Archive for March, 2011
Wednesday, March 23rd, 2011
 Artist's rendering of the American Underground space DURHAM, NC – The American Underground, which occupies the lower levels of American Tobacco’s historic Strickland and Crowe Buildings and is designed to foster collaboration among startups and small businesses, has added six new tenants.
The newcomers include Themis Media, Smashing Boxes, NC IDEA & IDEA Fund Partners, Sustainable Industrial Solutions (SIS) and Zetta Worldwide Tech.
“Locating to the Underground and being amidst Durham’s emerging startup scene will allow us to be even more accessible and collaborative with entrepreneurs,” says David Rizzo, president and CEO of NC IDEA, which provides early financing through grants.
“The ‘natural’ and organic networking opportunities that will present themselves just by being right there at the center of activity will immediately prove invaluable.”
Adds Jason Massy of the energy efficiency-focused Sustainable Industrial Solutions (SIS), “Since moving back to North Carolina, this is the first place that I’ve experienced in the region that has the organic startup culture of a place like Silicon Valley.”
Wide ranging new roster
The Underground’s new roster is wide ranging. Themis Media, for example, describes itself as “like Rolling Stone but for video games.” Just down the hall, IDEA Fund Partners provides seed and early stage equity funding and expertise to niche companies throughout the region.
“The scene in downtown Durham, especially at the Underground, is electric and filled with optimism and creativity,” says Nick Jordan of the Web development firm Smashing Boxes. “The collective energy gives us entrepreneurs confidence that the things we are working on matter and will make a difference. Entrepreneurs face an uphill battle when starting a business, and being around fellow entrepreneurs is great therapy to help you persevere.”
Sharita Lawson of Zetta Worldwide Tech agrees, “We wanted to be in an environment where we could pull from the creative energy of those around us and also receive support, both moral and professional, from individuals who have similar visions.”
Here’s a look at the new tenants in their own words:
IDEA Fund Partners, John Cambier: “Since 2006, IDEA Fund Partners has provided seed and early stage equity funding, along with company building expertise, to IT, materials technologies and medical device companies throughout North Carolina, as well as the Southeast and Mid-Atlantic regions.
NC IDEA, David Rizzo: “NC IDEA is committed to supporting North Carolina’s economic development by helping young, innovative companies grow, create jobs and become major contributors to the business community mainly by providing early financing in the form of grants. By the end of 2011, we will have awarded over $2 million to 60+ companies.”
Sustainable Industrial Solutions, Jason Massy: “Sustainable Industrial Solutions (SIS) is making American manufacturing more competitive and reducing greenhouse gases one factory at a time. We leverage energy efficiency, paid-from-savings implementations to embed sustainability best practices in a facility.”
Smashing Boxes, Nick Jordan: “We are a user-centric design and development firm that helps organizations build their brand, their audience, and their customer base through Web and mobile technology. We work with everyone from prefunded startups to Fortune 500s to nonprofits.
Themis Media, Alexader Macris: “Themis founds, incubates, and operates businesses in new media and interactive entertainment. Founded in 2001, Themis created one of the first online social communities for games (WarCry), pioneered the first interactive gaming company to focus on community building, player retention and MMO support services (TAP Interactive), and founded the prestigious video game destination The Escapist. Themis’ media properties reach more than 4.5 million unique visitors every month.”
The new crew joins ‘veteran’ Underground-ers Acorn Innovestments, Adzerk, CED. Jaargon Ltd., Joystick Labs, LaunchBox Digital Preation and Two Toasters.
The American Underground is not the only place providing a collegial atmosphere and offices aimed at giving startups a boost. TechStarts Plus in Cary, which recently changed its name from TechSuites Plus, is also creating a startup friendly ecosystem. For more information see our previous story about TechStarts: www.techjournalsouth.com/2011/02/techsuites-offers-tech-startups-bargain-space-incubator-like-ecosystem/
TechJournal South is a TechMedia company. TechMedia presents the annual conferences:
SoutheastVentureConference: www.seventure.org
Internet Summit: www.internetsummit.com
Digital East: www.digitaleast.com
Digital Summit: www.digitalsummit.com
Tags: Alexander Macris, American Tobacco Campus, Cary, Dave Rizzo, Durham, IDEA Fudn Partenrs, Jason Massy, NC, NC IDEA, Nick Jordan, Sharita Lawson, Sustainable Industrial Solutions, TechStarts Plus, Themis Media, Zetta Worldwide Tech
Posted in Uncategorized | Comments Off
Wednesday, March 23rd, 2011
 HUNTSVILLE, AL – 11i Soluitons, a wireless infrastructure and solutions provider, has closed on a $1.8 million convertible bridge financing. Steel Pier Capital Advisors led the round.
11i Solutions, Inc. was founded in 2007 to deliver enterprise-wide security, compliance, data and communications services.
The company says it streamlines clients’ wireless systems as a whole by anticipating new technologies and avoiding short-term obsolescence. With a wide range of solutions offered – from asset tracking via radio frequency identification (RFID) and fixed mobile convergence to data centers and Secure Cellphone Communication
Tags: 11i Solutions, AL, financing, Huntsville, Steel Pier Capital Advisors, wireless infrastructure
Posted in Alabama, Internet/New Media, IT, Money, Other SE | Comments Off
Wednesday, March 23rd, 2011
 DURHAM, NC – Spring Metrics, a company that helps e-businesses understand what drives their revenue online, has secured a $635,000 seed round from LaunchBox Digital, CBC New Media GRoup, Zelkova Ventures and Steve Vanderwoude and Lee Buck.
Founded in August 2010, the company is focused on helping e-commerce businesses understand the DNA of their conversions. By breaking conversions down into their fundamental components, then showing exactly how they fit together, e-commerce companies can clearly see what drives revenue and how they can actively generate more conversions over time.
Co-founder and CEO Doug Kaufman tells us the five person firm “Came from scratching my own itch. I was running a different company, sold part of it and was doing online work with a education site I had started. It sold study guides and other products and I was having a hard time understanding why some people were buying and some weren’t.”
He searched for a software product to help provide the information he wanted. “I couldn’t find it, so I said, ‘Let’s build one.’ ”
Among the types of things Spring Metrics helps e-retailers spot are “the wrong types of traffic.” For instance, he said, “If someone found my old site, Alleydog, designed for college psychology students, they would not buy from me if they found it by searching for dogs.”
That could mean a marketing campaign is not on target.
Spring Metrics shows users how people get to a site, what key words they searched for, and which page they landed on, but more importantly, it puts all the data points together “To tell a story about the user buying from you,” says Kaufman. “We call think of that as the DNA of your conversions,” he adds.
The company says that traditionally, analytics tools are too complicated, produce overwhelming amounts of data, and leave users to figure out what it all means. As a result, it‘s been said that 90 percent of a company’s website analytics budget should be spent on people to make sense of the data that the tools spit out.
By breaking conversions down into their fundamental components, then showing exactly how they fit together, e-commerce companies can clearly see what drives revenue and how they can actively generate more conversions over time.
“Our early customers have raved about the Spring Box, and described the real-time dashboard as highly addictive,” said Kaufman. “They love the fact that the exact information they used to hunt for in other analytics packages is presented to them in a concise, and actionable format.”
“Small Businesses today face numerous challenges when trying to understand exactly what drives their online revenue growth,” said Lee Buck, Partner at LaunchBox Digital.
“Spring Metrics’ unique model brings sophisticated, automated online marketing intelligence to small and medium businesses that lack the resources to interpret the onslaught of analytics data. The company’s progress to date has been impressive, and we are excited to work closely with such a talented team.”
Buck will join Spring Metrics’ Board of Directors, which includes Steve Vanderwoude and Jimmy Goodmon. — Allan Maurer
TechJournal South is a TechMedia company. TechMedia presents the annual conferences:
SoutheastVentureConference: www.seventure.org
Internet Summit: www.internetsummit.com
Digital East: www.digitaleast.com
Digital Summit: www.digitalsummit.com
Tags: CBC New Media Group, Doug Kaufman, financing, LauchBox Digital, Lee Buck, Spring Metrics, Steve Vanderwoude, Zelkova Ventures
Posted in Carolinas, Internet/New Media, IT, Money, North Carolina | Comments Off
Tuesday, March 22nd, 2011
By Allan Maurer
 RALEIGH, NC – The local deals and online coupon space may save consumers money, but they’re almost too much of a good thing. There are too many of them playing in the space, not just Groupon and LivingSocial, but hundreds of smaller firms and websites offer a myriad of savings on local restaurant meals, events, a variety of services, groceries and way too many spas. Raleigh-based Redeemio brings them altogether on one site – and let’s you specify the types of offers you prefer and also learns what you like from your later choices.
As someone who uses some of those services occasionally, we thought that sounds like a good idea. Reedmio, founded in June 2010, isn’t alone as a daily deal and coupon aggregator. Yipit and Dealmap, which just signed a partnership with Microsoft’s Bing search engine, are its top competitors, and more are likely.
Redeemio Co-founder Chris Leithe tells us the company, founded in June 2010, already has good traction. Bootstrapped by its founders, the three-person company is in 120 markets in the U.S., including all of the tier one and tier two and a lot of tier three cities. It’s looking for some growth funding in the $250,000 to $500,000 range, not the easiest bracket in which to raise money.
It makes money as an affiliate of the deal firms it aggregates, taking a small percentage of each sale, but Leithe says it is looking at additonal revenue streams.
Users sign up very easily at the Redeemio.com site and can fill out a form identifying the types of offers they prefer or simply go to all the offers near them. Ours for today included three restaurants and…hold your breath…a spa. Still, we grabbed several book deals from various daily deal purveyors in the past and we expect to try some new restaurants this way too. So it is handy to see everything of interest to you in one spot.
Leithe says he expects to see some additional consolidation of the local daily deals space, with Groupon and LivingSocial already making acquisitions. In the deal aggregations space, though, he says he expects more competition to enter the market before an ensuing fall out with mergers and acquisitions.
TechJournal South is a TechMedia company. TechMedia presents the annual conferences:
SoutheastVentureConference: www.seventure.org
Internet Summit: www.internetsummit.com
Digital East: www.digitaleast.com
Digital Summit: www.digitalsummit.com
Tags: Chris Leithe, group buying, Groupon, LIvingSocial, local daily deals, Redeemio
Posted in Carolinas, Company Profile, Internet/New Media, Marketing, North Carolina | 2 Comments »
Tuesday, March 22nd, 2011
 SAN DIEGO, CA – Nearly 13 million Americans aged 18 or older who are on social networking sites will accept any social media connection request from a member of the opposite sex, regardless of whether or not they know that person, according to a recent survey.
The survey of 1,011 U.S. adults, of whom 387 have joined an online social networking site, conducted via telephone by Harris Interactive® on behalf of ID Analytics last month, also found that men on social networking sites are more than twice as likely as women to accept any and all invites from someone of the opposite sex (18 percent compared to seven percent for women).
Personally, I don’t accept friend requests from women or anyone else without a bio or note explaining why I would want to friend them or read their tweets. I’ve turned down dozens of what appear to be sexy women with no bios and jazzy names.
While adult Americans are willing to accept online connection requests on social media networks, only half (50 percent) of those who are on social networking sites actually trust those connections to keep their data private, the survey says.
Despite this lack of trust, the survey also found that more than 24 million Americans on social networking sites keep their online profiles “mostly public,” meaning anyone can see their personal details.
I keep my profiles on social media sites restricted to friends and I’ve recently used Facebook’s extra security features. Nevertheless, at some point my Twitter account was hijacked briefly and I had to do a new password.
If you go to a lot of tech conferences and such, keep in mind that hacker software freely available online makes it east to get into your system and steal passwords from any social media account you may be using over an insecure public wireless system (or insecure private ones). Virtual private networks appear to be the only solution to that.
Other Key Findings:
Younger Men More Likely to Accept Invites—Directionally*, the study found men between the ages of 18 to 34 on social networks were the most likely to accept invites from anyone of the opposite sex compared to older men.
Grabbing All the Friends You Can Get—The survey also found that five percent of U.S. adults on social networks will accept any friend request they receive—regardless of who sends them.
What Type of Friend Matters—Not all social networks are created equal. U.S. adults who have joined an online social network were twice as likely to state that it is important to have as many business social media contacts as possible (39 percent), compared to personal connections on social networks (19 percent). This sheds some insight into possible avenues of approach by fraudsters.
“American’s lack of caution in friending members of the opposite sex online is striking,” said Thomas Oscherwitz, chief privacy officer for ID Analytics Inc.
“Friending someone online is not risk-free. Just as in the bricks-and-mortar world, it makes sense to exercise a bit of prudence. Most social networking profiles contain personal information that can be used by fraudsters, and when you friend someone, you are giving them access to this information.”
Fraudsters can use information in social networking profiles to build the dossiers they need to beat challenge questions and other security measures on financial accounts. The key identity elements that consumers should be careful before exposing on social networks can be seen in the image above.
Consumers can check their risk of identity fraud at MyIDScore.com. This free online service gives consumers immediate insight into whether their personal identifiable information is being used fraudulently to obtain assets, goods or services.
Tags: facebook, ID Analytics, identity theft, social media, twitter
Posted in Internet/New Media, IT, social media, Studies, surveys, reports | Comments Off
Tuesday, March 22nd, 2011
 CLEARWATER, FL – GFI Software, an IT solutions provider for small and medium-sized enterprises, says an independent survey conducted by Opinion Matters, in which more than 200 U.S.-based IT decision makers participated, revealed a dramatic lack of adoption of email archiving.
According to the study, 62.4% of SMEs do not currently use a mail archiving solution – opening the door to a host of issues including: limited email backup and restore, which could lead to data loss; an inability to search for pertinent messages in the event of an audit or eDiscovery request – which could result in costly compliance violations or legal suits; strain on Exchange servers; and storage problems.
The survey also revealed that greater than 38% of the 202 businesses polled do not have an archiving or backup solution of any kind in place, further exacerbating the chances that a network failure could result in a complete loss of critical data stored in email.
Additional results from the survey:
- Two-thirds (66.8%) of respondents were unfamiliar with U.S. regulatory compliance standards regarding email archiving. This number ballooned to over 90% in businesses that rely on only one IT professional.
- 37% said they are required to search for old or deleted emails on a monthly basis, if not more frequently, because of requests from end users, the need to meet compliance requirements, the need to provide copies of correspondence for a lawsuit or audit, or any other requirements.
- 31% of respondents said they would consider a hosted approach to email archiving.
Implementation of a mail archiving solution can enable several email-related necessities, including maintaining an archive of all corporate email correspondence, meeting the growing number of regulations for compliance, eDiscovery and other legislation, significantly reducing the demands on the Exchange server, and managing and reducing the company’s dependency on PST files.
“Email infrastructure is quickly becoming a complex beast, and IT administrators have more factors to consider than ever before – including an increasing level of compliance standards that many are apparently unaware of,” said Walter Scott, CEO, GFI Software.
“As the survey clearly indicates, IT managers are routinely required to search for specific emails, and without the automated search capabilities that a mail archiving solution brings, they can take up valuable IT staff time to locate. Critical data stored in email needs to be easily retrievable and accessible, for both day-to-day business concerns as well as for good compliance. Finally, taking the risk of not backing up or archiving key data stored in email can be a very costly gamble depending on the type of data your business is dealing with.”
TechJournal South is a TechMedia company. TechMedia presents the annual conferences:
SoutheastVentureConference: www.seventure.org
Internet Summit: www.internetsummit.com
Digital East: www.digitaleast.com
Digital Summit: www.digitalsummit.com
Tags: Clearwater, email archiving, FL, GFI Software, survey
Posted in Internet/New Media, IT, Studies, surveys, reports | Comments Off
Tuesday, March 22nd, 2011
 FALLS CHURCH, VA – CSC (NYSE: CSC), a global leader in providing technology-enabled solutions and services entered into a new $1.5 billion unsecured revolving credit facility on March 18, 2011, which replaced an existing $1.5 billion facility that was scheduled to mature in July 2012.
CSC sells technology-enabled solutions and services through three primary lines of business. These include Business Solutions and Services, the Managed Services Sector and the North American Public Sector.
CSC’s capabilities include system design and integration, information technology and business process outsourcing, applications software development, Web and application hosting, mission support and management consulting.
The company has been recognized as a leader in the industry, including being named by FORTUNE Magazine as one of the World’s Most Admired Companies for Information Technology Services (2011).
TechJournal South is a TechMedia company. TechMedia presents the annual conferences:
SoutheastVentureConference: www.seventure.org
Internet Summit: www.internetsummit.com
Digital East: www.digitaleast.com
Digital Summit: www.digitalsummit.com
Tags: CSC, Falls Church, IT solutions and services, new credit facility, VA
Posted in IT, Money, Potomac, Virginia | Comments Off
Tuesday, March 22nd, 2011
 DURHAM, NC – The Bull City Startrup Stampede has selected 11 companies from 78 applications for 60 days of free furnished space in downtown Durham April 1 thorugh May 31. The companies will also receive expert help and opportunities to network with founders of successful Durham startups.
“We were overwhelmed and thrilled by the response to the Stampede,” said Adam Klein, the Chamber’s Director of Strategic Initiatives. “The applications were wide-ranging and inspiring. It made the selection process difficult, but we are thrilled to bring these 11 startup companies and 30 employees downtown.”
The companies that were not selected for the Stampede have already been connected to the many business resources available in Durham such as Bull City Forward, NC Institute for Minority Economic Development, Durham Technical Community College Small Business Center, CED, LaunchBox Digital, Joystick Labs and the Small Business and Technical Development Center.
“We want to make sure all the companies that showed interest in the Stampede are engaged in Durham and the business opportunities here,” Klein said. “We have a wealth of resources and partners who can help these companies start and grow in Durham.”
For background on the event see our previous story: Startup Stampede, launch a company in 60 days
The Bull City Startup Stampede participants:
AcuMedSoft – revolutionizing healthcare delivery with secure cloud based web applications.
Appuware – provides a cloud-based suite of tools and services that enable mobile publishers to offer trial and subscription based pricing within various app marketplaces.
Blink Coupons - customer loyalty cards for small businesses. Blink aims to become the Google of the collegiate market and their ultimate goal is to make the collegiate experience more enjoyable for college students, professors and advertisers, alike.
Bound Custom Journals - delivers uniquely customizable journals for travel, sketching, writing, planning, anything–because only you can create the perfect journal.
Clinical Ambassador – a cultural attaché that connects science and minority communities to advanced medical discovery and reduces disparities through cultural competence, research literacy, outreach strategy, community-driven, creative marketing and patient recruitment in clinical trials.
Finger Puppet Games, Inc. - develops 3D games with cutting-edge technology that are social, tactile, and collectible; built for mobile devices and monetized through microtransactions.
Fitsistant - a service of on-call physical training coaches & scheduling assistants combined with personally tailored fitness software.
Haiti Hub - a for-profit social enterprise dedicated to providing the highest quality Haitian Creole e-language learning solutions to native English speakers invested in Haiti’s future.
LearnVC – VCHub.com (operated by LearnVC) simplifies raising capital by modeling investment scenarios to educate entrepreneurs and collaborate with potential investors.
Little Green Software - develops apps for smart devices including smartphones, tablets, game systems, and the web.
Rippple – an online platform that empowers communities to support entrepreneurs in building successful businesses.
TechJournal South is a TechMedia company. TechMedia presents the annual conferences:
SoutheastVentureConference: www.seventure.org
Internet Summit: www.internetsummit.com
Digital East: www.digitaleast.com
Digital Summit: www.digitalsummit.com
Tags: Adam Klein, Blink Coupons, Bound Custom Journals, Bull City Forward, Bull City Startup Stampede, CED, Clinical Ambassador, companies picked, Durham, Durham Technical Community College Small Business Center, Finger Puppet Games, Fitsistant, Joystick Labs, LaunchBox Digital, LearnVC, LIttle Green Software, NC, NC Institute for Minority Economic Development, Ripple
Posted in Carolinas, Events, Internet/New Media, mobile games, North Carolina | Comments Off
Tuesday, March 22nd, 2011
 MIAMI – A social media site designed to meet the unique needs of the highly regulated financial industry, linkedFA, has secured commitments from its existing private investors for $3 million.
The company says the money will drive linkedFA’s growth strategy, including site upgrades and enhancfements and partnerships and acquisitions.
Founded in February 2010, linkedFA says it is the only social networking website that aheres to the needs of the highly regulated financial community. It is inevitable that social media sites around specific industries and interests will evolve, but those aimed a regulated arenas face particular difficulties.
The linkedFA site includes compliance features which address the regulatory concerns of the SEC, FINRA and FSA. Unlike mainstream networking sites, linkedFA enables financial advisors (FAs) to leverage social media compliantly by aggregating and storing all relative communication within the FA’s networks for more than 6 years.
Jason Bishara, CEO of linkeFA said, “Our service offering is evolving quickly based on feedback from our advisory panel of top-rated financial professionals. Standard social media practices for the masses do not necessarily work for the financial industry. linkedFA’s community is helping redefine whatdoes work. This capital raise will enable us to release new enhancements and features quickly, as well as integrate and monetize new tier-one partnerships.”
TechJournal South is a TechMedia company. TechMedia presents the annual conferences:
SoutheastVentureConference: www.seventure.org
Internet Summit: www.internetsummit.com
Digital East: www.digitaleast.com
Digital Summit: www.digitalsummit.com
Tags: financing, linkedFA, Miami, social media for the financial community
Posted in Florida, Internet/New Media, Money | 1 Comment »
Monday, March 21st, 2011
By Allan Maurer
 Martin Green MT. VIEW, CA – Where do you get your suggestions for movies or music you might like, a restaurant to try, or a new video game to play? Most of us always got the recommendations we trust most from friends. These days, most of us online get still get them from friends, but via Facebook, Twitter, email and other digital social connections. Meebo extends that online friend network across all of your web and mobile experiences.
Meebo enables users to share content and communicate in real time with the people who matter to them, connecting people to their friends on the numerous websites that have installed the Meebo Bar, through mobile devices and via Meebo Messenger.
Martin Green, chief operating officer of Meebo, says Meebo currently has 78 million unique users in the U.S., 165 million worldwide and a syndicated toolbar that runs on about 8,000 web sites.
Founded in 2005, Meebo has raised $70 million from investors who include Sequoia Capital, Khosla Ventures, Draper Fisher Jurvetson, JAFCO, Time Warner and KTB.
Persistence of the experience important
Green acknowledges that the company has competitors attempting to unite users’ digital social experiences. The differentiator at Meebo, he says, “Is the persistence of the Meebo experience. If you use it on the web, it’s in the same place and on every page. No matter what network your friends are on, we make them available to you, so you stay connected with the ones you want to.”
He adds, “It keeps a user connecte with the people who matter to him as he navigates interests and content around the web. We make the web social. You can go to a game, news, or product site and your friends are there so you can talk to them or share a link. It’s a very reliable experience, and that’s important.”
Green oversees the company’s product management, business development, sales, marketing and revenue operations teams. An early Meebo user, he was the first executive to join the company.
Participating in Atlanta Digital Summit
Green is among the digital media mavens slated to participate in TechMedia’s Digital Summit at the Cobb Galleria in Atlanta May 16-17. Green says you will likely hear him talk about the way “A lot of social discussion today is focused around who you know. We think a lot of the future will be in taking advantage of connections between people who don’t know each other, but who share interests.”
That’s actually already happening via sites such the Internet radio station Pandora, which shows you more music based tunes liked by people with interests similar to yours, or Netflix, which does the same thing with movies, and Amazon, which does the same thing with books.
It’s not an exact science yet, Green notes, mentioning the million dollar contest for an algorithm that better predicts user preferences (won by BellKor’s Pragmatic Chaos, which beat the Netflix algorithm by 10 percent).
Green worked with Meebo’s founders and initial team of 10 to focus the company’s strategies and objectives. It now employs 150 people and is growing from 20 percent to 30 percent a year.
A lot of the growth came from building up its sales team to pitch its rather unique advertising deal.
Web is filled with impressions no one clicks
“The web is filled with ad impressions no one clicks on,” says Green. Meebo has developed a system that not only grabs ten times more clicks than usual with a display ad, it gets about 60 seconds of engagement with the user, which is longer than most TV ads these days, Green points out.
“The user chooses to interact with that content,” he explains. “They remain in control.”
How does Meebo accomplish the higher click rate and greater engagement?
“It’s a lot of little things,” says Green. “One of them is persistence. The Meebo bar doesn’t scroll away. Lots of banner ads are bigger, but they scroll away in seconds. Ours are smaller but stay around longer, so they have a better chance of being noticed.”
Also, he says, “The way it’s designed it takes away the anxiety of interacting with normal ads. You hesitate because you have no idea where it’s going to take you. Meebo ads all work the same way. You don’t leave the site. The message comes to you.”
Go to a site that uses the Meebo system, such as TVGuide.com, look in the lower left hand bottom corner of the page and give it a spin.
Tags: Atlanta, Digital Summit, exteding social across the web, Martin Green, Meebo, online marketing
Posted in Company Profile, Events, Facebook, Internet/New Media, IT, Marketing | 1 Comment »
Monday, March 21st, 2011
 ORLANDO, FL – With most of us connected anywhere, a consumer revolution is underway that will supass that of the PC, the Internet and mobile. So says research firm, The Yankee Group.
Yankee Group predicts the growing deployment of wireless and wired connectivity globally is fueling a consumer revolution that will drive $2 trillion in technology spending by 2014.
Ubiquitous connectivity, truly mobile devices, content in the cloud and a plethora of apps are enabling consumers to live, work and play on the go. In this new environment, consumers are the new power brokers: They decide which technologies and experiences succeed—and which ones don’t.
Yankee Group calls this the era of the connected user, and its new report “The Next Tipping Point: The Connected Experience,” defines how the connected user experience is driving not only technology spending, but also technology innovation.
“Gone are the days when IT departments were the sole drivers of demand for new technology. Today, consumers and workers are driving demand and pushing technology into enterprises—shifting trillions of dollars in business with them in the process,” said Gigi Wang, chief research officer at Yankee Group.
Anywhere Connectivity Fuels Even Larger Revolution
For the last several years, Yankee Group has been tracking the tipping point of ubiquitous connectivity—what it calls “Anywhere”—when a region’s number of broadband lines exceeds its population. Today nine countries have passed that tipping point, and by 2014, 30 countries around the globe will be Anywhere.
“We believe connectivity has become fundamental—like electricity—and as a result, it is creating an even more powerful revolution,” said Carl Howe, director at Yankee Group and author of the report.
“At Yankee Group, we believe the revenue impact of Connected Experience will be bigger than the PC, bigger than the Internet and even bigger than Anywhere. Its effects will be felt by families, societies and governments across the globe.
TechJournal South is a TechMedia company. TechMedia presents the annual conferences:
SoutheastVentureConference: www.seventure.org
Internet Summit: www.internetsummit.com
Digital East: www.digitaleast.com
Digital Summit: www.digitalsummit.com
Tags: conectivity, Report, Yankee Group
Posted in Florida, Internet/New Media, Mobile, Studies, surveys, reports, Telecommunications | Comments Off
Monday, March 21st, 2011
 NASHVILLE, TN – Eight startups have won Tennessee Technology Development proof-of-concept grants of $50,000 each.
The companies include 4D Medical Systems, Oak Ridge; Foundation Instruments, Collierville; LED North America; Nutraceutical Discoveries; Phenotype Screening Corp.,Nashiville; The University of Tennessee Research Foundation (2 grants); Venture Incite and Y12 National Security Complex.
For background information on the companies see: Company descriptions.
Founders of the winning firms told Milt Capps of Venture Nashville the grants will help them achieve a number of goals, from refining their software to achieving scale.
TTDC President Leslie Wisner Lynch told Capps the grants also increase the chances of the winning firms receiving future venture capital.
Applicants for the grants must be affiliated with Oak Ridge National Laboratory, St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, the Tennessee Board of Regents, the Tennessee Independent Colleges and Universities Association, the University of Tennessee System, Vanderbilt University and-or the Y-12 National Security Research Complex.
Tags: 4D Medical Systems, Collierville, Foundation Instruments, grants, Milt Capps, Nashville, Nurtaceutical Discoveries, Oak Ridge, Phenotype Screening, Tennessee, TTDC, University of Tennessee Research Foundation, Venture Incite, Venture Nashville
Posted in IT, Money, Other SE, Tennessee | Comments Off
Monday, March 21st, 2011
 NEW YORK – AT&T Inc. (NYSE: T) is buying T-Mobile USA from Deutsche Telkom AG in a cash-stock deal worth $39 billion. The deal, which is likely to face regulatory scrutiny, would make AT&T the largest US cellphone company.
AT&T, now the second largest wireless carrier in the US, and T-Mobile, the fourth, would have a combined 129 million subscribers, surpassing previously number one Verizon Wireless, which has 102 million subscribers.
Due to the regulatory process, AT&T does not expect the deal to close for a year.
“This transaction represents a major commitment to strengthen and expand critical infrastructure for our nation’s future,” said Randall Stephenson, AT&T Chairman and CEO.
“It will improve network quality, and it will bring advanced LTE capabilities to more than 294 million people. Mobile broadband networks drive economic opportunity everywhere, and they enable the expanding high-tech ecosystem that includes device makers, cloud and content providers, app developers, customers, and more. During the past few years, America’s high-tech industry has delivered innovation at unprecedented speed, and this combination will accelerate its continued growth.”
As part of the transaction, Deutsche Telekom will receive an equity stake in AT&T that, based on the terms of the agreement, would give Deutsche Telekom an ownership interest in AT&T of approximately 8 percent.
Improves service quality for U.S. wireless customers
The company says AT&T and T-Mobile USA customers will see service improvements – including improved voice quality – as a result of additional spectrum, increased cell tower density and broader network infrastructure. At closing, AT&T will immediately gain cell sites equivalent to what would have taken on average five years to build without the transaction, and double that in some markets.
We would hope it improves service for both firms. AT&T’s has some noticeable gaps now.
For more: AT&T’s announcement of the merger
TechJournal South is a TechMedia company. TechMedia presents the annual conferences:
SoutheastVentureConference: www.seventure.org
Internet Summit: www.internetsummit.com
Digital East: www.digitaleast.com
Digital Summit: www.digitalsummit.com
Tags: Acquisitions, AT&T buying T-Mobile, telecom, wireless
Posted in Acquisitions, Mobile, Telecommunications | Comments Off
Monday, March 21st, 2011
 RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK, NC – Overture Networks has completed its merger with Hatteras Networks. Known as Overture Networks, the combined company also reported $43.95 million from a financing connected to the merger, according to a regulatory filing, but the money was not new funding.
The company issued this statement in regard to the previous reports regarding the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission filing:
Overture later issued a statement:
“On March 22, 2011, it was reported that “Overture Networks has closed on a fundraiser of nearly $44 million.” This is inaccurate. On March 18, 2011, a Form D filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission, a legally obligated, routine filing followed the recent merger between Overture Networks and Hatteras Networks that was announced March 1, 2011. As the company previously stated, it did not raise any additional cash related to the merger of Overture and Hatteras. As a privately held organization, Overture Networks does not disclose or discuss financial information.”
The merger deal, announced March 1, closed last week. The company revealed in a filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission that it raised $43.95 million from 18 investors March 9.
Overture previously raised $17.2 million in April for a total of $62 million from investors who include Morgenthaler Ventures, Intersouth Partners, TDF Fund, Tenaya Capital and QuestMark Partners.
Former Overture CEO Jeff Reedy will head the combined firm as CEO and former Hatteras CEO Kevin Sheehan is president.
The company sells an Ethernet services platform.
Tags: Ethernet services platform, financing, Hatteras Networks, Intersouth Partners, Jeff Reedy, Kevin Sheehan, merger, Morgenthaler Ventures, Overture Networks, QuestMark Partners, TDF Fund, Tenaya Capital, venture capital
Posted in Acquisitions, Carolinas, Internet/New Media, Money, North Carolina | Comments Off
Monday, March 21st, 2011
By Joe Procopio
 Joe Procopio This year’s Final Four was as heated and satisfying as all the hype built it up to be. And when it was over, cheers erupted not only for the champion, but for the three other finalists as well. In the true spirit of competition, backs were patted, hands were shook, and only a small fraction grumbled about the seeding and the venue selection.
I know what you’re thinking. And while my StatSheet robot-enabled picks are currently crushing brackets throughout the country in my own “Bringing Down the House” moment (I’m thinking Ben Mezrich, David Fincher, and Bradley Cooper), what I’m talking about today, a full two weeks before the end of the NCAA Tournament, is Pongageddon.
Pong I
Late last year, the crew at StatSheet hosted a day of pizza, soda, T-shirts, and ping-pong to celebrate… something. And that’s the point. It wasn’t an award or a demo, there were no high-profile speakers (we tried to get Bob Young, but apparently in Canada they play ping-pong outdoors on ice with regulation mittens and it’s called Ice Mittens). There were no slide decks, no sponsors or booths.
It was just a way for friends and friends of friends to get together, blow off a little steam, and possibly win a trophy with a Buick on top that said “2nd Place” by beating everyone in the room, bracket style, at ping-pong.
That feat was accomplished by iContact and Preation’s Aaron Houghton who, while seeming very nonchalant in a dress shirt and khakis, trumped everyone with his own equipment bag, gold-plated paddle, and grizzled old coach who stood in the corner and glared at everyone, occasionally shooting Aaron a nod when it was time to take out someone’s knee.
Kidding, the paddle wasn’t gold plated.
But as Aaron’s name was duct-taped to the bottom of the Buick trophy, it was obvious that this would not be the only instance of this event.
Pong II
So this past Friday, just because, StatSheet opened the doors again. No Eventbrite, not a lot of promotion, just email to everyone anyone knew plus some light Twittering and Facebooking.
This time, building-mates and fellow startuppers NetSertive played co-hosts, offering up a second table, a refrigerator full of beer, and a break room full of food, essentially doubling down on the entire experience.
Around 50 hardworking entrepreneurs showed up, as well as a few investors and advisors. Pleasantries were exchanged and then the mayhem got underway.
The brackets included representatives from StatSheet and NetSertive and also, let’s go alphabetical:
Adzerk, Appia, Argyle Social, DejaMi, DigitalSmiths, HireNetworks, Intersouth, Loyalese, Idea Fund Partners, Plotwatt, Preation, Robinson Bradshaw & Hinton, Southern Capitol, Square One Bank, and WeGeo – and I’m sure I’m leaving more than one out, this is just all I could remember off of the top of my head.
Play By (Mobile/Web/Social) Play
Needless to say, the competition on the table matched the nature of the players. Whether the talent level was lacking (names withheld), passable (I lost a nail biter to Square 1’s Zack Mansfield after being up 9-7 in the final game), or Gumpesque, everyone brought their A game.
The Final Four matchups were ridiculous to watch, and before long almost everyone had turned away from the basketball games being projected onto one wall and took a spot around the table.
The first best-of-three, 21-point match featured StatSheet’s own Ganesh Karthik Bonala against Argyle’s Danny Olinsky. While Ganesh handily took the first game, Danny fought hard and picked up the last two for the win.
The second semifinal was brutal. Appia CTO Slawek Pruchnik and defending champion Aaron Houghton put on was can only be described as a violent forehand smash clinic that injured more than one bystander. I’ve never seen two people sweat harder playing a sport that you usually play in street clothes (you know, bowling, darts, poker).
But that’s the nature of this crowd.
In the end, Argyle’s Olinsky finessed a visually spent Pruchnik for the Buick trophy.
Names Dropped, Column Almost Over
While this was an awesome event to host and even more fun to write about (let’s face it, entrepreneurism is really mostly a lot of boring hard work), my point is that this is more of what we need as we boldly move forward. Non-sponsored, topic-free, open-invite events like this foster a huge amount of community, which is exactly why StatSheet CEO Robbie Allen set it up in the first place.
It’s something I tried to create with ExitEvent while we were still trying to figure out what ExitEvent was. A lot of the people who were at Pongageddon were at the first ExitEvent meetup, and we didn’t do much more than drink a few beers and chat about what was going on in our world.
Now I know that that’s what it could and should have been. It’s not that we’re any less open and sharing than any other regional startup ecosystem, this is just the result of the fragmentation that we all know exists. I know I want to undo that, I know I’m inspired by what I saw, and I know I’m not alone.
There are other events that fit this mold. Deck Party (full disclosure, the brainchild of this very online property) is already another great example of a party just for the party’s sake, even though it looks more like a networking event until you actually attend.
The point is there’s something valuable here and these folks have tapped into it nicely. If we can keep the fun factor at the level where people will attend, the value will take care of itself.
So as Danny Olinsky’s name was duct-taped to the Buick trophy, it was obvious that this would not only not be the last instance of this event, but it would likely no longer be the only event of its kind.
Joe Procopio heads up product engineering for sports media startup StatSheet . He also owns startup consulting firm Intrepid Company and creative network Intrepid Media . Next outing won’t be so personal, he’s got a Xoom coming. Joe can be reached via Twitter: twitter.com/jproco.
TechJournal South is a TechMedia company. TechMedia presents the annual conferences:
SoutheastVentureConference: www.seventure.org
Internet Summit: www.internetsummit.com
Digital East: www.digitaleast.com
Digital Summit: www.digitalsummit.com
Tags: Aaron Houghton, Adzerk, Appia, Argyle Social, Columns, Danny Olinsky, DejaMi, Digitalsmiths, ExitEvent, Ganesh Karthik Bonala, HireNetworks, icontact, Idea Fund Partners, Intersouth, Joe Procopio, Loyalese, Netsertive, Plotwatt, Pongageddon, Preation, Robbie Allen, Robinson Bradshaw & Hinton, Slawek Pruchnik, Southern Capitol, Square One Bank, StatSheet, Viewpoint
Posted in Carolinas, Columns, North Carolina, Viewpoint | 1 Comment »
Friday, March 18th, 2011
 Bert DuMars By Allan Maurer
ATLANTA – Marketers know that online consumer reviews of products help boost sales. But, if you’re a large company with 40 brands, such as Newell Rubbermaid and you add user reviews to your online interactive mix, what do you do about negative reviews?
Rubbermaid has been allowing consumer product reviews since the summer of 2008, and not all reviewers post laudatory five-star raves. “There was a lot of concern among the brand managers when we first started,” says Bert DuMars, vice president of E-business and Interactive Marketing at Newll Rubbermaid. “They said, ‘why are we posting negative reviews of my products?”
“We’ve studied this for years,” DuMars says. For one thing, he says, posting negative as well as positive reviews alleviates consumer concerns that a company may be moderating out the negative ones. “If you have 150 reviews and they’re all five stars, that product better be gold,” he adds. “The only way you can validate that you’re giving the user a honest experience is if they look at other products and see negative reviews even if you have one everybody just loves.”
Buyers look at both positive and negative reviews
But there is more to it than that. Potential buyers, DuMars notes, “Look at both positive and negative reviews.” Not only that, negative reviews can actually drive as many sales as positive ones as long as the product is not defective. Some buyers even find that they want the very features a negative reviewer didn’t like.
All in all, running those customer reviews “Changed the culture of the Rubbermaid brand team,” says DuMars.
“When we weren’t as focused on the digital space, we would do product launches and not know about negative word-of-mouth until it was too late and retailers were returning the product. Now we get feedback in a couple of weeks after shipping and if we find something negative we can save it. We change the packaging or the product, or if people didn’t know how to use it, we can reach out to them right away and turn it around.”
Bert DuMars joined Newell Rubbermaid, a global marketer of consumer and commercial products, in 2007 and is responsible for directing and coordinating E-Marketing, Ecommerce, Mobile Marketing and Social Media Marketing initiatives for Newell Rubbermaid’s externally-facing online efforts.
DuMars is also the originator of the Social Media Atlanta conference and the 2010 Association of Telecom Professionals (ATP) Enterprise Innovation Award winner.
A lot more depth to it
DuMars says he will discuss these and other matters as a participant in TechMedia’s Digital Summit at the Cobb Galleria in Atlanta May 16-17.
“There’s a lot more depth to it,” he says. I mentioned that even during our interview, he freely offered the kind of nitty-gritty down and dirty information the people who attend our digital conferences have said they prefer. He said the company freely shares much of its best practices information. “There’s no secret sauce there,” he says.
One of the great advantages of having a finger on the pulse of customer sentiment in the social space is “That you can spot what people are doing quickly,” he says. With major product launches, “Negative word of mouth can kill your product without you knowing it.” In the social space, “When you see someone making a comment, positive or negative, you respond to them quickly.”
It also provides a way to respond to a crisis – and there are a lot of crisis opportunities in product launches and customer reactions, he points out. Responding, he notes, “Is not easy whether you are a Toyota or any other brand.”
Newell Rubbermaid, in fact, had a problem with a baby stroller, and in response, “We had a video go viral. Watching it, you might think it was the most boring thing you ever saw. It told exactly what the problem with the strollers and how to fix it. Sometimes the boring thing solves the consumer’s pain point.”
The company has also seen success in setting up private communities for professionals such as teachers and nurses using its products, such as its smart white board (Dymo Mimio interactive teaching technology) for teachers. One science teacher began posting instructional videos in the community on his own that eventually led to his getting hired by the company to do it full time.
DuMars provides numerous specific examples of how the company uses social media creatively, such as syndicating customer reviews to retailer sites, and more than we can report in a blog post that doesn’t turn into a book. But you can hear more specifics, including the services Rubbermaid brand uses to facilitate its efforts, at the Digital Summit in May.
Tags: Atlanta, baby stollers, Bert DuMars, Digital Summit, how to handle negative customer reviews, Newell Rubbermaid, social media for business
Posted in Events, Georgia, Internet/New Media, IT, Marketing, social media | Comments Off
Friday, March 18th, 2011
 By Allan Maurer
RALEIGH, NC – As we predicted months ago, North Carolina’s General Assembly is once again attempting to corral the municipal broadband movement in the state. Various attempts to hamstring municipal broadband efforts in the state failed in previous sessions, despite powerful lobbying efforts by telecom and cable providers.
Currently, Wilson, Salisbury, Laurinburg, Morganton, Davidson, and Mooresville run municipal networks. One study shows that municipal networks are faster and cheaper than the commercial providers services.
This time, NC House Bill 129 would require municipal broadband providers to follow all the same state, federal, and local regulations as private firms and pay the same amount of taxes that a commercial company does. The commercial telecom and cable providers argue this is merely “leveling the field.”
The bill exempts cities that have already created municipal networks from some of the bill’s provisions and it would not apply in areas where half or more of the residents do not have access to commercial broadband service.
Wilson’s $28 million system has approximately 5,600 customers and an independent consultant has said both city and Time Warner Cable customers saved more than $1 million because of the competition, according to reports.
The previous bill aimed at hobbling municipal broadband efforts never made it out of the Finance Committee, which is considering the current bill. It faces debate in the state House and Senate if it gets out of committee this time.
TechJournal South is a TechMedia company. TechMedia presents the annual conferences:
SoutheastVentureConference: www.seventure.org
Internet Summit: www.internetsummit.com
Digital East: www.digitaleast.com
Digital Summit: www.digitalsummit.com
Tags: Davidson, House Bill 129, Laurinburg, Morganton, Morresville, Municipal broadband, NC General Assembly, Raleigh, Salisbury, Time Warner Cable, Wilson
Posted in Uncategorized | Comments Off
Friday, March 18th, 2011
 WASHINGTON, DC – Once again, the Internet is showing its ability to do some good. More than 200,000 LivingSocial users took the company up on an unusal daily deal it ran across its whole network of $5 for a $10 donation to to the American Red Cross’s Japan Earthquake & Pacific Tsunami fund.
Even before the deal ended the company’s users donated more than $1 million, which will result in a matching million from LivingSocial.
Users donated the first million in half a day and had another few hours to go Friday morning. The final figure donated is likely to be considerably more than that first million.
Another tech firm, G Data Software, which recently opened its US headquarters in Durham, NC, will be running a charity campaign for the earthquake victims in Japan from now to April 11th. During this time, $7 per sale of each G Data Software product will be donated to the Japanese Red Cross to aid in assisting the victims and repairing damage caused by the disaster. The complete sum will be transferred at the end of the campaign.
We’re currently running G Data’s Total Security software, a cloud-based system that updates hourly and has an excellent malware snagging record. We wrote about them here: German Antivirus pioneer opening US headquarters in Durham
From today to April 11th, part of the proceeds from each of the below products will be donated to the Japanese Red Cross:
o G Data AntiVirus
o G Data InternetSecurity
o G Data TotalSecurity
o G Data NotebookSecurity
See: www.gdata-software.com/earthquake-catastrophe-in-japan/ for more information on the G Data charity campaign.
See also: www.techjournalsouth.com/2011/03/tech-and-the-japan-quake-free-calls-donations-radiation-protection/
TechJournal South is a TechMedia company. TechMedia presents the annual conferences:
SoutheastVentureConference: www.seventure.org
Internet Summit: www.internetsummit.com
Digital East: www.digitaleast.com
Digital Summit: www.digitalsummit.com
Tags: American Red Cross’s Japan Earthquake & Pacific Tsunami fund, AT&T, free calls to Japan, G Data Software, LivingSocial matches donations to Japan fund, Sprint, tech firms aiding Japan relief, Verizon
Posted in Uncategorized | Comments Off
Friday, March 18th, 2011
 The mobile gaming phenomenon, Angry Birds, may catapult its maker, Rovio, to public company status in as little as a year, according to an interview board chair Kaj Hed gave Finnish business magazine Talouselama.
Hed told the magazine the game-maker wants to be as big as Facebook or Google.
The company recently landed $42 million in funding from Accel Partners, Atomico Ventures and Felicis Ventures for approximately 15 percent of the company on a valuation pegged at about $281 million, according to reports.
Angry Birds recently flew into the PC world and numerous other platforms.
We found the game addicting, as many other users have. It passes the time on a train ride or car commute, while waiting in lines, or just as an increasingly difficult challenge. We wrote about our own adventures with the game here: Kill the Pigs, Kill the Pigs, Angry Birds.
We wonder what else Rovio has in its game plans. It’s probably a mistake to rely too much on one game, popular or not. Pac Man was a phenominal success too, but when was the last time you saw anyone play that?
Rovio’s finances were ok, but not stupendously impressive if reports are correct. The company made $7 million in revenue for a profit of $4.2 million from July to December.
–Allan Maurer
TechJournal South is a TechMedia company. TechMedia presents the annual conferences:
SoutheastVentureConference: www.seventure.org
Internet Summit: www.internetsummit.com
Digital East: www.digitaleast.com
Digital Summit: www.digitalsummit.com
Tags: Angry Birds, facebook, Google, IPOs, mobile games, Rovio
Posted in Angry Birds, Facebook, Internet/New Media, mobile games, smartphones | Comments Off
Friday, March 18th, 2011
 ATLANTA – New consumer research shows that electric utility customers will monitor their energy usage more frequently in the coming smart grid era, industry research firm Chartwell Inc. reports.
A recently completed survey of more than 1,500 energy customers found that a clear majority – over 70% — monitor their energy usage on a monthly basis.
Smart grids and other tools that will allows for even closer monitoring of energy use are either already in place or rapidly coming down the pike.
When asked how they would like to monitor their energy usage in the future, far fewer answered monthly, while the number of consumers who would like to see weekly or daily energy usage jumped significantly from those who reported they currently view their energy data in those intervals.
“It’s clear through our research that electric utility customers in the U.S. and Canada will definitely look to monitor their energy usage more frequently when the technology is available, but they don’t see the need to view it in 15-minute or hourly increments,” says Scott Johnson, Sr. Research Analyst with Chartwell.
“We have found that utilities will have to do a lot in the way of educating consumers on the value of this data as well as put other incentives on the table, most notably money.”
Chartwell has conducted 3,000-plus consumer surveys and several focus groups since last year for its Smart Grid Customer Engagement Council, a utility-only group facilitated by Chartwell that looks at customer engagement issues and directs Chartwell researchers.
The Council is examining how customers prefer to monitor energy usage and the channels in which they would rather get that information, from paper statements to in-home displays to smart phones and apps.
TechJournal South is a TechMedia company. TechMedia presents the annual conferences:
SoutheastVentureConference: www.seventure.org
Internet Summit: www.internetsummit.com
Digital East: www.digitaleast.com
Digital Summit: www.digitalsummit.com
Tags: Atlanta, Chartwell, energy monitoring, Report, smart grid
Posted in Energy, Georgia | Comments Off
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