Category: National

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”

San Diego Opens CyberHive to Incubate Cybersecurity Startups

A cybersecurity initiative that began in San Diego several years ago has taken an interesting turn, with the formation of a new technology incubator for seed-stage companies developing new ways to defend computer networks, software, and data from malicious attacks. The incubator, called CyberHive San Diego, is modeled after a similar cybersecurity accelerator at bwtech@UMBC, … Continue reading “San Diego Opens CyberHive to Incubate Cybersecurity Startups”

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”

TechTown Adds Bootcamp-Style Venture Accelerator

The Detroit-based business incubator TechTown announced last week that it’s launching the new Labs Venture Accelerator, which is set to accept applications online starting tomorrow for the first session, which will begin April 8. The goal of the program is to transform early stage startups into viable, sustainable businesses in a short amount of time. … Continue reading “TechTown Adds Bootcamp-Style Venture Accelerator”

Facebook Doesn’t Have Big Data. It Has Ginormous Data.

One thing that makes Facebook different from most other consumer Internet services is the vast scale of the data it must manage. Start with a billion-plus members, each with 140 friends, on average. Add some 240 billion photos, with 350 million more being uploaded every day. Mix in messages, status updates, check-ins, and targeted ads, … Continue reading “Facebook Doesn’t Have Big Data. It Has Ginormous Data.”

Big Data at Facebook—A Glossary

Facebook, like many engineering-driven companies, is seldom satisfied with off-the-shelf solutions for its computing problems. Its software teams regularly come up with new algorithms or management systems meant to make the company’s infrastructure more reliable and scalable. Many of these projects are offshoots of open-source technologies like Hadoop, and Facebook ends up contributing many of … Continue reading “Big Data at Facebook—A Glossary”

Join Us at “Biotech in the Belt-Tightening Era” April 9 in Seattle

Payers didn’t have much power in biotech’s old days. For a long time, biotech companies could get away with believing that if they offered patients important new drugs, devices or diagnostics they could essentially impose high prices on U.S. health insurers. Getting data to win over the FDA, physicians, and shareholders was what counted. Those … Continue reading “Join Us at “Biotech in the Belt-Tightening Era” April 9 in Seattle”

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”

HowAboutWe Opens its Website to Couples Looking for Romantic Ideas

Plenty of singles search online for love these days, but HowAboutWe in Brooklyn sees an opportunity to serve couples who want to try new dating ideas with their current partners. At last week’s New York Tech Meetup, HowAboutWe debuted new features on its website to serve people in relationships—just in time for Valentine’s Day. Co-founder … Continue reading “HowAboutWe Opens its Website to Couples Looking for Romantic Ideas”

Elcelyx Closes on $20M to Advance Appetite-Control Compounds

It’s Valentine’s Day, and San Diego’s Elcelyx Therapeutics is feeling the love. The startup, focused on obesity and diabetes, says today it has closed on $20 million in Series C financing led by the GSM Fund, a dedicated fund managed by former Eastbourne Capital Management portfolio manager Rick Barry. Existing investors Morgenthaler Ventures, Kleiner Perkins … Continue reading “Elcelyx Closes on $20M to Advance Appetite-Control Compounds”

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”

Verve Raises $14M C Round From Qualcomm, Nokia, Blue Run Ventures

Verve Mobile, which provides a Web-based platform that enables its media customers to offer news and advertising to mobile users, says it has raised $14 million in a Series C round led by Nokia Growth Partners, a corporate venture fund of the Finnish wireless giant. Qualcomm Ventures, the corporate investing arm of San Diego-based Qualcomm … Continue reading “Verve Raises $14M C Round From Qualcomm, Nokia, Blue Run Ventures”

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”

Sweden’s Volvo Makes Strategic Investment as DriveCam Goes Global

Volvo Group Venture Capital has made a strategic investment in San Diego-based DriveCam, which marked its fourth year of profitable operations in 2012 with more than $100 million in orders. The amount of Volvo’s investment was not disclosed in the statement today. Volvo Group Venture Capital is part of the Volvo Group, based in Göteborg, … Continue reading “Sweden’s Volvo Makes Strategic Investment as DriveCam Goes Global”

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”

Seattle Genetics Gets $138M in First-Year Sales of Cancer Drug

[Updated 3:16 pm PT] Seattle Genetics ended up getting $138.2 million of sales in the first full year of marketing its first cancer drug. And it expects next year’s sales will be in the same ballpark. The Bothell, WA-based company (NASDAQ: [[ticker:SGEN]]) said today, in its fourth quarter and full-year financial report for 2012, that it … Continue reading “Seattle Genetics Gets $138M in First-Year Sales of Cancer Drug”

Lycera Enters Into Second Collaboration Deal with Merck

Lycera, the biopharmaceutical company based in Plymouth, MI, announced today that it is entering into a second collaboration agreement with pharmaceutical giant Merck. This is the second collaboration deal between Lycera and Merck in two years. Merck will spearhead clinical development and will have worldwide marketing and commercialization rights to any products that are developed as … Continue reading “Lycera Enters Into Second Collaboration Deal with Merck”

Simulmedia Gets $5M from Avalon, Time Warner, and Union Square

New York-based television advertising company Simulmedia announced Tuesday it raised an additional $5 million from prior investors, bringing its total funding to $32 million since its inception in 2009. The company’s backers include Avalon Ventures, Time Warner Investments, and Union Square Ventures. Simulmedia draws on data from set top boxes and media monitoring sources such … Continue reading “Simulmedia Gets $5M from Avalon, Time Warner, and Union Square”

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”

In VC ‘Hat Trick’ for San Diego’s Avalon, RQx Inks Genentech Deal

RQx Pharmaceuticals, founded in 2010 to commercialize a scientific breakthrough with the potential to create a new class antibiotics, has signed a drug discovery collaboration with Genentech, the Roche subsidiary based in South San Francisco. Genentech agreed to pay the San Diego startup an up-front payment, the amount of which was not disclosed, along with … Continue reading “In VC ‘Hat Trick’ for San Diego’s Avalon, RQx Inks Genentech Deal”

Swarm of Applicants Vying for New York City’s Health Tech Grants

Supporters of New York City’s rising health IT sector are poring over scores of applications this week for $100,000 city grants to help young companies test-drive their health tech products by working with major New York health care providers. Jean-Luc Neptune of Health 2.0 says a mass of application submissions arrived in a flurry on … Continue reading “Swarm of Applicants Vying for New York City’s Health Tech Grants”

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”

MediaShift Snaps Up Remaining Pieces of Travel Ad Network Travora Media

A few short months ago, travel ad network company Travora Media in New York sought to increase its stake in the online travel market. After several substantial changes, on Monday digital ad technology company JMG Exploration in Glendale, CA, announced it has acquired Travora for an undisclosed amount. Travora Media had owned travel sites such … Continue reading “MediaShift Snaps Up Remaining Pieces of Travel Ad Network Travora Media”

Stanford’s StartX Launches 10 New Startups—The Story in Pictures

It’s hard to believe StartX is already on its 8th demo day; I remember attending the first one back in the pioneer days of 2010. Since then, the startup accelerator for Stanford students and other affiliates has supported more than 250 entrepreneurs, and four of the more than 100 companies it has spawned have already been acquired. … Continue reading “Stanford’s StartX Launches 10 New Startups—The Story in Pictures”

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”

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”

Celgene Wins FDA Approval of Third Myeloma Drug

Celgene has diversified its lineup of drugs once again, winning FDA approval today to start selling its third product for multiple myeloma in the U.S. Summit, NJ-based Celgene (NASDAQ: [[ticker:CELG]]) said today it has gotten FDA clearance to start selling pomalidomide (Pomalyst) for patients whose disease has gotten worse after two prior rounds of treatment … Continue reading “Celgene Wins FDA Approval of Third Myeloma Drug”

Talking Ag Tech, Bridging the Ann Arbor-Detroit Gap at U-M Unconference

The premise of the Entrepreneurs Engage unconference held at the University of Michigan yesterday may sound a little hokey to the uninitiated: The audience suggests breakout-group topics, and then folks spend about 45 minutes in each discussion—or they don’t. “You vote with your feet,” said emcee (and Xconomist) Rich Sheridan, CEO of Menlo Innovations. “Go … Continue reading “Talking Ag Tech, Bridging the Ann Arbor-Detroit Gap at U-M Unconference”

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”

SD Life Sciences Roundup: Sotera, Janssen, Tandem Diabetes, & More

I found some interesting nuggets of life sciences news from San Diego over the past week, and I have all the shiny details here. —San Diego’s Sotera Wireless, which won FDA approval last year for a mobile device and related technology for monitoring patient vital signs, said it has raised $14.8 million from Safeguard Scientifics … Continue reading “SD Life Sciences Roundup: Sotera, Janssen, Tandem Diabetes, & More”

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”

Scanadu Aims to Empower Patients with DIY Vital Signs Device

An accident changed Walter de Brouwer’s life. Over the past few decades, the Scanadu CEO had his hands in everything from semiotics and academia to publishing computer and cyberpunk magazines to founding an early Internet company acquired by Qwest Communications International to working with the MIT Media Lab and Nicholas Negroponte’s One Laptop per Child … Continue reading “Scanadu Aims to Empower Patients with DIY Vital Signs Device”

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”

Roundup: Ignition Raising Fund As Northwest Deals Abound

Ignition Venture Partners is going forward with a $150 million fund, while Northwest startups Rover.com, Urban Airship, and Rivet & Sway, recently raised venture capital. Other Northwest tech companies are buying and selling, including Avanade, which snapped up Opstera, and Avalara, which bought Tax Technology Services. Read on for details on these deals, as well … Continue reading “Roundup: Ignition Raising Fund As Northwest Deals Abound”