Eric Schadt’s career as a scientist has been focused on unlocking genetic cues to common human diseases such as diabetes and obesity. He is the chief scientific officer of Pacific Biosciences, a Menlo Park, CA, company that develops gene-sequencing technologies. He recently joined Mount Sinai Medical Center as the director of the Institute for Genomics … Continue reading “Xconomist of the Week: Five Questions for New York Life Sciences 2031 Panelist Eric Schadt”
Category: New York
How Steve Jobs Rewired Our Lives-and Raised Our Expectations
What was Steve Jobs’ greatest contribution to society? The amazing thing is that there are so many answers to choose from. Was it the insanely great Mac? Or perhaps the iPod and the MP3 music revolution? Or Pixar and Toy Story and all of the studio’s other animated wonders? Or the iPhone and the iPad … Continue reading “How Steve Jobs Rewired Our Lives-and Raised Our Expectations”
StyleOwner Receives $2,000,000 New Financing Round
Feed Type Link http://www.venturedeal.com/Search/SearchResultTransactionDetail.aspx?TransactionId=5675d6b8-b773-43ad-9a73-382293b0fac4&Preview=1 Date 10/6/2011 Company Name StyleOwner Mailing Address Undisclosed New York, NY 10001 Company Description StyleOwner could empower people to become entrepreneurs. With that realization we set out to build a world class team and customer experience. Website http://www.styleowner.com Transaction Type Venture Equity Transaction Amount $2,000,000 Transaction Round Undisclosed Proceeds Purposes Proceeds … Continue reading “StyleOwner Receives $2,000,000 New Financing Round”
Enterproid Secures $11,000,000 Series A Financing Round
Feed Type Link http://www.venturedeal.com/Search/SearchResultTransactionDetail.aspx?TransactionId=02f946d4-3db3-4926-8926-f4cf325a32ac&Preview=1 Date 10/6/2011 Company Name Enterproid Mailing Address 49 West 38th Street 14/F New York, NY 10018 Company Description Enterproid helps organizations and individuals get the most out of mobile technology. The company’s flagship Divide Platform combines cloud-based management with device-level technology that ensures enterprise security and control without compromising personal freedom … Continue reading “Enterproid Secures $11,000,000 Series A Financing Round”
Steve Jobs: A Technology Guy For the Rest of Us
It’s impossible to overstate Jobs’s contributions. First, monumental contributions to design. Design is at least as much about what to omit as it is about what to include, and Jobs was a master of both. As you saw in the New York Times last month, Jobs’s design patents ranged from the Mac Air, the iPhone, … Continue reading “Steve Jobs: A Technology Guy For the Rest of Us”
Unless You Are Awesome, You Will Be Outsourced
We’re quickly moving to a new world where the wealth gap is compounding and increasing. We’re moving to a world that is going to look a lot like Hollywood: a few people enjoying insane success … and everyone else spends their days waiting tables. The delta between A-players and B-players in companies has always been … Continue reading “Unless You Are Awesome, You Will Be Outsourced”
Tweetchat on RNA Interference Upstages iPhone (Not Really, but It Was Still Fun)
Who says you can’t be smart, witty, or say anything of substance in 140 characters or less? Alnylam Pharmaceuticals CEO John Maraganore had a zinger ready yesterday as Apple’s dog-and-pony show was happening during the first Xconomy “Tweetchat,” on the latest ups and downs in RNA interference. “RNAi vs iPhone, RNAi better for patients” is … Continue reading “Tweetchat on RNA Interference Upstages iPhone (Not Really, but It Was Still Fun)”
Six Cities, Six Big Tech Ideas Coming to Boston on December 1: Stephen Wolfram to Keynote
Ladies and gentlemen, your attention please. Ahem. [A giant “6×6” fills the screen.] Macho narrator voice: Star Wars had The Empire Strikes Back (Vader: “I am your father”) The Godfather had The Godfather Part II (Pacino: “You broke my heart”) Mad Max had The Road Warrior…well, you get the idea. Now Xconomy presents 6×6, the … Continue reading “Six Cities, Six Big Tech Ideas Coming to Boston on December 1: Stephen Wolfram to Keynote”
Agios Pulls in $20M From Celgene, Under Extended Cancer Metabolism Partnership
Cambridge, MA-based Agios Pharmaceuticals struck a lucrative partnership with Celgene last year that just got more lucrative. Agios, the developer of drugs that seek to starve tumors to death by blocking metabolic pathways they rely on, said today it has extended its exclusive partnership with Summit, NJ-based Celgene (NASDAQ: [[ticker:CELG]]) from three years to four, … Continue reading “Agios Pulls in $20M From Celgene, Under Extended Cancer Metabolism Partnership”
Merck Fine-Tunes Biosimilars Strategy as FDA Guidelines Loom
The pharmaceutical world is abuzz over rumors that the FDA is on the verge of releasing its guidelines for how companies should develop generic versions of biotech drugs. Among the folks waiting eagerly for those guidelines is Michael Kamarck, president of Merck BioVentures, who was literally sitting on the edge of his seat when he … Continue reading “Merck Fine-Tunes Biosimilars Strategy as FDA Guidelines Loom”
FDA, After Taking Heat, Offers Up Reforms to Support Pharma, Biotech & Device Innovation
The FDA has spent decades talking about how its job is to make sure all kinds of U.S. medical products are safe to use, and effective. Now it’s coming out with a new strategic outline on how it intends to do all that same stuff, while also spurring the development of more innovative drugs and … Continue reading “FDA, After Taking Heat, Offers Up Reforms to Support Pharma, Biotech & Device Innovation”
IBM Acquires Q1 Labs, Forms New Division Around Software Security
N-n-n-n-n, n-, n-, n-, n-n-n-n-n-nineteen. Anyone remember that song from the golden age of music and movies? In any case, IBM has made its 19th acquisition of a Massachusetts software company since 2003. Today Big Blue (NYSE: [[ticker:IBM]]) announced it is acquiring Waltham, MA-based Q1 Labs, a 10-year-old security software firm that helps businesses see … Continue reading “IBM Acquires Q1 Labs, Forms New Division Around Software Security”
Geoweb Summit
What will it take to build the next generation of the Web? Hear a variety of opinions on that topic from a range of experts at this panel event. Speakers include Scott Rafer, founder of Lumatic, Darrin Clement, founder and CEO of Maponics, John Frankel, founding partner of ff Venture Capital. Register here.
Ingenuity 2011
This conference, hosted by the New York Venture Capital Association, brings together over 750 investors, entrepreneurs and more for a day of pitches, keynotes, and networking. Featured speakers include Henry Blodget, editor-in-chief and CEO of Business Insider, Nan Forte, CEO of Travel Ad Network, and Mike Lazerow, founder and CEO of Buddy Media. Register here.
Join Us at 1 pm Eastern/10 am Pacific for RNAi “Tweetchat” with Alnylam’s John Maraganore
Here’s just a quick reminder that we’re doing the live Tweetchat today with Alnylam Pharmaceuticals CEO John Maraganore. This chat, which anyone with a Twitter account is free to join, will be held today at 1 pm Eastern/10 am Pacific. The best way to follow the questions and answers will be to follow the live … Continue reading “Join Us at 1 pm Eastern/10 am Pacific for RNAi “Tweetchat” with Alnylam’s John Maraganore”
Solve Media, Backed by First Round Capital and AOL, Uses Online Ads to Tell People and Spambots Apart
New York’s Solve Media, funded by AOL Ventures, New Atlantic Ventures, First Round Capital, and others, is putting Web advertising in hard-to-miss places. The two-year-old startup combines ads with the verification systems users must respond to when joining websites or requesting lost passwords. Solve Media’s CEO and co-founder Ari Jacoby says the idea is to … Continue reading “Solve Media, Backed by First Round Capital and AOL, Uses Online Ads to Tell People and Spambots Apart”
Blueprint Health, New Incubator in NYC, Looks to Nurture Health IT Startups
When Brad Weinberg started up his first company, ShapeUp, in 2006, incubator programs like TechStars and Y Combinator were barely off the ground. So Weinberg and his colleagues were left pretty much on their own to develop their software platform, which combines social networking, gaming, and financial incentives to promote wellness. The company has done … Continue reading “Blueprint Health, New Incubator in NYC, Looks to Nurture Health IT Startups”
Lee Davenport, A Technological Hero, Dies at 95: Here are His 7 Rules for Fostering Innovation
Over the weekend, I learned that one of my heroes, Lee Davenport, had just passed away. Lee died of cancer at the age of 95 in his longtime home of Greenwich, CT. That’s where I first met him in 1994, when I was researching a book about the MIT Radiation Laboratory, the World War II … Continue reading “Lee Davenport, A Technological Hero, Dies at 95: Here are His 7 Rules for Fostering Innovation”
Why Universities Are Key to the Future of Biotech, and How UCSF’s Chief is Showing the Way
These are hard times at universities in America. State support is dwindling, tuition is booming, and federal research dollars are in jeopardy. Morale has taken a beating. But U.S. academic research centers are still the driving force for innovative new medicines, like always. And anyone who cares about U.S. universities should pay attention to what’s … Continue reading “Why Universities Are Key to the Future of Biotech, and How UCSF’s Chief is Showing the Way”
Reinventing the Board
Imagine a world where technology companies are more successful and grow faster because of the strategic help and guidance from their boards of directors. Or, at least imagine a world where they don’t suffer from unhelpful, or worse, problematic boards that consume management’s precious time. Some commentators like Steve Blank, Jeff Bussgang, Brad Feld, and … Continue reading “Reinventing the Board”
A Few Details Surface on Tribeca Venture Partners
A new venture firm focused on early-stage technology companies in New York has debuted, according to reports by Fortune and Dow Jones VentureWire. Because of regulatory rules, Brian Hirsch, managing director of New York’s GSA Venture Partners, could not discuss the birth of Tribeca Venture Partners when contacted by Xconomy, but Tribeca’s website offers a … Continue reading “A Few Details Surface on Tribeca Venture Partners”
Can Crowdsourcing Make a Dent in Unemployment? Ask MobileWorks
Jobs are the single biggest political issue of the day in the U.S., and rightly so. As of August, the official unemployment rate in the United States stood at 9.1 percent. That was down one point from the October 2009 peak of 10.1 percent, but still higher than at any time since the 1930s, with … Continue reading “Can Crowdsourcing Make a Dent in Unemployment? Ask MobileWorks”
Aureon Biosciences Obtains $3,838,665 New Funding Round
Feed Type Link http://www.venturedeal.com/Search/SearchResultTransactionDetail.aspx?TransactionId=0ae0631a-ccf7-472a-b82f-60ce324a5330&Preview=1 Date 9/30/2011 Company Name Aureon Biosciences Mailing Address 28 Wells Avenue Yonkers, NY 10701 Company Description Aureon Biosciences is a life science company founded in 2002, dedicated to enabling the advancement of predictive and personalized cancer treatment options. Website http://www.aureon.com Transaction Type Debt Transaction Amount $3,838,665 Transaction Round Undisclosed Proceeds Purposes … Continue reading “Aureon Biosciences Obtains $3,838,665 New Funding Round”
RecordSetter Obtains $1,000,000 Series A Funding
Feed Type Link http://www.venturedeal.com/Search/SearchResultTransactionDetail.aspx?TransactionId=41607036-7d33-45cc-b7cb-20452ed6f500&Preview=1 Date 9/30/2011 Company Name RecordSetter Mailing Address 167 Canal St at Elizabeth St New York, NY 10013 Company Description The startup wants to to become the preeminent platform for people to both submit their own unique records and compete against other people’s unique records through the uploading of quirky videos like … Continue reading “RecordSetter Obtains $1,000,000 Series A Funding”
Canadian Solar Acquires SpectraWatt for $4,945,000
Feed Type Link http://www.venturedeal.com/Search/SearchResultTransactionDetail.aspx?TransactionId=cb16143e-691a-47be-b217-17fefff05c1b&Preview=1 Date 9/30/2011 Company Name SpectraWatt Mailing Address 2070 Route 52, Bldg 334 Zip 23A Hopewell Junction, NY 12533 Company Description SpectraWatt will manufacture and supply photovoltaic cells to solar module makers. In addition to focusing on advanced solar cell technologies, SpectraWatt will concentrate development efforts on improvements in current manufacturing processes … Continue reading “Canadian Solar Acquires SpectraWatt for $4,945,000”
Email Data Source Receives $592,000 New Round
Feed Type Link http://www.venturedeal.com/Search/SearchResultTransactionDetail.aspx?TransactionId=12e2103e-dfc3-40ed-9e84-9ac94e6b1354&Preview=1 Date 9/30/2011 Company Name Email Data Source Mailing Address 65 Broadway New York, NY 10006 Company Description Email Data Source is the only independent, unbiased provider of email marketing data. Website http://www.emaildatasource.com Transaction Type Venture Equity Transaction Amount $592,000 Transaction Round Undisclosed Proceeds Purposes Proceeds purposes were not disclosed. M&A Terms … Continue reading “Email Data Source Receives $592,000 New Round”
Lascaux Company Secures $200,000 New Financing
Feed Type Link http://www.venturedeal.com/Search/SearchResultTransactionDetail.aspx?TransactionId=726db4a5-d5a8-4a72-af4b-689128c2423f&Preview=1 Date 9/30/2011 Company Name Lascaux Company Mailing Address Undisclosed New York, NY 10001 Company Description The company operates as a software company. Website http://www.lascaux.us Transaction Type Venture Equity Transaction Amount $200,000 Transaction Round Undisclosed Proceeds Purposes Proceeds purposes were not disclosed. M&A Terms Venture Investor Polaris Venture Partners
ResiModel Lands $425,000 New Funding Round
Feed Type Link http://www.venturedeal.com/Search/SearchResultTransactionDetail.aspx?TransactionId=88a372a8-3683-4379-963c-5f35f06b4433 Date 9/30/2011 Company Name ResiModel Mailing Address 1120 Avenue of the Americas 4th Floor New York, NY 10036 USA Company Description ResiModel is the only deal management, analytics & valuation platform specifically designed for multifamily transactions. Website http://www.resimodel.com Transaction Type Debt Transaction Amount $425,000 Transaction Round Undisclosed Proceeds Purposes Proceeds purposes … Continue reading “ResiModel Lands $425,000 New Funding Round”
Tippr’s Federal Patent Lawsuit: 14 Daily Deals Players Targeted, Now All Quietly Settled
It’s been a wild few months for companies peddling daily deals. As market leader Groupon faces criticism for its accounting and turmoil in its executive ranks, bigger competitors continue to expand or kill their efforts, while smaller fish get gobbled up in a spree of consolidation. If that’s not enough churn, you can also add some … Continue reading “Tippr’s Federal Patent Lawsuit: 14 Daily Deals Players Targeted, Now All Quietly Settled”
Sonar, Pearescope, and Other NYC Companies Take Aim in Battle to Connect New Contacts
When New York startup Sonar rolled out the latest version of its networking app on Sept. 15, it included for—the first time—data from LinkedIn. Now armed with contact information gleaned from a business-oriented social network, Sonar’s app is trying to attract more professionals to the ranks of its users. This is the latest competitive move … Continue reading “Sonar, Pearescope, and Other NYC Companies Take Aim in Battle to Connect New Contacts”
Excerpt from “The Body Politic: The Battle Over Science in America”
No particular group, right or left or somewhere else, is immune from the sense that change is accelerating at an ever faster pace with each passing year. The experience of too-rapid change, whether trivial or profound, is a characteristic of modernity. Information technologies are perhaps the sentinel sources and examples of what Alvin Toffler called “future shock” in 1970, right … Continue reading “Excerpt from “The Body Politic: The Battle Over Science in America””
The Polaris Express: Dogpatch Labs Says Goodbye Pier 38, Hello Palo Alto and Dublin
It’s official: Waltham, MA-based Polaris Venture Partners is announcing a couple of moves related to its network of Dogpatch Labs startup incubators. One bit of news involves the fate of the original Dogpatch in San Francisco. The other piece is about a brand new (and long-awaited) international site that is opening today. (Dogpatch Labs already … Continue reading “The Polaris Express: Dogpatch Labs Says Goodbye Pier 38, Hello Palo Alto and Dublin”
Xconomist of the Week: Pfizer’s Barbara Dalton to Speak at Our NY Life Sciences 2031 Forum
As Pfizer’s vice president of venture capital, Barbara Dalton will bring two valuable perspectives to Xconomy’s Life Sciences 2031 panel discussion on October 13: that of a VC and that of a pharma executive. Dalton, who was trained in immunology and virology at the Medical College of Pennsylvania, began her career as a research scientist … Continue reading “Xconomist of the Week: Pfizer’s Barbara Dalton to Speak at Our NY Life Sciences 2031 Forum”
Sailthru Turns $8M Series A, Led by RRE Ventures, Into Plan to Double Staff
New York’s Sailthru plans to expand with its freshly minted $8 million Series A funding and nearly double its staff within 12 months, according to its CEO and founder Neil Capel. The startup announced last week it completed the financing round, which was led by RRE Ventures with participation from AOL Ventures, DFJ Gotham Ventures, … Continue reading “Sailthru Turns $8M Series A, Led by RRE Ventures, Into Plan to Double Staff”
Join Us for a Live ‘Tweetchat’ on the Future of RNAi, With Guest John Maraganore of Alnylam
Usually when I want to chat with someone, I still pick up that 19th century contraption called the telephone or sometimes meet in person. Each of those communications methods has its merits, but you can bring a lot more voices to a conversation through a real-time chat like the ones happening now on Twitter. So … Continue reading “Join Us for a Live ‘Tweetchat’ on the Future of RNAi, With Guest John Maraganore of Alnylam”
Investor Growth Capital Starts Anew as Independent VC Firm, With Evergreen Fund Worth $1.3B
Today Investor Growth Capital (IGC), which has offices in New York City and Menlo Park, CA, announced that it is breaking free of its parent company, Stockholm, Sweden-based Investor AB. The newly independent IGC is hitting the ground with $300 million in fresh capital from Investor AB and a portfolio of companies with a total … Continue reading “Investor Growth Capital Starts Anew as Independent VC Firm, With Evergreen Fund Worth $1.3B”
MongoDB Wizards Work to Make 10gen the Red Hat of Databases
Database designers are the secret wizards of the Web revolution, and they’ve been busy writing new spells. Deep inside the castle at each of today’s leading Web companies there’s at least one custom “NoSQL” database keeping things running: Google has Big Table, Amazon has Dynamo, Facebook built Cassandra, and LinkedIn has Project Voldemort. Seriously. In … Continue reading “MongoDB Wizards Work to Make 10gen the Red Hat of Databases”
Unlimited Abilities: A View from the MedtechVision Conference
We are limited, not by our abilities, but by our vision. —Ralph Waldo Emerson In a world thick with healthcare conferences, MedtechVision, held September 15-16 at the Rosewood Hotel in Menlo Park, CA, stood out, both for its quality of content and for its participants. “I hadn’t given any thought to the fact that it … Continue reading “Unlimited Abilities: A View from the MedtechVision Conference”
Sequoia Capital’s Greg McAdoo on Consumer Web and Cleantech Trends, Boston Vs. New York, and Recruiting at MIT
Is there anything worse than a Silicon Valley VC coming to Boston to poach talent from the startup ecosystem? OK, that’s not really what Greg McAdoo is about. The Sequoia Capital partner was in town last weekend, in part for the Startup Bootcamp event at MIT (and related meetups), which featured talks by a number … Continue reading “Sequoia Capital’s Greg McAdoo on Consumer Web and Cleantech Trends, Boston Vs. New York, and Recruiting at MIT”
NYC Emerging Technologies Summit
This afternoon event features short presentations of more than 20 innovations from researchers at 10 universities who are driving today’s most investor-ready innovations. The technologies range from therapeutics to medical devices. Register here.
Donovan Data Systems to Merge with MediaBank, Form MediaOcean
New York’s Donovan Data Systems agreed to merge with Chicago’s MediaBank to form a new company called MediaOcean, according to a press release. MediaBank and Donovan Data Systems both provide media management software for advertising agencies that deal with print, television, radio, and online ads. Through MediaOcean, the merged company plans to create a universal … Continue reading “Donovan Data Systems to Merge with MediaBank, Form MediaOcean”
200 Women and 5 Men: How Women in Bio’s Network Could Close the Gender Gap
Women have come a long way in the biotech business the past couple decades, no doubt. But if you have any illusions that the industry is nearing gender balance in 2011, then you haven’t seen what I witnessed a few days ago in a hotel lobby in Seattle. The gender balance issue jumped out at … Continue reading “200 Women and 5 Men: How Women in Bio’s Network Could Close the Gender Gap”
Tumblr Receives $85,000,000 New Financing
Feed Type Link http://www.venturedeal.com/Search/SearchResultTransactionDetail.aspx?TransactionId=f8cb167b-0fbe-44b6-8b7f-19b51085c234&Preview=1 Date 9/26/2011 Company Name Tumblr Mailing Address 35 East 21st Street 9th Floor New York, NY 10010 Company Description To make a simple analogy: If blogs are journals, tumblelogs are scrapbooks. You can also look at tumblelogs as slightly more structured blogs that make it easier, faster, and more fun to … Continue reading “Tumblr Receives $85,000,000 New Financing”
TechMediaNetwork Secures $33,000,000 Series B Round
Feed Type Link http://www.venturedeal.com/Search/SearchResultTransactionDetail.aspx?TransactionId=56f6b1dc-e886-4674-baf7-5d2b396b2582&Preview=1 Date 9/26/2011 Company Name TechMediaNetwork Mailing Address 150 Fifth Avenue 9th Floor New York, NY 10011 Company Description TechMediaNetwork is a publisher of high-quality original content with owned and operated brands and an advertising partner network that combined reach 71 million unique readers monthly, plus millions more through syndication to major … Continue reading “TechMediaNetwork Secures $33,000,000 Series B Round”
Turning the Social Network Inside Out: What the Changes at Facebook Mean For Apple and Google-and You
One of the most persistent criticisms of Facebook is that it’s trying to build a “walled garden” analogous to AOL’s dialup service in the 1980s and early 1990s. Blogger Jason Kottke said it in 2007. Tim Berners-Lee said it in Scientific American in 2010. Google’s Vint Cerf revived the meme earlier this week at an … Continue reading “Turning the Social Network Inside Out: What the Changes at Facebook Mean For Apple and Google-and You”
Warby Parker Secures $12,000,000 Series A Funding Round
Feed Type Link http://www.venturedeal.com/Search/SearchResultTransactionDetail.aspx?TransactionId=cf201aab-5356-4b50-bb37-1af4f468cb70&Preview=1 Date 9/23/2011 Company Name Warby Parker Mailing Address 40 Great Jones Street New York, NY 10012 Company Description Warby Parker was founded with a rebellious spirit and a lofty objective: to create boutique-quality, classically crafted eyewear at a revolutionary price point. Website http://www.warbyparker.com Transaction Type Venture Equity Transaction Amount $12,000,000 Transaction … Continue reading “Warby Parker Secures $12,000,000 Series A Funding Round”
The Post-Advertising Summit
Story Worldwide presents this conference—a full day of discussion on the future of branded content. The first half of the day will focus on the future of information, while the second half will explore what’s in store for entertainment. Speakers include Advertising Age’s “Media Guy” Simon Dumenco, What’s Trending founder and host Shira Lazar, and … Continue reading “The Post-Advertising Summit”
ZocDoc Adds $25M to Series C Funding
In August, New York-based ZocDoc raised $50 million in a Series C funding round from Russion billionaire Yuri Milner’s DST Global. Now the company—which allows patients in several states to book their doctors’ appointments online—can add another big name to its slate of investors. ZocDoc announced today that it has extended the Series C, raising … Continue reading “ZocDoc Adds $25M to Series C Funding”
How to Build a Web Startup: Lean LaunchPad Edition
As part of our Lean LaunchPad classes at Stanford, Berkeley, Columbia and for the National Science Foundation, students build a startup in 8 weeks using Business Model Design + Customer Development. One of the problems they run into is building a website. If you’re an experienced coder and user interface designer you think nothing is … Continue reading “How to Build a Web Startup: Lean LaunchPad Edition”
Ambrx Grabs $24M Upfront in New Diabetes, Heart Failure Research Deal With Bristol-Myers
There’s lots of interest in the protein drug engineering crowd to come up with new-and-improved forms of biotech drugs, and today we’re seeing another example in a new partnership between San Diego-based Ambrx, and New York-based Bristol-Myers Squibb (NYSE: [[ticker:BMY]]). Under the deal, Ambrx said today it will get $24 million upfront, plus undisclosed milestone … Continue reading “Ambrx Grabs $24M Upfront in New Diabetes, Heart Failure Research Deal With Bristol-Myers”