Reflections & analysis about innovation, technology, startups, investing, healthcare, and more .... with a focus on Minnesota, Land of 10,000 Lakes. Blogging continuously since 2005.

Category: Venture Capital/M&A/Angels (Page 49 of 54)

Sales Reps Will LOVE Genius Interactive

How can a solution that allows sales people see exactly what prospects are doing online on their company’s web site, in real time, not be cool? It lets them deal with the hot, closing opportunities that make their whole world go round — right now. Genius_logo And they can even roll back to the last several hours or previous day, for example. “It’s been described as TiVo for web visits,” said David Thompson, CEO. Best of all, it’s “IT free,” he said. The sales folks can use it without even getting the geeks involved…

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MindTouch Hometown Boy Does Good

Aaron Fulkerson, VP and cofounder of Mindtouch, who’s based in St. Paul, did a fantastic job with his demo just now. He pitched his newly named “DekiBox” smart wiki appliance with aplomb and mega enthusiam. I can’t wait to ask him how much caffeine he consumed before he went on this morning… 🙂 And his San Diego-based colleague, Steve Bjorg (CTO and cofounder), handled his part of the demo flawlessly as well. More from these guys in a later post….

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MojoPac Separates and Virtualizes the App Layer from the Hardware

As touched on previously, this offering from RingCube lets you use any computing device, like an iPod, cell phone, or USB drive, as if it were your own personal computer. Mojopaclogo The difference from earlier attempts to do this is that it works with any application. And, when you use it, it’s totally isolated from your real PC. “What happens on MojoPac stays on MojoPac.”

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What to Look for at DEMOfall – Part 1

Let’s take a look at what we can expect at DEMOfall 2006, where I’ll be bloging from next Tuesday and Wednesday. First, I notice nine non-U.S. companies are presenting, undoubtedly a result of executive producer Chris Shipley’s wild travel schedule. As Gary Bolles of Conferenza says, “she meets with more startups than anyone on the planet.” Demochrisshipley_1 For this fall’s event, I see on the list there’s a company from Canada (Cascada Mobile), one from Israel (eSnips), one from the UK (Moixa Energy), one from Germany (Open Business Club), one from France (Realeyes3D), one from Austria (SystemOne), another from the UK (Tao Group), another from Canada (Trigence), and another from France (Violet).

My “hardest-company-name-to pronounce” award, by the way — overall — has to go to one of these non-U.S. firms, Moixa. Ta-dah! Please come forward….. Now, tell us, is that moyxa…mo-ik-zah…or….huh??? And, looking through the entire list, including the U.S. entries, the most-confusing-name award has to go the Grand Central Communications. Why? At first, I thought — what? — that company was founded in 2000 by former CNet head Halsey Minor, and it was a web services outfit. This one appears to be VOIP startup, founded by two other guys, though there is little yet posted at their new web site. So, what’s with that? Did they acquire the domain of the previous firm? Is this a rebirth? Or is this just some kind of of a weird coincidence? That would be doubtful, since both firms are in SF….

By the way, speaking of the Bay Area, fully 45% of the presenting companies at this event are from there — 30 out of 67. Chris may travel the world, but why is it the geographic distribution of the DEMO presenting companies ends up, again, being heavily skewed to a certain county or two in NorCal? Could it be possilby be….the VCs? Or is it simply because more companies from there apply?

You tell me….

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