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.

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My Live Blogging of DEMO Spring 2010

March 20, 2010 / / 1 Comment

Well, it's that time again. Twice each year, I cover the DEMO conference — and this time around it's DEMO Spring, in warm, sunny Palm Desert. It's been a long, cold winter!  I'm excited, because, as I noted in my previous post, 65 really exciting new ventures will be launching!  The event will be hosted by new executive director Matt Marshall, the CEO and editor-in-chief of VentureBeat.

Here's the page where my live-blogging posts will appear, in real time as they are published. To do this live blogging, I'm using a great tool designed
just for this purpose called "ScribbleLive." DEMO_2010-LiveBlogBanner   My on-site coverage will begin soon after I arrive on Sunday March 21 (the opening reception is that evening), and will run through late Tuesday afternoon March 23, when the conference wraps up. 

Before my last DEMO event (Fall '09), I always live-tweeted the proceedings, rather than
doing live blogging. That changed as of last fall. The tweeting had worked okay, but this live-blogging approach I decided I like better, for a
number of reasons: (1) I'm not limited to 140 characters per post… (2)
I find it a nice middle ground between doing short, often hard-to-write
(and understand!) tweets and the more rambling long-form blogging…
(3) it's as fast or faster than tweeting… (4) it's way faster than me
trying to post quickly on my own Typepad blog here… and (5) it
prevents many of my Twitter followers from getting mad and unfollowing
me when I'm doing so many rapid-fire tweets at events, which for a DEMO
can be upwards of a couple hundred! Another cool thing is that I can
attach a photo to any of my live-blog posts as well. (Though I will also
upload all my pix to a Flickr set during and right after the event.) 
The tool also allows me to attach an audio or video file, if I wish, but
I don't expect to do that.

For me, as a longtime event reporter,
this ScribbleLive tool is really an ideal solution. Here's my live-blog archive of DEMOfall '09. And here's another example of how myself and three other blogger colleagues used this tool simultaneously for the first
time: it was at the the Blogwell event at General Mills in Minneapolis last year.

I
look forward to DEMO Spring 2010, and hope I hear from you — whether during the
event, before, or after. I will likely be publishing some other,
stand-alone posts here on this blog while at DEMO — namely, audio
interviews, as I did starting at DEMO Spring '09. To communicate with me,
you can always post comments here at my blog.  Or, talk to me via
Twitter by putting @GraemeThickins at the beginning of your tweets —
since I will be monitoring Twitter search closely as I live-blog the
event.  Get this — if I want to tweet once in a while, those will appear automatically in this live blog, too. Pretty cool.

Look for me in the DEMO ballroom — I'll be in my usual spot in row three of the press section,
right down in front.

DEMO Spring 2010 Announces Presenting Companies

March 19, 2010 / / 1 Comment

JWmarriottDesertSprings DEMO_2010-logo+dates As is
my custom, I’m publishing the list of DEMO presenters as soon as it’s
released.  What follows is an
excerpt from the press release that just hit the wire:

———

The
DEMO conference, the world-renowned launch platform for some of the most
notable emerging technologies introduced over the past two decades, today
announced the lineup of 65 companies that will share their never-before-seen
products and value propositions to the technology community at DEMO Spring 2010
on March 21-23 in Palm Desert, California (JW Marriott Desert Springs Resort).

The
DEMO conference opens a window into technology's future, and this year the
event will feature some of the most promising new products and prototypes from
a variety of different industries including Social and Media, Cloud,
Enterprise, Mobile, and Consumer Technologies.

DEMO
Spring 2010 is also excited to have VentureBeat Founder and CEO, Matt Marshall,
on board as DEMO’s new executive producer, who has evaluated and selected
leading-edge innovations to launch on the DEMO stage.  

In its
second year, sitting alongside the demonstrating class of DEMO Spring 2010, the
Alpha Pitch program will feature 13 early-stage entrepreneurs and pre-launch
mode companies that will have 90 seconds in the spotlight to share their
prototypes to the critical DEMO audience. To have qualified for the program,
each company must be pre-revenue, and have received no more than a seed round
of funding.

You can
still register to attend by going to the DEMO web site.  Live broadcast
over the web will be available through a partnership with DEMO 08
demonstrator and former DEMOgod award winner BitGravity,
for registered qualified members of the press.  Qualified members of the
press may request live viewing access via www.etouches.com/demovideo. Videos from
live DEMO Spring 2010 presentations will also be available within 24-48 hours
after each presentation on DEMO.com.

———

As
always, I will be covering the event on-site, posting some audio interviews as
I can, and also live-blogging the entire proceedings, as I did for DEMOfall
’09.

And now, ta-dah!  Here’s the just-released list….

DEMO
Spring 2010 Demonstrators:     

ABJK
NewCo, Inc.; Austin, Texas; www.zosh.com                                                                                  

AirSet;
Berkeley, California; www.airset.com                                                                                          

AppVoyage;
San Jose, California; www.appvoyage.com                                                                                   

AppWhirl,
Inc.; Mountain View, California; www.appwhirl.com                                         
                       

bloson;
Cambridge, Massachusetts; www.bloson.com                                                                           

BlueSkies
Hospitality Management Systems (HMS); Pendleton, Indiana; www.blueskieshms.com             

BrandFolium
Corporation; Sunnyvale, California; www.brandfolium.com                                                  

CalendarFly;
Pelham, New York; www.calendarfly.com                                                                           

Closely,
Inc.; Denver, Colorado; www.closely.com                                                                                 

Cloudscale,
Inc.; San Mateo, California; www.cloudscale.com                                                                

Democrasoft;
Santa Rosa, California; www.democrasoft.com                                                                

DigitalScirocco;
Seattle, Washington; www.digitalscirocco.com                                                              

Everloop;
Danville, California; www.everloop.com                                                                                  

eXaudios
Technologies; Ramat-Gan, Israel; www.exaudios.com                                                             

FathomDB;
San Francisco, California;

www.fathomdb.com

Fliptop;
San Francisco, California; www.fliptop.com                                                      
                       

General
Inspection, LLC; Davisburg, Michigan; www.generalinspection.com                                            

Genieo
Innovation; Herzlia Pituach, Israel; www.genieo.com                                                                    

GlideTV,
Inc.; Pleasanton, California; www.glidetv.com                                                                          

GreenNurture;
Tempe, Arizona; www.greennurture.com                                                               

gwabbit;
Carmel Valley, California; www.gwabbit.com                                                                            

Hillcrest
Labs; Rockville, Maryland; www.hillcrestlabs.com                                                          

InfoDome;
Oakland, California; www.InfoDome.com                                                                              

Infusionsoft;
Gilbert, Arizona; www.infusionsoft.com                                                                              

Invested.in;
Thousand Oaks, California; www.invested.in                                                                        

InVisage
Technologies, Inc.; Menlo Park, California; www.invisageinc.com                                                                                                                     

MightyMeeting,
Inc.; Setauket, New York; www.mightymeetings.com                                                       

MiniMash,
Inc.; Oakland, California; www.minimash.com                                                             

my6sense,
Inc.; Herzeliya Pituach, Israel; www.my6sense.com/                                                               

NetToons,
Inc.; El Cerrito, California; www.nettoons.com                                                            

Network
Hippo, Inc.; Ottawa, Ontario; www.networkhippo.com                                                                

nyoombl,
Inc.; Palo Alto, California; www.nyoombl.com                                                                         

Phone
Halo; Santa Barbara, California; www.phonehalo.com                                                                  

Pi
Mobility; Sausalito, California; www.pi.pngmobility.com                                                                            

Rebtel;
Stockholm, Nacka Strand; www.rebtel.com                                                                                 

Sharetivity;
Palo Alto, California; www.sharetivity.com                                                                            

SocialWish;
Brooklyn, New York;

www.socialwish.com                                                                                            

Solvate;
New York, New York; http://solvate.com                                                                                   

Supercool
School; San Francisco, California; www.SupercoolSchool.com                                                          

Sutus,
Inc.; Burnaby, British Columbia, Canada; www.sutus.com                                                            

Tastr,
Inc.; San Diego, California; http://xpenser.com/                                                                            

Teneros;
Mountain View, California; www.teneros.com                                                                            

Value-Centered
Solutions, Inc.; San Pablo, California; www.inoutcash.com                                             

VenueGen;
Morrisville, North Carolina; www.venuegen.com                                                                    

ViaCLIX;
Los Gatos, California; www.viaclix.com                                                                                               

VIC
Wave Communication, Inc.; Victoria, British Columbia; www.vicwave.net                                           

VISIARC;
Stockholm, Sweden;

www.visiarc.com
and www.mobiledocuments.com                            

Vivox; Natick,
Massachusetts; www.vivox.com                                                                                      

Voxofon,
LLC; Houston, Texas; www.voxofon.com                                                                               

Widgetbox;
San Francisco, California; www.clickturn.com                                                                      

Zerista,
Inc.; Denver, Colorado; www.zerista.com                                                                                   


DEMO
Spring 2010 AlphaPitch Companies:

flinc;
Dieburg, Germany; www.flinc.mobi                                                                                               

Immitter;
Los Angeles, California; www.immitter.com                                                                              

KarmaKorn;
Lindenhurst, Illinois;

www.KarmaKorn.com  

MEDL
Technology Co., Ltd.; Mongkok, Hong Kong; www.medltech.com                                                

neverend
media; Chapel Hill, North Carolina; www.neverendmedia.com                                                   

R3
d.o.o.; Maribor Slovenia, Europe; www.mmatcher.com                                                                      

PERMISSIONtosend;
Denbigh, Wales, UK;

www.permissiontosend.com

SocialOrbits,
LLC; Chicago, Illinois; www.SocialOrbits.com                                                        

Systems
Thinking Institute, LLC; Cedar Creek, Texas; www.systemkey.net                                               

TicketPlayground.com;
Plantation, Florida;

www.ticketplayground.com

ThickButtons;
Palo Alto, California;

www.thickbuttons.com

Yumit;
Madrid, Spain; www.yumit.com                                                                                                   

UppyMedia.com;
Alameda, California;

www.uppymedia.com                                           

ZURB;
Campbell, California;

www.zurb.com


An
additional excerpt from the press release: In addition to the exciting
companies that will take the stage, DEMO will host some of the single most
influential entrepreneurs, organizations, and venture capitalists in the industry
to participate in panel sessions on the key themes for the show, including:

– Social
and Media

– Cloud

–
Enterprise

– Mobile

–
Consumer Technologies

Matt
Marshall, Executive Producer of DEMO, will lead these panel discussions
throughout the multi-day conference.

———

I'll be at DEMO for the entire event, which starts late afternoon Sunday and goes through Tuesday evening.  If you'll be in attendance, I look forward to
meeting you!



Podcast: Fine-Art Site Socurio Makes the Community the Curator

March 16, 2010 / / 1 Comment

Socurio-logo At a recent Club Entrepreneur lunch downtown, which is held at the wonderful, old Minneapolis Club, I had the opportunity to meet one of the cofounders of a unique startup. [Club Entrepreneur is a monthly lunch event run by my longtime colleague Rick Brimacomb. I wrote a post about the event here. For more info, email: rick at brimacomb dot com.]  The name of that cofounder was Ion Skillrud, shown at right in the photo. (And, yes, I said at the time I'd never seen that first name of his spelled that way!) The name of his startup is Socurio, which is a new kind of "creative marketplace and community for fine art." Sasha+Ion I learned his cofounder, Sasha Koehn (left in the photo), was based in LA.  I thought there must be an interesting story here, and I was right — with both a Minnesota and Wisconsin connection.  So, when Ion followed up with me, I suggested the three of us record a podcast sometime — which we were able to do yesterday, via Skype conference call.

What's really different about this online art marketplace is that it bridges a real gap the founders see between art and the consumer. The latter being you and me: admirers of art, but not artists ourselves. The vision for Socurio — its differentiation, they say — is that it's a "refined" art marketplace, where the art is already filtered by the community. 

Socurio-homepage

Other art sites are loaded up with all kinds of clutter.  Here, the big idea is this: the community is the curator.  Art buyers are obviously a key target for the  site, but even those with just an appreciation and no big budget play a key role.  Because the really cool feature, the founders say, is that you don't just buy art on Socurio — you collect ("celebrate") art, on your own page on the site, viewable by all visitors to the site. Anyone can join the site for free, and we also talked about the site's revenue streams, which include a share of transactions, as well as advertising.

So, take a listen to the interesting startup story of Socurio. And also hear about the first "ARTintended" event they held, which was their launch event in LA last week. The podcast is about a 20-25 minutes long. Here's the MP3 file:

• Download or listen to Graeme's interview with the founders of Socurio (MP3)"

Show notes:

Facebook: www.facebook.com/pages/Socurio/35785193539
Twitter: www.twitter.com/socurio
Blog: http://blog.socurio.com
Flickr pix from launch event: www.flickr.com/photos/39330436@N06/sets/72157623634964200/
More about the "ARTintended" events: http://blog.socurio.com/p/artintended.html

Art-intended-logo

Podcast: A Chat with the Founders of MN Startup Lawyerist.com

March 8, 2010 / / 2 Comments

Lawyerist-logo I had the pleasure today to sit down over coffee with the founders of a content site for attorneys called Lawyerist, based in downtown Minneapolis: Sam Glover (left in the photo) and Aaron Street. I met Aaron at a recent monthly lunch meeting of Club Entrepreneur, which is run by my colleague Rick Brimacomb. Lawyerist-founders And, today, I had the opportunity to meet Sam, whom I learned continues as a practicing attorney as well. What I find so interesting about this content site, in addition to it being founded by attorneys (whom you’d not normally think of as having a bent for publishing or content), is that it actually has a business model, with real revenues, based on a subscription offering it launched in January. It’s attracting some leading contributing writers, as well as a significant amount of traffic for such a early-stage business.

Listen in — it’s about a 20-25 minute conversation. Here’s the MP3 file:

• Download or listen to Graeme’s interview with the founders of Lawyerist.com(MP3)”.

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Details of Minnesota Startup SMB:LIVE’s Acquisition by ReachLocal

March 6, 2010 / / 13 Comments

SMBlive My local followers here in Minnesota may have heard about the acquisition of local startup SMB:LIVE this past week. The company was known more in these parts by the name of its service, CloudProfile, which had gotten some local buzz due to a test program it had going with Best Buy.  In fact, the day the acquisition was announced, the brand-new March issue of Twin Cities Business magazine landed on my desk, with a glowing piece on the company, under the headline Found in the Clouds.  CloudProfile So much for the timeliness of monthlies: just the day before, the company had ceased being an independent Minnesota firm, becoming part of a high-flying Southern California firm, which has filed for an IPO.

ReachLocal

And I now have the details of what the acquirer — ReachLocal — paid for the firm. I simply asked my friends at socalTECH.com, a great site that covers the tech community out there, where ReachLocal is based. And, thanks to my prodding late yesterday 🙂 they took another look — proceeding to discover just the data I was looking for, which was in a filing they hadn't checked till they saw my email.

So, here's the deal: the purchase price was $2.8M in cash, plus up to $5.7M dependent on milestones — for a total of $8.8M, including assumptions of some liabilities. That's according to Ben Kuo, editor at socalTECH.com, who told me ReachLocal had buried the information in an S-1 addendum, and had not announced it in their earlier news release.

Not a bad payday for a firm that had barely released their site into the wild. Congrats to founder and CEO Alex Hawkinson. (Read more about him and his small team here.)  For more on the deal, see socalTECH's coverage that was updated last night.  And here's another site in SoCal with a page that groups socalTECH's previous stories on ReachLocal, including their filing for an IPO in late December.

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