Graeme Thickins on Tech

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

Tag: HDTV

Stealth MN Startup CRAM is Thinking Big…Really Big: How About Disrupting the Whole World of Digital Home Entertainment?

December 17, 2010 / / 0 Comments

Cram-logo You say you want unrivaled access to movies, music, television, and educational programming at a price you can afford?  Well, Twin Cities-based CRAM™ Worldwide is taking you up on that. I recently interviewed CEO and cofounder Daren Klum (see MP3 link below) to try to learn more about what he’s up to.  His new startup is out to prove it’s possible to unlock the largest content catalogs in the world so you get true, unlimited content anyplace, anytime — free of tethered connections.  Hey, does that get your juices flowing?

CRAM™ plans to do that with a next-generation digital content delivery device and platform that provides Cram_device consumers with a unique, simple, and interactive approach to accessing digital content. The company has been quietly developing its patent-pending technology and simultaneously planning the launch of a content network that will position it against some of the largest content distributors in the world, such as Comcast, Redbox, and even Netflix. The key is this: the CRAM™ device will provide content in real, actual HD.  My colleague Steve Borsch did an interview of Daren a couple of months ago on Minnov8.com that delves further into the company’s technology. 

Darenklum CRAM™ says its content delivery system not only gives customers a far better user experience, but it’s “a fun way to interact with content.”  And Daren tells me it will be available for a very affordable monthly subscription.  I sat down with him yesterday to talk about his background, how he came to cofound CRAM™, and what the current status is of his startup, as well as his plans for next few months. (For more on Daren and his team, check out the firm’s About page. It is one impressive assemblage of talent.)

• Download or listen to my interview with Daren Klum, cofounder and CEO of CRAM™ Worldwide… (MP3 – about 18 minutes)

More Good News re: Minnesota Startups

December 5, 2006 / / 0 Comments

Another of our local startups has announced a $5-million early-stage funding. The Mpls/St. Paul Business Journal published this article online on December 1 (may require subscription to their print edition–booo!), about Swarmcast receiving an initial round of funding from Japanese VC firms. Why Japan, you might ask? Well, because there’s even higher interest in the company’s technology for downloading HD-quality video in that country than in the U.S., which is behind Japan in broadband technology and adoption.

I’d actually known about this funding for close to a year — which would make it the worst-kept secret in the Minnesota startup community. But I chose way back not to break any news about it, deferring to my friends at the company, who had some reason for delaying the announcement. Perhaps their thinking was they were way out in front of the market, anyway, so why not let it catch up a bit? Or maybe they picked up on the fact that BitTorrent was announcing its own financing on the same day — this one for $20 million — and decided they should synch up with that, for better PR value or something. [Note: regarding BitTorrent, the Business Journal article states that the swarming technology developed by SwarmCast’s predecessor company, Onion Networks, “has since been modified and used by popular peer-to-peer file-sharing company BitTorrent,” but that “the product Swarmcast now plans to launch is based on entirely new technology.”]

Swarmcastsiteclip

Whatever, this is more great news for Minnesota’s startup community! It proves again that money finds us, and that such fundings don’t always mean startups have to move to either coast to get their growth-fueling booty. [You know I’ve been chronicling the determination of another startup, Flyspy, to also disprove this commonly held theory.]

SwarmCast’s funding comes on top of two other $5-million+ Series A rounds for MN companies, which were announced almost back-to-back in the early summer: Jumpnode and HotGigs. I blogged about both companies here. Which makes me think…let’s see, that means at least three pretty big deals were brewing as much as a year ago (such financings typically are in the works for months before they’re announced). And — with the vibrancy of the tech sector having picked up markedly all year — just what all else may now be going on behind the scenes here locally as far as renewed venture financing interest in Minnesota’s Internet and IT startups?

That, my friends, is where a large part of my focus will continue to be. In fact, I’m already onto one such story you will find very interesting — another positive sign that the climate is indeed getting better. [Okay, I’m not talking about our weather! 🙂 …]

In the meantime, congratulations to my friend (and former client) Justin Chapweske, founder of locally grown SwarmCast, for making Minnesota proud. Justin, SwarmCast rocks!

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