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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.



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!




-posted by Andrew

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

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

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?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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 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