Before getting in, you should think about how you’re going to get out. That was the message of last week’s Colorado Capital Conference, an event run by the Rockies Venture Club. While the event featured the usual startup pitches and networking, the focus of this year’s keynotes were planning and executing exits. That’s a fitting … Continue reading “Former LineRate and NexGen CEOs Talk Exits and Trade War Stories”
Category: Boulder/Denver
Time to Come Clean: Why A High-Tech Guy Envies the Low-Tech World
I’m ready to confess that I’ve been basking in a particular drug-induced fantasy for a number of years. It’s a different type than we usual read about, and I suspect it’s shared by a fair number of other folks who work in biopharma. We dream of the day when a medicine we created begins to … Continue reading “Time to Come Clean: Why A High-Tech Guy Envies the Low-Tech World”
How Alkermes Survived a Brush With Death
Most every biotech company with some mileage has had at least one near-death experience. Maybe the key experiment failed, or a dangerous side effect emerged late in the game. Maybe a rich competitor decided to squash the little guy with a frivolous intellectual property lawsuit. Maybe a key partner bailed for whatever reason. Maybe the … Continue reading “How Alkermes Survived a Brush With Death”
SkyFuel Obtains $500,000 New Financing Round
Feed Type Link http://www.venturedeal.com/Search/SearchResultTransactionDetail.aspx?TransactionId=586dfad1-8eca-42de-8f78-287d77dff314 Date 11/11/2013 Company Name SkyFuel Mailing Address 18300 W. Hwy 72 Arvada, CO 80007 Company Description SkyFuel delivers solar-power that is cost competitive in many applications. We deliver turn-key, large-scale solar plants that use Concentrating Solar Power (CSP) to produce steam for power generation, desalination, waste water treatment, and other industrial … Continue reading “SkyFuel Obtains $500,000 New Financing Round”
Techstars Austin Launches Tech Startups in First Texas Demo Day
Let’s be upfront about disclosure. I have been attending Techstars Demo Days since 2008, and have always been impressed with the accelerator’s ability to take talented teams and convert them into investment-worthy businesses. In 2011, the Mercury Fund, where I am a partner, joined with a few others to create a fund to provide $100,000 … Continue reading “Techstars Austin Launches Tech Startups in First Texas Demo Day”
Apple’s Weakness: Customer Loyalty Has Its Limits
If you’re ever forced to read a public company’s annual report, turn first to the “risk factors” section, which is always the most entertaining. This is where companies are required to disclose all of the things that could go terribly wrong with their businesses. It’s a Wall Street version of Edward Gorey’s Gashlycrumb Tinies (“A … Continue reading “Apple’s Weakness: Customer Loyalty Has Its Limits”
Hip to Be Cubed: Modular Robotics Raises More Than $56K Via Kickstarter
Add another name to the list of well-funded startups turning to Kickstarter to build an audience and gain exposure for new product launches. Modular Robotics is a Boulder, CO-based startup that builds robotic construction kits. On Thursday, ModRobotics began a Kickstarter campaign for MOSS, its second product. The target is to raise $100,000 within 34 … Continue reading “Hip to Be Cubed: Modular Robotics Raises More Than $56K Via Kickstarter”
Surviving Exponential Growth: Lessons from Network Solutions
At the beginning of 1995, there were only about 71,000 domain names in the entire world, and a grand total of about 16 million Internet users. This was the year that Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC), then based in San Diego, acquired Network Solutions—a small technology company in the northern Virginia suburbs of Washington, DC. … Continue reading “Surviving Exponential Growth: Lessons from Network Solutions”
GeoPoll Lands $6,600,000 Series A Round
Feed Type Link http://www.venturedeal.com/Search/SearchResultTransactionDetail.aspx?TransactionId=f70c9c38-6d41-4093-92dd-54bab65cf37a Date 11/7/2013 Company Name GeoPoll Mailing Address 2150 West 29th Avenue 2nd Floor Denver, CO 80211 Company Description Mobile Accord is a mobile platform company powering communication for social good. Mobile Accord’s products and services empower major nonprofits, political organizations, universities, governmental entities and corporations to benefit from the power of … Continue reading “GeoPoll Lands $6,600,000 Series A Round”
Rally, Noodles Execs to Share Lessons from IPOs with Aspiring Angels
If Colorado’s burgeoning tech industry has a weak link, it’s probably the relatively limited number of angel investors. Individuals and organizations are trying to change that, and many of them will gather this week for the 25th Annual Colorado Capital Conference. The Rockies Venture Club runs the event, which includes the conference Thursday in Golden … Continue reading “Rally, Noodles Execs to Share Lessons from IPOs with Aspiring Angels”
Denver’s Mobile Accord Raises $6.6M to Take Pulse of Developing World
When Colorado entrepreneur James Eberhard started developing content for cell phones in the early 2000s, the most advanced thing they could do was blast out tinny-sounding ringtones and send out text messages. Eberhard, founder and CEO of Denver-based Mobile Accord, turned those ringtones into a company worth about $40 million when he sold it in … Continue reading “Denver’s Mobile Accord Raises $6.6M to Take Pulse of Developing World”
While Healthcare.gov Scrambles, Private Exchanges Are Off to the Races
All eyes are on the hullaballoo created by the challenges at Healthcare.gov and several of the states’ public insurance exchanges. Yet all the while, like in a magic show, attention has been diverted from the real action going on elsewhere. Quietly and in a relatively drama-free way, the private health insurance exchanges are busily taking … Continue reading “While Healthcare.gov Scrambles, Private Exchanges Are Off to the Races”
Which Regions Are Churning Out the Most Biotech IPOs?
If you’ve got ambitions to start and build a biotech company that may someday go public, where is the best place to make it happen? Which regional clusters provide the most fertile places where people, scientific ideas, technology, and money come together to build NASDAQ-worthy biotech companies? This is just one more way of looking … Continue reading “Which Regions Are Churning Out the Most Biotech IPOs?”
Defrag Returns With Underwater “DIY” Robots, User-Friendly Skynet
Since its start in 2007, the Defrag conference has grown into one of the marquee events in Colorado, drawing technologists from global companies like Intel and Facebook as well as innovative startups. Defrag’s organizers consider the event a “forum for exploring information overload and building implicit tools for the Web,” and their ambition is to … Continue reading “Defrag Returns With Underwater “DIY” Robots, User-Friendly Skynet”
6 Secrets to Slaying the E-Mail Monster
People have been complaining about the onslaught of e-mail almost since the day it was invented. We’ve all heard the statistics: Over 100 billion business e-mails are sent every day, with the average user sending and receiving about 100 messages per day. Reading and answering e-mail takes up 28 percent of the average worker’s day—about … Continue reading “6 Secrets to Slaying the E-Mail Monster”
Colorado Startups Push to Get Unmanned Aircraft Industry Airborne
The sky might be the limit for the unmanned aircraft industry, but before it takes flight, the engineers, entrepreneurs, and enthusiasts trying to build an industry that they say could soon have a $13.6 billion economic impact will have to navigate a tricky route through the offices of regulators and lawmakers—and the court of public … Continue reading “Colorado Startups Push to Get Unmanned Aircraft Industry Airborne”
Red (and Green) Flags To Look for With Biotech’s Buyside Investors
As Warren Buffett once pointed out, companies get the investors they deserve. Observations by the oracle-from-Omaha are hard to dispute, but how does that translate into practice if you’re a biotech company going through the IPO process and trying to read the signs in a whole new landscape of investors known as “the buyside”? Many … Continue reading “Red (and Green) Flags To Look for With Biotech’s Buyside Investors”
Schumer on Privacy & Flint Talks Mobile Payments at Street Fight Summit
Technology really does not get any more intimate than the gadgets carried by a person so it is no surprise that a conference on location-based and hyperlocal services leaned heavily on what’s up in the mobile scene. Last Friday during the two-day Street Fight Summit in New York, mobile payments company Flint announced it raised … Continue reading “Schumer on Privacy & Flint Talks Mobile Payments at Street Fight Summit”
Four Red Flags for Digital Health Investors
It’s been a banner year for startups raising money to start digital and mobile health businesses—enough to spark a recent Time magazine article called “The Obamacare Start-Up Boom.” Here in San Francisco, it seems the number of job applicants my own digital heatlh company receives, as well as the number of attendees at health technology … Continue reading “Four Red Flags for Digital Health Investors”
Breakthrough Products Garners $2,000,000 New Financing Round
Feed Type Link http://www.venturedeal.com/Search/SearchResultTransactionDetail.aspx?TransactionId=06feea24-180d-4756-ab52-18077f35def7 Date 10/30/2013 Company Name Breakthrough Products Mailing Address 1610 Wynkoop St Denver, CO 80202 Company Description UrgentRx has taken the most widely known over-the-counter medications and put them in a flavored powder format that is more convenient and faster acting than traditional pills, capsules, or tablets. UrgentRx comes in thin, credit … Continue reading “Breakthrough Products Garners $2,000,000 New Financing Round”
Nobels and $125M Exits: Report Tells Tales of Two Colorado Startups
A startup commercializing Nobel Prize-winning research and the software startup that kicked off Colorado’s year of $100 million-plus exits were highlighted in a new report released today by the Science Coalition, a nonprofit dedicated to getting the federal government to increase support for basic scientific research. LineRate Systems and ColdQuanta both received support from the … Continue reading “Nobels and $125M Exits: Report Tells Tales of Two Colorado Startups”
Webroot Secures Future by Moving Consumer Anti-Malware Suite to Cloud
A few years back, the team at Webroot, a company that makes Internet security software, was at a crossroads. Webroot was founded in Boulder, CO, in 1997 and had carved out a niche for itself in the consumer network security market during the mid-2000s with its product, Spy Sweeper. The software was among the most … Continue reading “Webroot Secures Future by Moving Consumer Anti-Malware Suite to Cloud”
300 I-Corps Teams in Two Years
This is the start of the third year teaching teams of scientists (professors and their graduate students) in the National Science Foundation Innovation Corps (I-Corps). This month we’ve crossed ~300 teams in the first two years through the program. I-Corps is the accelerator that helps scientists bridge the commercialization gap between their research in their … Continue reading “300 I-Corps Teams in Two Years”
The Biggest Bargains Pharma Scooped Up in the Down Years
Most little biotech companies, until this year’s IPO boom, couldn’t seriously think about raising money from public investors. Most couldn’t raise big venture dollars from an ever-shrinking pool of VCs. The pool of potential partners and buyers in Big Pharma was shrinking, too, because mega-mergers reduced the number of potential bidders. With cash running low … Continue reading “The Biggest Bargains Pharma Scooped Up in the Down Years”
WellTok Garners $68,817 New Round
Feed Type Link http://www.venturedeal.com/Search/SearchResultTransactionDetail.aspx?TransactionId=86b1b835-8a50-4b60-99ee-d3a12387383a Date 10/28/2013 Company Name WellTok Mailing Address 1530 15th Street Denver, CO 80202 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 Amount … Continue reading “WellTok Garners $68,817 New Round”
Accera Obtains $10,000,000 New Round
Feed Type Link http://www.venturedeal.com/Search/SearchResultTransactionDetail.aspx?TransactionId=32385f88-7c6d-4f4c-b67f-d4f75a669eb6 Date 10/28/2013 Company Name Accera Mailing Address 380 Interlocken Crescent Broomfield, CO 80021 Company Description Accera is a private biotechnology company engaged in the discovery and development of innovative therapeutic treatments for neurodegenerative diseases. Website http://www.accerapharma.com Transaction Type Venture Equity Transaction Amount $10,000,000 Transaction Round Undisclosed Proceeds Purposes Proceeds purposes were … Continue reading “Accera Obtains $10,000,000 New Round”
NTT Communications Acquires Virtela Communications for $525,000,000
Feed Type Link http://www.venturedeal.com/Search/SearchResultTransactionDetail.aspx?TransactionId=0ae5235c-3633-4ec9-858b-136ad4e4bff0 Date 10/28/2013 Company Name Virtela Communications Mailing Address 5680 Greenwood Plaza Blvd Greenwood Village, CO 80111 Company Description Virtela Communications, Inc. delivers managed private networking solutions designed to meet the specific needs of enterprises with multiple locations. Currently serving customers with locations in more than 30 countries, Virtela connects businesses with … Continue reading “NTT Communications Acquires Virtela Communications for $525,000,000”
BuzzFeed, and 4 More Bad Startup Ideas that Look Like Good Ideas
Y Combinator staged its annual Startup School event last Saturday, attracting more than 1,700 young startup founders and would-be founders. Andreessen Horowitz partner (and Xconomist) Chris Dixon, the founder of Web startups SiteAdvisor (sold to McAfee) and Hunch (sold to eBay), gave one of the most interesting talks, under the title “Good Ideas That Look Like Bad … Continue reading “BuzzFeed, and 4 More Bad Startup Ideas that Look Like Good Ideas”
Denver’s Convercent Closes $10M Series B Round Led by SAP Ventures
Convercent, a Denver-based startup, announced today it has raised a $10 million Series B round. The startup is developing cloud-based software for companies looking to improve governance, risk management, and compliance procedures. SAP Ventures led the round and managing director Doug Higgins will join Convercent’s board. The investment in Convercent is the first investment SAP … Continue reading “Denver’s Convercent Closes $10M Series B Round Led by SAP Ventures”
Convercent Receives $10,000,000 Series B Funding
Feed Type Link http://www.venturedeal.com/Search/SearchResultTransactionDetail.aspx?TransactionId=7925a594-a114-40c5-a383-e58854fc7fef Date 10/24/2013 Company Name Convercent Mailing Address 929 Broadway Greenwood Village, CO 80203 Company Description Convercent brings culture and compliance together in the first integrated cloud application so that companies can promote the good and manage the bad in an intelligent and productive way. Website http://www.convercent.com Transaction Type Debt, Venture Equity … Continue reading “Convercent Receives $10,000,000 Series B Funding”
Convercent Obtains $10,000,000 Series B Funding
Feed Type Link http://www.venturedeal.com/Search/SearchResultTransactionDetail.aspx?TransactionId=7925a594-a114-40c5-a383-e58854fc7fef Date 10/24/2013 Company Name Convercent Mailing Address 929 Broadway Greenwood Village, CO 80203 Company Description Convercent brings culture and compliance together in the first integrated cloud application so that companies can promote the good and manage the bad in an intelligent and productive way. Website http://www.convercent.com Transaction Type Debt, Venture Equity … Continue reading “Convercent Obtains $10,000,000 Series B Funding”
Pharma Showing Interest in Open Systems for Drug Discovery
[Editor’s note: this post first appeared on the FasterCures blog.] Bringing the ideas of “open source” into the pharmaceutical process is far from simple. It requires a careful understanding both of the realities of open source as a software development process well as the realities of therapy research, development, and regulatory approval. The open source … Continue reading “Pharma Showing Interest in Open Systems for Drug Discovery”
Innovation’s Next Decade
While the world economy continues to look shaky, the technology industry has never looked stronger. Now is perhaps a good time to stop for a moment and reflect on what the next decade will be all about for the industry. My vision of what the technology industry needs to focus on is best described by … Continue reading “Innovation’s Next Decade”
Zen Planner Receives $10,000,000 New Funding
Feed Type Link http://www.venturedeal.com/Search/SearchResultTransactionDetail.aspx?TransactionId=8518aeed-d5f0-49b5-a1ac-e1e6b9d1c09a Date 10/23/2013 Company Name Zen Planner Mailing Address 9325 Dorchester St. Highlands Ranch, CO 80129 Company Description Zen Planner is an online member management, billing, and scheduling service that empowers fitness instructors, personal trainers and athletic coaches to launch and develop successful businesses. We work closely with our fitness-loving community to … Continue reading “Zen Planner Receives $10,000,000 New Funding”
Zen Planner Raises $10M to Develop Software for Gyms and Yoga Studios
Zen Planner, a Highlands Ranch, CO-based company that develops business management software for gyms, health clubs, and yoga studios, announced Tuesday it has raised $10 million in a growth equity round. The lone investor was Mainsail Partners, according to a media release. Mainsail is based in San Francisco. Mainsail is the first institutional investor to … Continue reading “Zen Planner Raises $10M to Develop Software for Gyms and Yoga Studios”
Ad-Tech Startup Integrate Raises $7M From Foundry, Cable Companies
Startups that make software for advertising and marketing remain appealing to investors, with the latest example coming from Integrate, which makes software that helps media buyers plan and manage campaigns across traditional and digital media channels. Integrate announced today it has raised $7 million in a follow-on to the $11 million Series B round that … Continue reading “Ad-Tech Startup Integrate Raises $7M From Foundry, Cable Companies”
Biodesix Garners $4,011,400 New Financing
Feed Type Link http://www.venturedeal.com/Search/SearchResultTransactionDetail.aspx?TransactionId=23adf816-716e-4fee-83fa-b2fb25c06454 Date 10/22/2013 Company Name Biodesix Mailing Address 2970 Wilderness Place Boulder, CO 80301 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 and … Continue reading “Biodesix Garners $4,011,400 New Financing”
OtterBox Founder Splashes $250K on Colorado Business Plan Challenge
What could get entrepreneurs interested in another business plan competition? How about $250,000 cash in prizes, along with the potential for further investment and mentoring and professional services? And maybe some lessons from the founder and chairman of OtterBox about how to build a $500 million-plus company. That’s what’s available in the inaugural Blue Ocean … Continue reading “OtterBox Founder Splashes $250K on Colorado Business Plan Challenge”
21 Red Flags to Watch for in a Biotech Company
Nutty things are happening in biotech. Irrational exuberance has returned. Generalist investors with lots of money are suddenly buying these stocks first and asking questions later. Companies can fire off meaningless press releases, and be rewarded. I heard a big-time money manager talk the other day about a recent biotech IPO being one of the … Continue reading “21 Red Flags to Watch for in a Biotech Company”
Mile High Roundup: Occipital Kicks Ass, HD Glasses, and New Energy
Welcome to the Mile High Roundup, a look at some of the interesting things that have happened over the past two weeks in the tech scene in Boulder, Denver, and around Colorado. In this edition, Occipital clears a Kickstarter milestone, Pivothead joins Colorado’s startup scene, and Colorado State University gets serious about energy. Occipital’s $1 … Continue reading “Mile High Roundup: Occipital Kicks Ass, HD Glasses, and New Energy”
VC Firms Bet $131M on Companies in Boulder, Denver Areas During Q3
Companies in the Denver and Boulder area raised $130.8 million in venture capital during the third quarter, with rounds closed by SolidFire and Ping Identity leading the way, according to the latest quarterly MoneyTree Report. Overall, 19 companies closed rounds in the quarter, which ended Sept. 30. The third quarter has been the best of … Continue reading “VC Firms Bet $131M on Companies in Boulder, Denver Areas During Q3”
Please, Keep Paying $80 a Month for Cable So I Can Enjoy Cheap TV
Dear Cable TV Subscriber, I don’t think I’ve ever told you how grateful I am. I haven’t paid a cent for cable television since 2009. Yet I have on-demand access via the Internet to a growing cornucopia of great shows like Game of Thrones, Homeland, Mad Men, and Breaking Bad, at reasonable à la carte … Continue reading “Please, Keep Paying $80 a Month for Cable So I Can Enjoy Cheap TV”
VC Funding for Software Jumps in MoneyTree Report, and Top 10 Deals
Venture capital firms invested $7.8 billion in 1,005 deals throughout the United States during the three months that ended September 30, according to the MoneyTree Report being released today. It was a 12 percent increase in dollars and a 5 percent rise in deals compared to the second quarter of 2013, when VCs invested close … Continue reading “VC Funding for Software Jumps in MoneyTree Report, and Top 10 Deals”
Clovis Oncology CEO Mahaffy Opens Up About Company’s Turbulent Year
Seeing your cornerstone product “fail spectacularly” and then your stock price climb more than 300 percent within eight months makes for an interesting year. But it’s nothing to get overly worked up about, according to Clovis Oncology CEO Patrick Mahaffy. Clovis (NASDAQ: [[ticker:CLVS]]) is a biotech company based in Boulder, CO. The four-year-old company specializes … Continue reading “Clovis Oncology CEO Mahaffy Opens Up About Company’s Turbulent Year”
Loopster Garners New Funding
Feed Type Link http://www.venturedeal.com/Search/SearchResultTransactionDetail.aspx?TransactionId=c1623537-229c-46a4-834c-bb1783bc10e2 Date 10/17/2013 Company Name Loopster Mailing Address Undisclosed Grand Junction, CO 81501 Company Description Loopster, Inc. is a technology startup based in Grand Junction, CO that is creating the world’s easiest to use, cloud-based video editing software solution. Website http://www.loopster.com Transaction Type Venture Equity Transaction Amount Undisclosed Transaction Round Undisclosed Proceeds … Continue reading “Loopster Garners New Funding”
Colorado Biotech Searches for a Few More Investors, Anchor Tenants
How healthy—and how significant—is Colorado’s biotech cluster? Just where does it stack up when compared to other clusters in the U.S.? And what will it take to sustain or (better yet) expand it? The challenges of creating and sustaining a cluster are often on the minds of local biotech leaders. The topic came up again … Continue reading “Colorado Biotech Searches for a Few More Investors, Anchor Tenants”
Denver’s Lessons for Helping Evolving Startup Communities “Suck Less”
Editor’s Note: At a panel at Denver Startup Week discussing what lessons could be learned from the event, Foundry Group managing director and “Startup Communities” author Brad Feld said local entrepreneurs and community leaders should understand “what Denver sucks at.” That comment inspired this e-mail Q-and-A, which is relevant to anyone trying to build a … Continue reading “Denver’s Lessons for Helping Evolving Startup Communities “Suck Less””
The $100M Club: Where the Major League Life Sciences Companies Are
[Updated: 1:15 pm PT 11/10/13] People love to rank U.S. biotech clusters. Most of these reports are full of data on venture financing, patents, jobs, and NIH funding. But many are riddled with flawed and biased methodology, and are usually designed to push a political agenda. These rankings, which many people take at face value, … Continue reading “The $100M Club: Where the Major League Life Sciences Companies Are”
Here’s How Yummly, the Foodie’s Google, Could Conquer the Kitchen
If you wanted to build a central information hub for the kitchen—connecting consumers with recipe ideas, ingredient lists, shopping assistance, and cooking instructions—you’d probably break the problem down into a few steps. First you’d build the world’s most powerful recipe search engine. Then you’d add filters to help people discover dishes they like, and avoid … Continue reading “Here’s How Yummly, the Foodie’s Google, Could Conquer the Kitchen”
Shopventory Receives $1,031,891 New Round
Feed Type Link http://www.venturedeal.com/Search/SearchResultTransactionDetail.aspx?TransactionId=3b1055b7-6fc0-4336-82c8-688e61f9b3ed Date 10/11/2013 Company Name Shopventory Mailing Address P.O. Box 6197 Denver, CO 80206 Company Description Shopventory integrates with Square to give you in-depth information about your business. Website http://www.shopventory.com Transaction Type Venture Equity Transaction Amount $1,031,891 Transaction Round Undisclosed Proceeds Purposes Proceeds purposes were not disclosed. SEC regulatory filing. Not a … Continue reading “Shopventory Receives $1,031,891 New Round”