Seattle top time-saving city

Monday, Mar 15 2010 |

According to RealSimple magazine, Seattle is the nations "top time-saving city"...

With extensive public transit, one of the country's most on-time airports, and 50 miles of new bike lanes in the last two years, our winning city, Seattle, is an icon of urban efficiency. It has more Wi-Fi hot spots and more coffee shops (no shocker there) than any other U.S. city and impressively short waits for a doctor's appointment.

It says we're "an icon of urban efficiency" so it must be true. But thanks to Daylight Savings, I'm not feeling particularly efficient at the moment... perhaps I need to avail myself of one of the plethora of coffee shops.

Be sure to check out the other 19 cities on the list.

-posted by Paul

Tacoma techies come together

Monday, Mar 15 2010 |

Who said technology in the Puget Sound is just limited to Seattle and the Eastside? Recently, I attended the first annual SHIFT awards celebration, which honored South Sound companies that have shown technology innovation. Now it wasn't just a couple start-ups that were up for the award, Intel and MorphoTrak, both billion dollar companies with local offices were nominees. VOXUS client Internet Identity, an Internet security company that's been around since 1996, ended up taking home some hardware along with biometric ID company MorphoTrak, hotel Hotel Murano and building engineers BCRA. From my guesstimate, I'd say about 120 plus people attended the ceremony at Tacoma's Theater on the Square. All four companies who won a SHIFT award (which let's call a SHIFTy) got a chance to tell their company's innovation stories at the event. Pretty interesting stuff, but of course I'm partial to Internet Identity's story (see BAD cell phone picture of company CEO Lars Harvey below). The hometown company has grown by 800-percent since 2001 to secure and defend some of the biggest companies in the world. Not bad for little T-Town. Here's to more Tacoma techies in the years ahead!

-posted by Andrew

Lars Harvey SHIFT

$300 Million Solar Plant Comes to Cle Elum, WA

Friday, Aug 21 2009 |

There is a lot of nothing...er beautiful wilderness in the logging city of Cle Elum, Washington. Apparently the city's abundance of open space and unusually high volume of sun has made it the perfect spot for a 75 megawatt, $300 million photovoltaic solar plant. According to a story in TechFlash, developers are one step closer to building this massive plant, which will be one of the world's largest -- spanning 400 acres! The plant will bring power to nearly 50,000 households, create dozens of jobs and give the quaint, Leave it to Beaver-type city a modern technology tourist attraction. It's too early to tell if this site will detract from the number of visitors that head to the world's largest frying pan located in Long Beach, WA.

unknown

-posted by Lindsay

Geek by day, rockstar by night

Friday, Jul 31 2009 |

WTIA broke the networking event monotony with a text-voted music competition at Seattle's Pyramid Brewery last night. The event featured five tech bands from a mix of genres. The Linkin Park-like Lions Ambition ruled the jungle with Audience Choice and Most Innovative Awards. These guys from Boeing did a great job of entertaining the crowd.

Lions Ambition

unknown

-posted by Lindsay

Ping Pong, PR, beer and technology

Friday, Jul 24 2009 |

So if the title didn't capture your attention, check out this video taken from last night's TechFlash Summer Event attended by yours truly (check me out at :48 in). The summer schmoozer was held at Seattle's Georgetown Ballroom and included a four hour ping pong tournament, bar consisting of beer and wine, some great catered barbeque, and hundreds of people from the Seattle tech community. Great event held by TechFlash. Look forward to the next one!

TechFlash Ping Pong-4

-posted by Andrew

Cats and LOL

Wednesday, May 06 2009 |

Finally getting around to posting pics from last week’s TechFlash Live, TechFlash's quarterly meet-up, at Seattle's Palace Ballroom. It was a great evening of drinks, food and networking.

The highlight of the night was an on-stage interview between TechFlash's John Cook and Ben Huh of I Can Haz Cheezburger. Who knew someone could grow a company based on cats and LOL speak? According to Technorati, I Can Haz Cheezburger is the 10th most popular blog on the Internet with over 10 million page views a week. For those of you are not in the "know", I Can Haz Cheezburger is a repository for LOLcat images. Ben says he just wants to spread some smiles. While humor is one of the motivators, the money can't be a bad thing with I Can Haz Cheezburger being profitable from day one according to Huh through mainly advertising money.

Besides all of the LOLcat talk, the night was a great chance to meet up with old industry friends and make new acquaintances. Here are some pictures I took at the event.

John Cook, TechFlash, On Stage

Keep on LOL'ing. Ben Huh wants you to.

-posted by Andrew

Suds allowed at Microsoft

Monday, Apr 20 2009 |

Following up on a VOXUS blog post from last week, Microsoft has reversed a decision to not allow a bar to to open on Microsoft's Redmond, Washington Campus. Read the TechFlash article here. Under the compromise plan, the Spitfire pub will serve beer and wine in the afternoons and evenings, after 3 p.m., but it will be open during those hours only for scheduled gatherings and catered events. I have a feeling, this beer battle is not over yet.

-posted by Andrew

UW hosts PocketMedia Film Festival

Monday, Apr 20 2009 |

The Master of Communication in Digital Media program at the University of Washington is sponsoring the first PocketMedia Film Festival, open to all UW faculty, staff, students and alumni. The program is currently accepting video submissions based around the theme "What do you do at the UW?" as long as the video is recorded on a pocket-sized device, like a mobile phone. Submissions are due by May 13, 2009.

pocketmedia

-posted by Shawnna

Beer backlash at Microsoft

Tuesday, Apr 14 2009 |

Who knew beer could raise such a ruckus? Microsoft just did a 180 on a proposed campus pub and that's caused a beer backlash which has seeped into the company's overall image arguably just as much if not more than some of the company's storied and not so storied products.

According to TechFlash, Microsoft put the kibosh on the Spitfire Grill opening a pub at Microsoft's new West Campus Commons area just three days before the bar was supposed to open. Spitfire is owned by Jonathan Sposata, a former Microsoft employee and owner of Seattle area startup Picnik. He tells TechFlash he was stunned by the decision and that he was given no explanation for the stoppage. Microsoft spokesperson Lou Gellos is quoted as saying, "The goal was always to create a cool gathering place for employees, but to do so in a manner that’s consistent with a business environment. We took a second look at that, and we were sensitive to the business environment. We decided we should do something more appropriate, and that meant not having a pub."

The original TechFlash article has garnered some of the most comments I've ever seen on a TechFlash comment board and now a follow-up by TechFlash is documenting the backlash which includes a Facebook group called "Bring Spitfire Back To Microsoft" which already has hundreds of members. Senior Xbox manager, Matt Patriot Gradwohl, formed the group and says on the page, "I am embarrassed to work at Microsoft sometimes."

Who knows what's next with Microsoft's brew ha-ha? One things for certain, this beer battle is far from over.

simpsons

-posted by Andrew

Yahtzee, I used Yapta!

Thursday, Apr 02 2009 |

Attention: you are about to enter the product plug zone...

Recently, I booked a plane flight for a long weekend vacation in Las Vegas. In fact, I've booked numerous flights as of late for what seems like a never-ending Spring/Summer of traveling (mostly for weddings). That's when a friend mentioned that I check out a site called Yapta (Your Amazing Personal Travel Assistant) to ensure the price I paid on flights didn't go lower... and if it did I'd receive an airline credit.

yapta

Now, I have to admit, I came across Seattle-based Yapta after recently reading an article in TechFlash, but the sites true uniqueness didn't quite hit me then. When my friend recommended the site to me, I thought "what they hey." Here's how it works, you provide your confirmation number for a flight and Yapta does the rest by constantly checking the flight for lower fares. If one pops up, Yapta emails you right away. From there, you can either call the airline yourself (Yapta includes step-by-step directions) or Yapta can collect the credit for you for a $15 fee.

What do you know, about a day after registering my Vegas flight, I got an email alerting me to a $75 fare drop and instantly called the airline and received a $75 credit. When I woke up today, about 12 hours after receiving the first credit, I found another email on my phone from Yapta. You guessed it... I got another credit for the Vegas flight... this time for $25. Total money saved (or you could say earned) with Yapta, 100 bucks. What an amazing service and to my knowledge I haven't gotten an influx of spam which is a bonus.

Oh... and Yapta recently launched a similar service for hotels.

Yahtzee... I got Yapta'd twice!

leap

-posted by Andrew

Holy Shacow, cow, that's a lot of dough

Friday, Mar 27 2009 |

According to Xconomy, Pathway Medical has scored $40 million as part of a venture funding round that the Kirkland medical device maker hopes to finalize at $55 million. It follows a $24.5 million round that closed last April with participation from HLM Venture Partners, Oxford Bioscience Partners, Forbion Capital Partners, Giza Venture Capital and others. This is the state's largest VC deal of 2009.

Earlier this week, the company received FDA clearance to begin marketing its Jetstream G2 technology for the specific use of breaking apart and removing blood clots in peripheral arteries in the arms and legs.

scarface

-posted by Justin

WTIA winners

Thursday, Mar 26 2009 |

Drumroll, please. And the WTIA Industry Achievement Award Goes to...

Some of Seattle's hottest tech companies took home top honors at the WTIA Industry Achievement Awards last night. Our friends at AdReady (www.adready.com), a company that helps advertisers and publishers of all sizes launch and manage display advertising campaigns, took home Service Provider of they Year. Congrats! Click here for a list of all the lucky winners:

John Cook at TechFlash again offered up his predictions before the night commenced. This year he hit 50 percent correct (a big improvement over last year!).

wtia_homepage_logo

-posted by Lindsay

Seattle's Pet Holdings' success

Tuesday, Mar 24 2009 |

Seattle's Pet Holdings is skyrocketing! According to a recent TechFlash article, the company's comedy sites currently get more than five million page views a day. The company's multiple sites include I Can Has Cheezburger, I Has A Hotdog and Engrish to name a few, and aims to exceed two billion page views this year. Quite a success if you ask me!

funny-pictures-kitten-climbs-the-ladder-of-success1

funny-pictures-kitten-climbs-the-ladder-of-success1

-posted by Shawnna

Keyboard cleaning without lifting a finger

Tuesday, Mar 17 2009 |

Ever ate lunch at your desk, hunched over your keyboard thinking, "this keyboard is probably absolutely disgusting." Like the commercial goes, "I've been there." Now Seattle area startup Vioguard LLC is touting a way to clean keyboards without any manual labor. After use the Vioguard keyboard automatically retracts into an enclosed monitor stand to be bathed in germicidal ultraviolet light that supposedly gives the keyboard a good germ scrub-down.

From the pictures I've seen, the keyboard resembles a very "old school" type flat keyboard with a large encasing, but this isn't an aesthetic play, but very practical since it needs to be designed to roll into the hardware casing that bathes the hardware in the ultraviolet light. Vioguard hasn’t finalized pricing, but it’s anticipating an initial range between $499 and $599 per keyboard and plans on targeting the healthcare industry at first. However, the company expects the price to decline and that its will target more vertical markets over time.

Want to read more on how ultraviolet light kills germs and see a video demo? Check out TechFlash's blog entry.

-posted by Andrew

Is YouNoodle using its noodle?

Thursday, Feb 19 2009 |

YouNoodle just released its list of the "healthiest startups" for the whole world to see -- otherwise known as YouNoodle Scores. Itself a startup, YouNoodle created the scoring system that rates startups on their "impact and importance", based in part on the number of news stories, blog posts and comments about a company that are posted on the Web at any given time. The score is on a scale of 0 to 100 with 100 being the highest and is continually updated and driven by data garnered from partners including CrunchBase and AngelSoft -- along with data from YouNoodle's own community.

You may remember YouNoodle from last year when it launched its Startup Predictor. The predictor uses an algorithm that crunches startup data to determine the potential success or failure of a company.

Back to YouNoodle Scores, Tech Crunch's John Cook recently took it for a test drive and found Seattle companies apparently aren't much to take notice of. Here's a sampling of how some other "top" startups are faring:

   * Facebook: 98
   * LinkedIn: 96
   * Hulu: 96
   * Etsy: 92
   * Twitter: 91
   * Yelp: 88
   * OpenDNS: 87
   * Mahalo: 83
   * Kayak: 80
   * Blip.tv: 79

Interesting concept but not sure how the numbers really stack up. Is YouNoodle using its noodle?

noodle

-posted by Andrew

DEMO remodeling

Thursday, Feb 19 2009 |

After 13 years at the helm, Chris Shipley is stepping down as the head of DEMO, one of the best-known launchpads for new technology products and companies. After DEMO's fall conference, Chris is passing the torch to Matt Marshall, the founder of VentureBeat. During her tenure, Chris helped propel about 1,500 products to market -- and that's what she'll now fully concentrate on. Her company, Guidewire Group, is an industry analyst consortium focused on working with technology companies during the critical transition points in their businesses to identify opportunity, define strategy, and accelerate the path to success. We've had a number of clients participate in DEMO in the past...we'll miss Chris and wish her much success going forward.

-posted by Rachel

People power Twestival

Friday, Feb 13 2009 |

Ever wonder whether online friends get to make a connection in the real world? Well, Twitter users did last night in cities around the world. The event's called Twestival and I attended the Seattle Twestival in they city's Belltown neighborhood.

Some background, Twestival gets its name from Twitter, the social networking site which enables people to connect and communicate with others through micro-blogging (140 characters or less). Twestival was the brainchild of a group of London "Twitters" who met up in September for drinks and to raise money for a local soup kitchen. The turnout was huge, so they decided to organize another version on a larger scale. In January, they released their idea into the Twitter-verse and within a week, they claimed to have people willing to organize events in more than 100 cities.

According to Twestival's organizing body, about 185 cities worldwide planned to Celebrate Twitter last night and raise funds for Charity:water, a non-profit dedicated to ensuring people in developing countries have access to clean water. All proceeds from the events worldwide were supposed to go to Charity:water and the goal was to raise $1 million (no word yet if that was accomplished). Words couldn't quite grasp the worldliness of the events, so Seattle 2.0 streamed live video from Seattle and Live Earth helped stream video from Twestivals across the world.

Twestival was a great way to get face-to-face with people you might not ordinarily meet up with. Not only was it a great social event, but these gatherings are extra special because they're meant to generate interest/money for great causes. Get ready for more Twestivals, Facebook Meetups, etc... The times they are a changing, but no matter what face-to-face gatherings are still here to stay.

pastedGraphic

-posted by Andrew

Free beer!

Thursday, Feb 05 2009 |

Studies have shown that free beer is a great incentive...so nPost is right in line with this thinking for its next networking event. Seattle area tech startups are invited to attend a gathering on Tuesday, March 31 at 6 p.m. at the Columbia City Theater. The first 100 attendees get beer tickets. So far, looks like a good lineup of folks from area startups such as iLike, TuneyFish, Whrrl and Yodio.

-posted by Rachel

Puget Sound Tech Map – connect the dots

Wednesday, Jan 28 2009 |

Oh-ver-whelm'd! That's what come to mind when looking at the new Puget Sound Tech Universe Map create by the WTIA. But, dig a little deeper and it's a treasure chest of information and history. Heck, I located Action Engine, which lead me to current client Perlego System, all under the Microsoft cluster. Where do you fit in?

Check out the entire map in detail here:
https://www.washingtontechnology.org/pages/resources/resources_publications_techposter.asp

tech_poster_600px

-posted by Justin

Whatever I want, apparently FriendlyFavor can deliver...

Thursday, Jan 22 2009 |

Seattle-based FriendlyFavor launched its beta site this week, and the company is attempting to deliver just what its name implies. If you're so tied to the Internet that you'd use it to find a last minute babysitter, get recommendations for a hotel in another city, or find a new home for grandma's old feather bed, FriendlyFavor might be just the site for you. As a member of this social network, you can ask for something, offer something or just start racking up favors to your account. According to its founders (Scott Larson and John Patton), FriendlyFavor is intended to be more efficient than email for reaching out to a trusted network, known as your "peeps."

So now I can use Twitter to tweet and FF to send out cheeps to my peeps.

-posted by Rachel

I'm a little eggsprout, short and stout...

Thursday, Jan 15 2009 |

For those of you looking for a tech-related job in Seattle, there's a new resource on the scene. Eggsprout debuted earlier this month with the mission of helping everyone land a job that they love (pretty ambitious!). But what's most impressive is the fact that the founding team members, while ex-Zillowites, are barely out of college -- Brian Ma, Hsu Han Ooi, Ian Ma, Austin Carol and Hsu Ken Ooi all look like they could be in a boy band. Currently, the site features jobs at Grapevyn, Tableau Software, Google and Microsoft.

-posted by Rachel

Looking for a job?

Tuesday, Jan 06 2009 |

The Northwest Entrepreneur Network is looking for a new executive director. The current leader, Peter Quinn, is leaving at the end of January to join the Northwest Maritime Institute in Port Townsend. So if you've got skills in strategic planning, community relations and volunteer coordination, you might want to take a look here. The deadline for applications is January 12.

-posted by Rachel

I'll bite - what's Podcurry?

Wednesday, Dec 03 2008 |

Six finalists from across the Pacific Northwest will showcase their startups at the annual MIT Venture Lab Startup DEMO on Thursday, December 4. Competitors include Array Health, Alerts.com, DisplayWare, e*swing golf, Fuel Vapor Technologies and Podcurry. Curious about Podcurry? Turns out, it's an online service that lets you create custom news shows so that you only listen to the news you truly care about. It's the brainchild of former Microsoftie Nikhil George,

You can learn more about Startup DEMO here.

-posted by Rachel

Vote local tech!

Wednesday, Dec 03 2008 |

Mashable's 2nd Annual Open Web Awards is the only multilingual international online voting competition covering major innovations in web technology. The Seattle startup community is well represented -- with just a quick look, I picked out Wetpaint and Avvo – there may be others. So go to the site before December 15 and vote local!

-posted by Rachel

Panicware goes M.I.A.

Friday, Nov 07 2008 |

One of the companies that I've followed for years, Panicware, is now missing in action. The company, which offered a really nifty pop-up stopper for your Internet browser, no longer has a website and searchers are directed to a blog. It actually looks like founder Matina Fresenius is heading into uncharted waters with a line of Panicware kids clothing. You can check it out at www.panicware.com.

-posted by Rachel

Divvy-doo-dah

Friday, Nov 07 2008 |

New Seattle-based startup Divvy went live with a site that helps members rent whatever they'd like to whomever they'd like through the creation of private websites linked to calendars and PayPal. Founders Aaron Freed and Brandon DeCuir have created an online portal where you can "divvy" up a condo or where a church might rent out its facilities for weddings -- all through personal webpages. Regardless, it's the latest entry into the very active startup market here...this despite a slowing economy.

-posted by Rachel

Forget voting for the Democrats or Republicans...vote for us!

Wednesday, Oct 15 2008 |

We're in the home stretch of the Mobile Village Mobile Star Awards(tm) competition...but there's still time for you to cast a ballot. VOXUS is a nominee in the Best Wireless & Mobile Technology PR Firm category; VOXUS clients Nextrials, CipherLab, Perlego and AirMagnet are also nominees in various categories. So exercise your right to vote -- for us! Go here to read more. Voting closes October 20.

-posted by Rachel

2008MobileStarAwards_Nominee

Goodbye, Action Engine -- Hello, MobUI

Wednesday, Oct 15 2008 |

I was sorry to read that one of my former clients, after an almost meltdown in August, is now officially R.I.P. Action Engine was sold to MobUI, a Redmond-based startup that coincidentally was founded by two ex-Action Engineers, John Burry and Brandon Albers (ably assisted by former marketing director Anne Baker, who formed her own firm post-AE). I'd think that no one would know the value of Action Engine's technology better than former teammates. Best wishes.

-posted by Rachel

Seattle Startups Index grows up

Wednesday, Oct 15 2008 |

Congrats to Marcelo Calbucci of Sampa -- he's been compiling an index of Seattle startups for more than a year that ranked them according to search engine statistics. Beginning this week, he's moved the project to www.seattle20.com and added aggregator feeds from other startup blogs in the Seattle area. He has also added original content from contributors such as Alyssa Royse, Matt Hulett, Rebecca Lovell, Danielle Morrill and Keven Leneway, creating a new digital resource for Northwest-based entrepreneurs.

-posted by Rachel

Lilipip changes business model

Friday, Oct 03 2008 |

One of my favorite Seattle-based startups, Lilipip, is proactively restructuring its business model as a result of slower-than-expected growth. Instead of producing YouTube-like animated shorts for kids to view on mobile devices, the company has changed its name to Lilipip Studios and is now producing animated stories for companies and their products. Too bad, in a way -- I loved the concept of short films that toddlers could watch on mom's cell phone when the going got tough.

Lilipip's first customer under its new business model is another Seattle-based startup, Others Online. You can see the short flim clip on the company's landing page.

-posted by Rachel

No more Google anonymity

Friday, Oct 03 2008 |

Who'd have thought that I'd look back and sigh about the Google good old days? Like when I could search for Old Boyfriend in complete anonymity and then laugh hysterically when I found out that he crashed and burned during the dot-com bust and is now wanted in 30 of the 50 states. Yes, folks, you can kiss your stalking abilities goodbye, now that Ziggs has launched. Although the site is really meant to help you control your personal brand, it has the odd side ability to notify you of anyone who has Googled your name...and to tell you who that person is. Yikes. I just hope Old Boyfriend isn't a member yet.

-posted by Rachel

Upcoming piglets

Thursday, Sep 11 2008 |

Did you know that the pig in Seattle's Pike Place is named Rachel? Just a weird coincidence, I'm sure...anyway, there's a new blog in town for those of us interested in the Seattle tech scene. Meet at the Pig is a really fun compendium of events that will appeal to your inner geek. And, if you're interested, the site is looking for new writers; drop Justin Martenstein a line via the online contact form. Upcoming piglets (events) include the Seattle Blogger Meetup on September 24 and Seattle Startup Drinks on September 26.

-posted by Rachel

Technology chicks unite!

Wednesday, Aug 20 2008 |

Seattle Webgrrls is resurrecting -- the next meeting is Thursday, September 4 at 6:30 p.m. This is an interesting organization dedicated to empowering women through the use of technology in personal and professional lives. Visit the site for further details and RSVP information.

-posted by Rachel

Bye Bye, Pure Networks

Tuesday, Jul 29 2008 |

Our friends at Pure Networks have a new boss: Cisco Systems acquired the company for $120 million. It's actually a pretty good marriage -- Pure Networks has a great little product in Network Magic, a software that makes it easy for consumers to set up home networks. And the company was already a partner with Linksys, a router supplier that Cisco previously acquired.

-posted by Rachel

Why ask Y? Because Y Combinator wants a startup

Tuesday, Jul 29 2008 |

Y Combinator, that quirky VC firm that brought us local startups such as JamGlue and RescueTime, is now accepting applications for the winter 2009 funding cycle. Deadline is October 17 at 10:00 p.m. PST. These VCs even have a shortlist of the types of problems they'd like to see solved (talk about being proactive!). If you've got a cure for some of the following, you need to set up a company pronto:
- simplified web browsing tied to social strata/interests
- Internet dating
- any potential competitor to Microsoft desktop software (Microsoft must be really happy about this)
- online learning applications
- off-the-shelf home security

There are other ideas that are even grander, such as solving the declining readership problem newspapers are facing through competition from Internet-based news sources.

-posted by Rachel

Imagekind gets (erased) acquired

Tuesday, Jul 08 2008 |

Our friends at Seattle-based Imagekind have a new boss...the online art store has been acquired by CafePress for close to $20 million.

-posted by Rachel

Seattle does the (Summer) Mash

Tuesday, Jul 08 2008 |

Mashable, one of the more entertaining news sites on social networking, is kicking off its SummerMash Tour in Seattle on July 12. It looks to be one of the events of the season! The party gets started at the Showbox SoDo at 7 p.m. Tickets begin at $14, and you can find out more here.

-posted by Rachel

Guns N' Roses Guitarist Advises Melodeo

Thursday, Jun 19 2008 |

As a friend of Melodeo, and someone that came of age in the 80s, today's news that Guns N' Roses guitarist Duff McKagen joined Melodeo's advisory board caught my eye. So now, besides humming Sweet Child O' Mine, I'm wondering what Melodeo has been up to - they've been kinda quiet this past year after receiving new funding. Well....it looks like they've launched a service called nuTsie that lets you move around your iTunes library from your PC to mobile, including blackberry. The cool part is that you access your tunes from your blackberry but don't actually load the files to the device. The service has received some great blog reviews and if it's really as easy as it sounds, me and my berry are going to be stoked.

[Wait, we have someone that works here that doesn't have an iphone? I'll have to look into this... -paul]

-posted by Adrienne

A new blog covering Seattle tech

Thursday, Jun 19 2008 |

There's a new tech blog in town, according to the Puget Sound Business Journal...

Xconomy.com, a blog devoted to economic issues related to technology, said it's launched its second national site in Seattle. Launched in Boston last year, Xconomy said it's hired several journalists in the Seattle area to cover the area's technology industry. The company said it raised an undisclosed amount of funding in a Series A round of financing last year. Xconomy officials said they've received support from Alexandria Real Estate Equities of Pasadena, Calif., Polaris Venture Partners of Waltham, Mass., the Science & Technology Directorate of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, the Washington Biotechnology & Biomedical Association, the Washington Technology Industry Association, and the Technology Alliance.

-posted by Adrienne

TrenchMice zapped; Glassdoor opens

Thursday, Jun 19 2008 |

California-based Glassdoor debuted this week with essentially the same business model as Seattle-based TrenchMice, which closed up shop the end of April. It's a career community where anyone can find and share (anonymously) insider looks at companies. Glassdoor boasts executives from companies such as Zillow, Expedia and TripAdvisor, and its "sneak peek" companies include Cisco, Google, Microsoft and Yahoo! But since TrenchMice closed because it plateaued in traffic, it'll be interesting to see how Glassdoor overcomes that problem.

-posted by Rachel

Keep It Visual Stupid

Tuesday, Jun 10 2008 |

It takes more than just words to tell a story and VOXUS friend Bellamy Pailthorp, at Seattle NPR affiliate KPLU, has brought a certain event to my attention. Bellamy and a number of other prominent journalists will be taking part in the annual Bellingham Visual Journalism Conference July 18-20 at Western Washington University in Bellingham, WA. If you’re up for learning about and discussing visual journalism in a beautiful setting, you should check it out.

-posted by Andrew

Want To Look Like A Star? Click Here

Tuesday, May 20 2008 |

I have some friends who are addicted to keeping tabs on stars like I’m addicted to watching the weather on the local news (yes, I’m a geek). So, it’s no surprise to me that a Web site recently launched showing what celebrities are wearing and even goes so far to show how you can get your hands on those products. For example below, you can see Paris Hilton spotted wearing Ray-Ban Wayfarer sunglasses. The site’s called Coolspotters. You can read their launch press release here. It looks like the way they’ll make money is through click-throughs of basic advertising from the products the trendsetters are wearing on the site or related advertising. The company is an arm of Fantzer, Inc. which is funded by Seattle VC firms Second Avenue Partners and Curious Office Partners. A couple thoughts that I have with this… will the celebs now demand they get endorsements dollars for literally everything they wear and are we really that materialistic?

-posted by Andrew

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Online alcohol, condoms and...diapers

Wednesday, Apr 30 2008 |

So I just got back from Key West, where life is definitely on the wacky side, only to find that the Seattle startup community might be trying to emulate that light-heartedness (or just downright craziness). Drumroll, please...in my absence, Seattle welcomed i-booze.com, the brainchild of California escapee Karim Varela. Still in beta, i-booze provides instant gratification for those of you too busy (or too lazy) to leave home to buy an amazing array of -- how shall I put this? -- disparate products that I never thought I'd see on the same shopping list. The catalog includes "Baby Stuff" (diapers, etc.), "Drinking" (including a category for chick drinks), and "Sex Utilities" (you know what I mean) alongside more mundane items such as bongs and nitrous oxide. After I stopped laughing, I wondered if maybe i-booze.com is the poster child of marketing genius, as I bet I'm not the last one to write about it.

-posted by Rachel

Tukwila Borders Goes Digital

Wednesday, Apr 30 2008 |

I was surprised to read that Borders has selected Tukwila (really?) as one of the sites for its 14 digital media concept stores. While I don't get to Tukwila often I just might have to go check this out. The new stores, according to USA Today, include digital centers for downloading music and books, burning CDs, ordering photo albums etc.

Like (most) everyone, I love being around books and I love wandering through the aisles of a book store. Adding digital centers is a powerful way to monetize this advantage that physical stores have over their online competitors. Hey Borders, can you light up the Gig Harbor store next?

-posted by Adrienne

A Second Chance At Sight

Wednesday, Apr 30 2008 |

In what could be a major milestone for gene therapy, for the first time, researchers have used gene therapy to improve vision in blind patients.

Homegrown (for VOXUS) Seattle’s Targeted Genetics conducted part of the study of six patients with an extremely rare form of blindness called Leber's Congenital Amaurosis. According to the study which appears in the New England Journal of Medicine, four of the six people who received gene therapy had some vision restored. If this test is successful on a larger scale, researchers say it could help people with more common types of blindness. Macular degeneration, the leading cause of blindness for those under 20 years old in the United States, affects 1.25 million Americans; the number is expected to grow to 3 million by 2020 as the population continues to age.

Gene therapy involves replacing defective genes with normal versions. The research marks a major milestone for gene therapy, a discipline many scientists find promising but so far has failed to produce a marketable product in the U.S.

-posted by Andrew

Verdiem gets more cash

Wednesday, Apr 30 2008 |

It seems like it wasn't that long ago when Seattle was getting slammed for its lack of green tech innovators, so it's nice to see Verdiem continue to make progress. According to PSBJ they've raised an additional $12M bringing total funding to $27M. Verdiem makes software that turns off computers when they are not in use, thereby lowering power consumption. At savings of $20-$60 annually per PC it's obviously a large enterprise play, and they've got some great customers to tout such as the state of Washington, Clear Channel Communications, and Turner Broadcasting. We're a small shop so we'll likely continue our power sucking ways, but we look forward to watching this company grow.

-posted by Adrienne

Northwest companies are red herrings

Wednesday, Apr 23 2008 |

Our friends at Yapta and Strangeloop Networks made the first cut in this year's Red Herring Top Tech Startups in North America. So did Jott Networks, NanoString Technologies and Teradici Corporation. We'd say this is yet another indication that the Pacific Northwest startup community is thriving. You can see the entire list here.

-posted by Rachel

A place for (grand)mom

Wednesday, Apr 23 2008 |

Seattle-based A Place For Mom has made its debut. The company offers the nation's largest referral service for senior care options. Since I just went through the process of finding a place to live for my fabulous and spunky grandma, this site appealed to me (and because in addition to spunky, my grandma is fickle, hence we're still scouting other options). I did a quick search - the site is easy to navigate and packed full of info.

Backed by Battery Ventures, the company's CEO John Temple was named to the Puget Sound Business Journal’s 2007 40 under 40 list. The company has also received several awards for its growth, including the Inc. 5000 and Entrepreneur Magazine Hot 500.

-posted by Adrienne

Lockdown locks up

Tuesday, Mar 25 2008 |

Seattle-based Lockdown Networks has closed its doors...but the story lives on in comments to a blog posting by the Seattle P-I's John Cook. It's pretty enlightening reading about the eternal push/pull between marketing and product design.

-posted by Rachel

New Tech Makes Recovering Stolen Mobile Devices Simple

Tuesday, Mar 25 2008 |

These days, almost everyone has a mobile device, laptop or MP3 player. And we all know, these device aren't cheap. In the back of our minds we're always worried about them being stolen or lost. I'm willing to bet this has already happened to a large portion of users -- it's happened to me! Well, you can worry a little bit less now. There's a great new technology from our friends down in Portland, OR -- Gadget Trak. Gadget Trak has designed a new software that sits on your device and if stolen or lost, it basically reports back home.

Here's how it works, in general. You lose or have your device stolen. The next person to use the device activates the software, which then reports back to an email address (specified by you). It provides a variety of information -- where the device is (IP address, network, etc.), it takes a picture using the device phone (if you have a camera), forwards new number information if it's a phone, etc.. It can even render the device useless by locking it down if you so choose. There are obviously a variety of different flavors available and each one has slightly different features. But all in all, a very cool and inexpensive solution (starts around $20). You can then take the information to the police, and BAM, order in SWAT.

The company has been getting good traction. They been featured on MacWorld TV, FOX News, Dateline NBC -- and in Wired, NewsWeek, MSNBC and more. They're available on the MacStore, company web site and a variety of other places. They're even being bundled with Packard Bell computers.

-posted by Justin

Calling all women entrepreneurs in Seattle...

Wednesday, Mar 19 2008 |

Ksenia Oustiougova, CEO of Lilipip has co-founded a new website that seeks to support women entrepreneurs in the Seattle area. Go take a look at PregnantWithStartup.com.

-posted by Rachel

Sagem snags Florida contract with RapidID

Wednesday, Mar 19 2008 |

With VOXUS client IdentiPHI in the biometrics-based security business, we thought it was pretty interesting to read how another local company is utilizing biometrics to make living in Florida a little safer for its residents. Sagem Morpho, with US headquarters in Tacoma, announced the deployment of its Rapid ID System throughout the Florida Department of Law Enforcement. Mandated by the Jessica Lundsford Act (the young girl kidnapped and killed by a sexual predator), this system enables a police or parole officer on the street or in a remote location to use a small portable device to scan and send digital fingerprints through a closed network. Within seconds, the image is matched to a database of sex offenders, probationers and individuals with criminal records in Florida -- allowing safety personnel to more quickly apprehend wanted criiminals. Sounds nifty -- and maybe something we should consider in Washington.

-posted by Rachel

Blogging, Seattle Style

Thursday, Feb 28 2008 |

Marcelo Calbucci at Sampa recently listed his picks for the most influential entrepreneur/bloggers in Seattle -- and for the most part, we'd agree with his selections (but maybe not their rankings). His list includes folks like Kevin Merritt at blist, who recently wrote about his startup's process in entering and preparing for a launch at DEMO, the "60 Minutes" man of fame Glenn Kelman at Redfin and entrepreneur/investor Kelly Smith at Curious Office. We also like the blog at Wetpaint, which didn't make the list this time. It'll be interesting to see how the rankings change, as Marcelo plans to issue another list in the future.

-posted by Rachel

Imperium Renewables claims first biofuel flight

Thursday, Feb 28 2008 |

On Feb. 24, coconut and babassu oil biofuel from Seattle-based Imperium Renewables powered a Virgin Atlantic Boeing 747 from London Heathrow to Amsterdam, making Virgin the first airline in the world to fly on renewable fuel. According to the press release no modifications were made to either the aircraft or its engines to enable the flight to take place. And, Boeing will use the findings in another demonstration flight later this year. In case you're wondering, like me, what babassu is, it's a palm which grows in the Amazon region of South America. The oil is increasingly being used as a substitute for coconut oil.

-posted by Adrienne

Trupanion raises $22M...meow!

Thursday, Feb 28 2008 |

According to the PSBJ, Lynwood-based Trupanion has raised $22M in financing from Maveron LLC. Trupanion sells pet insurance and has had a strong presence in Canada since 2000, primarily targeting veterinarians as its channel. Trupanion is now targeting "pet parents" here in the US. They must be onto something with backing from Maveron (leading consumer brand VC behind Starbucks and eBay) and Renaissance RE (a $4 billion dollar insurance company).

-posted by Adrienne

I love you amazon

Thursday, Feb 21 2008 |

So it's not the first time I've screwed up a basic online book order. Yes, I did ask for it by cancelling my order, then placing another one, and then trying to combine them to get the free shipping all within the span of about 6 seconds, but nonetheless, I contacted customer service. Have you used the click to call service from eStara yet? very cool. Type in your phone number and a real human calls you, immediately. No annoying voice prompts or sitting on hold. And what was really great, when I managed to disconnect myself in the middle of the call, the service rep finished fixing my order and sent me an email to confirm. love you amazon.

-posted by Adrienne

Intuit throws Seattle startup a bone

Tuesday, Feb 12 2008 |

Seattle-based Inu Treats was selected as a runner up in Intuit's Just Start competition, and received a $5,000 cash prize. The startup makes healthy dog treats.

-posted by Rachel

Web analytics + pool = good times

Tuesday, Feb 12 2008 |

Think outside the box! If you're looking to share your web analytics experience, join your compadres at the next Web Analytics Wednesday being held at Temple Billiards in Seattle on Wednesday, February 20 at 6 p.m. It's being sponsored this month by ZeroDash1. WAW is a global social networking event hosted in cities around the world...it's got beer and billiards, so what's not to like?

-posted by Rachel

Ga Ga For Google

Tuesday, Feb 05 2008 |

Last month, I had the pleasure of being among 500 people checking out Google’s new Seattle digs. The new Seattle office is in the Fremont neighborhood which is best known for being the “center of the universe.” It’s very fitting that the company known for its shall you say, “creative” work environment has landed itself in this very eccentric part of this very eccentric city.

From charactertures to massages to free booze to gourmet cupcakes topped off with Google’s Seattle logo, I had no problem flying solo and filling my time. A big shout out goes to my neighbor Melissa for leading my tour of the office. She just so happens to work in HR at Google.

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So… here’s my big takeaway from my visit… while the work environment is very different from your run of the mill office… I wonder how long Google can retain its character before turning into yet another “churn and burn” large high-tech company (if you live in the Seattle area, you may know who I’m referring to). I’ll be closely monitoring the Googleites along the Fremont cut but until then, keep the cupcakes coming!

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-posted by Andrew

Seattle startups snag two spots in Intuit's competition

Tuesday, Jan 15 2008 |

Time to vote for our home-grown startups. Two area ventures grabbed semi-finalist spots in Intuit's "Just Start" contest : Melodies About Me, based in Bremerton, creates personzlied music for children, and Seattle-based Inu Treats makes all natural dog snacks with an Asian flair. The winner gets $50,000 in startup seed money.

-posted by Rachel

nPost heads north

Tuesday, Jan 15 2008 |

Attention, Vancouver BC-area startups: nPost will host a networking event at Library Square sometime in early February. You can learn more about the event by monitoring the signup wiki here. And if you're fans of Jay and Silent Rob, the duo is already registered to attend.

-posted by Rachel

Tech Startups Start 2008 Season

Tuesday, Jan 15 2008 |

The next meeting of the Seattle Tech Startups group will be on Tuesday, January 22 at the downtown branch of the Seattle Public Library, beginning at 6 p.m. The topic: "From Startup to Steady Revenue," exploring how young companies can build a sustainable business.

-posted by Rachel

Want to ogle Google?

Tuesday, Jan 08 2008 |

Want to ogle Google?

Google will have an open house at its new office in Fremont on Tuesday, January 15, beginning at 6 p.m. You're invited to sneak a peek and grab a bite, but you have to RSVP.

-posted by Rachel

Insightful tries graphics to boost product appeal

Friday, Dec 28 2007 |

One of our favorite industry analysts for life sciences is Chris Connor at IDC. He recently endorsed the new direction that Seattle-based Insightful is heading with its products for data analytics. The company just announced the availability of Insightful Clinical Graphics, which helps researchers present data in visual terms. The company is a tad late in jumping on the bandwagon of delivering tools that make mountains of data more relevant to diverse audiences, particularly those that are not necessarily in the pharmaceutical industry...but there is a big market out there for easy to use products that can deliver analytics through graphics and illustrations. We've always been impressed with a much smaller local company, Arkitek Studios that's been around for years – the company uses animation to help customers such as Dendreon and Sonus explain complex research data to investors and other audiences.

-posted by Rachel

Seattle Startup Demo Showcases Lights, Cameras and Action

Friday, Dec 28 2007 |

The MIT Venture Lab once again sponsored Startup Demo on December 13. Startups featured this year included Redmond's 2Bot Corporation, Seattle-based Athleon Sport, Safari Development (Denmark) and its Talking Letters application, Seattle's TeachStreet, ex-Microsofties Shan Sinha and Alex DeNeui's DocVerse and Overcast Media.

-posted by Rachel

GottaPlay snags stellar board member

Friday, Dec 28 2007 |

Gig Harbor is just full of interesting companies. One down the street is GottaPlay Interactive, a company that is establishing itself as the "Netflix" of video game rentals. GottaPlay just anounced Stephan P. Muller as its latest board member, and the man has got some great street cred for such a small company: he's held global executive positions with Apple and Reuters. Welcome to the neighborhood!

-posted by Rachel

Sampa Does the Seattle Startup Stomp

Friday, Dec 28 2007 |

Marcelo Calbucci and the folks over at Sampa are doing a great job of creating a monthly list of startups in the Seattle area. It's always interesting to see the new companies that are added to the list, some of which have names and/or purposes that are mystifying or just downright humorous. My favorites this month: imaPodHead, Human Proxy and its product, inluu and Beyond Wine and Cheese.

-posted by Rachel

Centeris says Likewise

Friday, Dec 28 2007 |

You're probably getting tired of my posts on technology company name changes in Seattle...but here we go again. Centeris recently morphed into Likewise Software. The Bellevue company's been around for quite awhile, so given that, the name change may come as a surprise.

-posted by Rachel

Lilipip makes the cover...of MIR

Thursday, Nov 29 2007 |

OK, so it's not the cover of the Rolling Stone. But Ksenia Oustiougova, the founder of the soon-to-be-launched Lilipip, is on the cover of the local Russian newsletter, MIR (available in Seattle Safeways). The boss says I'm obsessed with Lilipip, but I do believe this is a local startup that you should keep your eye on. It expects to emerge from stealth mode before the end of the year.

-posted by Rachel

Pure Networks survey: ghosting on a wireless network is OK

Thursday, Nov 29 2007 |

Our friends at Pure Networks recently conducted a survey that uncovered a disturbing tech habit. Almost half of the respondents did not think it was wrong to piggyback on someone else's WiFi connection. 'Nuff said.

-posted by Rachel

Santa's got a new name for SchoolSoft

Thursday, Nov 29 2007 |

Ho-ho-hold it...yet another new name for a Seattle area tech company. SchoolSoft has become DreamBox Learning. There must be something going on in town, what with new names for BlueDot (Faves), ZenZui (Zumobi), eProject (Daptiv) and God knows how many other startups that I was just getting to know. Marketing and branding companies must be doing well in the Emerald City. If it's still called that.

-posted by Rachel

Jackson Fish Market makes flower delivery a cinch...kind of

Thursday, Nov 15 2007 |

So now there's absolutely no reason for any man (or woman, for that matter) NOT to send flowers for just about any occasion. Jackson Fish Market, that wacky Seattle software development startup that advertises its products as "hand crafted" and that brought us Invitastic as an alternative to eVite, just launched They're Beautiful. You guessed it, virtual flower arrangements. I have to admit, the bouquets are visually arresting, but call me crazy for still wanting the real thing...at least until the JFM folks can add scent to the delivery package.

-posted by Rachel

BlueDot revs, renamed Faves

Thursday, Nov 15 2007 |

Yet another startup in Seattle is reworking its name. This time it's BlueDot, now known as Faves. Gaining a dot com extension (as opposed to a dot us extension, which the company previously owned) is reason enough for a social networking site to make the switch.

-posted by Rachel

iPhones are rumbling with Rumblefish

Monday, Nov 12 2007 |

A little late, but congrats to our friends at Portland-based Rumblefish for being the first to license a song on an iPhone. You can read more about it here.

-posted by Rachel

Hubspan get new CEO

Monday, Nov 12 2007 |

Congrats to Tricia Gross, the new CEO of former client Hubspan. Great to see another woman ascend to the top office of a Seattle-based tech company. Good luck!

-posted by Rachel

eProject morphs to Daptiv

Monday, Nov 12 2007 |

What's in a name? Well, quite a lot - and companies don't undertake a name change lightly because it's like throwing money away. So I was surprised to see that eProject has quietly changed its name to Daptiv. eProject's been around for awhile and has a pretty solid collaborative business software...but maybe I'm the only one who knew about it. I'm not so sure that Daptiv is any more descriptive of the company and its product, and, in my opinion, falls dangerously close to those cute and meaningless Web 2.0 names we're seeing these days. But as a play on "adaptive," maybe it does tell the world a bit more than its previous moniker. Dunno, but I hope it works for them.

-posted by Rachel

Yodio-hee-hoo! Send a free audio postcard

Tuesday, Oct 30 2007 |

Just in time for holiday invites or to share a picture with Cousin Bob, Yodio is offering free audio postcards. The Bellevue-based startup has simple instructions on its website and it claims that it takes only three minutes to record your voice, upload a photo and send it on its way. Now you can literally send a shout out to practically anyone.

-posted by Rachel

Vadium does the Grand Tour

Wednesday, Oct 17 2007 |

Our friends at Vadium Technology, a Tacoma-based security software company, recently announced distribution agreements in South America, Asia, Europe and the UK. In support of this internationalism, it recently appointed Jose Antonio Rios, the former international president of Global Crossing, to the board of advisors. Hola!

-posted by Rachel

WSJ picks two NW companies as best places to work

Wednesday, Oct 17 2007 |

The Wall Street Journal recently picked the top 15 small workplaces in the U.S. -- two companies in the Pacific Northwest made the list. One is Healthwise, an information company based in Boise that empowers people to take charge of their health initiatives. But I found Seattle-based Point B Solutions Group even more interesting. Turns out that the consulting company doesn't offer vacation to its employees; it simply pays everyone by the hour for billable work plus an end of year bonus. If you want to take off for three months, it's not a problem -- you just don't get paid. For some reason, this struck me as a radical idea. And one that I hope is not adopted anytime soon at VOXUS.

-posted by Rachel

Startup time: six hours

Tuesday, Oct 09 2007 |

Ever wonder how long it takes to launch a new product? In a very interesting experiment last Saturday in Seattle, we learned it could be as little as six hours when a group of 12 Seattle developers spent an afternoon collaborating on a new web application, Tagmindr (the website is still in development). The brainchild of Noonhat founder Brian Dorsey, Tagmindr is an application that allows one to use a social bookmarking site like del.icio.us and a tag to send yourself a message to check the bookmark in the future. For more information on the group, which holds regular meetings, visit here.

-posted by Rachel

ClayValet gets ready to rumble

Wednesday, Oct 03 2007 |

Last week, the founders of ClayValet hosted a sneak peek of their company and product at Shinka Tea. Looking forward to seeing the formal launch of this company, which has something to do with an online shopping application.

-posted by Rachel

Pitch the pack, get some cash

Wednesday, Oct 03 2007 |

The Seattle chapter of TiE is looking for a few good entrepreneurs. Here's your chance to pitch your business or business concept to VCs and other investors in the area. Last year, the group awarded prizes worth over $5000 in cash and in-kind. The deadline for business plan submissions is October 23. The actual event will be held on Thursday, November 8 at 6:00 p.m. at the Bellevue Courtyard by Marriott. See the website for more details.

-posted by Rachel

Entrepreneurs to discuss Web 2.0 opportunities

Friday, Sep 21 2007 |

Entrepreneurs in the area that hail from India are planning a dynamite program for the next meeting of TIE. On Thursday, October 4 at 6:30 p.m. at the Bellevue Courtyard by Marriott, panelists will debate the huge opportunity presented by social networking, talking about what it takes to build a successful startup in the space, what VCs are most looking to fund, etc. Moderated by John Cook of the Seattle P-I, the panel includes Brian Goffman of Madrona Venture Group, SnapVine founder Joe Heitzeberg, Jordan Mitchell of OthersOnline and stealthy startup LiveMocha's founder Shirish Nadkarni. Registration for the event is required.

-posted by Rachel

Dogpile.com offers Helmsley pooch a fetching proposition

Friday, Sep 21 2007 |

WIth all the hoopla surrounding Bellevue-based InfoSpace's decision to sell its online directory business Switchboard.com for $225 Million in cash (!) to Idearc Inc., it's easy to see why its secondary announcement might have gotten overlooked. Dogpile.com, the company's meta search engine, is going to bat for The Humane Society's Rural Area Veterinary Services Program. The Dogpile.com mascot, Arfie, has invited Leona Helmsley's $12 Million dollar dog, Trouble, to match donations in a fundraising campaign. Arfie might also want to contact Oprah, since rumors are swirling that she's establishing a $30 Million trust fund for her dogs in case of her early demise. You can learn more about the fundraiser at www.supportarfie.com.

-posted by Rachel

Healthnotes helps Publix get greener

Tuesday, Sep 18 2007 |

Our friends at Portland-based Healthnotes announced its newest customer this week: Publix supermarkets. Growing up in the south, I have fond memories of the Piggly Wiggly and Publix, and was surprised to see that Publix is entering a new market with its GreenWise Market stores. GreenWise is a concept store that targets consumers looking for high quality and convenient foods. It looks to be a perfect match for Healthnotes, as the company delivers interactive "Fresh Ideas" kiosks that offer recipes, healthy living tips and more...in this case, right in the produce section and health-related products aisles.

-posted by Rachel

UW spinouts keep going and going and going

Tuesday, Sep 18 2007 |

In his blog, Seattle PI columnist John Cook talks about the increasing number of startups spinning out of technology being developed at the University of Washington. One we find interesting is ImageSpace 4D, Inc., a company that plans to develop a medical imaging software that makes 3D imaging with interaction and movement, or 4D, easy to use. One of John's commentors suggested that it might be worthwhile to see how many companies have spun out of UW over time, and how many are still in operation. We agree that it could be the basis for a good story.

-posted by Rachel

In TrustedWord we trust. Word.

Tuesday, Sep 18 2007 |

A new Seattle-based startup, TrustedWord is looking for a few good beta testers. Co-founder Karson Clancy sent out the call a few weeks back, so if you're interested in helping a new local services review site get its feet on the ground, send him an email at beta(at)trustedword.com.

-posted by Rachel

Jive talkin'

Wednesday, Aug 29 2007 |

Our friends at Portland-based Jive Software are holding a preview show and tell of the new version of Clearspace, a collaboration software. The entire Portland blogging, podcasting and influencer community is invited to attend the sneak peek dinner on Tuesday, September 11 at 5:30 p.m. at the Jive Software headquarters. You need to RSVP.

Jive has a lot to celebrate, since it just grabbed $15 million in investment from Sequoia Capital.

-posted by Rachel

Get "Lost" on BuddyTV

Thursday, Aug 23 2007 |

Want to get the inside scoop on your favorite TV show? BuddyTV, a start-up out of Seattle, offers communities around TV shows featuring inside news, celebrity interviews and gossip. You can also read a recent nPost interview with BuddyTV CEO David Niu.

-posted by Adrienne

CatchTheBest to debut SMB hiring resource

Thursday, Aug 23 2007 |

Last month on its corporate blog, Kirkland-based CatchTheBest announced it will be releasing its applicant tracking solution for the small business sometime this fall. Seems as if the human resources tools space is getting very crowded in the Seattle tech arena, what with Ascentis and others already fishing for clients in this market. We'll be watching for the CatchTheBest launch to see how its product differentiates itself.

-posted by Rachel

Hungarian telephones and Seattle

Monday, Aug 20 2007 |

Szia! Hungarian Telephone and Cable Corp., the second largest fixed line telecommunications and broadband ISP in Hungary, has a major Seattle connection. Turns out the company is based here. Hopefully, I'm not the last person on earth to discover this -- the company was founded in 1992, so it's been in town for awhile. I'm sure there's a very good reason why the company is in Seattle and not with its customers in Hungary, but I'm still wondering what it might be.

-posted by Rachel

CEOs all fall down

Wednesday, Aug 15 2007 |

Must be the season for CEOs to move on. Lumera announced today that its CEO, Tom Mino, is stepping down. At least the company did him the honor of a press release; embattled Zango CEO and co-founder, Daniel Todd, just got a company blog mention discussing his departure at the end of August. It's probably coincidental timing that PC Tools today announced it won the first round in a lawsuit instigated by Zango. PC Tools makes anti-spyware that neutralizes Zango's adware.

-posted by Rachel

Give me liberty...or a new animation studio in Prosser

Wednesday, Aug 15 2007 |

Our friends at Paladin Partners alerted us to the fact that a new animation studio has opened in Prosser. American Animation Studios has its first release now available on Amazon.com, with a second coming up this fall. Both feature American heroes in keeping with the company's goal of bringing historical content to 3D animation. "Patrick Henry: Quest for Freedom" is also available direct.

-posted by Rachel

Zeenami -- offering A to Z?

Tuesday, Aug 07 2007 |

Yup, it's another Seattle-based startup... Zeenami is still under wraps, but it looks like it hopes to tap the goodness of social networking and couple it with a regular and talented cast of individuals to assist individuals in reaching their goals. Zeenami plans to become a self-improvement destination with tools to help sort through products and services already available. The founder is Bruce Worrall, most recently of GalleryPlayer.

-posted by Rachel

It's a bird, it's a plane...it's LiquidPlanner

Tuesday, Aug 07 2007 |

Another stealthy startup is about to launch in Seatlle. LiquidPlanner, formerly code named Team46, will offer an online project management application that somehow blends social networking features with key project analytics, such as budgets. The brains behind the company are Charles Seybold and Jason Carlson, formerly of Expedia.com. Whatever the company is up to, it's doing something cool this month by sponsoring the next nPost networking event, being held August 21 at 6:00 p.m. at the Del Rey. You can sign up here.

-posted by Rachel

Sandlot hosts sweet party

Tuesday, Jul 24 2007 |

Last Tuesday evening, Bothell-based casual gaming company (and VOXUS client) Sandlot Games hosted a party at Club Venom in Seattle in conjunction with the Casual Gaming Association conference. In attendance were various members of press, gaming industry notables, and a woman dressed as Cake Mania's heroine Jill, complete with a freshly frosted cake and a robot-like walk. Cake Mania was the top casual game of 2006 and a major hit for Sandlot; at the party, Sandlot founder and CEO Daniel Bernstein gave the first glimpse of Cake Mania 2 (out in August) during a 10-minute run through of the game on Venom's huge projection screens. Needless to say, the party was a "treat" for all who attended.

-posted by Stephanie

Exbiblio to unite electronic and hard copy worlds

Tuesday, Jul 24 2007 |

Seattle startup Exbiblio is developing a product that will allow users to find electronic copies of printed materials online. Due out in the Fall, the company's product will enable users to scan printed text and phrases to easily find full text matches online. According to a Puget Sound Business Journal story, "...the company aims to partner with a mobile-phone maker, to embed Exbiblio technology in handsets ..." Company founder, Martin King, is one of the creators of Tegic's ubiquitous T9 software.

-posted by Lindsay

Noonhat breaks bread

Wednesday, Jul 11 2007 |

Here's a startup that I enthusiastically hope makes it. Noonhat is like speed dating for business people interested in networking. You simply sign on to the site, indicate how far you're willing to travel for lunch, and...presto!...Noonhat hooks you up. All it needs now is for a lot of folks to utilize the free membership.

-posted by Rachel

Seattle's Casual Connect

Wednesday, Jul 11 2007 |

We're looking forward to the Casual Connect 2007 conference in Seattle next week. The event will bring together developers, publishers and distributors within the casual games industry (which is, by the way, the fastest growing segement of the video game industry). It should be a great event with speakers from companies such as MTV and Google, as well as local favorites Sandlot Games, PopCap Games, Big Fish Games and PlayFirst.

-posted by Adrienne

Canning spam

Wednesday, Jul 11 2007 |

How often do you open your email and find the majority of the mail is spam?

Under a Washington state law enacted in March 1998 and amended in May 1999, it is illegal to send a commercial e-mail message that uses a third party's domain name without permission; that contains false or missing routing information; or with a false or misleading subject line. The law applies if a message is sent from within Washington; if the sender knows that the recipient is a Washington resident; or if the registrant of the domain name contained in the recipient's address will confirm upon request that the recipient is a Washington resident.

Read on to find out how one Washington resident made $31,575 by suing spammers.

-posted by Shawnna

Centeris grabs eWeek award

Monday, Jul 09 2007 |

Congratulations to our friends at Centeris for winning an eWeek Excellence Award. The company's Likewise Management Suite product topped the System and Application Management category. You can read more here.

-posted by Rachel

Got milk? Earn $20

Tuesday, Jul 03 2007 |

I'm not sure how I feel about the latest Seattle social networking site, MobIncentive, which debuted last week. The brainchild of Andrew Lin and Brian Sabino, MobIncentive's goal is lofty: to share an idea and gain support from others for getting it done. Community funds are the reward. This sounds pretty noble if you're looking for a way to improve or eradicate social ills, but with the present YouTube mentality, you know the majority of challenges are going to be silly. Take the video milk challenge, where if you can drink a gallon of milk in one hour, you can grab the posted funds...or the bounty ($50 and counting) posted on Paris Hilton to put her back in jail . Dunno. Am I just not getting it? What do you think?

-posted by Rachel

mPoria heats up the m-commerce space

Tuesday, Jul 03 2007 |

Seattle-based start-up mPoria is gaining momentum in its effort to cash in on the m-commerce space. According to IDC and Jupiter Media Metrix the m-commerce market has reached $58.4 billion this year in the United States, up from $29 billion in 2006. This week mPoria announced a deal with PayPal to integrate PayPal's automated mobile payment service into mPoria's m-commerce platform. mPoria converts online retail shopping sites so they can be accessed from mobile phones. Prior to this deal, mPoria funneled payment information to the retailer which then handled the transaction. Now shoppers can select the PayPal option to complete their transaction directly.

-posted by Adrienne

Attenex continues momentum

Wednesday, Jun 20 2007 |

Seattle-based Attenex, a developer of electronic discovery software (targetting the legal industry) continues to build its collection of patents, recently announcing its 10th patent. Attenex also recently picked up a Red Herring 100 award, and was recognized at the WSA Investor Forum as one of the most promising private software companies in Washington State.

-posted by Adrienne

Vote for Seattle startups!

Wednesday, Jun 06 2007 |

Seattle startups are well represented on the finalist list in CNET's Webware 100 competition, recognizing the best of Web 2.0 services. In the "Communications" category, you can click to vote for Eyejot and Earth Class Mail; in the "Media" category, there's iLike; in "Productivity and Commerce," local nominees include Farecast and Zillow; and in "Reference," there's Wetpaint.

Voting closes on June 11.

-posted by Rachel

Startup Demo 2007 features VoIP, baseball games

Wednesday, Jun 06 2007 |

The MIT Enterprise Forum of the Northwest's annual Startup Demo 2007 features six small company gems this year, including our friends at VoIP Teleport with its VoIP system on a USB memory stick; Intellect Space's relationship mapping software; JamGlue and its online community for sharing music; Ballpark Classics with a table top baseball game; BondRotary and a hybrid engine; and ScienceOps for tracking internet advertising and searches. The program is being held on Thursday, June 7 at 6:00 p.m. Go here for more details.

-posted by Rachel

Nimblebee now buzzes as TalentSpring

Tuesday, May 29 2007 |

Congrats to our friend, Bryan Starbuck, on the public launch of his startup, TalentSpring. Formerly code-named Nimblebee, TalentSpring got a very nice writeup on TechCrunch for its public debut. The company mashes up social networking with personnel recruiting, enabling users to rank their peers – potentially a useful piece of information for prospective employers. What the site really needs now is for folks to populate it by entering their resumes.

-posted by Rachel

Logos throws down Post Office... and wins

Wednesday, May 23 2007 |

You wouldn't think a small Seattle-based company like Logos Bible Software would take on the U.S. Postal Service... but then again, maybe it has the ear of you-know-who working in its favor. The company's director of marketing, Dan Pritchett, has figured out a legal way around the First Class mail rate hike that took effect May 14. It's actually a very clever idea, and writing about it here wouldn't be nearly as entertaining as reading the original explanation in the Logos blog. Highly recommend that you click on over and learn more.

-posted by Rachel

Built like an Amazon: Amazon Podcast Network

Wednesday, May 23 2007 |

Here we grow again... Amazon.com has once again pushed the boundaries of retailing with the launch of the Amazon Podcast Network. Its channels include such offerings as the "Significant Seven," a monthly podcast where Amazon book editors talk about upcoming book releases before they hit the shelves (or in this case, the web). The Amazon Podcast Network also has an affiliation with Tivo, so that consumers can have new programs delivered to their TV set. It's not just books, either – there's a lot of music-related videos, songs and interviews. Pretty impressive.

-posted by Rachel

eBay not enough? Here comes CozyBug

Wednesday, May 23 2007 |

Hard to believe that there's room in the online flea market business for another vendor other than the megalithic eBay, but Issaquah-based iCantu Technologies launched CozyBug earlier this month. It's differentiation is that it localizes online shopping to eliminate shipping charges – kind of a mashup of the "for sale" category on Craigslist within a more trusted setting. It'll be interesting to see how the company plans to get buyers and sellers to utilize this site – it'll be critical to its success.

-posted by Rachel

Rumble Young Man, Rumble

Wednesday, May 09 2007 |

Every once in a while we like to head back down memory lane and revisit past relationships. This week, Rumblefish, the ubercool online music company designed for big business. In brief, the company licenses music for use by business, kind of like stock photos, but with music. They've signed thousands of bands and now have a very impressive catalog, not to mention some impressive clients, such as Adidas, North Face, Pabst and Red Bull. Back in the day, they weren't quite ready for a PR agency, but now it appears their business model is finally going platinum. Check out this recent new story on CNBC.

-posted by Justin

Avvo, Illumita double down

Wednesday, May 09 2007 |

Avvo, a stealthy startup that raised $10 million in funding earlier this month, and Illumita, an early stage startup being incubated at the Unviersity of Washington, are just two of the many young companies around town that have chosen corporate names with double letters. I'm not sure why this is important, but it's a random factoid that caught my interest: Nimblebee, Ookla, Attenex, Accessline... the list goes on. It probably doesn't mean anything except that entrepreneurs are having increasing difficulty in finding unique domain names that can be registered. But then again...

So much for my mid-week musings.

-posted by Rachel

VoIP TelePort tosses traditional phone systems

Tuesday, Apr 24 2007 |

There's a neat new product being launched by a Seattle-based startup that aims to eliminate traditional phone systems within a business. The VoIP TelePort is a phone system built into a USB stick that turns any desktop PC into a VoIP-enabled PBX-like server. For under $250, a small business can have up to five connected phones, eliminating the more expensive hardware system while taking advantage of the cost savings of VoIP (voice over Internet Protocol). The VoIP TelePort is in beta testing now, and you can sign up to get a free unit on the website; the product will ship in June.

-posted by Rachel

Almost Time for RescueTime

Monday, Apr 23 2007 |

Tony Wright's newest project is just about ready to launch. RescueTime is being billed as a "ridiculously easy" time management product that helps users see exactly how they spend their time through a downloadable computer interface -- no data entry required. You can sign up to hear about the May launch on the website.

-posted by Rachel

Get the door...it's Zoji

Thursday, Apr 19 2007 |

You've gotta love a startup that, in the vein of American Idol, keeps it "real." Seattle-based Zoji's inventor, Dan Shen, calls himself the company's founder and CPP -- Chief Pizza Provider. And there's probably plenty of pizza nights ahead, as Zoji is up against the well-established eVite in the electronic invitation market. But it's cool how Zoji is going about it, because there's a mechanism for promoters in the area to list public events, and then members can plan an activity in conjunction with it.

-posted by Rachel

goChongo, goChongo, goChongo (mo money, mo money, mo money)

Thursday, Apr 19 2007 |

gOne of the latest entries in the social networking/entertainment/Web 2.0 scene is Seattle's goChongo, which is now in beta and is anticipating its public launch on May 1. According to a TechCrunch posting, goChongo hopes to enable consumers to interact on entertainment projects. While some folks might have ideas for an aspect of entertainment, such as a comedy routine, others might be interested in executing on the idea. The whole format is set up as a contest with monetary prizes. If this sounds a little confusing, check out the early review on BlogoWogo. Hard to say at this point whether or not this brainchild of Shawn Plaster's is viable, but we're looking forward to the launch next month.

-posted by Rachel

Who's got time for 43 Things? Entrepreneurs

Monday, Apr 02 2007 |

So I discovered a quirky little website, 43 Things, a place where folks can list their goals and get inspired by others. The site was created by Seattle's The Robot Co-op, which also has a sister site up called 43 places and is funded by Seattle's Amazon.com. Even though I'm not the type to use a site such as this, I enjoyed poking around and living vicariously as I read about other people and their dreams. In the entrepreneurs section, I saw a familiar name, David Zhao, co-founder of fledgling Seattle company Versionate. I've never met him, but based on his list of things to do, which includes seeing the Northern Lights and beating the house at Blackjack, this is one interesting entrepreneur. With Versionate now in beta, maybe he'll be ticking off yet another goal: establish a company that operates at least two years. We're certainly rooting for him.

As a side note... even though they don't reference it, the number "43" has a very specific meaning to fans of David Allen's Getting Things Done as my boss Paul quickly pointed out (for example... see Merlin Mann's popular 43 Folders). Could there be a coincidence? Hmmm... Now where did I put that copy of GTD that Paul bought me?

-posted by Rachel

Speakeasy sidles up to Best Buy

Monday, Apr 02 2007 |

Our friends at Speakeasy are now employees of Best Buy. The broadband service provider (which has recently been morphing its tagline to focus on VoIP communications) was sold this week for $97 million. Speakeasy started out as a single Internet cafe and was the brainchild of Mike and Gretchen Apgar; Mike moved on to his latest venture, Ookla, last year.

-posted by Rachel

eMagin plugs gaming device into medical industry

Monday, Mar 26 2007 |

Our friends at Bellevue's eMagin have found an interesting adaptive use for its award-winning 3D visor. Previously known as one of the better headgear device developers for PC gaming, eMagin moved into a whole new marketing realm through its partnership with Medicaa, a medical hardware developer. Medicaa has integrated eMagin's device into its Balance Rehabilitation Unit for treating patients with instability disorders. BRU was approved earlier this month by the FDA for patient use.

-posted by Rachel

Entrepreneurs: Amazon wants you

Monday, Mar 26 2007 |

Madrona Ventures and Amazon.com are sponsoring a free seminar for Seattle-based tech company entrepreneurs (early stage and startups), along with any local VCs, to better explain and explore Amazon's Web Services. The event is scheduled for Thursday, April 26 from 2-7 p.m. You must RSVP and be pre-qualified to attend. Look here for more information.

-posted by Rachel

Urbanspoon gives snaps to Le Pichet

Monday, Mar 26 2007 |

There's a big new gun in town that's aiming to inform local gourmets and gourmands of the ins and outs of Seattle dining. Urbanspoon makes it simple to find a restaurant...and to not waste your time at establishments that have been found wanting. But it's the site's blog that is really entertaining. Last month, it compared two French restaurants, Le Pichet and Le P'tit Bistro, and I'm happy to report that one of my favorite restaurants, Le Pichet, received its props. Allez-y.

-posted by Rachel

Real Networks motto: We Train the World

Monday, Mar 05 2007 |

Last year, I was discussing Real Networks with one of its alumni, Sherman Griffin, who now works for Amazon.com. He guesstimated that there had to be close to 800 ex-Real Networks employees in and around the Seattle area...which got me thinking when I read in John Cook's blog about Shelfari's recent funding. Two of Shelfari's cofounders, Josh Hug and Kevin Beukelman, are ex-Real Networks employees. Just how many other ex-RNs have risen to business prominence? Locally, there's Larry Jacobson as president & CEO of Cdigix, Scott Erlach co-founded Red Tie Media and we all know Senator Maria Cantwell went to Washington. Last month, Redback Networks announced it had hired Dr. Alan Lippman, who invented streaming audio and video production and was one of the first five employees at Real Networks. But ultimately, I suppose all of this pondering is really trivial, as Real Networks has to go a long ways to beat Microsoft as having the biggest group of alumni in town. Heck, even Real Networks founder, Rob Glaser, came from M$.

-posted by Rachel

Future cloudy for Intelligent Results

Monday, Mar 05 2007 |

Bellevue-based Intelligent Results was sold this week to First Data, putting a question mark to whether or not the company will continue to operate in Washington much longer. Intelligent Results offers a customer data analytics software, so it might be easy to completely shift the company's operations in the near future.

-posted by Rachel

Limber Media leaps, pliés and hip-hops forward

Wednesday, Feb 21 2007 |

Another Seattle startup intending to launch this spring is Limber Media, founded by dancer, choreographer and producer Allegra Searle-LeBel. Frustrated with the difficulties of producing small batches of original media content, she's figured out a way to help fellow artistic creators avoid the headaches of the various hardware and software on the market via a web-enabled service. It sounds pretty cool, especially since more and more entertainers are moving toward digital clips to sell their services. Website's not available yet, so stay tuned...

-posted by Rachel

Jamglue jumpstarts Valentine's Day

Tuesday, Feb 13 2007 |

Attention, Valentine's Day lovers (and haters!): Jamglue is offering one of the most amusing self-promotions we've seen so far this year. If you love Valentine's Day, go here and if you hate it, go here. I don't want to spoil the surprise any further – but I will say that if this is a sample of the marketing creativity at this company, it will go far.

-posted by Rachel

New GenPrime CEO

Tuesday, Feb 13 2007 |

Congrats to Buck Somes, the new CEO of Spokane-based GenPrime. We've known Buck for a number of years and, as one of the co-founders of the company, he'll have steady hands at the helm. Former CEO, Johnny Humphreys, will remain with the company as chairman of the board. The company has some interesting products in development, the latest of which is BacSTAT for detecting bacteria contamination in blood. It's not approved yet by the FDA, but it has some potentially life-saving applications in the healthcare setting, such as providing better safeguards for transfusions.

-posted by Rachel

TrenchMice: great name, greater purpose

Wednesday, Jan 31 2007 |

I get a lot of flak from fellow VOXUS employees about my attraction to startups that have catchy names. But TrenchMice, a Seattle-based startup, not only has a great and very descriptive name, its purpose will be hotly debated in the HR hallmarks of our area's tech companies. TrenchMice's goal is to level the playing field in the hiring arena for established and start-up tech companies; if you want to know the inside facts about a company or its management staff, TrenchMice's website is the place to go. Today, even bloggers frequently can't post something critical about a company, particularly their employers, so TrenchMice is filling that gap with alternative sources of information in a community monitored environment. Check it out if you're on the employment track...or more particularly, if you're a manager.

-posted by Rachel

When you Wishlist upon a star...

Wednesday, Jan 24 2007 |

Yet another Internet service that you didn't know you couldn't live without is debuting on the Seattle scene. Wishlisting.com is now in beta and I have to admit, I think it has some possibilities. Basically, it's an online site for you and your friends/family to post your wish lists for birthdays, holidays, anniversaries and more -- the potential tie-ins with retail establishments give this Web 2.0 social networking company a real shot. It could also effectively end the current "regifting" phenomena for those priceless presents that you just can't use. Wishlisting is the brainchild of Tom Lianza, a serial entrepreneur in F5 Networks land.

-posted by Rachel

Lilipip launching this summer

Wednesday, Jan 24 2007 |

It's such a rich market for startups in Seattle...Lilipip is predicting that it'll launch its beta product this summer. It's described as a series of 10-minute wallet "videos" that are downloaded to a mobile device (such as a cell phone) and that teach toddlers pre-reading skills. The sample that's currently up on the website is extremely entertaining and worth a look due to its clean and clever animation. Could be another Baby Einstein in the making.

-posted by Rachel

B.S. Generator goes beta

Wednesday, Jan 24 2007 |

Finally - a useful tool to help navigate the Web 2.0 world! For some time now, we've observed the escalating rhetoric being used to describe emerging companies that are hoping to create a leading edge product that we don't know yet that we need. Thanks to the folks at Seattle 24x7, we learned about the Web 2.0 B.S. Generator. Any respectable PR person should check it out -- if the tagline you just spent hours creating is already in the B.S. Generator, you might want to re-think your message. And hey, it's just plain fun.

-posted by Rachel

MessageGate's clever PR kicks off 2007

Monday, Jan 08 2007 |

Bellevue-based MessageGate gets extra points for a very entertaining press release to kick off 2007. The email security company issued its Top 10 E-Mail Mistakes and Mishaps of 2006 -- and it's a list worthy of David Letterman. My personal favorites are #9 and #1 -- every company's nightmares.

-posted by Rachel

Unleash Your Inner Geek

Monday, Jan 08 2007 |

The producers of Ignite are bestowing another geek night on Seattle in mid-February and you're invited. The two-part event begins with a warm-up "Make" event where attendees band together in a hands-on creative project (last time they built bridges out of popsicle sticks...) followed by a speedy round of "Ask Later Talks," many of which center on -- you guessed it -- technology. So, if you're a self-professed geek or are interested in experiencing the Seattle tech underground at its finest, this event is for you.

-posted by Lindsay

Jamglue lets you mix it up

Monday, Dec 18 2006 |

Just in time for the holidays, Seattle-based Jamglue leaves beta mode and officially launches its site this week. If you're into music, you'll want to check it out -- it's the only site I know of where you can not only upload and share music with friends, but you can remix music using Flash from within your browser. Through January 6, Jamglue is sponsoring a remix contest with Nettwerk Records -- sign on to learn more about creating your version of "Peace & Hate" by The Submarines. Oh, and by the way...you know you're going to like the company based on the way co-founder Matt Rubens describes himself: "I like tacos from trucks. And dinosaurs."

-posted by Rachel

Hyberboy morphs into Treemo

Monday, Dec 18 2006 |

Last spring, I blogged about Brent Bookler's newest venture, Hyperboy...which recently morphed into Treemo with the launch of TreemoTXT, a product that allows users to instantly connect to content on any mobile platform via Treemo and a mobile device. The company just announced the addition of Brett Brewer, cofounder of MySpace, to its board -- he's a good match to Brent as both are serial entrepreneurs (Brent founded Seattle-based Mobliss)...but it must be interesting at Treemo headquarters when both are in residence. Brent? Brett? Talk about B squared.

-posted by Rachel

Nimblebee going beta

Monday, Dec 18 2006 |

Early startup Nimblebee now has a placeholder on its website announcing an imminent launch. Not sure yet what the stealthy company is up to, but they've said it's data mining a la Zillow and FareCast, but in a new market. While that's all very interesting, I was more impressed with founder Bryan Starbuck's blog because of the wealth of information he's sharing about the joys and frustrations of a technology startup. For anyone who's interested in the business side of a new tech company, it's well worth a look.

-posted by Rachel

SplashCast targets January start

Monday, Dec 18 2006 |

There's a neat new company on the Portland technology scene. SplashCast is a media aggregation and distribution platform powered by RSS that makes it easy for real people (and not super geeks) to add and deliver media content to websites/blogs, etc. Earlier this month, the company started soliciting VC funds and lured TechCrunch writer Marshall Kirkpatrick to its executive staff as director of content. You can sign up to be notified when SplashCast is available in Beta by visiting the website.

-posted by Rachel

Amazon.com lends muscle to Wikipedia competitor

Monday, Dec 11 2006 |

I really love Wikipedia and the concept of a fluid encyclopedia of knowledge...so I'm understandably concerned about Amazon.com's announcement this week that it is investing in California-based Wikia, one of the site's stiffest competitors. Wikia is organized differently, but essentially is a community portal for building free wiki-based content websites. The company has amassed funding from a number of industry heavyweights, including Bessemer Venture Partners and Marc Andreessen.

-posted by Rachel

Xeko shows kids how to save the world

Monday, Dec 11 2006 |

Fremont may be the self-proclaimed Center of the Universe, but Xeko, one of the newest businesses in the Fremont district, is teaching kids how to be its masters. Xeko lives its motto -- have fun, do good -- by helping kids learn how to recognize, appreciate and conserve the planet's biodiversity. Part trading card game, part fantasy, Xeko is the brainchild of Amy Tucker, leader of the Matter Group. Earlier this month, the game picked up the 2006 Parents' Choice Recommended Award. The website is well-worth a look.

-posted by Rachel

Clearwire goes retail

Monday, Dec 11 2006 |

One of the latest trends in telecom is for sevice providers to partner with a retailer to reach the masses. VOXUS client AccessLine Communications was one of the first to do this and has relationships with both Costco and Office Depot. This week, Bellevue-based Clearwire announced it is marketing its high-speed wireless Internet service through Circuit City. In addition, the company is running a promotion in Seattle for its Clearwire Connections Pass -- you could win a 2007 Ford Escape Hybrid or a $10,000 shopping spree...check it out here.

-posted by Rachel

Dwango, Zango and Twango (bee bop a looba)

Tuesday, Nov 21 2006 |

Zippy technology company names for Bellevue-based startups must be getting harder to come by. Two newer startups are Zango and Twango, not to be confused with Dwango, which died last summer. Zango is the new name for 180Solutions, an online media and advertising company that last week agreed to pay the Federal Trade Commission $3 million in penalties for deceptive practices. Twango does something completely different and offers a media sharing product a la YouTube and Flickr. It's really quite nifty and worth a look for anyone wanting to share wedding pictures, travel videos and more. Ba da bim, ba da bango.

-posted by Rachel

Calling all Indie mobile phone film makers

Tuesday, Nov 14 2006 |

The Sundance Film Festival last week acknowledged mobile phone video as a viable film genre with its first pilot project calling for short 3-5 minute clips specifically for the small (really small) screen. Submitted films will be showcased in Barcelona next year at the 3GSM World Congress. Academia have too extended a warm embrace to the emerging mobile video market. In September, Boston University announced the first "mobile-phone movie-making" course in which students explore mobile phone/device filmmaking methodology. Who knows, maybe BU will churn out the lucky winner.

-posted by Lindsay

eBay Pop ... a glimpse into pop culture consumerism

Tuesday, Nov 14 2006 |

Seattle-based Mpire today announced the launch of eBay Pop, a free service that publishes eBay sales trends (complete with interactive games, editorial comments and a blog to complement the informative data). With eBay Pop, online Christmas shoppers can compare their wishlists with this year's most popular items featured on eBay and the average prices they fetch. How much, for instance, does a Tickle Me Elmo go for this year? Or a PlayStation 3? Visit eBay Pop to find out.

-posted by Mallory

Digeo is off to the Emmy's... Again

Tuesday, Nov 14 2006 |

Come January, Digeo, Inc. will head down to Las Vegas for the prestigious Emmy® Awards. The Kirkland-based company today announced that it has been nominated for an award in the Science, Technology & Engineering for Broadband & Personal Television category. Digeo has received two Emmy's in the past for their innovative Moxi™ program guide. This year's nomination honors their successful video-on-demand integration, which puts top movie titles at users' fingertips in an easy-to-browse, select and order format.

-posted by Mallory

Pure Networks, partnerships and the passage of time

Tuesday, Nov 14 2006 |

Congrats to our friends at Pure Networks on the announcement of a formal partnership with Symantec to distribute its home networking software. We first heard about this strategic move last spring...which seems to be on par with how long it takes to develop these types of definitive agreements. Remember the days when two entrepreneurs would meet at a networking event, realize that they have mutually advantageous business plans and quickly move to collaborate? In our world today, clients can take months to resolve the smallest talking point in an agreement. But if you want to go to a place where you can still informally meet entrepreneurs and boost your business, try the nPost.com Entrepreneur Networking Event on Tuesday, November 14 at The Great Nabob in Seattle.

-posted by Rachel

BigOven is cooking

Tuesday, Nov 07 2006 |

Another interesting company I didn't know about: Seattle-based BigOven, which has won a slew of awards for its recipe software, including PC World's pick as a top 15 download last year. The company announced some product improvements earlier this week including my personal favorite, Leftover Wizard, which lets you enter available ingredients online to get an answer of what you can make for dinner. Of course, it only works if you have more than leftover Halloween candy and pumpkin seeds to work with.

-posted by Rachel

History is destined to repeat itself (in a good way)

Tuesday, Nov 07 2006 |

The Vancouver Sun recently reported that B.C.-based Monro Communications is capturing the attention of education enthusiasts with its online movie software product that allows users to assemble images, sounds and film clips from Internet resources into motion pictures. The content, which never leaves the company’s server, allows teachers to add audio-visual components to traditional book-based lessons without worrying about copyright infringement.

-posted by Lindsay

AMS keeps growing...and growing...and growing

Monday, Oct 30 2006 |

Our friends at Bothell-based AMS Services announced a new customer for its SETWrite product this week. SETWrite's multiple-carrier rating solution will be incorporated into Smart Choice, a product offered by the Worldwide Insurance Network headquartered in Greensboro, NC. This means that insurance agents using Smart Choice will be able to get accurate, real-time rates from multiple carriers without having to visit multiple websites, thanks to AMS. Earlier in October, AMS announced that NetQuote would integrate with SETWrite.

-posted by Rachel

Goodbye, home phone. Helloooo, cellular/Wi-Fi handset

Monday, Oct 30 2006 |

RCR Wireless reported that T-Mobile USA will select a handful of consumers in the Seattle market to trial its T-Mobile Hotspot @ Home offering. Seattlites will be the first to demo the “landline killer” that allows users to leverage both cellular and Wi-Fi networks with a single handset.

-posted by Lindsay

Game over for Halo movie?

Wednesday, Oct 25 2006 |

Rumors are flying that both Universal and Fox are backing out of the silver screen adaptation of Microsoft's "Halo." Variety reported today that both financial backers may not have Microsoft's back after all. Disputes over the budget - originally projected at $135 million but now raging out of control - spurned trouble this week as Universal and Fox tried to convince Microsoft to reduce their potential profit and cut filmmaking costs.

-posted by Mallory

Pure Networks snags new head honcho

Wednesday, Oct 25 2006 |

A big shout out to Jeff Erwin, the new CEO leading our friends at Pure Networks (www.purenetworks.com). He's already been blogging on the company site...if there are things that really bug you about home networking, log on and let him know.

-posted by Rachel

Big Fish and the power of the blog

Tuesday, Oct 24 2006 |

If you're looking for some marketing talent, Big Fish Games axed a number of marketing folks in last week's layoff/purge. Layoff stories aren't new, but this one is making for a pretty interesting read over at intrepid Seattle P-I reporter John Cook's blog site. It would seem that blogs can be used to give ex-employees a place to sound off, and in doing so, give the rest of us an inside look at a business activity usually tightly controlled by lawyers and HR-types. I'll be interested to see if the company tries to PR spin its lack of finesse on how the layoff was handled -- and whether or not Argosy Cruises, which played an unwitting role in the debacle, will come away still believing that any publicity is good publicity.

-posted by Rachel

Build a better butt

Tuesday, Oct 24 2006 |

Bellingham-based Mannequinstore.com, an Internet retailer of mannequins, launched its new line of anatomically-correct buttocks earlier this month. Why? Because better display butts are apparently needed by the lingerie industry. Just looking at the website is a crackup (intentional pun).

-posted by Rachel

Oh, Say...SAO's looking for a new honcho

Thursday, Oct 19 2006 |

The Software Alliance of Oregon, the state's largest trade organization, took an unusual step toward finding its new president. Last week, the group issued a press release announcing the position opening. With classified ad rates increasing, it's an interesting idea -- the wire fees might even be less expensive.

-posted by Rachel

Dwang the drums, Dijji is dead

Thursday, Oct 19 2006 |

OK, so I'm a little behind the times. I just learned that our friends at Dijji closed and locked the doors last summer. Formerly known as Dwango Wireless, Dijji's death knell probably started to sound when it changed its name. So long, Dijji...we barely knew ye.

-posted by Rachel

Open space at InfoSpace?

Tuesday, Oct 17 2006 |

InfoSpace (www.infospace.com) announced recently that its revenues will be adversely impacted by the loss of a carrier customer, widely rumored to be Cingular. Seattle P-I reporter John Cooke speculated in his blog that the legal mumblespeak in the announcement probably translates into company layoffs. And Eric Savitz's blog at Barron's resurrected a phrase from the tech bubble to describe InfoSpace's dilemma: disintermediated. All much more interesting and useful information than what was in the standard reports...still, a black week for InfoSpace folks.

-posted by Rachel

Things go better with...er, Perlego

Wednesday, Sep 20 2006 |

VOXUS client Perlego recently used a brilliant visual to explain its company and product. The company participated in the Zino Zillionaire Investment Forum this week where, during a quick elevator pitch for investment funds, company honcho Todd Ostrander dropped a cell phone into a Coke. This action probably explained better than words that the company's product backs up information on mobile devices so that, if lost or stolen, owners can easily retrieve it. Bravo, Todd!

-posted by Rachel

Startupalooza, starring Redfin

Wednesday, Sep 20 2006 |

What a great idea! Seven Seattle-area startups are holding a job fair in the lobby of one of the participants, Redfin, on Thursday, September 28 from 5:30-8:00 p.m. If you've always wanted to work for a startup, don't miss Startupalooza. Other companies participating in the networking event are Bag, Borrow or Steal, Blue Dot, Exbiblio, Farecast, Mercent and Mpire. We've blogged about several of these companies in the past, so they've been around for awhile -- in other words, they might just present the job you've been looking for.

-posted by Rachel

ISOMEDIA goes west (and south)

Wednesday, Sep 20 2006 |

Our friends at ISOMEDIA have completed their headquarters move from Redmond to the heart of Downtown Seattle. Now comes the hard part: remembering which box holds whatever it is you're looking for! Congratulations on the new digs.

-posted by Rachel

I'll take some broccoli...and a Healthnotes recipe, please

Wednesday, Sep 20 2006 |

There's an interesting company in the Portland area that's working hard to make in-store shopping a more complete experience...kind of an antidote to the ease of online shopping. Healthnotes dubs itself the "hub of healthy living" in the marketplace, albeit the grocery store, pharmacy or natural products shop. Through its interactive kiosks found in appropriate aisles, Healthnotes can do neat things such as suggest wine pairings and deliver recipes (and the requisite shopping list). The company is announcing the debut of Healthnotes Connect 2007.

-posted by Rachel

Hobnob at The Great Nabob

Tuesday, Sep 05 2006 |

nPost.com, an organization that enables entrepreneurs to brainstorm with other like minded individuals AND successful CEOs of high-tech companies, has found the perfect place to host its next after-work mingle. Interested parties will be gathering at The Great Nabob in Queen Anne on Wednesday, September 20 from 6-8 p.m. It's free, but you must sign up to attend. Your next opportunity will be on Tuesday, October 17. Visit the website for more information.

-posted by Rachel

Wireless Services Corp goes single

Tuesday, Sep 05 2006 |

Our friends at Bellevue-based Wireless Services Corporation not only grabbed an additional $30 Million in financing recently...it's got a new name. It's now known as SinglePoint to reflect the company's new focus through its acquisition of Mobile Media North America. SinglePoint was formerly the name of Wireless Services Corporation's flagship product, a comprehensive portfolio of advanced data services for carriers. Now, SinglePoint is offering a much more powerful platform for delivering media content, thanks to the strength of Mobile Media. We definitely like the new tagline: "Move the message with SinglePoint."

-posted by Rachel

Startup namia, redux

Tuesday, Sep 05 2006 |

Just a few more unusual startup names that have grabbed my attention lately...if you're playing along, try to figure out what these companies do before going to their websites: Jookster, Cozi, Kerika and BlueDot. I was especially fascinated by Jookster since it helpfully added an explanation for the name on its website: "Jook is a term that inner city basketball players use when they fake out their opponent on their way to scoring a basket." OK, I'm still a bit dazed and confused, but it's a cool name.

-posted by Rachel

Rent a server at Amazon.com

Tuesday, Sep 05 2006 |

Amazon.com's newest web service, Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2), aims to make server capacity a bottomless pit... if you unexpectedly max out yours, multiple server rentals will be available online to immediately expand your web-based power. With the new service, Amazon hopes to simplify and decrease the cost of web-scale development. Amazon Machine Image (yet to be created) will potentially house the new service's applications and essential data and will be integrated into the existing S3 solution. Amazon is not the first to offer a server rental solution, but is unique in its proposed fee system, proportional to the hours and bandwidth used rather than a flat rate. The service is currently available exclusively to trial users.

-posted by Mallory

Bellevue's ArenaNet offers new gaming sensation

Friday, Aug 25 2006 |

The gamers' olympics is wrapping up in Leipzig, Germany where nerds from around the world are competing in the Guild Wars Factions(TM) World Championship. Produced by Bellevue-based ArenaNet and Korea-based NCsoft Corporation, the game was an instant bestseller when first released in 2005 and has since climbed the charts to be declared the #1 game in North America and Europe in early 2006. ArenaNet today announced that the latest and greatest version will be released worldwide on Oct. 27. Guild Wars Factions(TM) transports players to the fantastical land of Elona, where they compete with online players across the globe, battling mad rulers and outcast gods across dangerous coasts and poisonous deserts. For the over-eager, highly addicted gamer, the Guild Wars Nightfall Prerelease Bonus Pack will be available Sept. 15, and don't forget the long-awaited collectors' edition to be revealed in late October. Game on!

-posted by Mallory

Mobilisa to talk Navy strategy

Friday, Aug 25 2006 |

The September 21 meeting of the West Sound Technology Professionals Organization features Craig Bleile, Port Townsend-based Mobilisa's chief scientist, who will speak on the interoperability of the Navy's battle force. Mobilisa recently morphed from a company specializing in wireless infrastructure for water-based facilities (ocean liners, ferries, etc.) into one that tags itself as an expert in mobile and wireless -- period -- expanding into software development for PDAs, Pocket PCs and cell phones. Could be because of stiff competition from Seattle's SeaMobile, which announced a contract with Crystal Cruises (Crystal Serenity and Crystal Symphony ships) last month to deliver wireless services.

-posted by Rachel

Dotster Dots

Friday, Aug 25 2006 |

Are you just waiting for your big break? You could be a Dotster Dot! To promote its "MyInternet" services, Dotster Inc. is announcing their search for the Dotster Dots. Dotster, a leading Internet domain name provider, is looking for "female company ambassadors" to travel the US at high-profile shows and events. The lucky Dotster Dots will be awarded a year-long spokesmodel contract and will be dressed to the nines in clothing from some of the biggest names in fashion. Auditions will be held in Miami, Atlanta, New York, and Los Angeles. Watch out "America's Next Top Model"!

-posted by Joanna

GPS - The Game, GPS - The Movie

Friday, Aug 25 2006 |

GPS and geo-caching continue to build momentum as one of the latest crazes in outdoor sports. Part technology, part treasure hunt and part hide-and-go-seek, there is a new element entering the fun from Tacoma based IndieClub.com and Right Way Productions. First, we have GPS - The Game, which takes geo-caching to a whole new level by adding online mysteries and forums where game players can interact. Next comes GPS - The Movie, where a group of college kids search for $2 Million throughout the Pacific Northwest, ending at a grave. Sounds like a fun way to spend a weekend.

-posted by Rachel

Yahoo, Webaroo!

Friday, Aug 25 2006 |

Years ago, we had the opportunity to work with Action Engine when it was first launching a mobile platform for smartphones that enabled users to access Web information. The Action Engine product got around the downloading and memory issues by having customers capture and store frequently used data. Now, Bellevue-based Webaroo has taken that same concept and added lots of bells and whistles so that consumers can literally, as it says, "search...unplugged." It's compatible with handhelds running Windows Pocket PC 2003 SE or Windows Mobile 5.0.

-posted by Rachel

Knewtrino - 2 kewl

Thursday, Aug 17 2006 |

There's an announcement this week from Seattle's Knewtrino about its new mobile messaging service in beta trial...but I'm more fascinated by the company's name. There are any number of startup companies that have made unusual choices for their monikers; others that have caught my attention recently are PixPulse, la la, Brain Murmurs and Ookla, to name a few. For an amusing game, try to figure out what these companies do, and then check their websites for info.

-posted by Rachel

Envision gets creative with awards

Thursday, Aug 17 2006 |

Yet more news from the folks at Envision: Avaya reseller Cross was awarded Envision's 2006 Partner of the Year. In the past, we've frequently recommended to appropriate clients that they consider instituting an internal award program, particularly as a way to keep visibility in the media -- and here's an example of a company that's doing just that.

-posted by Rachel

You've GotVoice!

Friday, Aug 11 2006 |

There's a cool Kirkland-based company called GotVoice that is essentially enabling users to manage voicemail through a single online email box -- and the new GotVoice Dispatch, announced this week, provides "Ringless Messages" cross-carrier, an industry first. From a marketing standpoint, what's even more intriguing is that the company is successfully conducting an informational campaign through the blogging community, a true indication of the power of non-traditional digital media outlets.

-posted by Rachel

Envision breakfasts at Tiffany's

Friday, Aug 11 2006 |

Our friends at Envision posted great news earlier this week -- the company is trumpeting an 80 percent increase in software license revenues and some new customers, including Tiffany & Co.

-posted by Rachel

Onyx Revisited

Wednesday, Aug 02 2006 |

Last month, we noted that Onyx Software had found itself in the middle of an acquisition bidding war between M2M Holdings and Hong Kong-based CDC Corp. Now, Onyx shareholders approved the offer tendered by M2M, even though CDC offered more money. M2M promised to keep Onyx management in place, something CDC didn't guarantee. So who says investors are only in it for the money?

-posted by Rachel

WatchGuard cashes in for $150+ million

Wednesday, Aug 02 2006 |

Francisco Partners, a California-based private equity fund, is buying troubled WatchGuard Technologies. While it's no surprise that WatchGuard accepted a buyout, Francisco Partners is a new player -- Vector Capital had tendered an offer last February for the security company. It's an interesting purchase, since Francisco acquired WRQ in 2004 and brokered its merger with Attachmate.

-posted by Rachel

Seattle single seeks wife on eHarmony

Wednesday, Jul 26 2006 |

So you gotta love a guy who literally puts it all out there. Scott Krager, founder of Notary One (where notaries come to you when you need them), has given himself one year to find a wife via eHarmony.com. While this, in itself, isn't all that remarkable, the fact that you can vicariously enjoy his intense pursuit of matrimony is. Check out his blog at www.eharmony.wordpress.com.

-posted by Rachel

Infinium goes Phantom

Wednesday, Jul 26 2006 |

Seattle-based Infinium Labs officially changed its name to Phantom Entertainment earlier this week. Not a bad idea...the Infinium name is unfortunately associated with its former CEO and chairman, now charged by the SEC with securities fraud. Under the banner of Phantom Entertainment, the gaming peripheral company hopes to raise more cash by doubling authorized company shares from 600 million to 1.2 billion. Let's hope that's not just a phantom wish.

-posted by Rachel

Psst - need a used microscope?

Wednesday, Jul 26 2006 |

The National Microscope Exchange, based in Carnation, launched www.microscopeauctions.com last week to connect buyers with new and used microscopes. I'm always fascinated by niche markets -- who knew there would be a need for this?

-posted by Rachel

Where the millionaires are

Wednesday, Jul 26 2006 |

Thank God for John Cook, the Seattle P-I's intrepid blogger, who frequently covers little-known (but important!) facts about the area. Last week, his column clued me in to PropertyShark, a new database for easy property research...which can also be used to pinpoint where wealthy, single folks live in the area. Looking for prince charming? According to PropertyShark's man maps, try Belltown or Auburn. Conversely, prosperous single women are living in Madison Park.

-posted by Rachel

Braintech pushes Brave New World forward

Wednesday, Jul 26 2006 |

The future I read about in elementary school is finally here. Last month, Vancouver, BC-based Braintech, which makes vision guided robotic software, announced that its product is now being deployed in the Toyota Motors plant in West Virginia. Essentially, Braintech's TrueView(tm) technology enables human assembly line workers to be replaced by vision guided robots to automate the transfer of completed engines to the engine testing line. Aldous Huxley wouldn't be surprised.

-posted by Rachel

I'll take a latte...and today's clue

Tuesday, Jul 18 2006 |

Starbucks is always looking for innovative ways to use technology to increase its interaction with customers. Its cafes were early adopters of WiFi technology -- and this week, the company initiated the "Starbucks Summer Pursuit" game. Using Starbucks-related trivia questions delivered via text message, customers with cell phones can enjoy a summertime scavenger hunt between now and August 11. Top winners go to New York City to play in the ultimate scavenger hunt.

-posted by Rachel

Onyx sings the blues?

Tuesday, Jul 18 2006 |

The saga of Onyx Software continues to take interesting turns. Once a titan in the Seattle-area technology arena, Onyx agreed last month to be acquired by M2M Holdings (owned by Battery Ventures and Thoma Cressey Equity Partners). But rejected suitor CDC Corp., a Hong Kong-based software firm, isn't willing to gracefully leave the bargaining table. The company mounted a hostile takeover with an offer that now tops the one made by M2M. For even more drama, CDC has charged that the reason Onyx is failing to seriously consider its offer is because M2M Holdings has promised to keep current management in place -- and presumably CDC has not made the same promise.

-posted by Rachel

Positive Motion enters social networking scene

Thursday, Jul 06 2006 |

So Seattle P-I reporter John Cook recently went on vacation...but before he did, he posed a question: if you could join any startup in town, which one would it be? One of the more interesting comments was from James Wren, a former Amazonian who is forming a mobile application company called Positive Motion that will enter the social networking market (he calls it a cell phone education application). Since this seems to be a hot entry spot for entrepreneurs these days, it'll be interesting to watch his progress. He's started a blog where you can follow him step-by-step as he goes through the process of establishing his company.

-posted by Rachel

Trumba tickled pink

Wednesday, Jul 05 2006 |

Trumba continues to build its reputation as the little company that could (and does!). The company grabbed the editor's choice award from Webhost Magazine this month for its "excellent calendar service." You can learn more by checking out Trumba's interesting blog, where there are other very entertaining and useful entries.

Not bad for a startup that's tackling 800 pound gorilla Google.

-posted by Rachel

Action Engine ready for prime time

Wednesday, Jul 05 2006 |

Since we had the opportunity to work with Bellevue-based Action Engine in its early days, it's a real pleasure to see the company surging ahead after its morph into something more than just a web-access platform for mobile phones. Industry analysts at IDC recently named Action Engine one of the top 10 emerging wireless entertainment players to watch in 2006.

-posted by Rachel

I'll take the Alpine Swiss Burger and a side of data security please

Wednesday, Jul 05 2006 |

Attention all restuarant fanatics -- Ruby Tuesday has selected Tripwire Enterprise to ensure that all credit card data is safe and secure.

-posted by Justin

Network Magic makes PC World's list

Monday, Jun 05 2006 |

'Tis the season for awards...and our friends at Pure Networks copped a big one with Network Magic being named one of the Best 100 Products in 2006 by PC World magazine. Congratulations to them...you can learn more about it in their Network Garage blog. And if you're a great CEO looking for a new home, Pure Networks is looking for you, along with multiple marketing and program managers. Drop them a resume.

-posted by Rachel

eWEEK lauds Isilon

Monday, Jun 05 2006 |

Congrats to Seattle-based Isilon Systems. The company was named a winner in eWEEK magazine's Sixth Annual Excellence Awards program for its Isilon IQ clustered storage product. Earlier this year, the company was also selected as one of Bio-IT WORLD's top 50 picks for companies that are changing the way pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies conduct their businesses.

-posted by Rachel

Pacarc delivers barcode art

Monday, Jun 05 2006 |

Proving that there really ARE new ideas out there, Seattle's Pacarc has partnered with Japan's Design Barcode to deliver barcode art to the U.S. market. Custom designed barcodes take advantage of one of the last pieces of packaging "real estate" and enable manufacturers to get one more message in front of the consumer. Pacarc has produced a website where you can see a gallery of designs already in use.

-posted by Rachel

PopCap's whack-a-gnome nowhere to be found

Thursday, May 25 2006 |

For everyone who loves to whack-a-mole at the local arcade to relieve frustration, now there's Hammer Heads(tm), a new web/PC action game from Seattle's PopCap Games. The difference: you're now challenged to smash gnomes. You'd think this might put Travelocity's "Roaming Gnome" in grave danger...but even though the press announcement says Hammer Heads is now available at the company's website, through Yahoo! and RealArcade, I couldn't find it anywhere. Note to self: make sure clients don't run announcements saying products are available until they actually are.

-posted by Rachel

Intelius helps vets safeguard personal data

Thursday, May 25 2006 |

I'm always intrigued by companies that jump on a news story, and I have to say that Intelius has successfully done just that. Earlier this week, we learned that 26.5 million veterans have had their personal identification information placed at risk due to a burglary at the U.S. Department of Veteran Affairs . In response to this, Intelius is offering veterans its proactive identity theft prevention service, IDWatch, for a steeply discounted rate for a one-year contract.

CEO Naveen Jain is always charismatic and clever (remember the Infospace debacle when Jain and other top execs took investors on a wild ride and then surprisingly resigned in tandem?), but this time I actually think he's providing meaningful assistance to men and women who don't get enough recognition for their service to our country.

-posted by Rachel

Inrix ingests $10M

Thursday, May 25 2006 |

It might be a little like predicting the weather...but Redmond-based Inrix says it's got a way to accurately tell you the traffic speed and flow on every major metropolitan freeway, arterial and side street across the U.S. -- both in real-time and predictive modes. Before you voice your skepticism, the VC community just ponied up $10 million in Series B funding in an oversubscribed round to help Inrix expand its business. Formerly known as Device-Works, Inrix has an interesting pedigree through founders Bryan Mistele and Craig Chapman, who previously were associated with Microsoft's mobile and embedded devices division. A third partner, Seth Eisner, is a former Expedia.com honcho.

-posted by Rachel

Macheads have Brain Murmurs

Thursday, May 25 2006 |

I do love these interesting company names...Seattle-based Brain Murmurs announced its continued commitment to support the Apple platform and has released a Universal Binary version of its JIVA Grid System. JIVA allows businesses to run what the company refers to as "computationally exhaustive" work on unused desktop computers through its grid platform at optimized performance. If this doesn't make any sense to you, think in terms of an idle computer intuitively running parallel tasks; it's something that would be of great help to someone doing pharmaceutical research, for example.

All very interesting, but it still doesn't explain the company's name.

-posted by Rachel

Envision racks up another award... or two

Thursday, May 25 2006 |

Our friends at Envision have received additional accolades...this time it's two Members' Choice awards from ContactCenterWorld.com for Best Performance Management and Best Recording/Quality Monitoring solutions. The company has a great track record in winning awards for its Performance Suite product for the business itself, with at least five major awards in 2005.

-posted by Rachel

MiraLink's own disaster

Tuesday, May 23 2006 |

MiraLink, a Portland-based expert in remote disaster recovery solutions, announced today free disaster recovery prevention tips as part of Hurricane Preparedness week. What are the tips? Well, you have to call a number or email support - go figure. Apparently hurricane tips are top secret these days and you need to be screened by expert personnel. At least that's what you're led to believe. Here's what I imagine happens when you call:

MiraLink: "Hello, thanks for calling the MiraLink Hurricane Hotline. Hit 1 to speak with a sales representative or 2 to get the hurricane tip of the day from a MiraLink sales representative."

ACME Corp. caller hits 2: "Hello, I need tips for helping my business during a hurricane."

MiraLink: "Well, there are lots of things you can do to prepare your business for a hurricane. However, we recommend you forgo the important things and purchase our MiraLink Disaster Recovery Solution. That's our tip of the day."

So I couldn't resist calling the hotline. Drum roll please. And guess what.....an automated system that's not really a hotline at all, but instead the company directory listing sales first, tech support second and so on!!!!!! I have run out of words to describe this......

-posted by Justin

iPods for data theft?

Tuesday, May 23 2006 |

According to a new endpoint security survey from Portland-based Centennial Software, 91 percent of businesses believe portable storage devices (iPods, USB memory sticks, etc.) continue to pose a large security risk to corporate and network integrity. However, only one third of companies polled have taken steps to address this problem: 66 percent of businesses have yet to implement a solution to prevent the unauthorized use of portable storage devices on the corporate network. Research also showed that 75 percent of those surveyed identified data theft as the primary risk associated with portable storage device usage at work, followed by virus propagation and productivity declines.

Next time you see an employee walk out the door with his/her iPod in tow, you shouldn't be thinking about the latest Pearl Jam album, but instead, your customer database.

-posted by Justin

Wireless carriers to push back on placeshifting market

Tuesday, May 23 2006 |

Edmonds-based research analyst Mike Wolf, currently a principal with ABI Research, issued a report last week that describes a potential future battle between wireless carriers and companies with products such as Slingbox that offer what he calls "placeshifting" technologies. As he puts it, streaming pay-per-view TV from a set-top box over the Internet to other personal mobile devices can become disruptive to mobile operators, who will view it as rogue applications that tie up their cellular networks. Still, his report projects the placeshifting device market to grow to $740 million by 2011.

-posted by Rachel

Entellium says "Flush this!"

Tuesday, May 23 2006 |

There were so many headlines I could have written for this -- our friends at Entellium are now providing their hosted CRM system to gDiapers, a Portland-based company developing an eco-friendly and flushable diaper. Might sound like small potatoes, but gDiapers is now found at all of the major alternative markets nationwide, including Wild Oats, Whole Foods and New Seasons.

-posted by Rachel

Wiki up with Wetpaint

Wednesday, May 17 2006 |

Just stumbled across Michael Arrington's blog entry on a new Seattle startup called Wetpaint. Wetpaint opened its doors last March with the mission of making wikis, or websites where numerous people can pool their thoughts, easier to use and deploy through a hosted services-type platform. Even though Wetpaint is still in beta, the company launched six consumer-focused sites today powered by Wetpaint including "Secrets Behind the DaVinci Code" and "Brickiwiki" for folks who just can't get enough LEGO in their lives. Kudos to Wetpaint -- it's a clever business concept, and just visiting the website is fun.

-posted by Rachel

Audion tackles podcast uploads

Wednesday, May 17 2006 |

Audion tackles podcast uploads

Charlie Brown isn't just kicking the football these days. The former Seattle radio personality's Bainbridge Island-based Audion Labs has added a new feature to the VoxPro product that makes using podcasts easier. VoxPro, its audio recording/editing software, now has a publication wizard that works as a production tool to help users generate RSS files, compress audio into an MP3 format and upload audio files directly to the web.

-posted by Rachel

Chow down at RealNetworks

Wednesday, May 17 2006 |

Not that I'm totally focused on food or anything, but I was interested to read in Seattle Times reporter Brier Dudley's blog about Google's corporate headquarters cafeteria. Apparently, it's redefining the type of meals employees are offered on the job site. Which started me wondering about the type of food fare offered in Seattle's corporate cafeterias. Corporate cafes and cafeterias can be found at Microsoft (natch!) and Starbucks (double natch!), and then there's Nintendo's Cafe Mario, to name a few. Apparently, RealNetworks even upgraded their cafeteria last year to the point that CEO Rob Glaser eats there upon occasion. While most of these fine dining establishments are employees-only, pharma firm Merck's Seattle office on Lake Union lets the general public enjoy its cafe run by well-known caterer On Safari Foods. Time for lunch.

-posted by Rachel

Attention Mac Heads

Thursday, May 11 2006 |

The next meeting of the West Sound Technology Professionals Association features Daniel Lee, director of information technology at the Kitsap Sun newspaper talking on "An Apple a Day Keeps the Trojans Away: Mac in the Business Environment." The program is scheduled for Thursday, May 18 at 5:30 p.m. at the Poulsbo branch of the Kitsap Regional Library, 700 NE Lincoln Street. It's just $5.00 for non-members.

-posted by Rachel

F5 rings the bell

Thursday, May 11 2006 |

Last weekend over drinks at a Kentucky Derby party, I learned that F5 Networks would be ringing the opening bell at NASDAQ sometime soon...turns out CEO John McAdam is pressing the button Friday morning. I'll be watching on CNN, but if you're in New York, you can see the images replayed throughout the day on the outside monitor.

-posted by Rachel

For the love of cars

Thursday, May 11 2006 |

For those of you who believe that your Volvo, Mustang, BMW, and yes, even your humble Toyota beater truck is more than just a four-wheeled machine, Carster has arrived. The new Seattle-based online car enthusiast community site launched earlier this week with an announcement of cash prizes and "Car of the Week" competitions. While I don't get it, I'm sure many of you do -- so drop us a comment.

-posted by Rachel

Iovation improves online security

Tuesday, May 09 2006 |

iovation, a device reputation authority for online authentication and fraud management, announced today that digital entertainment giant Bodog.com, the global leader in safe and secure online betting, has selected and deployed the ieSnare(TM) system, the world's first online fraud detection solution to use Device Reputation Authority(TM) (DRA) technology.

For those not familiar with this device reputation authority technology – which honestly, is most of us – it tracks the relationship of physical devices to the accounts created in an e-commerce environment. What does that mean? Basically, online retailers can now tie the identity of physical devices to any of the accounts that cyber-criminals create – or try to create. Then they can cross reference those accounts with a database to identify criminals. Slick stuff.

-posted by Justin

Working Moms

Tuesday, May 09 2006 |

Kate Bagggot recently wrote an article in The Globe & Mail that really hit home for me. Kate discussed how the tech industry's support of mothers is contradictory, and I have to agree. I was shocked to learn that Ericsson recently offered 1,000 of its Swedish employees between the ages of 35 and 50 a voluntary buy out. They hope to replace those expensive, long term employees with 900 workers under the age of 30. The move flies in the face of study results that concluded that becoming a mother makes women more focused, effective, efficient and productive at work (see "Giving Birth to Supermom")

I have to say, the hardest thing I've ever done is to become a working mom. There is immeasurable guilt when you have a baby (who always takes priority in my book) that requires you to spend time out of the office. Fortunately, working in the tech industry, we're provided with tools that allow you to do your job anywhere - from home or on the road, at any time of day. I have a cell phone, a laptop, a high speed connection at home, wireless access in hotspots - you name it. I am accessible 24x7. However, perception for many is a very different thing. Many people hold the belief that if you aren't in the office, you aren't working or aren't available. This leads to tension, guilt and all around dissatisfaction. I believe this is what leads companies like Ericsson to make moves like this.

I also believe that this will change over time but I think it will take longer than we initially thought. I remember when I was in grad school we had the "great debate" about the efficiency of the mobile workforce. I was a huge advocate then and still am today. Life is short - and a healthy work/life balance is almost impossible. Fortunately, technology has evolved to the point that it enables all of us to do the best that we can.

-posted by Anne

Microsoft's Cheeze Whiz

Monday, May 08 2006 |

I can be as star-struck as any teenager...but I didn't expect Microsoft to admit to this same secret. The company launched CelebFavorites today as an offshoot of its online local mapping and search service, Microsoft Windows Live Local, powered by Virtual Earth. If your favorite celebrity has signed up to be featured on CelebFavorites, you can easily discover where he or she likes to hang out and get directions to each spot. Current participants range from Eva Longoria to Alex Rodriguez. No word on how long you'll have to wait to actually get to say "cheese" in a photo op.

-posted by Rachel

Google singing "Give me a Home"

Monday, May 08 2006 |

We've heard rumors from folks looking for office space in or near Seattle that the sprawling needs of Amgen and Google are making their search extremely difficult. Although the company won't confirm it, Google is imminently expected to open its newest office in Fremont in the Evanston Building, as first reported by John Cook and Todd Bishop. It should be interesting to see how the very eclectic "Center of the Universe" adjusts to this influx of new business blood.

-posted by Rachel

Who's got the Clock(link)?

Monday, May 08 2006 |

Over 8 million viewers a day, or 90 viewers each second, are now using Bellevue-based Pacific Software Publishing's Clocklink service. Clocklink provides a gallery of working clock images to bloggers and website designers who want to display one on their websites. It's pretty simple to use -- just click on the clock of choice and the HTML tag will appear, which can then be embedded on any site. What I found most fascinating, however, was the webpage that ranks the most popular clock choices with Clocklink's users (the beagle clock is pretty funny). I would never have thought that web-based clocks could be the raison d'etre for any company, so kudos to PSP for providing what is obviously a popular service.

-posted by Rachel

New funding for GaleForce

Monday, May 08 2006 |

GaleForce Solutions just announced that it has secured follow-on funding from three of Canada’s top-tier investor groups—Yaletown Venture Partners, BC Advantage Fund and Discovery Capital. Founded in 2003, GaleForce Solutions creates highly customized CRM solutions for Wealth Management, Capital Markets and Commercial and Retail Banking. The company is 100% focused on Financial Services, CRM, and Microsoft infrastructure.

-posted by Anne

eZ Systems opens new office in Vancouver

Monday, May 08 2006 |

Norweigan software company eZ Systems has announced it has selected Vancouver, BC as the headquarters for it's North American Operations. The company selected Vancouver over Silicon Valley and Boston, mainly due to Vancouver's vibrant software industry and Canada's corporate culture. eZ Systems is the creator of the eZ publish Open Source Enterprise Content Management System. The company delivers products and services to customers worldwide, with reference customers like MIT, the US NAVY and the State of Florida in North America. For more information on this, go to: http://www.leadingedgebc.ca/newsroom.php

-posted by Anne

Go to the light

Friday, May 05 2006 |

It used to be the rare company that had an official evangelist by title -- and having one on board indicated that the company was trendy or cutting edge. Apple actually began the practice in the 1980s with Guy Kawasaki. Somehow, unlike other unique-to-tech industry inventions that disappeared with the burst of the bubble, the title "evangelist" has become more popular than ever and is now widely accepted in the Northwest. There's Microsoft's well-known technical evangelist Robert Scoble, chief evangelist Connie Smith at Envision, and even self-titled technology evangelist Robert Sanzalone -- plus, there are open requisitions for evangelists at Amazon. Perhaps VOXUS needs to keep up with this seriously hip title trend...can I get an "Amen?"

-posted by Rachel

Digimarc protecting satellite images

Friday, May 05 2006 |

Some interesting news out of Beaverton. It appears Digimarc Digital Watermarking will be used to protect satellite images on the internet. More specifically, Microsoft will use Digimarc to communicate copyright information of tens of millions of images served up by Microsoft Virtual Earth. This announcement came after Digimarc and Script Software battled it out in the final round of the Watermark Deathmatch Championships in Redmond (picture a StarWars lightsaber battle, but with turn of the century manual watermarkers). Digimarc - 13 stamps, Script - 5. IN YOUR FACE SCRIPT!!!!! Oh well, there's always Google Earth.

-posted by Justin

TelID solves my phone book dilemma

Friday, May 05 2006 |

I've often wondered why you don't often see a company's website URL coupled with its phone number in directories. Seems like this would be a no-brainer, especially for online directories. Initially, I was delighted to learn that Portland-based TelID, a division of SnapNames has developed a platform that will allow you to enter a phone number and pull up a web address. Unfortunately, the first organization to roll out this service is Ad-Ventures Hawaii... so not only do Oahu residents get to enjoy sun, sand and balmy breezes, now they get easy surfing as well.

-posted by Rachel

New tech bubble?

Monday, May 01 2006 |

The P-I's John Cook blogs about a his new "bubble meter" feature; tracking the signs on an impending tech bubble. His "sixth sign" is: New public relations firms -- touting rosters of new technology clients -- emerge. Since the announcement we sent him about our new firm and its roster of technology clients went out on April 21 and he didn't post this until April 27, I'm sure that the two are completely unrelated. We are not the sixth sign of the apocalypse. We're not.

-posted by Paul

Apparent launches AppCritical for network monitoring

Monday, May 01 2006 |

BC-based Apparent Networks delivers AppCritical; gives customers real-time end-to-end view of network performance and its impact on critical applications. The concept of looking at network performance from an enterprise application perspective instead of the typical device-centric view is interesting. We'll report more on this and related news after we get back (and sober up) from Interop in Vegas this week.

-posted by Paul

New Edge edges out of market

Monday, May 01 2006 |

Vancouver, WA-based New Edge Networks was fully acquired earlier this month by Earthlink. The acquisition of the VPN service provider has been in the works since December of last year. The good news: Earthlink says it will keep its 300+ employees.

-posted by Rachel

More on Mobilisa

Thursday, Apr 27 2006 |

Port Townsend-based Mobilisa, which we wrote about earlier this week, just announced that they won a $1M contract from the US Navy to supply wireless networks for floating battle groups. The company already does the Washington state ferries; they appear to be on a floating roll.

-posted by Paul

AttachmateWRQ Acquires NetIQ

Thursday, Apr 27 2006 |

Seattle-based AttachmateWRQ today announced the $495M acquisition of San Jose-based NetIQ. The company is taking NetIQ private, and it will make the newly merged AttachmateWRQ, already our largest privately-held software company, considerably bigger.

-posted by Paul

Birthing Ookla and baby

Thursday, Apr 27 2006 |

Congratulations are in order two times around for Speakeasy founder Mike Apgar who reports that, in addition to formally launching his new venture Ookla, he and his wife Gretchen had their second child earlier this month. And if you haven't tried out Ookla's nifty little product, Speed Test, it's definitely fun and useful for learning just how zippy your Internet connection actually is. I first heard about Speed Test over at Pure Networks, and CEO Tim Dowling has written about it in his blog.

-posted by Rachel

SchemaLogic ties social networking into business

Wednesday, Apr 26 2006 |

Kirkland-based SchemaLogic today announced a new "semantics standards workspace" called Aurora: "The collaboration tool was launched to support the recent trend by organizations and industries to facilitate collaboration among hundreds or even thousands of knowledge workers to leverage social networking and online collaboration tools such as wikis and folksonomies with application to business semantics." Interesting...

-posted by Paul

InfoSpace shows record revenue

Wednesday, Apr 26 2006 |

Infospace today announced record revenues of $90.3M and net income of $3.0M. "InfoSpace had an exciting quarter, delivering strong results and record revenues fueled by strength in media downloads and online search."

-posted by Paul

Mobliss execs off and running

Wednesday, Apr 26 2006 |

Mobliss execs off and running

Recently, I checked in to see how Mobliss was faring -- and, while the company seems to be doing well, I was shocked to see that the entire roster of executives we used to know there have left! A quick Google search showed that Brent Bookler, one of the Mobliss founders, is now the founder and CEO of a new Seattle-area venture: HyperBoy. One of our favorite bloggers, Om Malik, mentioned the company in a post last month where he wondered whether or not there was room for another social networking site in the market. Brent was quick to respond - and it's interesting to read his take on HyperBoy's potential market.

And if you're wondering why I was suddenly interested in Mobliss again -- the company's product was the first platform to enable text message voting for American Idol. 'Nuff said.

-posted by Rachel

R U in CP-TA?

Wednesday, Apr 26 2006 |

Look out Portland - your city is home to the newest trade association fighting for interoperability standards and platforms in the communications industry.

Adtron, Artesyn, Continuous Computing, Diversified Technology, Inc., ESO Technologies, Fujitsu Siemens Computers, HP, Intel, Kontron, MontaVista Software, Motorola, Nortel Networks, Pentair-EP, Pigeon Point Systems and Wind River (try saying that in one breath) today announced the formation of the Communications Platforms Trade Association (CP-TA). CP-TA is an association of communications platform and building block providers dedicated to accelerating the adoption of SIG-governed, open specification-based communications platforms through interoperability testing and certification.

Okay, I'll admit, there's a need for interoperability and open standards in this industry, but CP-TA. With all the marketing brainpower fueling these member companies, CP-TA was the best they could do -- how about Lazy Association of Marketing Executives (that's LAME, get it?). Blah.

-posted by Justin

iovation on fraud management and authentication

Wednesday, Apr 26 2006 |

Portland-based iovation is claiming it has leapfroged the 100 million transactions per year mark for device recognition and reputation transactions. Interested in authentication and Internet fraud management? Check out the release.

-posted by Justin

Surf's up with Connexion and Mobilisa

Wednesday, Apr 26 2006 |

Connexion by Boeing, known for delivering broadband in-flight internet service to airlines such as Lufthansa and JAL, has strongly entered the maritime market with this week's announcement of a second contract for cruise ships -- this time aboard Oceania Cruises' Insignia. Meanwhile, Port Townsend-based Mobilisa is continuing to forge ahead in a somewhat related field. It just opened an East Coast office outside of Washington, DC to service its growing business – Mobilisa has the contract to deliver wireless access it calls WOW (Wireless Across Water) aboard several of Washington's ferries.

-posted by Rachel

Healthcare Connectivity Summit

Tuesday, Apr 25 2006 |

Kryptiq Corporation, the leading provider of interoperability and workflow connectivity solutions for healthcare, is hosting the third annual Healthcare Connectivity Summit, April 26th-27th in Portland, Oregon. This conference brings together thought leaders from across the nation to discuss public and private sector initiatives for achieving meaningful health information exchange. Key topics will include practical approaches to regional health information organizations (RHIOs), redesigning electronic health record (EHR) usage for quality improvement and pay for performance and achieving interoperability with EHRs.

-posted by Justin

Saflink goes with the FLO

Tuesday, Apr 25 2006 |

Our friends over at Bellevue-based Saflink are now talking about the new Fast Lane Option (FLO) Alliance that brings together a stellar roster of companies to work toward delivering a product that will zip frequent fliers through security lines at airports. Saflink's vision of a card that delivers not only stronger security but user convenience and rewards is unique and well-matched to the needs of the estimated 38 million Americans traveling more than seven times annually. The Alliance even has a website where you can learn more. Since the security screening time was incredibly long when I was at Sea-Tac earlier this year, this card can't come soon enough for those of us who hate to wait in line.

-posted by Rachel

PixPulse jets ahead

Tuesday, Apr 25 2006 |

We first ran into serial entrepreneur David Xue when he was with Lockdown Networks. He's now the head of PixPulse, a company developing a mobile media application that enables users to share photos and videos directly from mobile devices. There are obviously a fair share of companies targeting this type of opportunity, but membership at PixPulse has now topped 10,000 -- not bad for a startup that just launched last October.

-posted by Rachel

Watch out eBay (not really, at least not yet)

Tuesday, Apr 25 2006 |

Want to buy a Mercedes C320 Sedan online or perhaps a six piece drum set? Well, you might want to head to SoldItLive.com. That's right -- eBay has a new competitor (as of April 3). And believe it or not, they're located right in Portland. To follow up their website launch earlier this month, SoldItLive.com, "the webs's hottest Online Auction and Virtual Marketplace site," just announced a new alliance with DropShipDesign.com. What does it all mean? They now have drop shipping services, which gives customers access to wholesale products, order fulfillment, order tracking, customer service, auction ad wizard, a customizable website solution.

This is a possible outgrowth of the tentative revolt of many eBay "power sellers" who are frustrated with rising fees, policy changes, added complexity, etc. Will it have an impact on the auction giant? Too soon to tell, but check out the news from SolditLive.com.

-posted by Justin

Microsoft Live Drive and the burgeoning online storage market

Tuesday, Apr 25 2006 |

Microsoft is building an online storage service, code named Live Drive, says Ray Ozzie in an interview with Fortune. Live Drive, and the similarly named Google Drive, are both designed to basically deliver huge amounts of personal online storage, available from anywhere on the net. Google's service is slated for 2007 delivery, and Microsoft's schedule is unknown. Of course, this technology isn't new. There are a number of companies already ahead of this curve, including Apple with its .Mac/iDisk solution and Amazon with S3. Much closer to home: Seattle-based Punch Networks launched similar services in conjunction with Excite way back in 1999 (Yahoo also launched a similar service back then called Briefcase). The Punch service is still available via the Punch Networks website. Of course, once these companies made their announcements, the VCs came rushing in to finance (xDrive 10/99, iDrive 10/99, SwapDrive 11/99 and the list goes on). More recently Seattle-based Deep9 acquired Punch Networks, and is planning to announce new services based upon Punch's proven code-base later this year. With major players and startups both readying announcements for the next 12 months, it looks like this might be a segment that is poised to take off again. Can the VC announcements be far behind?

-posted by Paul

Tripwire expands into consulting

Tuesday, Apr 25 2006 |

Portland-based Tripwire has introduced a new professional consulting service for enterprise change management, building on their existing change auditing software offering.

-posted by Paul

NW ad agencies up for One Show award

Monday, Apr 24 2006 |

There's a handful of Northwest ad agencies (or the NW offices of global firms) up for the prestigious One Show award in NY, including Seattle-based Big Bang, Creature, DDB Seattle, Publicis West, remerinc and Sedgwick Rd.; Portland-based Borders Perrin Norrander, Leopold Ketel & Partners and Wieden+Kennedy; and Vancouver-based DDB Canada and Rethink. There were 17,000 entries from 56 countries, so we think the solid Northwest showing bodes well for the strength of the local ad scene. Good luck to all.

-posted by Paul

Light Sciences files for IPO

Monday, Apr 24 2006 |

Snoqualmie-based Light Sciences Oncology filed Friday for an initial offering of up to $86M, and plans to trade under the symbol LSON. The company, which is using light to destroy cancer cells, expects to enter late-stage trials later this year. The P-I's John Cook has a nice write up.

-posted by Paul

Marketing in the era of blogs

Monday, Apr 24 2006 |

Our friends over at Marqui have posted another great white paper, this one entitled "Invisible Marketing: What Every Organization Needs to Know in the Era of Blogs, Social Networks and Web 2.0." According to Marqui, "this new approach to marketing, call it 'Marketing 2.0,' is as much an attitude as it is a set of tools and techniques." We'll post more once we've digested the fact that we're on version 2.0 now.

-posted by Paul

Ipsos shows French pride

Monday, Apr 24 2006 |

Ipsos, a market research firm with an office in Bellevue, released its report earlier this week on mobile handheld device usage. It shows the heavy user base is expanding beyond teenagers and young adults to those 35 and older. Usage of mobile devices to check email and browse the web is also outpacing laptops in some markets, particularly in France. I suppose it's purely coincidental that Ipsos is also based in France.

-posted by Rachel

Qpass and Widevine survival

Thursday, Apr 20 2006 |

The P-I's John Cook has a very interesting analysis in his blog on the similar road Seattle high-tech bubble survivors Qpass and Widevine traveled on their way to their respective acquisition and funding.

-posted by Paul

BC-based IronPoint acquired

Thursday, Apr 20 2006 |

IronPoint, a Vancouver, BC based content management company recently named as one of the top 25 B.C. tech companies by Rocketbuilders, was just acquired by San Diego-based application services company The Active Network. Inc. magazine named The Active Network one of the fastest growing private companies in the U.S. in the magazine's Inc. 500. For more information go to: http://www.ironpoint.com/Corporate/News.htm

-posted by Anne

We love robots

Thursday, Apr 20 2006 |

The InnoTech Oregon Conference wraps up today and I was lucky enough to have some time yesterday to listen to some session tracks and talk with some interesting companies. One of those companies is called futureRobotics. Still in its infancy, the company has designed software for autonomous navigation. The obvious application for this is of course robots, but during my conversation with the founder, Jonathan Fant, he explained how the software (and a bit of hardware) can be fitted to any number of objects for navigation. Imagine wheelchairs in an airport taking the elderly or handicapped from gate to gate, or forklifts in a warehouse loading and unloading without human drivers....sound crazy? Mr. Fant doesn't think so! As a matter of fact, Fant had Solo 1.3 at the show. Solo is a robot that can do a ton of tasks. He cleans, vacuums, serves as a security officer, can take people to items in stores, can restock shelves...you name it, he can pretty much accomplish it with a little programming tweak. Solo has a 10 inch touch screen where people can go through guided menus or simply tell the robot what they need. While I'll admit, the application of robots into customer service seems a bit hookie right now, autonomous navigation is no joke. The US Military is spending a bundle to get this technology in assault vehicles and planes.

So, interested in investing in Fant...simply send him check for 50, 100, 150 thousand dollars and he'd be happy to put you on the board.

-posted by Justin

Melodeo sings a new song

Thursday, Apr 20 2006 |

Our friends over at Marqui have spent a fair amount of time blogging about podcasts and how they are changing the way companies choose to communicate with their audiences. Which reminded me of the change we've noted at Seattle-based Melodeo. The company started out delivering tunes to cell phones, but recently took an interesting turn toward mobile podcasting and was one of the sponsors of Seattle's Podcast Hotel last February.

Although Melodeo lost two of its key execs earlier this month, the company's vision for its future is extremely interesting...and one worth keeping an eye on.

-posted by Rachel

Widevine lands funding

Thursday, Apr 20 2006 |

Seattle-based digital rights management company Widevine not only landed $16M in funding, but managed to score investments from strategic partners Cisco Systems and Canadian telco Telus. Quite the lead into next week's big broadcast show, NAB.

-posted by Paul

Sprint expands EV-DO high-speed wireless network to cover huge portion of Western Oregon

Thursday, Apr 20 2006 |

Users in more than 20 cities throughout Oregon will be able to wirelessly download at DSL speeds by end of year.

-posted by Paul

Watchguard wins Turin games?

Tuesday, Apr 18 2006 |

Watchguard was a key participant in protecting the network for the XX winter olympic games. Sort of makes up for Bode Miller.

-posted by Paul

Lumera adds to advisory board

Tuesday, Apr 18 2006 |

Bothell-based nanotechnology company Lumera added two "biotech industry luminaries" to its advisory board.

-posted by Paul

Qpass Sold

Tuesday, Apr 18 2006 |

Customer-management software maker Amdocs Ltd. said Tuesday it agreed to buy Seattle-based Qpass, a provider of digital commerce software, for about $275 million in cash.

-posted by Paul

March of the Penguins

Tuesday, Apr 18 2006 |

If you thought the slogan "the power of the penguin" referred to the Linux operating system, think again. Seattle-based White Tie uses the frosty bird to symbolize exclusivity (i.e., penguin=tuxedo) and to communicate its mission of of delivering top-notch, preferential treatment to its card-carrying members. Think of White Tie as a web-based concierge that's able to deliver the best concert tickets, waterside restaurant tables and and admission to sold-out events. It's an interesting concept, albeit pricey -- memberships aren't cheap. But if you can pay to avoid being left out in the cold, the penguin might be the pal for you.

-posted by Rachel

NW Venture funds heat up

Monday, Apr 17 2006 |

The P-I's John Cook notes that money is already flowing into some NW venture funds, while another half dozen are on the hunt to raise ones. Good news for the local tech scene.

-posted by Paul

I, Woz

Monday, Apr 17 2006 |

Kim Peterson of the Seattle Times wrote in the Times' Tech Tracks blog that Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak was briefly in town last week at the University Village Apple Store. He apparently made a guest appearance there at the request of his goddaughter, a UW student and former store employee. I'm sure that my rabid Mac fan boss is sorely disappointed that he missed this hobnobbing opportunity.

-posted by Rachel

Stealing data from the military

Monday, Apr 17 2006 |

In response to the recent data loss on a U.S. Military base in Bagram, Afghanistan, Portland-based Centennial Software is offering the military 25,000 free licenses of its endpoint security software, DeviceWall. Check out the entire new release here.

-posted by Justin

Sarantel says thin is in

Sunday, Apr 16 2006 |

It's been a hectic two months for Brad Hurte at Sarantel, who has been on the road almost non-stop. As head of North American operations for the U.K.-based provider of filtering anntenas for mobile and wireless devices, he's in a good position to watch OEM trends in consumer devices. His most recent trips to Asia and the CTIA conference have reinforced his opinion that GPS devices are following the same evolutionary path as cellphones -- external antennas are on the way out in favor of embedded components. Which is all good news for his company since it launched its GeoHelix-P2 antenna earlier this year.

-posted by Rachel

Take the ferry, find a job

Sunday, Apr 16 2006 |

Earlier this month, John Cook, the P-I's venture reporter, blogged about the lengths companies are going to find job candidates. There are some signs that the tech industry is, well, accelerating on our side of the Puget Sound as well. eAcceleration, an anti-virus service provider based in Poulsbo, is using a particularly creative way to fill more than a dozen open requisitions for new hires at the 200 employee-strong company. Instead of resorting to the usual headhunter or an assortment of ads, eAcceleration has been staffing a recruiting table aboard the Bainbridge Island-Seattle ferry run. The idea is to convince tech workers who are commuting from the Peninsula to the Seattle/Redmond area that they can improve their quality of life by working closer to home. It adds a new dimention to the 35-minute trip...travelers can buy a newspaper, grab a cup of coffee or a beer and get a new job. Now that's multi-tasking.

-posted by Rachel

Watch your end!

Thursday, Apr 13 2006 |

Oops it happened again – DATA THEFT. This time a huge breach in Afghanistan at a U.S. Military base. The payload: information on U.S. secret informants. Why mention this in the VOXUS blog? Check out MSNBC to see our client Centennial Software talking about this latest instance of data theft. And the headline above? Check out their blog.

-posted by Justin

Portland to beat San Francisco to citywide WiFi?

Thursday, Apr 13 2006 |

It looks as though Portland is on its way to rolling out a city-wide wireless network. The network will be powered by SkyPilot and MetroFi (two CA-based companies), providing citywide public Internet access as well as new enhanced services for the City of Portland's public safety, public works, property inspectors and other field-based employees who will be equipped to wirelessly download and upload reports and data from the field.

-posted by Justin

Name Intelligence on managing domain names for fun and profit

Thursday, Apr 13 2006 |

What's being billed as "the premier domain name conference" is being held in Bellevue next week. The Domain Roundtable Conference, sponsored by Bellevue-based Name Intelligence, is bringing some pretty high-powered individuals to town -- including head ICANN honcho Paul Twomey and Google evangelist/Internet god Vint Cerf. All in all, the conference has a pretty impressive list of participants and speakers, meaning that managing domain names, whether as an internal corporate responsibility or as a business, has arrived as a career choice.

-posted by Rachel

Pure Networks on a roll

Wednesday, Apr 12 2006 |

Lots of exciting stuff happening at Seattle's Pure Networks these days... director of product marketing Sherman Griffin reports that, not only is the company now giving away a baseline of its product, Network Magic, for free, it will soon announce that its home networking software will be available through a big box retailer. This is great news for Pure Networks and for tech-challenged consumers everywhere looking to simplify how they can install a home network without professional help, or who just want to make the process less painful. The company is also now offering what it is calling "your road-side guide to home networking" through Networkgarage.com, its new blog.

-posted by Rachel

thePlatform hooks up with Ooh! Network

Wednesday, Apr 12 2006 |

Seattle-based thePlatform added another network (Ooh!, targeting Gen X/Gen Y) to the customer list for their media publishing system.

-posted by Paul

ADIC China awards

Wednesday, Apr 12 2006 |

Congratulations to our old Redmond-based friends at ADIC (a client for many years), who just announced two awards from publications in China for their wildly popular tape libraries. Interesting strategy, announcing awards from publications and organizations in other countries, and one which we highly endorse as it shows international traction.

-posted by Paul

Seattle's HyBlue releases new product

Monday, Apr 10 2006 |

Caught up with Matthew Sutton, CEO of Seattle's HyBlue, to learn that the company successfully launched HyBlue Patch last month. This is a nifty little service that is especially useful for companies without strong internal IT support. After HyBlue Patch is installed on a computer, it monitors for patch compliance 24x7, as well as overall performance, security and configuration. It can monitor servers as well as desktop computers, helping to sound the alarm if hardware is malfunctioning or out of compliance. On second thought, this isn't just for companies without IT support – HyBlue Patch would be quite useful for stressed out IT managers in larger organizations as well, since it notifies them anytime a server goes silent for more than 10 minutes. How great would it be to know that your server is down BEFORE your employees start squawking?

-posted by Rachel

How to work with Microsoft...

Monday, Apr 10 2006 |

How to drink the Kool-aid...and survive

Jim Lejeal has posted a particularly interesting blog entry that includes great tips for any emerging company interested in partnering with Microsoft...and in our business, that means a preponderance of our clients and prospects. Jim's a serial entrepreneur (his latest venture is Oxlo Systems) and speaks from personal experience gained in successfully working with Microsoft. For those with companies outside of the Seattle area, he points out the need to "get on a plane to Redmond" regularly, and he's not joking. It's all about relationships at Microsoft. For that matter, isn't it all about relationships in every endeavor?

-posted by Rachel