Innovation Outlook for 2015: Tackling Big Data Variety

In 2015, look for the innovation community to be talking about Big Data Variety: the problem, how to fix it, how to make money off of it. Companies have invested roughly $3-4 trillion on enterprise software over the last 20 years, with Gartner forecasting $320 billion in 2014 alone. A lot of that investment has … Continue reading “Innovation Outlook for 2015: Tackling Big Data Variety”

Array Biopharma Gets Rights to Second Novartis Cancer Drug

The pending $16 billion deal that would see GlaxoSmithKline sell its cancer drugs to Novartis continues to pay dividends for an unlikely beneficiary—Boulder, CO-based Array BioPharma. Array (NASDAQ: [[ticker:ARRY]]) announced Friday that it has reached a definitive agreement with Novartis to acquire worldwide rights to encorafenib, a drug candidate to treat melanoma and colorectal cancer. … Continue reading “Array Biopharma Gets Rights to Second Novartis Cancer Drug”

Innovation Hub: Who Needs Talent?

How many articles have been written about the innate business acumen of Steve Jobs, the brilliant coding abilities of Mark Zuckerberg, the extraordinary gifts of Yo Yo Ma? And what if they were all wrong? Geoff Colvin has combed through the research, and he argues that, again and again, scholars have almost completely discounted the … Continue reading “Innovation Hub: Who Needs Talent?”

Brandfolder Receives $2,000,000 New Funding Round

Feed Type Link http://www.venturedeal.com/Search/SearchResultTransactionDetail.aspx?TransactionId=672f5652-dd9e-487d-8274-bc07938b23bf Date 1/23/2015 Company Name Brandfolder Mailing Address 1062 Delaware St. Denver, CO 80204 USA Company Description Brandfolder is a site that helps companies create branding and marketing materials such as logos and media kits. The site stores the material and allows the companies and ad agencies easy access to the material, … Continue reading “Brandfolder Receives $2,000,000 New Funding Round”

Escalate Capital Closes on $235 Million Fund

Escalate Capital Partners, an Austin, TX-based mezzanine investor, has closed on a $235 million fund, the firm said in a written statement today. Aptly named Escalate Capital III, the fund is the firm’s third and its largest. Escalate focuses on high-growth, later stage tech companies, from software as a service to healthcare. It typically invests … Continue reading “Escalate Capital Closes on $235 Million Fund”

Digabit Lands $600,000 New Funding Round

Feed Type Link http://www.venturedeal.com/Search/SearchResultTransactionDetail.aspx?TransactionId=020039fb-cf18-4337-af5e-633add2e5522 Date 1/22/2015 Company Name Digabit Mailing Address 215 Union Blvd. Lakewood, CO 80228 USA Company Description Technical documentation is part of the information explosion of this era. Companies understand that they will eventually drown in this data unless it is moved into web-accessible databases. Accordingly, Documoto represents an obvious application of … Continue reading “Digabit Lands $600,000 New Funding Round”

Two Generations of Geneticists, Two “Precision Medicine” Wish Lists

In late 2012, President Obama awarded Leroy “Lee” Hood the National Medal of Science for a lifetime of achievements, including the invention of machines that made the historic Human Genome Project possible. So when Obama announced yesterday a “precision medicine initiative”—something that would surely require ever-deeper knowledge about the personal genetic differences that influence health … Continue reading “Two Generations of Geneticists, Two “Precision Medicine” Wish Lists”

Adtech Startup Choozle Raises $4.1M to Simplify Digital Advertising

A lot has been said about adtech startups, programmatic advertising, and real-time bidding. But Denver startup Choozle might be saying something new—or at least saying it in a more clever way. Choozle’s mantra is “programmatic to the people,” and its goal is to make adtech software simple and inexpensive enough for small- and medium-sized businesses … Continue reading “Adtech Startup Choozle Raises $4.1M to Simplify Digital Advertising”

Crowdfunding is Banging on Biotech’s Door. Will We Let It In?

In the summer of 2013, the medical device startup Scanadu made headlines around the world when Scout, its handheld medical diagnostic tool for consumers, raked in an astounding $1.6 million on the popular crowdfunding platform Indiegogo. That’s all well and good for a medical device, but most biotech veterans remain skeptical that crowdfunding can make … Continue reading “Crowdfunding is Banging on Biotech’s Door. Will We Let It In?”

Choozle Secures $4,100,000 Series A Round

Feed Type Link http://www.venturedeal.com/Search/SearchResultTransactionDetail.aspx?TransactionId=841b085b-9f49-4c57-bb1f-527058b7fbd5 Date 1/21/2015 Company Name Choozle Mailing Address 2543 15th Street Denver, CO 80211 USA Company Description Founded in early 2012, the Choozle team is disrupting the ad technology ecosystem with its development of a SIMPLE, elegant and effective digital marketing platform. Ad technology is flooded with confusing acronyms, but the only … Continue reading “Choozle Secures $4,100,000 Series A Round”

Interana Obtains $20,000,000 Series B Financing Round

Feed Type Link http://www.venturedeal.com/Search/SearchResultTransactionDetail.aspx?TransactionId=13443f25-91c8-4aa2-a564-dc4b34791a60 Date 1/21/2015 Company Name Interana Mailing Address 68 Willow Rd. Menlo Park, CO 94025 USA Company Description Interana is building the next generation of analytics software. Extremely large semi-structured data sets, arbitrary, complex, ad-hoc queries satisifed instantly, highly interactive graphical interface. Website http://www.interana.com Transaction Type Venture Equity Transaction Amount $20,000,000 Transaction … Continue reading “Interana Obtains $20,000,000 Series B Financing Round”

In the Jiu-Jitsu Match of Biotech Risk, a Reminder of Other Paths

Risk makes for great headlines. I’m guilty as charged. My first column for Xconomy questioned whether biotech venture capitalists were losing relevance, running away from risk in an inherently risky business. Heading full steam into the new year, there will be plenty of headlines and stories from us and our peers about the brave and … Continue reading “In the Jiu-Jitsu Match of Biotech Risk, a Reminder of Other Paths”

ViroCyt Raises $3.5M for Virus Quantification Technology  

ViroCyt, a life sciences startup based in Boulder, CO, recently raised $3.5 million to continue marketing lab equipment that scientists can use to determine the amount of virus particles (such as Ebola) that is present in a blood or tissue sample. According to SEC filings, ViroCyt has raised $11.7 million since it was formed in … Continue reading “ViroCyt Raises $3.5M for Virus Quantification Technology  “

Big Deals Drive Jump in 2014 VC Investment in Colorado

Venture capital investors pumped more cash into tech and life sciences companies across the country in 2014 than they have in years, with a handful of companies such as Uber and Snapchat leading the way by closing “megadeals.” In Colorado, the same trend held, albeit on a smaller scale. Tech companies in the state scored … Continue reading “Big Deals Drive Jump in 2014 VC Investment in Colorado”

J.P. Morgan 2015: Notes, Thoughts, And Conversations From the Vortex

The word “story” gets ill treatment at events like the J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference. It often means an elevator pitch from a harried CEO to a distracted investor, or a few observations a journalist strings together with a headline, or Twitter snark trying to pass for insight. But we heard a real story on Sunday … Continue reading “J.P. Morgan 2015: Notes, Thoughts, And Conversations From the Vortex”

It Had to be You: Why Roche Was The Lone Suitor For Foundation

The buzz from day one of the J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference in San Francisco earlier this week was the announcement on Sunday night by Roche that it was acquiring a majority interest in Foundation Medicine (NASDAQ: [[ticker:FMI]]) for a bit more than $1 billion in cash, which translates into $50 a share. Those were just … Continue reading “It Had to be You: Why Roche Was The Lone Suitor For Foundation”

Ideas for Diversity, Education, and Computer Science

On December 24 2009, Xconomy published a column in which I reflected on the preceding decade and predicted for the coming one. I still quote that column in talks, because it’s the one time I can remember when I was actually right: I said that this would be the decade in which computer scientists put … Continue reading “Ideas for Diversity, Education, and Computer Science”

Uber-Size Deals Dominate Mega Year in U.S. Venture Activity

Venture capital firms invested more than $47.3 billion in U.S. startups in 2014, marking the highest funding level of VC funding since 2001, according to data being released today by CB Insights, the New York-based venture capital database. The $47.3 billion was 62 percent more than the $29.2 billion that venture firms invested in 2013. … Continue reading “Uber-Size Deals Dominate Mega Year in U.S. Venture Activity”

ViroCyt Lands $3,467,888 New Funding Round

Feed Type Link http://www.venturedeal.com/Search/SearchResultTransactionDetail.aspx?TransactionId=7f4f6286-c849-4e87-8bae-a9f8686a0490 Date 1/15/2015 Company Name ViroCyt Mailing Address 2100 Central Ave. Boulder, CO 80301 USA Company Description ViroCyt’s primary objective is bringing high value solutions to the life science industry that address critical unmet needs. Our first product is the Virus Counter, a revolutionary instrument that allows enumeration of intact viral particles … Continue reading “ViroCyt Lands $3,467,888 New Funding Round”

Zayo to Buy Datacenter Operator Latisys in $675M Deal

Zayo Group is a public company now, and that hasn’t changed the Boulder, CO-based telecom provider’s acquisitive ways. Zayo announced Wednesday it has reached an agreement to buy Latisys, another Colorado company, for $675 million in what will be the second largest of Zayo’s 34 acquisitions. It’s a deal that marks Zayo’s (NYSE: [[ticker:ZAYO]]) expanding … Continue reading “Zayo to Buy Datacenter Operator Latisys in $675M Deal”

Houston, Austin, Raleigh, Denver Tops in U.S. for STEM Workers

All metro areas are not created equal. If you’re looking at job markets in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM)—a major indicator of economic growth and innovation—the U.S. is a study in contrasts. That’s according to a survey by WalletHub, a financial information site based in Washington, DC. The analysis looked at metrics such as … Continue reading “Houston, Austin, Raleigh, Denver Tops in U.S. for STEM Workers”

Colleges Must Mix Entrepreneurial Skills, Traditional Liberal Arts

The great challenge facing higher education is to prepare students to navigate a world of accelerating uncertainty and faster churn. Training students to re-invent themselves every few years, as is already required in the world today, is an objective that legacy approaches to higher education is not optimized for. I’m convinced, however, that the University … Continue reading “Colleges Must Mix Entrepreneurial Skills, Traditional Liberal Arts”

In Search of a Better Approach to Breast Cancer Screening

As a venture investor in the healthcare sector, I see a lot of new medical technologies that promise improvement over the current standard of care. Opportunities that represent truly transformational change in medicine are rare, and those that address a major clinical challenge affecting tens of millions of lives are rarer still. Breast cancer screening … Continue reading “In Search of a Better Approach to Breast Cancer Screening”

Biodesix Lands $11,285,000 New Funding Round

Feed Type Link http://www.venturedeal.com/Search/SearchResultTransactionDetail.aspx?TransactionId=2d79037a-7c9f-4700-b31d-0e63c14cafae Date 1/14/2015 Company Name Biodesix Mailing Address 2970 Wilderness Place Boulder, CO 80301 USA Company Description Biodesix was founded in 2005 to apply the principles of complex data analysis and mass spectrometry (MS) to the discovery and development of improved multivariate tests that give physicians better information to understand the patient … Continue reading “Biodesix Lands $11,285,000 New Funding Round”

Schools Should Nurture Kids’ Natural Knack for Entrepreneurship

I think the most important change we could make in education would be to put more emphasis on exposing kids to entrepreneurship, starting very early on. I’ve found that kids have a natural inclination towards entrepreneurship—we just need to give them the opportunity to learn and practice the skills they need to act on their … Continue reading “Schools Should Nurture Kids’ Natural Knack for Entrepreneurship”

2lemetry Secures $4,000,000 New Financing Round

Feed Type Link http://www.venturedeal.com/Search/SearchResultTransactionDetail.aspx?TransactionId=d627b13b-4e01-46cb-983c-a3f4c148ea2d Date 1/13/2015 Company Name 2lemetry Mailing Address 1321 15th St. Denver, CO 80202 USA Company Description The company was co-founded by CEO Kyle Roche and CTO Chris Chiappone, both of whom have extensive backgrounds in system integration and large cloud deployments for companies such as JP Morgan Chase, Starbucks, Google and … Continue reading “2lemetry Secures $4,000,000 New Financing Round”

Blood Test Maker Biodesix Raises $12M, Readies for Product Launch

Boulder, CO-based medical diagnostic company Biodesix announced today it has raised $12 million to help launch a new, as yet unannounced product line and to continue promoting its blood test that oncologists can use to guide lung cancer treatment. The money comes from Biodesix’s existing investors and extends the Series E round the company opened … Continue reading “Blood Test Maker Biodesix Raises $12M, Readies for Product Launch”

Seven Surprises About Convertible Notes That Founders Should Know

Over the past two years, there has been an explosion of the use of convertible notes for seed rounds. It used to be these debt instruments that convert to equity later at a discount to the price of the next round were only for small initial financings of, say, $250,000 for a company to get … Continue reading “Seven Surprises About Convertible Notes That Founders Should Know”

Colorado Roundup: AntriaBio Raises $7M, VSCO Buys Artifact Uprising

A biotech startup chases the $10 billion market for diabetes treatments, and Artifact Uprising is snapped up by another photography startup. AntriaBio raises $7 million, clears hurdle. Biopharmaceutical company AntriaBio announced this week it has raised about $7 million in a private placement. The company develops extended release therapies, and currently is at work on a … Continue reading “Colorado Roundup: AntriaBio Raises $7M, VSCO Buys Artifact Uprising”

As Turner Suspends Media Camp, Its Founder Yearns To Duplicate It

For a consumer or a reporter, the International Consumer Electronics Show would be an exhilarating tour of the latest gadgets and tools, as well as a preview of marvelous technologies of the future. For established companies, the annual CES event might be a sobering catalog of technological changes they must either master or allow to … Continue reading “As Turner Suspends Media Camp, Its Founder Yearns To Duplicate It”

Milestones of Innovation 1: Hamilton’s 1790 Report on the Public Credit

Today is the 225th anniversary of a milestone in the history of American innovation. On January 9, 1790, the 35-year-old secretary of the Treasury of the United States sent the House of Representatives a 40,000-word blueprint for the new nation’s financial system. The report was produced just four months after Congress commissioned it. Proposing the … Continue reading “Milestones of Innovation 1: Hamilton’s 1790 Report on the Public Credit”

WellTok Receives New Financing Round

Feed Type Link http://www.venturedeal.com/Search/SearchResultTransactionDetail.aspx?TransactionId=3101ae82-9fa0-40f6-9466-9338c94360d1 Date 1/9/2015 Company Name WellTok Mailing Address 1675 Larimer Street Denver, CO 80202 USA Company Description Our social platform allows health plans to rapidly participate in the health care community in a new and powerful way, thus strengthening engagement and collaboration with their members. Website http://www.welltok.com Transaction Type Venture Equity Transaction … Continue reading “WellTok Receives New Financing Round”

Welltok Raises Additional $12M, Readies for Debut With IBM’s Watson

Welltok, a Denver-based health software startup, just closed the books on a very successful 2014, announcing today it raised $12 million from two new investors. Welltok also is already setting the stage for a big 2015, with plans to unveil a new app that relies on IBM’s Watson supercomputer next week. The investors are Hearst Health … Continue reading “Welltok Raises Additional $12M, Readies for Debut With IBM’s Watson”

Techstars Expands With New Accelerator in Berlin

How do you say “startup accelerator” in German? We might soon know, now that Techstars is opening a new program in Berlin. The first program is this summer, with applications being accepted through March 15. Techstars said the program will be run in English, and it expects to have more than 100 mentors. Techstars announced … Continue reading “Techstars Expands With New Accelerator in Berlin”

Even When Money is Easy, Rules of Biotech Finance Still Apply

Last month Juno Therapeutics closed a $250 million IPO, bringing the total raised since it was founded in Seattle in 2013 to close to $600 million. The money is earmarked to support more than ten clinical trials over the next 12 months. Last year, 133 biotech companies around the world raised $11 billion in initial … Continue reading “Even When Money is Easy, Rules of Biotech Finance Still Apply”

Don’t Get Comfortable: 5 Biopharma Flashpoints to Consider in 2015

The annual J.P. Morgan healthcare conference starts this weekend in San Francisco. Pundits are predicting a much higher tally of shoulder injuries than usual. You know, from all the people patting themselves on the back. After a year filled with medical promise and cash raining down from everywhere, the self-congratulation could be thicker than the … Continue reading “Don’t Get Comfortable: 5 Biopharma Flashpoints to Consider in 2015”

Need for New Approaches to Encourage Women to Join, and Stay in, Tech

The ongoing paucity of women in the technology world has led to various efforts to tackle this imbalance—but so far the results of such campaigns have been debatable. Now many voices are rising to share their thoughts on what more needs to be done. Despite the emergence across the country of advocacy organizations such as … Continue reading “Need for New Approaches to Encourage Women to Join, and Stay in, Tech”

Technology Upgrades: Welcome to My Nightmare (Yours Too?)

I was having coffee with a friend recently and the subject of word processing software came up. My friend related how he was happily using WordStar. WordStar? I hadn’t thought about it in years, but it was the first computer program I ever used, way back in 1984. I was surprised to find that not … Continue reading “Technology Upgrades: Welcome to My Nightmare (Yours Too?)”

Four Colorado Storylines to Watch as 2015 Gets Underway

Whether on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange or in orbit around the Earth, Colorado entrepreneurs, engineers, and investors made a mark last year, and more big things are sure to come in the year ahead. Here’s a quick look at some of the top storylines from 2014 that will carry over into … Continue reading “Four Colorado Storylines to Watch as 2015 Gets Underway”

Implications of the Oil Price Collapse

Instead of developing a warmed over list of “Top 10 Predictions for 2015,” over the past few months I have been most interested in the implications from the collapse of oil prices around the world. We will see the obvious and direct benefit to the U.S. consumer (November retail sales were up a surprising 0.7 … Continue reading “Implications of the Oil Price Collapse”

How Should the Innovation Community Solve Its Gender and Diversity Problems?

It’s been one of the hottest-button topics of the past year—and it’s not going away anytime soon. The under-representation of women and minorities in technology and innovation jobs is a real issue, particularly at the highest levels of organizations. The question, as I see it, is what to do about it. But not everyone sees … Continue reading “How Should the Innovation Community Solve Its Gender and Diversity Problems?”

So You Want to Be an Early Stage Investor?

I absolutely love what I do—running a seed-stage venture fund (Founders’ Co-op) and startup accelerator (Techstars Seattle)—but neither is a job with a well-defined career path. Unlike later-stage or public market investing, where finance and quantitative analysis is a big part of the job, effective early-stage investing requires a combination of human, strategic, and operational … Continue reading “So You Want to Be an Early Stage Investor?”

Teach More Business in School

Science, medicine and information technology have become intimately entangled with business on all levels. Whether in academic settings or business settings, success in these areas increasingly requires involvement with basic business concepts and principles that aren’t taught in college. Undergraduates in science and engineering disciplines graduate from universities and enter positions in biotechnology and technology … Continue reading “Teach More Business in School”

Zayo’s IPO, Datalogix, Orion Launch Highlight Last Quarter of ’14

Two of Colorado’s leading tech companies scored big exits during the fourth quarter, with Zayo going public and Datalogix being acquired by Oracle. But those were just two of the biggest stories as 2014 came to an end. Zayo’s IPO survives a rocky start. Telecom and broadband infrastructure provider Zayo Group (NYSE: [[ticker:ZAYO]]) has spent … Continue reading “Zayo’s IPO, Datalogix, Orion Launch Highlight Last Quarter of ’14”

Dallas Entrepreneur Center Aims to Bridge Tech’s Diversity Divide

The issue of gender and diversity is not a new challenge but one that has recently come to the forefront in a lot of our communities. There seems to be an awareness of the issues and an inherent need to address, but many are still conflicted how to best move forward. I think the best … Continue reading “Dallas Entrepreneur Center Aims to Bridge Tech’s Diversity Divide”

Hepatitis C Commercial Game Theory

Anyone either celebrating or fearing the start of a Hepatitis C drug price war should take a break from the excitement to consider that a far more nuanced and profound game is at hand, one where the rules of tacit collusion (the legal kind) constrain price erosion—and each new entrant with a “good enough” drug … Continue reading “Hepatitis C Commercial Game Theory”

The Small Business Revolution Will Be Measured

In 2015 I predict we will see a rise in the number of small- and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) that collect and analyze data for improving operational efficiencies, reducing risk, and better meeting customer needs. People tend to think of big data and business intelligence as living mostly in the realm of the big enterprise. Large … Continue reading “The Small Business Revolution Will Be Measured”

Improve Education with Great Expectations for All Students

If I could change one thing about our K-12 education system, it would be to end the curse of low expectations in Washington’s public schools. Numerous studies have shown that teacher and principal expectations have a profound effect on school culture and student performance. A student treated as if she or he can accomplish anything … Continue reading “Improve Education with Great Expectations for All Students”