Category: Seattle

The Case for Including Investors on Conference Calls

We are in the middle of a busy earnings season on Wall Street, which for an independent investor like me means listening to a lot of company conference calls. While that admittedly is not always the most exciting way to spend your days and evenings, I would like to relate a story about a novel … Continue reading “The Case for Including Investors on Conference Calls”

Seven Socially Minded Startups to Take Flight at Fledge

Fledge, a new Seattle-based incubator for companies that hope to improve society, is announcing its first class of seven startups. The proto-companies will be running through the Fledge program for eight and a half weeks at the SURF Incubator co-working offices in downtown Seattle, and plan to have their demo day in late September at … Continue reading “Seven Socially Minded Startups to Take Flight at Fledge”

Dendreon Cutting 600 Jobs, Closing NJ Plant As Sales Fall Short

[Updated 3:45 pm PT] Dendreon’s new management team is making some drastic cuts in a bid to keep its cancer immunotherapy business going, after the company stumbled in its early marketing days and now faces an increasingly serious competitive onslaught. The Seattle-based biotech company (NASDAQ: [[ticker:DNDN]]) said today it is cutting 600 jobs full-time and contractor jobs … Continue reading “Dendreon Cutting 600 Jobs, Closing NJ Plant As Sales Fall Short”

Inside Zipwhip’s Plan to Free Texting from the Phone

Text messages aren’t usually anyone’s idea of an innovative communication medium. But then again, most people probably haven’t used a text to remotely command a robotic coffee machine. That kind of thing is possible in the office of Seattle startup Zipwhip. Send a message to a special phone number, and the company’s hacked-together “Textspresso” machine … Continue reading “Inside Zipwhip’s Plan to Free Texting from the Phone”

A Lonely Voice Asking Tough Questions on Cancer Cost-Effectiveness

If a new cancer drug comes out at a price of $100,000 per person, how many patients likely to benefit will actually get it? How many will drain their entire life savings just to make the insurance co-pays? How many people will go bankrupt to stay alive a few more months? How many people will … Continue reading “A Lonely Voice Asking Tough Questions on Cancer Cost-Effectiveness”

Adapx Secures $3,000,000 New Round

Feed Type Link http://www.venturedeal.com/Search/SearchResultTransactionDetail.aspx?TransactionId=eec97c11-10c8-4984-a984-facf04e4ab15&Preview=1 Date 7/30/2012 Company Name Adapx Mailing Address 2127 Fifth Avenue Seattle, WA 98121 Company Description Adapx has developed field information capture technology that digitizes field personnel handwritten information. Website http://www.adapx.com Transaction Type Venture Equity Transaction Amount $3,000,000 Transaction Round Undisclosed Proceeds Purposes The company will use the additional funding to accelerate … Continue reading “Adapx Secures $3,000,000 New Round”

A Mouse and Keyboard Don’t Make a Hardware Company

Microsoft is not, and never will be, a hardware company. Please don’t go off saying “what about Xbox or mice and keyboards?” Microsoft does not really want to build and sell hardware. Surface is akin to Google’s Nexus; a ‘north star’ product intended to lead OEMs in the right direction. “With Surface we wanted to … Continue reading “A Mouse and Keyboard Don’t Make a Hardware Company”

Not All E-Mails Are Created Equal; SaneBox Knows the Difference

A couple of weeks ago I wrote a column on ways we can work together to restore e-mail sanity. I argued that e-mail overload has a simple cause that’s often overlooked: we’re all sending each other too many messages. We can try all the time-management tricks and software plugins in the book to deal with … Continue reading “Not All E-Mails Are Created Equal; SaneBox Knows the Difference”

Impinj Secures $21,648,933 New Funding Round

Feed Type Link http://www.venturedeal.com/Search/SearchResultTransactionDetail.aspx?TransactionId=d6da0bf4-35db-43ed-91e9-6c28886e5dc3&Preview=1 Date 7/27/2012 Company Name Impinj Mailing Address 701 N. 34th Street Seattle, WA 98103 Company Description Impinj, Inc. is a fabless semiconductor company whose patented Self-Adaptive Silicon technology enables its two synergistic business lines: high performance RFID products and innovative semiconductor intellectual property (IP). Website http://www.impinj.com Transaction Type Venture Equity Transaction … Continue reading “Impinj Secures $21,648,933 New Funding Round”

Contour Receives $2,770,000 New Financing

Feed Type Link http://www.venturedeal.com/Search/SearchResultTransactionDetail.aspx?TransactionId=22a4ba83-543d-4c45-91e8-c79c86393f99&Preview=1 Date 7/27/2012 Company Name Contour Mailing Address 3131 Western Ave Seattle, WA 98121 Company Description Contour, formerly known as VholdR, is the market leader in hands-free video cameras and adventure storytelling tools that enable modern day explorers to tell their stories of action, adventure and travel through video. Website http://www.contour.com Transaction … Continue reading “Contour Receives $2,770,000 New Financing”

Impinj Backs Away from IPO, Raises $21.6M from Private Sources

Impinj, a Seattle-based seller of radio-frequency ID devices, is withdrawing its bid for an initial public stock offering and has instead raised $21.6 million from private investors. Impinj first filed its IPO registration papers in April 2011, seeking up to $100 million. But the 12-year-old company hadn’t updated that paperwork since July 2011, and there … Continue reading “Impinj Backs Away from IPO, Raises $21.6M from Private Sources”

WBBA Summer Social Beach Party

The Washington Biotechnology & Biomedical Association will hold its annual summer social & beach party from 4 pm to 7 pm on Sept. 13 at Shilshole Bay Beach Club. For more information, click here.

Siluria Attracts Paul Allen, Gets $30M to Turn Natural Gas Into Chemicals, Fuels

[Updated: 2:50 pm PT] San Francisco-based Siluria Technologies, the company with a big idea for converting natural gas into fuels and specialty chemicals, has now attracted some more big money and big name investors. Siluria said today it has pulled in a $30 million Series C venture round led by new investors Bright Capital and … Continue reading “Siluria Attracts Paul Allen, Gets $30M to Turn Natural Gas Into Chemicals, Fuels”

Allan Jones, the Force Behind Paul Allen’s Vision for Brain Science

Nowhere along his life journey did Allan Jones appear destined to do big things as a biotech CEO. He was born into a family of musicians, not scientists. He passed on a chance to go to the Ivy League, thinking it too stuffy. He doesn’t seek attention. He deflects credit to others. He’s short. When … Continue reading “Allan Jones, the Force Behind Paul Allen’s Vision for Brain Science”

As Zynga Eyes Gambling, Betable Offers Small Devs Some Action

Could those addictive crop-farming and city-building games on Facebook dispense real money someday? It’s coming, and sooner than you might think. On Wednesday afternoon, amid a poor quarterly earnings report, social game leader Zynga said it plans to incorporate real-money gambling for players outside the U.S. next year. And, although the regulations are still not … Continue reading “As Zynga Eyes Gambling, Betable Offers Small Devs Some Action”

Big Fish Games Hooks New Revenue Streams with Cloud Service

Seattle’s Big Fish Games, a multimillion-dollar company that publishes and distributes casual video games, is taking a big step into the future of connected entertainment. After months of work, Big Fish is unveiling a streaming game service called Big Fish Unlimited that lets players move seamlessly between their laptop, tablet, and smartphone. The subscription service, … Continue reading “Big Fish Games Hooks New Revenue Streams with Cloud Service”

The Forlorn Server; or, Don’t Mistake Unrequited Love for an Actual Deal

If there’s only one passionate party in a relationship it’s unrequited love. Here’s how I learned it the hard way. The Dartmouth Football Team After Rocket Science I took some time off and consulted for the very VCs who lost lots of money on the company. The VCs suggested I should spend a day at … Continue reading “The Forlorn Server; or, Don’t Mistake Unrequited Love for an Actual Deal”

Sarepta’s Muscular Dystrophy Drug Improves With Time; Stock Booms

[Updated: 2:30 pm PT] Sarepta Therapeutics, the company formerly known as AVI Biopharma, has gone through a rough patch ever since its experimental drug for Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy generated mixed clinical results in April. But now the story is taking a new twist, as the drug is starting to look more effective as a small … Continue reading “Sarepta’s Muscular Dystrophy Drug Improves With Time; Stock Booms”

Illumina, Leaning on Amazon, Looks to Be Hub of Genomic Computing

[Updated: 11:35 am PT] Illumina wants to be not just a hardware company, but really an integrated hardware/software company that’s the Apple of the genomics business. Now the San Diego-based company is moving that direction, in a bid that could help the genomics community grow, by offering lots of free storage and processing of DNA … Continue reading “Illumina, Leaning on Amazon, Looks to Be Hub of Genomic Computing”

Mobile Game Startup Z2Live Gets New CEO

Z2Live, a publisher of top-grossing mobile games, is getting a leadership change. The company says it has promoted operations chief Lou Fasulo to CEO, with co-founder and previous CEO David Bluhm moving into the role of chairman. In its announcement about the change, Z2Live says Bluhm will “focus on working with Z2Live’s board and Lou … Continue reading “Mobile Game Startup Z2Live Gets New CEO”

Cloudant, Born from Big Science, Looks to Build Big Database Business

Big science and big technology work hand in hand. Without the World Wide Web, an idea conceived by scientists at CERN (the European Center for Nuclear Research), we wouldn’t have technologies people use every day, like social media, e-commerce, or Internet cat videos. And, as my colleague Wade argued, without the Web, scientists probably wouldn’t … Continue reading “Cloudant, Born from Big Science, Looks to Build Big Database Business”

Woeful Websites: How to Guarantee Your Startup Won’t Get Funding

You don’t have to work in venture capital to know that many biotech startups are having a difficult time raising money. The economy remains in the tank, and the former Olympic-sized pool of accessible cash now more closely resembles a wading pool. There are an enormous number of reasons why a company will have difficulty … Continue reading “Woeful Websites: How to Guarantee Your Startup Won’t Get Funding”

Scarcity of Samples Threatens Personalized Medicine

Plenty of factors can conspire to slow down progress in molecular diagnostics and personalized medicine. There’s never enough money to run all the experiments scientists can imagine, it’s hard to gather data that squares with traditional medical evidence standards, and society is willing to pay a lot more money for drugs than diagnostics. But there’s … Continue reading “Scarcity of Samples Threatens Personalized Medicine”

Seattle Genetics, Millennium Get EU Recommendation for Lymphoma Drug

Seattle Genetics won FDA approval for its first cancer drug last August in the U.S., and now its partner appears close to getting that same clearance in Europe. The Bothell, WA-based biotech company (NASDAQ: [[ticker:SGEN]]) said today that its partner, Cambridge, MA-based Millenium: The Takeda Oncology Company, got a positive recommendation for brentuximab vedotin (Adcetris) … Continue reading “Seattle Genetics, Millennium Get EU Recommendation for Lymphoma Drug”

Can Anyone Catch Khan Academy? The Fate of the U in the YouTube Era

Traditional American universities are suddenly running scared of the Internet, and for good reason. They successfully weathered the rise of online, open-enrollment degree programs like the University of Phoenix, but now they’re confronting a much more terrifying enemy: YouTube. Not just YouTube, of course—there’s also Vimeo and 5min and iTunes U and TED and the … Continue reading “Can Anyone Catch Khan Academy? The Fate of the U in the YouTube Era”

Software Surge Drives Up U.S. Venture Activity—and Top 10 Deals

Overall venture capital activity turned up sharply during the three months that ended June 30, with venture firms investing just over $7 billion in 898 deals throughout the United States, according to the latest MoneyTree survey. The study generally confirms the improving trend in VC activity that was highlighted in the quick take from CB … Continue reading “Software Surge Drives Up U.S. Venture Activity—and Top 10 Deals”

New CEO for Lighter Capital, Founder Sack Moves to Exec Chairman

Seattle’s Lighter Capital exists to fill some holes in the usual models for financing young companies. And with that mission comes some criticism of the venture capital playbook—namely, a VC’s focus on billion-dollar opportunities and constant search for lucrative exits. So it’s a little interesting that the alternative-financing startup had recruited a former VC to … Continue reading “New CEO for Lighter Capital, Founder Sack Moves to Exec Chairman”

Biotech VCs, in Shadow of Tech, Start Delivering More Hits

A strange thing has happened during an otherwise bleak time for biotech venture capital. Life science venture capitalists are apparently hitting more of their investments out of the park. There were 17 so-called “Big Exits” for investors in privately held biotech companies, and 18 in the medical device business in 2011, the most of any … Continue reading “Biotech VCs, in Shadow of Tech, Start Delivering More Hits”

Pacific Light Technologies Lands New Financing Round

Feed Type Link http://www.venturedeal.com/Search/SearchResultTransactionDetail.aspx?TransactionId=27bb0bb0-31d8-4a8f-bdd2-214a6da8fcab&Preview=1 Date 7/19/2012 Company Name Pacific Light Technologies Mailing Address 2828 SW Corbett Portland, OR 97201 Company Description Pacific Light Technologies is a materials and integration company dedicated to enabling high-quality, energy-efficient solid-state lighting. Website http://www.pacificlighttech.com Transaction Type Venture Equity Transaction Amount Undisclosed Transaction Round Undisclosed Proceeds Purposes Proceeds purposes were not … Continue reading “Pacific Light Technologies Lands New Financing Round”

Flux Drive Secures New Funding Round

Feed Type Link http://www.venturedeal.com/Search/SearchResultTransactionDetail.aspx?TransactionId=233d9a20-15cd-4eb7-aeaf-78769ea8f39d&Preview=1 Date 7/19/2012 Company Name Flux Drive Mailing Address 14209 29th Street East Sumner, WA 98390 Company Description Founded in 2003, Flux Drive has focused its development effort on building an alternative to the electrical variable frequency drive (VFD). Specifically, the founders wanted to solve vibration and reduce the peripheral cost associated … Continue reading “Flux Drive Secures New Funding Round”

Indow Windows Secures New Financing

Feed Type Link http://www.venturedeal.com/Search/SearchResultTransactionDetail.aspx?TransactionId=69a6df9d-5fd4-445e-89b9-7e9a325a8faa&Preview=1 Date 7/19/2012 Company Name Indow Windows Mailing Address 2267 N. Interstate Avenue Portland, OR 97227 Company Description I founded Indow Windows because I wanted to find a better window insulation solution for my own home. Double pane windows are so expensive that even the cheap and ugly vinyl replacement windows cost … Continue reading “Indow Windows Secures New Financing”

Green Canopy Homes Secures New Financing

Feed Type Link http://www.venturedeal.com/Search/SearchResultTransactionDetail.aspx?TransactionId=d9c701cf-f5fa-497f-8498-934fdd5eea2f&Preview=1 Date 7/19/2012 Company Name Green Canopy Homes Mailing Address 999 North Northlake Way Seattle, WA 98103 Company Description Green Canopy Homes renovates Seattle homes with quality, energy efficiency, and today’s lifestyles in mind. Our goal is to re-use and remodel homes in local neighborhoods using leading efficiency methods and materials, while … Continue reading “Green Canopy Homes Secures New Financing”

Verlitics Garners New Funding

Feed Type Link http://www.venturedeal.com/Search/SearchResultTransactionDetail.aspx?TransactionId=3511f337-0d54-429f-adac-a7e3c5ecf12d&Preview=1 Date 7/19/2012 Company Name Verlitics Mailing Address 905 NW 12th Avenue Portland, OR 97209 Company Description Verlitics provides a low-cost, Cloud-connected monitor that captures real-time building electricity use, including the signature associated with each device using that energy. Proprietary, Cloud-based analytics use this signature information to identify when each device turned … Continue reading “Verlitics Garners New Funding”

Greenwood Clean Energy Secures New Round

Feed Type Link http://www.venturedeal.com/Search/SearchResultTransactionDetail.aspx?TransactionId=a41be29a-4ef8-46cf-ba70-e82af6b8528a&Preview=1 Date 7/19/2012 Company Name Greenwood Clean Energy Mailing Address 13429 SE 30th Street Bellevue, WA 98005 Company Description Founded In 2009, Greenwood Clean Energy (GCE) assembled a team of talented entrepreneurs and industry veterans to develop and distribute world-class woody-biomass fueled heating appliances for home and commercial use. Website http://www.greenwoodusa.com Transaction … Continue reading “Greenwood Clean Energy Secures New Round”

Prometheus Energy Group Obtains $2,999,678 New Financing Round

Feed Type Link http://www.venturedeal.com/Search/SearchResultTransactionDetail.aspx?TransactionId=80256219-eac4-4400-86fa-e9340549dc35&Preview=1 Date 7/19/2012 Company Name Prometheus Energy Group Mailing Address 8511 154th Ave NE Building L Redmond, WA 98052 Company Description The combination of these elements is at the core of our company. The timing was perfect for the right technology, resources and global energy situation for our philosophy to not just … Continue reading “Prometheus Energy Group Obtains $2,999,678 New Financing Round”

NanoString Makes IPO Prep Move, Adds Finance Vet to Board

NanoString Technologies just enlisted the kind of person that it will need if it’s ever going to grow up into a public company. The Seattle-based genetic instrument and diagnostic company said today it has added Greg Norden, the former chief financial officer of Wyeth, to its board of directors. Norden spent 21 years at Wyeth, which … Continue reading “NanoString Makes IPO Prep Move, Adds Finance Vet to Board”

Yapta Taps Business Travel Veteran as New CEO

Airline price-tracking startup Yapta has found its new CEO: James Filsinger, a travel industry veteran who will be in charge of growing the Seattle company’s footprint in the big-bucks market for business services. Filsinger comes to Yapta after a short stint running EZYield.com, which helped hotels sell their rooms online by giving managers a single … Continue reading “Yapta Taps Business Travel Veteran as New CEO”

T-Mobile’s Bobsled Tackles the App Market, Racks Up 2M Users

You’d have to be a little nuts to tackle a new voice and messaging service for a wireless carrier. Sure, those have been the carriers’ bread-and-butter services for many years. But these days, revenues from voice and text services are dropping like a brick—a decline that’s being hastened along by Internet-based alternatives from smartphone companies … Continue reading “T-Mobile’s Bobsled Tackles the App Market, Racks Up 2M Users”

Venture Investment Hits Highest Level Since Dot-Com Era

Venture capitalists invested some $8.1 billion in more than 800 deals in the second quarter, registering the highest such total in more than a decade, according to a new report from the analysts at CB Insights. The totals represent a fairly modest uptick from the second quarter last year: A 5 percent rise in dollars, … Continue reading “Venture Investment Hits Highest Level Since Dot-Com Era”

A Summer Reading List for Biotech Pros

[Updated: 7/17 9:15 am PT] Summer is here, so there’s a bit of a lull on the average biotech pro’s schedule. If there’s ever an opportunity to take a breather from the relentless scientific, medical, and investor meetings that dominate the industry calendar, this is it. Time to catch up on reading a few good … Continue reading “A Summer Reading List for Biotech Pros”

Ivy Secures $437,000 New Funding Round

Feed Type Link http://www.venturedeal.com/Search/SearchResultTransactionDetail.aspx?TransactionId=17e9dad5-6521-43cd-babe-ee7b99d1d2c4&Preview=1 Date 7/16/2012 Company Name Ivy Mailing Address 12277 134th Ct NE Redmond, WA 98052 Company Description Presenting Ivytalk: Cross channel messaging solution. We help you easily communicate with anyone, on virtually any medium, anywhere in the world. We provide interactive communication between businesses and consumers, organizations and members, agencies and volunteers. … Continue reading “Ivy Secures $437,000 New Funding Round”

Optify Garners $1,999,999 New Funding

Feed Type Link http://www.venturedeal.com/Search/SearchResultTransactionDetail.aspx?TransactionId=57b3e81e-d91a-4096-aa82-f513c61b2a11&Preview=1 Date 7/16/2012 Company Name Optify Mailing Address 710 2nd Ave Seattle, WA 98104 Company Description The company provides Internet marketing services. Website http://www.optify.net Transaction Type Venture Equity Transaction Amount $1,999,999 Transaction Round Undisclosed Proceeds Purposes Proceeds purposes were not disclosed. SEC regulatory filing. M&A Terms Venture Investor Undisclosed

7 Ways We Can Work Together to Restore E-Mail Sanity

Just like you, I’m locked in a perpetual battle against e-mail. I spend the whole day fending off the incoming messages, like some cranky old dude standing on his porch with a weed whacker. I feel compelled to do this, because if I don’t, my inbox will quickly swell beyond my ability to tame it. … Continue reading “7 Ways We Can Work Together to Restore E-Mail Sanity”

Brammo Obtains $13,000,000 Series C Financing Round

Feed Type Link http://www.venturedeal.com/Search/SearchResultTransactionDetail.aspx?TransactionId=50aefc63-3b06-4386-8cd0-71893d666c71&Preview=1 Date 7/13/2012 Company Name Brammo Mailing Address 550 Clover Lane Ashland, OR 97520 Company Description Brammo is in business for one simple reason – to drive change in the New Energy Economy. Our technically-advanced Enertia plug-in electric motorcycle – which gets up to 45 miles per charge – is the lightweight, … Continue reading “Brammo Obtains $13,000,000 Series C Financing Round”

DocuSign Raises Another $47.5M

Updated 7/13 DocuSign, a well-funded provider of software that captures and transmits electronic signatures, has raised nearly $47.5 million in additional financing to pay for continued growth. The investment, which puts total financing in DocuSign above $100 million, was led by Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers. Accel Partners, Comcast Ventures, and SAP Ventures also invested in … Continue reading “DocuSign Raises Another $47.5M”

Microsoft Confirms Bing Fund, a New Angel Investment Vehicle

Microsoft’s enthusiasm for early stage companies is getting turned up another notch. Today, the company is pulling back the curtain on its new Bing Fund, an angel investment program targeting online and mobile startups. The fund is headed by Rahul Sood, a former entrepreneur who sold niche computer maker VoodooPC to Hewlett-Packard in 2006. Details … Continue reading “Microsoft Confirms Bing Fund, a New Angel Investment Vehicle”

Xconomist of the Week: ATV’s Bob Hower on “A” Startups, IPOs, & the God of VC

The venture capital industry is in flux. A lot of firms and funds are contracting. Big guys are doing more later-stage investments (see GitHub). Little guys are trying to innovate with early stage companies. Fund investors are trying to figure out how to get more bang for their venture buck. In the midst of all … Continue reading “Xconomist of the Week: ATV’s Bob Hower on “A” Startups, IPOs, & the God of VC”

Life Science Innovation NW Notes: SeaGen, NanoString, Viket, & More

Fifty years ago at the World’s Fair, Seattle’s visionaries were thinking about exploring space. Today, the CEO of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation observed, more of the region’s innovators are focused on “terrestrial” matters like global health and biotech. Whether that’s good or bad for mankind, we can debate another day. But as Jeff … Continue reading “Life Science Innovation NW Notes: SeaGen, NanoString, Viket, & More”

iSpot.tv Receives $575,000 Seed Financing

Feed Type Link http://www.venturedeal.com/Search/SearchResultTransactionDetail.aspx?TransactionId=dd16a30e-f463-4447-8dd7-41c550bde789&Preview=1 Date 7/12/2012 Company Name iSpot.tv Mailing Address 14042 NE 8th Street Bellevue, WA 98007 Company Description Enabling & Measuring Interactions for Brands on TV. Website http://www.ispot.tv Transaction Type Venture Equity Transaction Amount $575,000 Transaction Round Seed Proceeds Purposes Proceeds purposes were not disclosed. M&A Terms Venture Investor Undisclosed