and thought, hey—there might be a way to make some … Continue reading “Olejo Turns a Dormroom Hustle into a Growing E-Commerce Business”

EClinicalWorks Unveils Mobile App as Patients’ Go-To Site for Healthcare

Many people steer their social lives from a single online dashboard, such as Facebook. Entrepreneur Girish Navani is betting that people will also want to use a densely connected Web platform to manage the health aspects of their lives. His Westborough, MA, company is rolling out a new mobile phone application designed to be the … Continue reading “EClinicalWorks Unveils Mobile App as Patients’ Go-To Site for Healthcare”

Albright, Paradise, Bolt, MC10, Verizon Join Mobile Madness on March 19

Llllllllet’s get ready to rummmmm-ble… For those of you interested in mobile technology and business—which means pretty much all of you—we have some notable additions to the speaker list for Mobile Madness 2013, coming up on Tuesday, March 19 at Microsoft NERD in Cambridge, MA. I can’t name everyone yet, but I can name: —Lars … Continue reading “Albright, Paradise, Bolt, MC10, Verizon Join Mobile Madness on March 19”

Catabasis Passes First Trials With Anti-Inflammatory Drug

Catabasis Pharmaceuticals has a vision of combining the stuff you get in fish oil with a common anti-inflammatory. The idea is that the benefits of the whole might be greater than the sum of the parts. Today, the Cambridge, MA-based company is releasing the first data from clinical trials that suggests it is on the … Continue reading “Catabasis Passes First Trials With Anti-Inflammatory Drug”

Poll: Which of These 10 New Drugs Is Priced Too High?

Drug pricing tends to drive people to extreme positions. Critics see the drug companies as evil, greedy bastards out to gouge grandma. Defenders say the industry improves patients’ lives, and merely charges what the free market will bear, and what it must to recoup its substantial R&D investments. Those positions have held firm for at … Continue reading “Poll: Which of These 10 New Drugs Is Priced Too High?”

Got Weather Alerts? Ping4 Raises $4M for Emergency Push App

There was no avoiding the news about this past weekend’s epic snowstorm in the Northeast. But if you wanted to stay on top of all the weather alerts, travel bans, and other major government announcements, the Ping4Alerts mobile app was a pretty good way to do so. And as of today, the Nashua, NH-based company … Continue reading “Got Weather Alerts? Ping4 Raises $4M for Emergency Push App”

VoodooVox Receives $200,000 New Financing

Feed Type Link http://www.venturedeal.com/Search/SearchResultTransactionDetail.aspx?TransactionId=65c548f8-c911-423e-abcc-0607ddaad81c&Preview=1 Date 2/11/2013 Company Name VoodooVox Mailing Address 61-65 Spring Street 4th floor Williamstown, MA 01267 Company Description VoodooVox is creating a new advertising medium in In-Call Advertising. Through the VoodooVox In-Call Network, VoodooVox brings together advertisers, telecom firms, and callers to create profit out of interactive phone experiences. Website http://www.voodoovox.com Transaction … Continue reading “VoodooVox Receives $200,000 New Financing”

VoodooVox Receives $200,000 New Funding

Feed Type Link http://www.venturedeal.com/Search/SearchResultTransactionDetail.aspx?TransactionId=65c548f8-c911-423e-abcc-0607ddaad81c&Preview=1 Date 2/11/2013 Company Name VoodooVox Mailing Address 61-65 Spring Street 4th floor Williamstown, MA 01267 Company Description VoodooVox is creating a new advertising medium in In-Call Advertising. Through the VoodooVox In-Call Network, VoodooVox brings together advertisers, telecom firms, and callers to create profit out of interactive phone experiences. Website http://www.voodoovox.com Transaction … Continue reading “VoodooVox Receives $200,000 New Funding”

Ping4 Garners $4,000,000 New Financing Round

Feed Type Link http://www.venturedeal.com/Search/SearchResultTransactionDetail.aspx?TransactionId=fe04f9e4-0b6e-4ec4-96a8-3b4379f38f9a&Preview=1 Date 2/11/2013 Company Name Ping4 Mailing Address 20 Cotton Road Nashua, NH 03063 Company Description Ping4 is the revolutionary new mobile messaging platform that pushes real-time alerts and rich content to your smartphone based on your location, preferences, or proximity to your favorite stores. Best of all, it’s free. Website http://www.ping4.com … Continue reading “Ping4 Garners $4,000,000 New Financing Round”

BioAegis Therapeutics Garners $3,000,000 New Financing Round

Feed Type Link http://www.venturedeal.com/Search/SearchResultTransactionDetail.aspx?TransactionId=62d3c89e-d712-49b3-97ad-cbb767852674&Preview=1 Date 2/11/2013 Company Name BioAegis Therapeutics Mailing Address Undisclosed Boston, MA 02108 Company Description BioAegis Therapeutics’ products will restore depleted levels of plasma gelsolin, an integral and ubiquitous, natural human protein, whose important clinical role is now emerging. Extensive animal and human studies support the theory that the body’s natural reservoir … Continue reading “BioAegis Therapeutics Garners $3,000,000 New Financing Round”

Groundhogs and Superstorms

Punxsutawney Phil didn’t see it coming, but this weekend’s New England blizzard is actually a triumph for modern weather forecasting. Specifically, it’s a triumph for numerical weather prediction models—the primary method used to forecast the weather one to two weeks in advance. These computer-generated simulations are run primarily by large governmental agencies. The National Center … Continue reading “Groundhogs and Superstorms”

East Coast Life Sciences Roundup: Biogen Idec, Celgene, Alnylam, More

Celgene of Summit, NJ, received some good news late Friday from the FDA, while Boston-area companies large and small made out well during the week, as partnerships were born and reformed. And the startup community got a boost from a Massachusetts agency’s funding for a new incubator space in the heart of Cambridge. —The FDA … Continue reading “East Coast Life Sciences Roundup: Biogen Idec, Celgene, Alnylam, More”

I’m Returning My iPad Mini. These Pictures Show Why.

[Important! Author’s Note, June 6, 2014: The article below refers to the first-generation iPad mini, released in November 2012. The second-generation iPad mini, released in the fall of 2013, features a 2048 x 1536-pixel Retina display that fixes all of the display-related problems I perceived with the original. Related to this, I wrote a review of … Continue reading “I’m Returning My iPad Mini. These Pictures Show Why.”

RNA Therapeutics Are Coming of Age

RNA therapeutics are new, innovative high-impact medicines. The combined efforts of pioneering biotechnology companies, pharmaceutical and academic institutions have helped these treatments, which act on ribonucleic acids in the cell, to evolve and come of age. For those unfamiliar, these medicines are designed to target RNA and can ultimately affect many cellular components. They can … Continue reading “RNA Therapeutics Are Coming of Age”

Infinity Pharmaceuticals Bounces Back To Compete in Crowded Field

Sometimes in biotech, and in life, you just need to stick it out long enough through the bad times to get to enjoy the good times. The folks at Cambridge, MA-based Infinity Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: [[ticker:INFI]]) have learned what that’s all about in the last few months. Infinity suffered a painful setback a year ago, when … Continue reading “Infinity Pharmaceuticals Bounces Back To Compete in Crowded Field”

Boston’s Hardware Startups Need an Identity

Tuesday night, just north of a hundred startuppers crowded into Greentown Labs in Boston’s no-longer-ironically-named Innovation District for the inaugural Boston Hardware Startup Meetup. Boston’s hardware sector, dominated for years by well-funded startups building networking boxes, now encompasses everything from “quantified self” consumer devices to wind turbines to smart lights to nanotech to…well, the category … Continue reading “Boston’s Hardware Startups Need an Identity”

Nextly Obtains $450,000 New Financing

Feed Type Link http://www.venturedeal.com/Search/SearchResultTransactionDetail.aspx?TransactionId=80989b76-9fec-41a3-b1c6-4fe58860f9cd&Preview=1 Date 2/8/2013 Company Name Nextly Mailing Address 727 Massachusetts Avenue Cambridge, MA 02139 Company Description Nextly is Smarter, Faster and Better browsing. Website http://www.nextly.com Transaction Type Venture Equity Transaction Amount $450,000 Transaction Round Undisclosed Proceeds Purposes Proceeds purposes were not disclosed. M&A Terms Venture Investor Atlas Venture Venture Investor Undisclosed

Plastiq Secures $5,869,997 New Funding

Feed Type Link http://www.venturedeal.com/Search/SearchResultTransactionDetail.aspx?TransactionId=4f6531dd-8b03-4a65-8fa5-cf6c7f1684f4&Preview=1 Date 2/8/2013 Company Name Plastiq Mailing Address 196 Broadway 2nd Floor Cambridge, MA 02139 Company Description Plastiq is simple, meaningful, enticing, and – like its alma mater, ultra transparent. Not just transparent in terms of offerings – you will always know exactly what we do and why we do it, but … Continue reading “Plastiq Secures $5,869,997 New Funding”

San Diego’s EcoATM Raises $40M to Add 600+ Recycling Kiosks

San Diego’s EcoATM, which operates automated kiosks that enable consumers to recycle their mobile devices, says it has raised $40 million in debt financing from Boston’s Falcon Investment Advisors to expand beyond its existing network of 300 kiosks in 20 states. In the statement, EcoATM chairman and CEO Tom Tullie says, “There’s still a large … Continue reading “San Diego’s EcoATM Raises $40M to Add 600+ Recycling Kiosks”

Join Us for ‘Boston Biotech Seizes the Momentum’ on April 4

The San Francisco Bay Area can rightfully claim to be biotech’s birthplace and the perennial No. 1 cluster. But something special is happening now in Boston biotech. While many regions struggle to fulfill their biotech dreams, Boston has been gaining ground on the Bay Area, and has seized momentum in the last few years that … Continue reading “Join Us for ‘Boston Biotech Seizes the Momentum’ on April 4”

MIT Unveils New Startup Program with Google, Greylock, Matrix VCs

MIT is one of the prime sources for big-brained engineers at the technology industry’s biggest names, and its professors have started plenty of their own companies over the years. But some leaders on campus say students aren’t being taught enough about how to build a business. Now they’re doing something about it, with close assistance … Continue reading “MIT Unveils New Startup Program with Google, Greylock, Matrix VCs”