Almost two months ago, Kevin Kinsella of San Diego’s Avalon Ventures, fired off some shots heard ’round the world, saying that Big Pharma’s hardball acquisition tactics and mercenary business practices have been pushing biotech ventures to the point of extinction. In Paris, France, Antoine Papiernik of Sofinnova Partners responded by contacting me and saying, in … Continue reading “The Kinsella Debate Continues over Pharma versus Biotech, Worlds in Collision”
Category: National
Controversial Companies Are Good, VCs Are Getting Active, and Entrepreneurial Generation Rising: 10 Takeaways from Xconomy’s VC65
If you talk to enough venture capitalists, you’ll hear certain universal truths. For one thing, venture-backed companies provide something like 20 percent of all jobs in the U.S. Second, despite some contraction and a decade of generally lousy returns, the VC industry is as strong as ever. And, yes, the IPO and acquisitions markets could … Continue reading “Controversial Companies Are Good, VCs Are Getting Active, and Entrepreneurial Generation Rising: 10 Takeaways from Xconomy’s VC65”
Google Invests $168M in BrightSource Energy’s Tower of Power
[Updated 4/12/09 00:30 am. See below.] Oakland, CA-based BrightSource Energy disclosed earlier this month that it has raised nearly $202 million in Series E funding from existing venture firms and some unnamed investors, and now Mountain View, CA-based Google has stepped into the light. Today Google reveals on its blog that it has invested $168 … Continue reading “Google Invests $168M in BrightSource Energy’s Tower of Power”
Zillow Grabs San Francisco-Based Postlets, an Online Real-Estate Listing Syndicator
Seattle-based online real estate website Zillow has acquired San Francisco-based Postlets, a startup that syndicates property listings across about a dozen sites. Terms of the deal were not disclosed, and Zillow wouldn’t comment on any possible layoffs as part of the acquisition. Postlets says it has more than 500,000 registered users generating more than 350,000 … Continue reading “Zillow Grabs San Francisco-Based Postlets, an Online Real-Estate Listing Syndicator”
Seattle’s Marchex Acquires Boston-Area Startup Jingle Networks for $62.5M, Adding Heft to Phone Call Advertising
Seattle-based Marchex, an online advertising and search company, is acquiring Billerica, MA-based Jingle Networks for up to $62.5 million in cash and stock, the companies announced today. Marchex (NASDAQ: [[ticker:MCHX]]) says the combination will allow its advertising network to reach more than 500 million phone calls annually. Jingle Networks provides advertising to mobile carriers and … Continue reading “Seattle’s Marchex Acquires Boston-Area Startup Jingle Networks for $62.5M, Adding Heft to Phone Call Advertising”
Teams From MA, RI, and CT Take Top Three Spots at Boston FIRST Robotics Competition
Fifty-three teams battled it out on Saturday at the Boston regional edition of the FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) Robotics Competition, a robot-building contest for high school students celebrating its 20th anniversary season year. The nonprofit behind the competition was founded by Segway inventor Dean Kamen. Each year, student teams get … Continue reading “Teams From MA, RI, and CT Take Top Three Spots at Boston FIRST Robotics Competition”
GiftRocket, Practice Fusion, & Sundance Meets Netflix—The 1-Minute Version of Last Week’s Bay Area BizTech News
As weeks go in the Silicon Valley/San Francisco business and technology world, last week was a pretty busy one, featuring some big investments and some big acquisitions. In roughly reverse chronological order: —The Department of Justice finally approved Google’s proposed takeover of Cambridge, MA-based travel software company ITA Software, but with some strings attached, as … Continue reading “GiftRocket, Practice Fusion, & Sundance Meets Netflix—The 1-Minute Version of Last Week’s Bay Area BizTech News”
Biogen Idec Passes Pivotal Trial With Oral MS Drug; Shares Climb
Biogen Idec is the world’s biggest maker of multiple sclerosis drugs, and today it just cleared a hurdle that might help it stay at the top of the heap for years to come. The Weston, MA-based biotech giant (NASDAQ: [[ticker:BIIB]]) said today that its oral MS drug candidate, dimethyl fumarate (BG-12), met its main goal … Continue reading “Biogen Idec Passes Pivotal Trial With Oral MS Drug; Shares Climb”
Siobhan Quinn Says “Technology is the Underdog” in New York; A Check-In with Foursquare’s First Product Manager
If you’re a software engineer turned product manager who’s overseen the seventh-most-visited website in the world—Google’s Blogger platform—what do you do for an encore? You move to New York to work for a little startup trying to change the world through mobile check-ins, of course. Siobhan Quinn got her BS in computer science at the … Continue reading “Siobhan Quinn Says “Technology is the Underdog” in New York; A Check-In with Foursquare’s First Product Manager”
Blueprint Medicines Brings In $40M, Led by Third Rock, for Targeted Cancer Therapies
In one of the Boston area’s biggest startup deals in recent years, Cambridge, MA-based Blueprint Medicines said today it has raised $40 million in Series A financing led by Third Rock Ventures. Blueprint has been stealthy to date, but its focus is on developing “personalized” cancer treatments based on molecular and cancer genome data and … Continue reading “Blueprint Medicines Brings In $40M, Led by Third Rock, for Targeted Cancer Therapies”
Why Entrepreneurs Should Avoid Convertible Notes, and Other Wisdom Gleaned From Raising $1M From Silicon Valley Angels
Last summer, our company AppMakr raised a $1 million angel round over 14 weeks and learned some big lessons in the process. Luckily, Brendan Baker, an MBA student at Oxford University, took an interest in our raise and documented the process, creating a visual infographic of our efforts (see below). His infographic illustrated pertinent trends … Continue reading “Why Entrepreneurs Should Avoid Convertible Notes, and Other Wisdom Gleaned From Raising $1M From Silicon Valley Angels”
TED Wants Michigan To Get Crazy
Michigan got a little crazy last week. TEDxUofM didn’t have same star power as the annual conference in California that inspired it. But the message was undeniably similar. “Don’t get scared by the fact that [when] something is tough, crazy ideas are worth working on,” Thomas Zurbuchen, the founding director of University of Michigan’s Center … Continue reading “TED Wants Michigan To Get Crazy”
San Diego Venture Group Hires First President, Senturia Talks Entrepreneurship, Maxwell Arranges Financing, & More San Diego BizTech News
Venture capital for early stage companies remains a serious concern among San Diego’s high tech startups. We have details on how that is being addressed, along with a wrap-up on the rest of the week’s biztech news. —The San Diego Venture Group has hired a local VC, Windward Ventures co-founder David Titus, to serve as … Continue reading “San Diego Venture Group Hires First President, Senturia Talks Entrepreneurship, Maxwell Arranges Financing, & More San Diego BizTech News”
LiquidPlanner, Inspired by Social and Mobile Computing, Aims to Make Business Software Sexier
The explosion of faster networks, connected crowds and mobile computing has made millions of Americans into astonishingly fast and efficient consumers. But when the weekend’s over, too many of us walk back into a technological time-warp of email chains, conference calls and endless meetings. Bellevue-based LiquidPlanner is among the companies trying to break down that … Continue reading “LiquidPlanner, Inspired by Social and Mobile Computing, Aims to Make Business Software Sexier”
Open Source Biology Deserves a Shot
Gene sequencing has gotten incredibly fast and cheap, and researchers around the world are pouring huge volumes of genomic data onto their private servers, in the hope they will sift through it all to make groundbreaking discoveries. Should so much genomic data be so closely guarded, or should it be poured into a free and … Continue reading “Open Source Biology Deserves a Shot”
Will One of These Be the Next Google? Student Entrepreneurs Compete at Stanford [Video]
This morning I headed down to Palo Alto with iPad 2 in hand to check in with students and speakers at the Stanford BASES BT National Entrepreneurship Bootcamp. For this event, more than a hundred student delegates from campuses around the country gathered at Stanford for an intensive weekend of workshops and talks given by … Continue reading “Will One of These Be the Next Google? Student Entrepreneurs Compete at Stanford [Video]”
Evolve or Die: Versant’s Beckie Robertson on Four Ways Med Device Companies Can Survive
The business model for medical device startups is said to be in jeopardy, and it’s the topic du jour at conferences everywhere, as entrepreneurs are complaining bitterly about arbitrary FDA regulators and tight-fisted insurers. Much of this industry’s spirit of innovation and entrepreneurship is migrating overseas, it is often said. Yesterday, I heard all that … Continue reading “Evolve or Die: Versant’s Beckie Robertson on Four Ways Med Device Companies Can Survive”
The VC65 Photo Gallery: Happy 65th Birthday, Venture Capital
In case you haven’t heard, we held a rocking 65th birthday party on Wednesday…for the venture capital industry. Nearly 1,000 attendees piled into MIT’s Kresge Auditorium for “VC65,” which Xconomy organized in partnership with the National Venture Capital Association and the MIT Museum. (NVCA bused over more than 500 VCs who were in Boston for … Continue reading “The VC65 Photo Gallery: Happy 65th Birthday, Venture Capital”
Google and ITA Software: The Acquisition That Almost Wasn’t, Is Again (With Some Strings Attached)
[Updated 3:30 pm. See below] It took a while, but we now have a ruling in a case that has major ramifications for the online travel industry. The U.S. Department of Justice said today it has proposed a settlement in the case of Google’s $700 million bid to acquire ITA Software, a Cambridge, MA-based airfare … Continue reading “Google and ITA Software: The Acquisition That Almost Wasn’t, Is Again (With Some Strings Attached)”
Thanks to Our VC65 Speakers, Sponsors, and Partners
Our big VC65 event in MIT’s Kresge Auditorium was a tremendous success. The intent of course, was to celebrate the 65th anniversary of venture capital in America—but in a way that drew out lessons and insights about building great companies and great partnerships between VCs and entrepreneurs. We drew an amazing crowd of nearly 1,000 … Continue reading “Thanks to Our VC65 Speakers, Sponsors, and Partners”
Separating Hype From Reality in Alternative Fuels: Mark Your Calendars for May 19
Energy independence and reducing greenhouse gas emissions were big issues in the last couple Presidential elections. Yet, if you look around town in 2011, it’s still the norm to see people filling up inefficient cars with gasoline from non-renewable sources, at a cost of about $4 a gallon. Lots of entrepreneurs are pursuing dreams of … Continue reading “Separating Hype From Reality in Alternative Fuels: Mark Your Calendars for May 19”
Video Search Provider Blinkx Buys Burst Media’s Ad Network for $30 Million
Blinkx, the San Francisco-based video search engine, has taken a big leap into the online advertising business—and expanded its operations to the Boston area in the process. The company said today it has acquired Burlington, MA-based Burst Media, which manages an online advertising network catering to niche or “long tail” Web publishers. Burst distributes ads … Continue reading “Video Search Provider Blinkx Buys Burst Media’s Ad Network for $30 Million”
Get Your Ticket Now for Michigan 2031 on April 14 and Get a Free Copy of Josh Linkner’s NYT Best Selling Book, Disciplined Dreaming
Here at Xconomy, we know something about the great investor-entrepreneur relationships that are often behind the best companies: not only are we a startup ourselves, we write about the venture capital and startup scene every day—often chronicling the efforts of investors and entrepreneurs needed to weather the storms a company faces before it can be … Continue reading “Get Your Ticket Now for Michigan 2031 on April 14 and Get a Free Copy of Josh Linkner’s NYT Best Selling Book, Disciplined Dreaming”
Biotech in New York: Scientists and Entrepreneurs Gather to Banter About the City’s Challenges and Opportunities
The 20th annual meeting of the New York Biotechnology Association (NYBA) kicked off on April 6 with a panel called “The Global Struggle for the Biopharmaceutical Industry: New York Must Step Up Its Game!” Nathan Tinker, executive director of the NYBA and the panel’s moderator, joked to the gathering crowd at the Marriott Marquis in … Continue reading “Biotech in New York: Scientists and Entrepreneurs Gather to Banter About the City’s Challenges and Opportunities”
With iMovie on the iPad 2, Video Editing Is Fun Again
As much as I loved the original Apple iPad, there was one thing about the device that stuck in my craw: the missing cameras. It was an easy guess when the original product debuted 12 months ago that Apple would rectify the omission in a near-future version. What annoyed me was the certainty that at … Continue reading “With iMovie on the iPad 2, Video Editing Is Fun Again”
Xenoport Wins FDA Green Light, The Coming ‘HealthTech’ Wave, More Genomes Go Public, & More Bay Area Life Sciences News
If your definition of news is when something surprising happens, then we had some pretty big news on the SF biotech beat this week. —Santa Clara, CA-based Xenoport (NASDAQ: [[ticker:XNPT]]), which many investors wrote off a year ago, bounced back big-time this week by winning a surprise FDA approval. The company, and its partner GlaxoSmithKline, … Continue reading “Xenoport Wins FDA Green Light, The Coming ‘HealthTech’ Wave, More Genomes Go Public, & More Bay Area Life Sciences News”
Westphal Leaving Glaxo, Cubist Settles Patent Litigation with Teva, BSX Buys S.I., & More Boston-Area Life Sciences News
We saw news of personnel shifts, litigation, clinical progress, financing, and acquisitions from health IT firms, device makers, and drug companies in New England this week. —Waltham, MA-based Forerun, a developer of patient-charting software for emergency room doctors, raised $2 million in a Series C funding led by the Massachusetts Technology Development Corporation. —GlaxoSmithKline (NSYE: … Continue reading “Westphal Leaving Glaxo, Cubist Settles Patent Litigation with Teva, BSX Buys S.I., & More Boston-Area Life Sciences News”
TripAdvisor to Spin Out of Expedia as Separate Public Company; CEO Kaufer Looking Forward to “Growth and Innovation”
Interesting news in online travel this afternoon, spanning the Boston and Seattle areas—and plenty of destinations in between. Bellevue, WA-based Expedia (NASDAQ: [[ticker:EXPE]]) said it plans to split into two publicly traded companies—one will be Newton, MA-based TripAdvisor (which has been part of Expedia since 2004), and the other will remain Expedia, which also owns … Continue reading “TripAdvisor to Spin Out of Expedia as Separate Public Company; CEO Kaufer Looking Forward to “Growth and Innovation””
Ron Shulman, Five More Patent Attorneys Jump Ship at Wilson Sonsini, Land at Latham & Watkins
[Updated 4/7/11, 9:25 pm PT, with comment from Wilson Sonsini, see below] In a notable shakeup for the Silicon Valley legal world, six patent litigators from high-profile Valley law firm Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati have defected to rival Latham & Watkins. The news, first published by the legal publication The Recorder on April 5, … Continue reading “Ron Shulman, Five More Patent Attorneys Jump Ship at Wilson Sonsini, Land at Latham & Watkins”
EcoMotors, With Navistar as a Customer, Pushes Forward With New Engine
It’s been just over five months since I first met with Don Runkle, CEO of EcoMotors International, to discuss the big plan he’s had for his Allen Park, MI-based company’s opposing piston, opposing cylinder (“opoc”) engine. EcoMotors claims that the engine, which weighs less, uses fewer parts and is thus less expensive than traditional four-stroke … Continue reading “EcoMotors, With Navistar as a Customer, Pushes Forward With New Engine”
How to Hire and Fire, Establish Company Culture, and Go Public: 10 Lessons from Three Big CEOs at NVCA
Can you ever fire people too quickly, as chief executive? How do you foster a company’s culture as it grows? And what are the pros and cons of going public? Answers to these pointed management questions could be found in yesterday’s technology track at the National Venture Capital Association’s annual meeting in Boston. Harvard Business … Continue reading “How to Hire and Fire, Establish Company Culture, and Go Public: 10 Lessons from Three Big CEOs at NVCA”
Forbes Ranks Detroit, Other Xconomy Cities Poorly In Minority Entrepreneurship
Forbes recently ranked the best cities for minority entrepreneurs and perhaps not surprisingly, Detroit finished near the bottom of the list. Despite Detroit’s large African American population, the magazine ranked the Motor City 47th out of 52 metropolitan areas. You can probably blame the usual suspects: lack of venture capital, the loss of population, downsizing … Continue reading “Forbes Ranks Detroit, Other Xconomy Cities Poorly In Minority Entrepreneurship”
T2 Biosystems, On-Q-ity, and GnuBIO Report Progress in Hunting for Signs of Disease
[Updated. 4/8/11. 8:09 am Eastern. See updates to section on On-Q-ity.] T2 Biosystems has chosen deadly blood-borne yeast infections as the lead targets of its system for rapidly and accurately diagnosing diseases. And the Lexington, MA-based firm is revealing results this morning from lab experiments that show the potential of its diagnostic for Candida infections … Continue reading “T2 Biosystems, On-Q-ity, and GnuBIO Report Progress in Hunting for Signs of Disease”
Artsicle Lets Indecisive New Yorkers Rent Art Before They Commit to Buying
Start browsing the artwork available for rent at Artsicle.com, and it won’t be long before a window pops up offering a real live curator to help you make your selection. The live-chat feature is a lot of work for Artsicle founders Alexis Tryon and Scott Carleton because, well, they’re Artiscle’s only full-time curators. That means … Continue reading “Artsicle Lets Indecisive New Yorkers Rent Art Before They Commit to Buying”
Rodney Brooks at NVCA: Why the World Needs Robots, and What VCs Need to Watch Out For
The world needs robots, hopefully more than Mars needs moms. The first part of that was Rodney Brooks’s message in his talk at the annual meeting of the National Venture Capital Association in Boston yesterday. Brooks, of course, has a strong interest in seeing the mass adoption of robots. He’s the co-founder of iRobot (NASDAQ: … Continue reading “Rodney Brooks at NVCA: Why the World Needs Robots, and What VCs Need to Watch Out For”
Zacharon Nabs $210M Deal With Pfizer to Tackle Orphan Diseases
San Diego-based Zacharon Pharmaceuticals just struck its first really big partnership. The company, backed by Avalon Ventures, said today it has formed an alliance with New York-based Pfizer that could be worth as much as $210 million to develop drugs for rare diseases. Specific financial terms weren’t provided in today’s statement, but Zacharon will get … Continue reading “Zacharon Nabs $210M Deal With Pfizer to Tackle Orphan Diseases”
Optimer Antibiotic Gets Panel Nod, CareFusion Buys Vestara, Tracon Raises $16.5M, & More San Diego Life Sciences News
The past week was big for life sciences news in San Diego, with acquisitions, funding deals, and important advances in new antibiotics grabbing much of the attention. We’ve got it rounded up for you here. —An FDA advisory panel voted 13-0 in favor of recommending approval of a new antibiotic that San Diego’s Optimer Pharmaceuticals … Continue reading “Optimer Antibiotic Gets Panel Nod, CareFusion Buys Vestara, Tracon Raises $16.5M, & More San Diego Life Sciences News”
Xenoport Shares Boom, Company Sketches Out Sales Plan for New Drug
Xenoport shocked the biotech world late last night by winning FDA approval of a new drug for restless legs syndrome that was turned down in February 2010. Now the Santa Clara, CA-based company and its partner GlaxoSmithKline are onto the next critical assignment: making this thing sell. At least today, Xenoport (NASDAQ: [[ticker:XNPT]]) and its … Continue reading “Xenoport Shares Boom, Company Sketches Out Sales Plan for New Drug”
GiftRocket Seeks to Take the Pain (and Loss) Out of Gift Cards
This is the fourth in a series of profiles of Y Combinator Winter 2011 (YC W11) startups. Gift cards, also known as stored-value cards, may be one of the most popular types of gifts—Americans spend at least $80 billion on them every year. But let’s face it, the little plastic rectangles are so 1994. They’re … Continue reading “GiftRocket Seeks to Take the Pain (and Loss) Out of Gift Cards”
The ImClone Alumni: Where Are They Now?
[Updated: 10:20 pm, 4/15/11] ImClone Systems is the biotech company that Martha Stewart made famous, but after the scandalous headlines faded away, it has left a lasting imprint on New York. The ImClone story has been told many times over, about the 2001 insider trading allegation that ended up landing both ImClone CEO Sam Waksal and … Continue reading “The ImClone Alumni: Where Are They Now?”
Founder Collective, Seed-Stage Fund, Betting on Surging NYC Tech Startup Scene
New York is famous in the business world for its large companies in a variety of industries. For the partners at the seed-stage venture fund Founder Collective, however, the focus is on the small tech startups in the city and beyond that have the potential to rapidly grow in value. In fact, managing partners David … Continue reading “Founder Collective, Seed-Stage Fund, Betting on Surging NYC Tech Startup Scene”
Omeros Flunks Pivotal Trials, Dendreon’s Shareholder Hubbub, AVI Biopharma Nabs $30M, & More Seattle-Area Life Sciences News
Lots of little blurbs crossed the desk this week, along with one major blowup for a drug in the third and final stage of clinical trials. —Seattle-based Omeros (NASDAQ: [[ticker:OMER]]) said it failed in a series of pivotal clinical trials with its anti-inflammatory drug to help patients undergoing arthroscopic knee surgery. The trials, which enrolled … Continue reading “Omeros Flunks Pivotal Trials, Dendreon’s Shareholder Hubbub, AVI Biopharma Nabs $30M, & More Seattle-Area Life Sciences News”
Glaxo, Xenoport Win FDA Green Light to Treat Restless Leg Syndrome; Shares Boom
The FDA slapped down Santa Clara, CA-based Xenoport (NASDAQ: [[ticker:XNPT]]) and GlaxoSmithKline hard a year ago, but the companies have made a heck of a comeback. Glaxo and Xenoport proved it today by winning clearance from the FDA to start selling a new drug for restless leg syndrome. Shares of Xenoport rocketed up 57 percent … Continue reading “Glaxo, Xenoport Win FDA Green Light to Treat Restless Leg Syndrome; Shares Boom”
Matt McIlwain the Only Seattle-Area VC on New Forbes “Midas List”
With March Madness officially over, Forbes is feeding the thirst for some statistical gamesmanship with its latest “Midas List,” an attempt to rank the country’s top 100 venture capitalists. The Seattle area has just one entry on the list: Madrona Venture Group‘s Matt McIlwain, at No. 75—in fact, there were more women in the rankings … Continue reading “Matt McIlwain the Only Seattle-Area VC on New Forbes “Midas List””
You’re Invited to an Open House at Xconomy San Francisco on April 18
It’s been almost eight months since the first time we threw open our doors here at the San Francisco office of Xconomy, so it’s high time for another gathering. All of our Bay Area fans and friends are invited over to our office after work on Monday, April 18, for some wine, cheese, and good … Continue reading “You’re Invited to an Open House at Xconomy San Francisco on April 18”
Need More Light? Powerleap Would Like You to Step On this Panel
Elizabeth Redmond was a fourth-year design student at the University of Michigan when the idea hit her like…well, like a jolt of electricity. “I was going to find a way to harvest energy from people,” she says. “I was interested in this idea of social responsibility, how do you teach people to take responsibility for … Continue reading “Need More Light? Powerleap Would Like You to Step On this Panel”
Intellectual Ventures Licenses Patents to Mobile Data Startup Dashwire as Smaller Company Defends Itself in Court
It’s not just the tech behemoths who are girding for the patent wars. Dashwire, a Seattle cloud-services startup, today announced a licensing deal with Intellectual Ventures, Nathan Myhrvold’s Bellevue, WA-based patent middleman firm. Terms were not disclosed. Dashwire’s products synchronize and back up data from smartphones and other mobile devices to the Web. The company … Continue reading “Intellectual Ventures Licenses Patents to Mobile Data Startup Dashwire as Smaller Company Defends Itself in Court”
EnerG2 Moves Into ‘Execute Mode’ to Enhance Batteries, Natural Gas Cars
Every startup, at some point in its maturation, needs to put up or shut up. EnerG2 is starting to enter that phase when it’s time to find out if it can really do what it said it was going to do. The Seattle-based company, founded in 2003 with technology from the University of Washington, started … Continue reading “EnerG2 Moves Into ‘Execute Mode’ to Enhance Batteries, Natural Gas Cars”
Restructuring VC Portfolios to Spur Job Creation
Venture capitalists are expected to do more today than deliver returns to investors. Increasingly, governments are turning to the the VC industry to spur private-sector job creation. Accomplishing these twin objectives in today’s challenging business environment requires a new investing model. Governments are learning that investing in venture-backed companies is an excellent use of capital … Continue reading “Restructuring VC Portfolios to Spur Job Creation”
WeWork Labs Gives New York Entrepreneurs a Home Before They’re Ready For an Office
New York City’s incubator scene has been exploding of late, with Polaris-backed Dogpatch Labs opening in early 2010, and General Assembly setting up in January of this year with help from a $200,000 city grant. Now it’s time to add a new name to that list: WeWork Labs, which opened in SoHo on April 1. … Continue reading “WeWork Labs Gives New York Entrepreneurs a Home Before They’re Ready For an Office”