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April 30, 2007

Siderean Sets Relational Navigation Performance Record

4/30/07 – El Segundo-based Siderean Software, a provider of relational navigation solutions that allow users to sort through information to find and act on relationships and connections, today announced the company has exceeded 1 billion resource description framework (RDF) relations in a pilot deployment for Elsevier, the publisher of scientific and technical research.  Siderean says this is an industry-first milestone and was reached during a proof-of-concept evaluation using Siderean’s flagship Seamark Navigator information access platform.

RDF relations, according to the company, refer to metadata statements generated through RDF that can be analyzed and sorted on a massive scale using Siderean’s relational navigation technology.

Siderean was founded in 2001 and is backed by venture firms Clearstone Venture Partners, InnoCal Venture Capital and Red Rock Ventures.  

Siderean - www.siderean.com

CircleUp Moves Into Beta, Adds New Features

4/30/07 – CircleUp, the Newport Beach-based provider of social communication services that utilize existing Internet tools, today launched the public beta version of its flagship service.  Utilizing email and instant messaging (IM) to allow questions to be asked and information gathered from groups of any size, CircleUp allows users to get back a single, organized response that can be used and shared among all members of a group.

CircleUp launched its alpha version at the DEMO 07 conference in February.  The company says its public beta offers enhanced usability and added functionality, including new ways to get questions into the service and get results out to where they can be most useful.

The company cites the idea that most people have five to ten “circles” in their work, family, social, sports and online networks, and that the process of gathering information from these circles is inefficient.  CircleUp says its service targets this process, allowing users to effectively organize these circles online.

A major focus of the beta release, according to CircleUp, is a suite of new features that make it easy to get questions into the service from any user’s desktop and get useful results back out in ways that can be integrated, used and shared.

The new features include a “What’s Your Question” widget, available as a Google Desktop Gadget, and a NetVibes Start Page widget.  They also include Syndicated Real-Time Results Tracking utilizing RSS feeds, The Daily Result—a single, organized result sent directly to the user’s inbox, Microformat Support—which enables browser export of contact information directly to tools like Outlook, and mashups with Google Maps.

For more about CircleUp, see the company’s entry in The Pitch: Featured Company: CircleUp

CircleUp - www.circleup.com

Amp’d Mobile and Sento Announce Customer Service Partnership

4/30/07 – Sento Corporation and Los Angeles-based mobile service provider Amp’d Mobile have announced that Sento will provide its Right Channeling outsourced customer support service to Amp’d’s customer service division.

Salt Lake City-based Sento says Right Channeling was developed by the company to optimize customer contact solutions and ensure companies make informed choices for multi-channel communication with their customers.

The companies say Sento will provide services through Amp’d’s Albuquerque, New Mexico and Orem, Utah customer contact centers.

Amp’d Mobile – www.ampdmobile.com

Sento - www.sento.com

April 27, 2007

Integrien Appoints Roy Agostino as Chief Marketing Officer

4/27/07 – Integrien, the Irvine-based integrity management solutions provider, today announced the hiring of Roy Agostino as chief marketing officer.  Agostino brings 18 years experience in enterprise software and other industries to the position.

Integrien says Agostino will focus on increasing awareness of the company’s Alive product and the critical need to predict and prevent failures in business applications before they negatively impact sales, customer service and company valuation.

Prior to joining Integrien, Agostino was chief marketing officer for Elemental Security, where he was responsible for brand-building and awareness activities, as well as product management and product strategy.

Previously, Agostino served as global vice president for Information Builders, driving all strategic marketing initiatives for the Business Intelligence enterprise software company.  Agostino also served as a global director for Crystal Decisions, where he was responsible for developing corporate marketing campaigns to support branding, product launch and lead generation objectives.

Integrien’s focus is helping businesses maintain application availability and service levels.  The company says its Alive product pinpoints the source of problems when a distributed application suffers performance degradation or outage.

Integrien – www.integrien.com

Central Desktop Wins Entrepreneurial Spirit Award

4/27/07 – Pasadena-based Central Desktop, developer of a web-based collaboration platform, has been awarded the Entretech PricewaterhouseCoopers Entrepreneurial Spirit Award.

The Entretech PricewaterhouseCoopers awards recognize successful early stage companies who achieve early market acceptance, product revenues and who show exceptional ability to overcome obstacles and execute, according to Entretech.  Additional local startup companies recognized in other categories include LegalZoom and Prolacta Bioscience.

“Central Desktop stood out amongst the candidates as a company whose founders best represented what it takes as a team to build a successful company,” said Stephanie Yanchinski, executive director of Entretech.  “The immense energy and commitment displayed in building a solid business just had to be recognized with a special award.”

Based at the Caltech campus in the San Gabriel Valley, Entretech is an entrepreneurial business support association serving the Los Angeles region.  The organization says it has more than 250 participating member companies, and recently announced that vice provosts from USC and UCLA joined Caltech on the Entretech board.

Central Desktop – www.centraldesktop.com

Entretech – www.entretech.org

April 26, 2007

Helio Continues to Lose Money, Investors Will Increase Capital Contribution

4/26/07 – As part of EarthLink’s earnings announcement this morning, the company announced that Los Angeles-based mobile startup Helio—a joint investment of EarthLink and South Korea’s SK Telecom—continues to lose a significant amount of money.  But in a sign of confidence in the company’s long-term viability, both EarthLink and SK Telecom announced they would continue to invest in the company.

Helio’s net loss was $63.1 million over the first three months of the year, on revenue of $30.4 million.  EarthLink said it expects Helio’s net loss for the year to be between $330 and $360 million.

On a more positive note, EarthLink said it expects Helio to be profitable by 2009.  In addition, it expects the company to hit 200,000-250,000 customers by the end of the year, with average revenue per user at $90-$100. 

EarthLink also said it will invest another $50-$100 million dollars in Helio over the remainder of the year.  SK Telecom this morning also announced it would invest further in the joint venture, but did not specify how much.

A mobile virtual network provider (MVNO), Helio competes with major mobile phone operators like AT&T Wireless and Verizon Wireless by offering specialized devices and premium data services like video, music and social networking.

Helio - www.helio.com

Fonality and Matrix Business Technologies Partner for Small Business Phone and Data Solution

4/26/07 – Culver City-based Fonality, the open source telephony company, today announced that Matrix Business Technologies, a U.S.-based telecom services provider, is the first in its industry to adopt the Fonality Managed Services Partner (MSP) model by selecting Fonality’s PBXtra solution.  The companies say this Matrix-managed PBX phone system is the first of its kind to complement the existing portfolio of voice and data services currently enjoyed by Matrix’s small to medium size business (SMB) customers.

Matrix Business Technologies provides a wide range of voice and data services specifically targeted to enterprises with 10-to-100 employees, and currently has more than 35,000 business customers, according to the firm.  Fonality’s PBXtra business phone system gives MSPs a managed voice offering to work with their existing network services.  Together, Fonality and Matrix say they are offering an out-of-the box voice solution and providing customers with a single source for a T1 line and phone system, with no up-front costs.

The companies say the combined phone and data system will provide a complete communication system, including a 24x7 network center and account management services. 

The Matrix managed PBX system, powered by Fonality, will be available for limited distribution in June 2007, with general availability in early Q3, according to the companies.

Fonality – www.fonality.com

Matrix Business Technologies - www.matrixbt.com

Language Weaver Partners with Text Analytics Firm

4/26/07 – Los Angeles-based Language Weaver, a developer of software for the automatic translation of human languages, today announced it has entered into a strategic marketing and technology partnership with Janya, a provider of information extraction and text analytics technologies.  The companies say they will develop a joint solution that integrates Language Weaver’s automatic translation capabilities and Janya’s Semantex text analytics platform.

The solution will be offered by each company independently to aid their clients in extracting multilingual information and defining relationships among people, places and events drawn from unstructured and semi-structured text, according to Language Weaver and Janya.

Demonstrations of the integrated solution will be presented by both companies at the Defense Intelligence Agency CIO-sponsored DoDIIS Worldwide Conference next week in Chicago.

Language Weaver was founded in 2002 to commercialize a unique approach to automatic language translation using proprietary statistical translation algorithms that resulted from research and development at the University of Southern California’s Information Sciences Institute.  The company has recently announced partnerships with Idiom Technologies and across Systems, and launched a consumer-focused subsidiary called Kontrib.

Janya – www.janyainc.com

Language Weaver - www.languageweaver.com

April 25, 2007

Yellowbot Seeks to Make Local Search More Useful

4/25/07 – Local search has become a notoriously difficult business to break into, with numerous companies attempting to create effective and accurate local business listings—from pioneers like CitySearch, to popular “directory” companies like Local.com, to sites that incorporate social networking , like Judy’s Book and Yelp.  Most of these entries have achieved various levels of success, but have run into distinct problems, from unreliable data to questionable user ratings.

Burbank-based startup Yellowbot is taking a new approach that combines elements of various local-focused ventures to create networks of trusted connections and recommendations, all linked by searchable tags.  Led by CitySearch and “local” veteran Erron Silverstein, the Yellowbot team seeks to create local listings and reviews organized in a more intuitive way than the traditional top-down directory approach employed by most sites.

Silverstein calls Yellowbot a “hybrid of social and local.” 

“At its core, YellowBot was designed to connect you and your friends to the businesses you frequent by finding, creating and sharing information,” said Silverstein.  “We use social networking-style language to enable our users to search for and tag businesses in our database, which is built to accommodate the structural rigor of an Internet Yellow Pages.”

The inspiration for the site, according to Silverstein, was his experience with the local search world, and what he describes as a lack of reliable results and an unmet need for more and better user-generated content.

“The difference between us and your typical web 2.0 widget is that we are taking a very comprehensive approach to being useful, in terms of whom we are looking to serve.  That, ultimately, should unlock value for all,” said Silverstein.

Yellowbot makes use of tags in order to facilitate discovery of specific local businesses for specific needs.  Searches can be conducted either via tag “cloud,” or via specific city and service search. 

Tags are linked to specific listings by registered users.  Silverstein says the goal is to create an accurate directory of local businesses based on trusted connections.

The site is still in development, and Silverstein sees its growth as an ongoing, evolutionary process.

“We’re not trying to sell anyone in this.  We’re focused on getting it right for the user.” said Silverstein.  “The ultimate vision of YellowBot is to return the community aspect to local by creating an ecosystem that provides usefulness for searchers, content creators, advertisers and merchants.”

Yellowbot - www.yellowbot.com 

LogicalApps Releases New Plug-In for Enhanced User Provisioning

4/25/07 – Irvine-based LogicalApps, a company that provides embedded governance software for enterprise applications, today announced that a new plug-in is available for its ACTIVE Governance solution that enables Sun Java System Identity Manager customers to implement fully-automated and compliant user provisioning systems across their enterprise applications.

The company says that by integrating Sun Microsystems’ enterprise-wide identity management solution with ACTIVE Governance for real-time, preventive access controls within the ERP (enterprise resource planning) system, the new offering helps organizations overcome the limitations of native ERP security structures and protect sensitive information down to the field level.

Last week, LogicalApps released the latest version of ACTIVE Governance, which it says delivers enhanced segregation of duties (SOD) functionality, enabling organizations to detect SOD violations within their ERP system so they can be properly managed through rapid remediation and preventive controls.

LogicalApps - www.logicalapps.com

Helio Shuts Down EVDO/Wi-Fi Service

4/25/07 –Los Angeles-based mobile phone startup Helio has decided to discontinue its EVDO/wi-fi hybrid service.  The service combined 3G mobile technology with access to wi-fi hotspots for people with laptops that needed mobile connections in more places.

The move is no doubt an attempt to streamline and consolidate operations, after serious questions have been raised over the past quarter about the company’s long-term viability.  It will be interesting to see the latest financial numbers on Helio tomorrow, when EarthLink, a joint investor in the company with South Korea’s SK Telecom, releases earnings.

Helio - www.helio.com

April 24, 2007

LeadPoint Announces Record Number of Consumer Requests for Mortgage Quotes

4/24/07 – LeadPoint, the Los Angeles-based online leads exchange, today announced that a record number of consumer requests for mortgage products were submitted to the LeadPoint Exchange during the first quarter of 2007—up 172 percent over the first quarter of 2006 and up 28 percent over the fourth quarter of 2006.

The growth comes despite recent bankruptcies in the lending industry, particularly among sub-prime lenders.

LeadPoint was founded in 2004 and utilizes a dynamic trading platform for lead generation, offering a pay-for-performance model in what has historically been an inefficient fixed-price market.

The company says it currently operates in numerous verticals, including consumer lending, consumer credit, automotive lending and business services. With more than 2 million leads traded to date, LeadPoint says its auction-style model allows buyers to bid only on the leads most beneficial to them, allowing lead buyers to be more efficient and focus on closing deals and growing their businesses.

LeadPoint - www.leadpoint.com

Hospital Selects Xirrus to Provide High-Performance Wi-Fi Network

4/24/07 – Westlake Village-based Xirrus, provider of high-performance, long-range wi-fi products, announced today that the Liverpool Women’s NHS Foundation Trust, England’s largest specialist women’s healthcare provider, will deploy Xirrus’ Wi-Fi Arrays throughout the entire hospital.  This is another in a series of recent major customer wins for the company.

Xirrus says that with the deployment, doctors, nurses and other staff members will use wi-fi enabled laptop computer carts to deliver a host of applications designed to improve patient care and efficiency of the hospital staff.

Designed by Wireless LAN Source, Xirrus’ integration partner in the United Kingdom, the Liverpool Women’s NHS Foundation Trust network will provide 54mbps data rate connections throughout the facility using only 26 Wi-Fi Arrays to support a new electronic prescription application as well as a new “single” user sign-on scheme to improve staff efficiency, according to Xirrus.  The company says future utilization of the wi-fi network will involve tablet PCs and voice over wi-fi handsets delivering electronic charting capabilities and better communication capabilities throughout the hospital.

Xirrus was founded by the same team that built Xircom, which was acquired by Intel in 2001.

Wireless LAN Source – www.wlansource.co.uk

Xirrus - www.xirrus.com

Integrien Expands Key Strategic Partnership

4/24/07 – Integrien Corporation, the Irvine-based provider of “integrity management” solutions, today announced it has expanded its strategic partnership with Tata Consultancy Services (TCS).  The company says that a key component of the partnership will be the inclusion of its Integrien Alive product in the technology infrastructure of TCS’s SAP Center of Excellence, which TCS uses to test the latest SAP applications and components.

According to Integrien, the TCS Centers of Excellence are located throughout the world, with five within the U.S.

Integrien says Alive solves a number of problems related to maintaining application availability and service levels.  Alive pinpoints the source of problems when a distributed application suffers performance degradation or outage, picking up issues even when all components seem to be operating correctly.  It then predicts problems based on the pattern of abnormal events that competing products pass through as an alert storm.  The product also reports on looming resource and system constraints and guides IT in correcting them, according to Integrien.

Tata Consultancy Services – www.tcs.com

Integrien – www.integrien.com

April 23, 2007

Venture Capital Investment Continues Strong Growth in Region

4/23/07 – For the third straight quarter, the Southern California region was second only to Silicon Valley in terms of venture capital, with investment growing 23 percent over last year, according to the Dow Jones VentureOne and Ernst & Young Quarterly Venture Capital Report.  The report says the region saw 66 deals during the first three months of the year, resulting in $1.1 billion dollars invested—the first time Southern California has topped the $1 billion mark in a quarter since 2000.

According to the Los Angeles Times, information technology firms based in the Los Angeles area are a particularly strong driving factor, along with healthcare and biotechnology in the San Diego area.

Comparatively, New England, which was the perennial second-place finisher until last year, was just behind Southern California with $927.9 million in investment.  However, New England was the second most active region in terms of deal flow, with 73 during the quarter.  Not surprisingly, the San Francisco Bay Area saw the most investment, with $2.2 billion invested in 189 deals.

Dow Jones VentureOne and Ernst & Young LLP Quarterly Venture Capital Report

Los Angeles Times article on the report – Venture capital upswing is seen

Fonality Launches Trixbox Buyer’s Club

4/23/07 – Culver City-based Fonality, the open source telephony company, has announced the launch of the trixbox Buyer’s Club, a source for discounted voice-over-IP products for resellers and IT professionals.  The company says a portion of the proceeds from each sale will be reinvested in the company’s ongoing support of the trixbox community, the world’s largest community of Asterisk developers and resellers.

Fonality says The Buyer’s Club discount also extends to Fonality’s new trixbox Appliance and trixbox technical support packages, exclusively distributed through the trixStore.

The company serves the small-to-medium size business market, and recently announced it has reached the 2,000 customer milestone, with 45,000 phones in 37 countries adopting its open source business phone system, PBXtra, with more than 75 million calls placed.

Fonality - www.fonality.com

April 20, 2007

LegalZoom and Prolacta Bioscience Winners of Entretech Award

4/20/07 – Entretech, the Caltech-based business development organization for high-tech companies throughout greater Los Angeles, announced today that LegalZoom, Snap.com and Prolacta Bioscience have been named winners of its fourth annual Entrepreneurship Award.

The award is offered in partnership with PricewaterhouseCoopers, and according to Entretech, “celebrates the entrepreneurial vigor and business achievements of technology companies based in Los Angeles.”

The three winners were honored at an awards dinner last night on the Caltech campus, featuring keynote speaker Ruth Owades, distinguished entrepreneur, and founder of two successful companies—Calyx & Corolla, and Gardeners’ Eden.

Entretech says the purpose of the Entrepreneurship Award is to honor growing, leading edge companies symbolizing the best in entrepreneurial spirit and skills.  This year, the program was divided into three revenue categories to accommodate the growing interest of applicants, which ranged from companies earning under $1 million in annual revenues in 2006 to over $115 million, according to the organization.

Entretech recently expanding its geographical reach beyond the San Gabriel Valley to cover all of Los Angeles, and announced earlier this week that vice provosts from USC and UCLA joined Caltech on the Entretech board.

Entretech - www.entretech.org

Teleflip Named Finalist for Red Herring 100

4/20/07 – Santa Monica-based Teleflip, which offers a service that allows the receipt of email and text messages on any mobile phone from any PC, announced its selection as a finalist for the Red Herring 100 award.

Teleflip recently debuted its flipMail service that allows consumers to have their current emails delivered directly to their cell phone, regardless of their wireless carrier or mobile handset, from any email account or service, personal or business, POP, webmail or Exchange.

The Red Herring editorial board surveyed the entrepreneurial scene throughout the North American region and identified the top 200 out of more than 800 closely evaluated companies.

The winning 100 companies will be announced at the Red Herring spring event in Monterrey, Calif. early next month.

Teleflip - www.teleflip.com

EI Solutions Names Marco Garcia Vice President of Sales

4/20/07 – EI Solutions, the systems integration arm of IdeaLab startup Energy Innovations, today announced that Marco Garcia has been named vice president of sales with responsibility for the company’s rapidly growing sales activities.  He brings a half a decade of large-scale photovoltaic (PV) sales experience in addition to over 15 years of sales management and international business development experience to the position.

Before joining Pasadena-based EI Solutions, Garcia spent five years at PowerLight in various sales roles, most recently serving as director of sales for PowerLight’s European subsidiary.  Garcia led all sales activities in Europe including establishing a Geneva-based sales team, creating channels in targeted European countries, and setting and achieving European sales goals.

EI Solutions - www.eispv.com

April 19, 2007

Fonality Hosts Training and Certification for Asterisk Resellers and IT Professionals

4/19/07 – Culver City-based Fonality, the open source telephony company, today announced the second Fonality trixbox Open Communications Certification workshop at the Hyatt Regency Boston in June.  The workshop is a training and certification course designed around the company’s Asterisk-based trixbox platform, which has become home to the largest Asterisk-based telephony community, according to the company.  Fonality says the workshops are geared toward providing trixbox and Asterisk resellers, as well as IT professionals, the tools and knowledge necessary to implement trixbox successfully in a business environment.

Earlier this week, Fonality announced it had surpassed the 2,000 customer milestone.

More information on the workshop and on trixbox can be found at www.trixbox.org/ftocc.

Fonality - www.fonality.com

TeleFlip Named ‘Company to Watch’

4/19/07 – Santa Monica-based TeleFlip, a service that enables mobile phone users to receive their personal or business emails on their existing phones without any special handset, mobile Internet connectivity, or downloadable software applications, has been named a “company to watch” by LAPTOP Magazine as part of the publication’s Mobile Maverick Awards.

TeleFlip, part of the DEMO 07 class, recently officially launched its flipMail product.

TeleFlip – www.teleflip.com

Laptop Magazine Mobile Maverick Awards

April 18, 2007

Helio Offering Mobile-to-Mobile Calling

4/18/07 – According to Marguerite Reardon at CNet, Los Angeles-based mobile virtual network operator (MVNO) Helio is now offering customers a “mobile-to-mobile” calling service for $5 a-month extra.  The company has not made a public announcement, but Reardon says Helio has been promoting the service via text message to its subscribers.

Helio has been in the news a lot recently, with speculation about the viability of the company moving forward.  However, the company also recently released its Ocean phone, which has been garnering rave reviews.

Here is Reardon on the new add-on service: Helio offers mobile-to-mobile calling

Helio - www.helio.com

Xirrus Releases Wi-Fi Coverage Area Test Results

4/18/07 – Xirrus, the Westlake Village-based provider of high-performance, long-range wi-fi products, has announced verification by The Tolly Group that demonstrates only five Xirrus Wi-Fi Arrays are needed to cover a one square mile area with wi-fi access—greatly simplifying installation and lowering deployment costs for campus-wide wi-fi networks by reducing the number of devices required.  Xirrus says that by comparison, competitive solutions typically require 20 or more devices to cover the same area.

The company says that its Wi-Fi Array product enables high-demand applications such as video-over-wi-fi while still greatly reducing costs.  Xirrus recently announced that Charleston Southern University selected its Wi-Fi Arrays for the all-wireless video and audio streaming of NCAA events on campus.

Engineers from The Tolly Group, an independent testing and strategic consulting organization, deployed a set of five Xirrus XS-3900 Wi-Fi Arrays to evaluate the real-world outdoor coverage and performance metrics using standard 802.11a/b/g notebook computer clients.

A copy of the report can be downloaded at The Tolly Group Reports.

Xirrus - www.xirrus.com

LogicalApps Announces Upgraded Product Release

4/18/07 – LogicalApps, the Irvine-based provider of embedded governance software for enterprise applications, today announced the availability of ACTIVE Governance 7.2, the newest release of the company’s flagship product.

The company says the new version of the product delivers enhanced segregation of duties (SOD) functionality, enabling organizations to detect SOD violations within their ERP system so they can be properly managed through rapid remediation and preventive controls.

LogicalApps says ACTIVE Governance 7.2 includes enhancements for policy authoring, continuous monitoring and reporting of policy violations.  The company also says the new version of the product includes the ability to perform simulations on proposed policy changes to discover the potential impact before implementing them into a production environment.

LogicalApps - www.logicalapps.com

LegalZoom.com Releases National Survey Results

4/18/07 – Los Angeles-based LegalZoom.com, the online legal document preparation service, today released the results of its most recent national survey measuring the number of people who have prepared a last will and testament.  LegalZoom.com said the survey, which was conducted by InsightExpress and sampled 1,000 respondents, showed little change from previous results.

The company says that according to the survey, seven out of 10 Americans, or 70.2 percent, lack a last will and testament.  Legal Zoom says this number is nearly identical to returns from previous years, demonstrating that Americans remain largely unprotected today.  The survey also found that 20 percent of all respondents had not updated their will for half a decade or more.

Co-founded by attorney Robert Shapiro in 2001, LegalZoom offers online legal services which range from wills, living wills and small claims, to business services like incorporation, LLC formation and copyrights.

LegalZoom.com - www.legalzoom.com

April 17, 2007

Fonality Reaches Customer Milestone

4/17/07 – Culver City-based Fonality, the open source telephony company, today announced that more than 2,000 customers with 45,000 phones in 37 countries have adopted its open source business phone system, PBXtra, and used it to place more than 75 million calls.

Fonality says it continues to reliably scale as small and medium-sized businesses rapidly adopt PBXtra, the world’s largest commercial Asterisk deployment.

Fonality cites a combination of the cost savings of open source software with award-winning ease-of-use as reasons for its growth.  Fonality’s patent-pending, hybrid-hosted technology enables small businesses to use PBXtra to support branch offices, as well as mobile and home-based workers.

Out of the box, Fonality says its PBXtra Standard, PBXtra Professional and PBXtra Call Center support voice-over-IP calling, advanced auto-attendant features, telecommuters, branch offices, drag-and-drop call control, conferencing and intra-office intercom.

Fonality - www.fonality.com

Inogen Names New Board Member

4/17/07 – Santa Barbara-based medical device manufacturer Inogen announced today that R. Scott Greer has joined the company's board of directors.  Greer is a managing director of Numenor Ventures, LLC.

Since June 2004, Greer has served as managing director of Numenor, a venture capital firm based in Santa Barbara.  He founded Abgenix, Inc., a biotechnology company focused on developing and commercializing human antibody based therapeutics, in 1996.

Inogen develops cost-effective respiratory home healthcare equipment that improves quality of life for patients and bottom line profits for providers.

Inogen – www.inogen.net

April 16, 2007

UCLA, USC Vice Provosts Join Entretech Board

4/16/07 – Entretech, the Pasadena-based business development organization supporting high technology companies throughout Greater Los Angeles, today announced the appointment of two new board members—Krisztina Holly, vice provost and executive director of the USC Stevens Institute for Innovation, and Kathryn A. Atchison, vice provost of intellectual property and industry relations and associate vice chancellor for research at UCLA.  Holly and Atchison join 10 other board members deeply rooted in the local business and technology communities, including Fred Farina, who represents the Office of Technology Transfer at Caltech.

This is the first time the three local major research universities have joined forces behind high-technology innovation in the area.

Entretech, which recently expanded its geographical reach beyond the San Gabriel Valley to cover all of Los Angeles, was established seven years ago as a partnership between Caltech and the City of Pasadena to assist entrepreneurs in growing their businesses.

USC’s Holly brings to Entretech’s board her experience as an engineer, serial entrepreneur and the founding executive director of MIT’s Deshpande Center for Technological Innovation, where she oversaw the distribution of $5 million in grants, engaged more than 250 faculty and students and spawned nine startup companies that successfully raised $40 million in capital.  Holly earned master’s and bachelor’s degrees in mechanical engineering from MIT.

UCLA’s Atchison is vice provost of intellectual property and industry relations and a long-standing professor at the school.  In her role, Atchison helps strengthen UCLA’s intellectual and industrial property relationships and fosters new ones.

Entretech - www.entretech.org

Provision Interactive Teams with Digital Currency Company

4/16/07 – Chatsworth-based Provision Interactive, a creator of intelligent interactive 3-D holographic display technologies, has announced the signing of a joint marketing agreement with CEO America, the exclusive U.S. licensee of CREDITZ Digital Currency, a digital payment system.

The companies say the agreement is designed to provide both organizations with a unique, integrated promotional system for their retail clients, and will enable Provision to market CREDITZ Digital Currency as promotional currency in conjunction with Provision’s digital signage systems. In addition, Provision will represent CREDITZ to its retail clients to facilitate co-op advertising, loyalty and promotional programs.

Provision’s display systems represent technology that provides the projection of high resolution 3-D aerial images into space detached from any screen, without any glasses. The company says its interactive display technologies deliver images that engage and inform customers at point of sale and in-store advertising locations in a dramatic and persuasive manner.

Provision Interactive Technologies - www.provision.tv

Reunion.com Receives $25 Million in Funding

4/16/07 – Los Angeles-based Reunion.com today announced it has completed a $25 million round of funding from Oak Investment Partners.  The social networking company was founded in 2002.

Reunion.com says it has been profitable since its inception, with revenue growth of more than 100 percent annually, and now counts 28 million users.

Previously, the company raised money through a group of Internet and social networking standouts, including Jeffrey Tinsley, former founder and CEO of GreatDomains.com, Richard Rosenblatt, co-founder, chairman and CEO of Demand Media and the former chairman of MySpace.com, and Andy Mazzarella, current CEO of eForce Media and former CFO of iMall.

Reunion.com - www.reunion.com

April 12, 2007

Axiom Microdevices Seeks to Reduce Costs and Increase Efficiency for Cell Phone Makers

4/12/07 – A company that has recently appeared on StartUp Beat’s radar is Irvine-based Axiom Microdevices, a business built upon technology developed at CalTech that provides fully integrated power amplifiers for the cell phone market.  Founded in 2002, Axiom uses commodity complementary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS) processes to create cost reduction and integration for cell phone manufacturers.

According to CEO Brett Butler, “We saw the market potential of becoming the first company to use CMOS processes to produce fully integrated power amplifiers for the cellular telephone market – something the industry said could not be done.  Our vision is to build on this unique core competency and become a premier supplier of RF solutions to the cellular handset market.”

Axiom seeks to use its CMOS processes to produce fully integrated power amplifiers for phone manufacturers.  Butler says this is significant due to the fact that CMOS technology has been the primary driver in the cost reduction of handsets over time.

Axiom and Butler were recently named finalists in the AeA trade association’s High Tech Innovation Awards—the company in the ‘Semiconductors’ category, and Butler for the ‘Outstanding Private Company CEO’ award.

Axiom’s focus is a specific area of cell phone functionality, but Butler is not shy about what he sees as a massive market opportunity for the company.

“More than one billion cellular handsets shipped in 2006.  That is Axiom Microdevices’ opportunity,” said Butler.  “While other functions inside the cellular handset have benefited from mainstream CMOS, fundamental innovations in the RF section of the handset have not kept pace. Axiom Microdevices is changing this.”

The company has strong ongoing ties with CalTech, an investor in the company, through co-founder Ali Hajimiri, a faculty member of the Caltech Department of Engineering.  He continues to chair Axiom’s Technical Advisory Board and spends time at Axiom with employees each week, according to Butler.

Other investors include Anthem Venture Partners, Tallwood Venture Capital, U.S. Venture Partners and VentureTech Alliance.  Earlier this year, the company completed a $25 million round of funding.


Axiom Microdevices – www.axiom-micro.com

Language Weaver Teams with Idiom Technologies

4/12/07 – Language Weaver, the Marina Del Rey-based developer of enterprise software for the automated translation of human languages, today announced it has partnered with Idiom Technologies, Inc., a supplier of SaaS and on-premise server-based globalization management systems.  The companies say the partnership is based on a strategic marketing and technology integration agreement, and the companies will work together to make it easier to incorporate machine translation into a company’s globalization workflow to accelerate translation and localization with increased throughput.

The companies also said that Language Weaver will be a featured sponsor and speaker at WorldSummit 2007, the upcoming Idiom Technologies user conference.

Language Weaver and Idiom say that the partnership will allow Language Service Provider partners to also benefit from the productivity increase and reduced costs of hybrid machine and human translation offerings, allowing them to tap new revenue streams by translating volumes of content that previously might not have been translated at all.

Language Weaver was founded in 2002 to commercialize a unique approach to automatic language translation using proprietary statistical translation algorithms that resulted from research and development at the University of Southern California’s Information Sciences Institute.


Idiom Technologies – www.idiominc.com

Language Weaver - www.languageweaver.com

Will Google Buy Spot Runner?

4/12/07 – Now that Google has made its way into TV advertising through a deal with EchoStar’s DishNetwork and a possible partnership with DirecTV, Los Angeles-based Spot Runner seems to be a viable possibility for acquisition by Internet giant.

Acquiring Spot Runner would immediately give Google’s a local market presence in TV advertising and provide it with a viable advertising sales platform.  There is also precedent for an acquisition of this sort-Google's purchase of dMarc Broadcasting upon which the company built its radio advertising initiative.

Spot Runner, for one, sees Google’s move into TV as an opportunity (see Spot Runner Sees Opportunity in Google’s Foray Into TV Ads).  With the company’s head start in doing exactly what Google seems to want to do, is there any way Google can afford to not pursue a Spot Runner acquisition?

For more, see ClickZ’s News Blog from yesterday: Another GoogTube Deal in the Offing? Watch SpotRunner and Co.

 

Spot Runner – www.spotrunner.com

April 11, 2007

Stickam Hosts ‘Web Tour’

4/11/07 – According to the web site Metal Underground.com (not often cited on StartUp Beat), a band called Psychostick is using Los Angeles-based online video site Stickam.com for a “web tour.”  In light of the recent discussion around Justin.tv, this could be an interesting example of the potential of “next-generation” live Internet video, with companies like Stickam leading the way.

Stickam allows simultaneous streaming of two-way interactive “live” broadcasting over the Internet supporting thousands of users.  In this instance, the band will be hosting a number of special events using Stickam’s technology to reach fans regardless of geographic location.

According to Scott Flacks, vice president of marketing and operations at Stickam, the web tour was organized by the band on its own, without the help of the Stickam team.

“Because of Stickam ease of use, there is no involvement necessary from Stickam personnel.  Our player is so easy to use that anyone can create this type of experience and event using a webcam or camcorder while on the road,” said Flacks. 

Flacks also says Stickam will be providing “promotional” support so that fans can easily find the events when they are live as well as details about upcoming live events on the tour.

Stickam says it has more than 500,000 current members and is adding 2,000 to 4,000 more per day. 

You can see the tour on Stickam here: http://www.notusingourwebcamforamateurpornbutwewishweweretour.com

Stickam - www.stickam.com

Amp’d Mobile and Qualcomm To Bring BREW Services to Canada

4/11/07 – Los Angeles-based Amp’d Mobile continued its string of partnership announcements today, saying the company is teaming up with Qualcomm to launch wireless data services based on Qualcomm’s BREW solution to subscribers in Canada.  The companies say the launch marks the first commercial deployment of BREW services there.  Amp’d launched its Amp'd Canada service last month. 

According to Amp’d, more than 50 percent of its subscriber base has downloaded or used a BREW game or service in the last 30 days and more than 80 percent have bought or used data services such as video, songs, ringtones and mobile Internet in the same time period.

Amp’d, a mobile virtual network provider (MVNO) has also recently announced new content partnerships, international expansion into Canada and Japan and its Q1 subscriber numbers.

Amp’d Mobile – www.ampdmobile.com

Qualcomm – www.qualcomm.com

April 10, 2007

Amp’d Mobile Approaches 200K Subscribers

4/10/07 – It seems that news from Los Angeles-based MVNOs (mobile virtual network operator) Amp’d Mobile and Helio is becoming an almost daily occurrence—and today it’s Amp’d’s turn, revealing its Q1 subscriber numbers.  The company said it now has nearly 200,000 subscribers, a 70 percent jump during the first three months of the year.

Amp’d which has recently announced a number of new content partnerships, cites strong sales momentum and its retail distribution network for the subscriber increase.  The company also says its average revenue per subscriber is a strong $100 per month.  In addition, Amp’d says its focus on mobile entertainment is reflected in the fact that more than 50 percent of Amp’d’s revenue per subscriber comes from content.

The high revenue per subscriber may be the strongest point for the long-term viability of both Amp’d and Helio, who compete with industry giants like AT&T Wireless, Verizon Wireless and Sprint.

In addition to its content announcements, Amp’d recently announced its international expansion with service launching in Japan and Canada.

Amp’d Mobile – www.ampdmobile.com

Helio - www.helio.com

Inphi Opens Japanese Office

4/10/07 – Westlake Village-based Inphi, which designs and develops integrated circuits for processing high-speed digital data in computing and communications systems, today announced it is opening an office in Japan, and has hired Kenta Sakurai as country manager.  Inphi is recognized as a global technology leader for its innovative designs, dedication to excellence in product development, and advancement of industry standards in the integrated circuits market.

Inphi says its new Japanese office is in Gotanda, Tokyo, close to corporations which the company says rely on Inphi for components that transport, store and deliver high-speed data for high-performance communications and computing systems.

Inphi - www.inphi-corp.com

April 09, 2007

Central Desktop Expands Its Collaboration Platform to Intranets

4/9/07 – Pasadena-based Central Desktop, developer of a web-based collaboration platform, today announced that its spring 2007 release is now live and available to all of its users worldwide.  The company, which claims more than 30,000 users, says this release expands the Central Desktop collaboration platform by introducing a turnkey intranet for its company subscribers, which includes a company directory, company calendar and a dynamic interface that displays personalized data for each user.

“Right out of the box, users will have a powerful, fresh Intranet that complements their project-centric workspaces and wikis,” said Isaac Garcia, CEO of Central Desktop.  “Our research showed that most of our customers were already using Central Desktop as a departmental or team Intranet to share bookmarks, files and company announcements, so we decided to make it easier for them.”

Central Desktop says the intranet provides a central location for employees and members to share information with the entire company—outside the confines of the project they might be working on.  The unique quality of the intranet is its dynamic auto-update features.  The company says dynamic content such as company announcements, workspace activities, RSS Feeds, popular bookmarks and favorite links “bubble up” from the various workspaces—creating a real-time, “always fresh” company intranet.

Central Desktop – www.centraldesktop.com

Helio Gets a Boost from SK Telecom

4/9/07 – In light of speculation last week that it may not survive the year, Los Angeles-based MVNO Helio received a confidence boost from the CEO of South Korea’s SK Telecom, one of its original investors, who said earlier today that he expects Helio to become profitable by 2009, according to Reuters.

Last week’s chatter about Helio was touched off by a report in the Atlanta Journal Constitution that—citing a filing by EarthLink, Helio’s other original investor—said the company did not have enough cash to make it through 2007.  However, the recently-debuted Helio Ocean phone, a dual slider device built for data services like chat, SMS and mobile content, has garnered rave reviews and tremendous buzz, and may provide a needed breakthrough for Helio.  The company also announced a deal with fastmobile Inc. last week for the development of an integrated messaging service for the Ocean.

On the other hand, another potentially strong competitor has jumped into the U.S. MVNO (mobile virtual network operator) market.  KDDI, Japan’s second largest mobile network, announced yesterday that it is launching an MVNO in the U.S., adding to Helio’s competition, which already includes the big mobile phone operators like AT&T Wireless and Verizon Wireless.  Helio and fellow Los Angeles-based MVNO Amp’d Mobile have hit the market with a series of content and device announcements recently, no doubt in order to stay competitive and viable in a difficult market.

And the MVNO saga continues…


Helio – www.helio.com

Amp’d Mobile – www.ampd.com

April 06, 2007

Spot Runner Sees Opportunity in Google’s Foray Into TV Ads

4/6/07 – Google this week announced its first foray into TV advertising through a deal with EchoStar, which runs the DishNetwork satellite service, in an attempt to further extend its advertising platform offline.  On first blush, this may be seen as a threat to Los Angeles-based Spot Runner, which is perhaps the most prominent company already selling local television advertising online.  But for its part, Spot Runner appears to see the new Google service as validation more than anything else.

“Google’s interest in this space is very positive for Spot Runner,” said Rosabel Tao, vice president of corporate communications for Spot Runner.  “It just reinforces what we’ve always believed—that TV advertising is a powerful marketing channel that should be made available to greater numbers of businesses.”

The company also helps businesses produce commercials, and says it offers advertising in 95 percent of local markets in the U.S.

According to its announcement, Google will have access to a portion of DISH Network’s advertising inventory that spans across all channels and dayparts, for an “automated system for buying, selling, delivering and measuring television ads on EchoStar DISH Network’s 125 national satellite programming networks.”  The company has already launched print and radio advertising tests.

Despite Google’s dominant brand and ridiculously strong financial position, Spot Runner does have a head start in understanding the most effective approaches to the market.  Tao cites this as Spot Runner’s most significant strength versus Google.

“In contrast (to Google), Spot Runner has been business for three years and its services are widely available.  In addition, Google doesn’t address one of the largest barriers for business that are interested in getting on TV—obtaining a high-quality, affordable commercial,” said Tao.  “Spot Runner has a vast library of professionally produced ads for hundreds of business categories, all available for as little as $499.  One of Spot Runner’s key benefits is that it provides businesses with an end-to-end solution, including high-quality and affordable commercial production, media planning and media buying services.”

According to various reports, Google has run into problems in its tests of print and radio advertising and its attempts to bring an “AdWords” automated model to traditional media.

Tao cites Spot Runner’s differentiated approach as another advantage over the Internet giant.

“It appears that Google is trying to approach TV the way they are approaching Internet advertising. But the models that work on the Internet are not necessarily the models that are going to prevail in more traditional television advertising,” said Tao.  “In addition, it seems like Google wants to commoditize inventory. Spot Runner believes inventory is owned and controlled by the media companies and that they need to be properly empowered to make decisions about who buys their media and how it’s priced.  That’s why we take a very collaborative approach in working with media companies – in fact, CBS is one of our investors.”

Spot Runner was launched in 2006 by entrepreneurs Nick Grouf and David Waxman.

Spot Runner - www.spotrunner.com

Oversee.net’s DomainSponsor Announces DOMAINfest Amsterdam

4/6/07 – Downtown Los Angeles-based Oversee.net, a company involved in several lines of Internet-based business, has announced that its domain monetization business, DomainSponsor, is presenting DOMAINfest Amsterdam, a two-day regional seminar and networking event created specifically to respond to the needs of domainers operating in the European business environment.  The event will be held May 16-17 at the Hilton Amsterdam Hotel.

Oversee and DomainSponsor say DOMAINfest Amsterdam is open to all those interested in the domain industry, bringing together “domainers” for a combination of casual and structured networking opportunities and high value content sessions.  The company says DOMAINfest Amsterdam will focus on issues relevant to the success of the domain business, including industry trends, finance, risk management, pay-per-click trends and the secondary market.

DomainSponsor describes itself as a domain monetization company, offering services that enable domain owners to maximize earnings on the traffic generated to their domains via direct navigation.

Previous DOMAINfest shows have included an event held in Hollywood this past February, featuring a wide range of speakers, including Michael Arrington of TechCrunch and Eytan Elbaz, head of the domain channel for Google.

This particular show will be geared toward topics particular to the European domain market, according to Ron Sheridan, director of business development for DomainSponsor.

“As the fastest growth sector of the global domain space, the European market has specific regional issues that will spark interesting debate and discussion,” said Sheridan.  “It is a model for emerging domain markets and there is much to be learned from our European colleagues.  Following the tradition of past conferences, the agenda will be comprised of topics suggested by our fellow domainers and sponsors.”

More information about the conference can be found at www.domainfest.com.

DomainSponsor – www.domainsponsor.com

Oversee.net - www.oversee.net

April 05, 2007

Passenger Now Featured on 'The Pitch'

4/5/07 – The Pitch, by StartUp Beat, is featuring a new company—Los Angeles-based Passenger.  The company offers collaboration tools for marketers who want to connect with valued customers.  See what co-founder and head of innovation and marketing Justin Cooper has to say about the company and its value proposition—www.startupbeat.com/thepitch.

The Pitch is where executives at local tech startups pitch their companies directly to StartUp Beat readers through an article that outlines the business model, product line(s) and the people behind the company. 

 

Amp’d Mobile Announces Availability of Fox Reality on Amp’d Live

4/5/07 – Los Angeles-based mobile content and mobile virtual network operator (MVNO) Amp’d Mobile this week continued its ambitious string of content announcements, this time with Fox Reality, an “all-reality, all-the-time” network.  According to Amp’d, linear TV and on-demand video content from Fox Reality will be available on the Amp’d Live service beginning April 16.

The companies say that Fox Reality will provide Amp’d customers with as many as four hours of reality content per day including clips, interviews and reality news updates from Fox Reality’s daily show “Reality Remix” and highlights from original series including “The Academy,” “Solitary 2.0” and “Rob & Amber: Against the Odds.”

“For nearly ten years the demographic Amp’d Mobile serves has propelled reality TV to its current status,” said Seth Cummings, senior vice president, content development and programming, Amp’d Mobile.  “Programming unique extensions of broadcast programs and original reality series is a proven ratings driver on Amp’d Live and the addition of Fox Reality to our industry leading mobile TV lineup is a big win for our customers.”

The companies say that Fox Reality distribution is set to propel past 35 million subscribers in its second year, becoming one of only four new networks to achieve that feat.  Its programming is available on television, broadband, cellular phones and other leading mobile devices.  The network also recently entered into a sweeping deal with Apple to deliver upcoming original series to iTunes.

Amp’d recently announced additional content deals with Nickelodeon and several Hollywood producers.

Amp’d Mobile – www.ampdmobile.com

Fox Reality – www.foxreality.com

Local Startups Named as AeA High-Tech Innovation Awards Finalists

4/5/07 – Startups Axiom Microdevices and WiSpry, both based in Irvine, have been named as finalists in two categories for the annual AeA technology trade association Orange County and Inland Empire High-Tech Innovation Awards.

Brett Butler of Axiom and Jeffrey Hilbert of WiSpry are both nominated for the “Outstanding Private Company CEO” award.  In addition, the companies are up for honors in the Semiconductors category.

The award recipients will be announced on May 10 at an event at the Fairmont Hotel in Newport Beach. 

AeA Orange County Council – www.aeanet.org/orangecounty

Axiom Microdevices – www.axiom-micro.com

WiSpry - www.wispry.com

April 04, 2007

Xirrus Wi-Fi Arrays Selected by Charleston Southern University for Streaming of NCAA Events

4/4/07 – Xirrus, the Westlake Village—based provider of high-performance, long-range wi-fi products, announced today that Charleston Southern University in South Carolina will deploy an all wireless network to deliver live video and audio streaming of its NCAA soccer and softball events starting this month.

Xirrus says it was selected by Charleston Southern because it was the only solution that could provide sufficient wi-fi bandwidth to deliver live audio and video streaming of the NCAA events—meeting the university’s requirement for the Big South Conference to have all sports enabled for live streaming.  The company says its deployment also provided significant cost savings as the only viable alternative involved boring underground fiber backhauls.

By using the multiple radios and the internal, high gain directional antennas of the Xirrus Wi-Fi Arrays, the school was able to connect various points on the campus with high bandwidth wireless backhauls capable of supporting multiple video and audio streams eliminating the need to run thousands of feet of cable, according to Xirrus.

Xirrus has recently announced a number of customer wins and deployments of its Wi-Fi Array product.  The company was founded by the same team that built Xircom, which was acquired by Intel in 2001.

Xirrus - www.xirrus.com

April 03, 2007

The StartUp Beat: 4/3/07

-Big news in digital rights management – More commonly known as “DRM”, it has been a huge issue for the new world of digital music because of the block it imposes on cross-device and service compatibility.  Yesterday’s announcement from Apple and EMI that DRM free music will now be offered could be a boon for companies like Santa Barbara-based Sonos, which develops wireless multi-room home music systems.  If it catches on, DRM-free music will allow unified wireless home music to be more feasible and no doubt significantly more attractive to consumers.

-After much media speculation over the last few days about the future of L.A.-based mobile phone company Helio, it seems that its new Ocean phone may be taking on the role of company’s saving grace.  Eric Zeman at InformationWeek, reporting on the CTIA mobile technology show in Florida last week gives Helio and the Ocean his “unofficial Best of CTIA 2007 award.”  And Giga Om reports on the Ocean and its potential to lift Helio’s prospects—Helio’s Last Chance: The Ocean.

-SoCalTech reports today that an analysis of its venture database reveals that more than $1.15 billion in venture capital deals in Southern California were disclosed in the first quarter of this year.  Here’s the full story: Southern California Raises Over $1B In VC In Q1 2007     

Zaadz.com Gets Investment from Whole Foods CEO

4/3/07 – Topanga-based Zaadz.com, an online social networking site, last week announced that John Mackey, CEO of Whole Foods, Inc., has invested in the company.

Brian Johnson, Zaadz CEO, describes the company as “a social networking site that's all about changing the world by inspiring and empowering people to live at their highest potential.”

Johnson says that to date, the site has drawn nearly 50,000 members, with more than 3.6 million page views and 1.2 million visitors per month.  It was founded by Johnson and a friend in late 2004.

Johnson, who previously founded Eteamz.com, sees a clear target market for the Zaadz social networking offering.

“We’re serving ‘seekers’ looking to improve their lives as well as the ‘conscious entrepreneurs’ who serve them, people like local veggie restaurant owners, yoga teachers, life coaches and massage therapists,” said Johnson.  “From a revenue perspective, we're excited about aggregating a typically fragmented market.  LOHAS (lifestyles of health and sustainability) numbers are skyrocketing with the rising interest in health and well-being and green living, but because the market transcends demographics, it can be difficult for businesses and advertisers alike to reach interested consumers.”

Outside investment previous to Whole Foods’ Mackey has been limited to friends and family.

“Zaadz is a mission-driven business of young, idealistic entrepreneurs passionate about changing the world,” said Mackey.  “I love the way the company is striving to integrate the ideals of conscious capitalism into its business at such a nascent stage and I’m looking forward to seeing the business evolve and catalyze true change in the world.”

Zaadz says it is using this round of funding to roll out “zPro”—what it describes as a suite of tools for small business owners meant to empower conscious entrepreneurs by helping them develop communities around their brands, and growing relationships with clients and customers.

 

Zaadz - www.zaadz.com

April 02, 2007

The StartUp Beat: 4/2/07

-Trouble at Helio? – It seems that despite its best efforts, Los Angeles-based Helio can’t avoid serious questions about its future.  This time, Scott Leith at the Atlanta Journal-Constitution writes that barring further significant investment from backers EarthLink and SK Telecom (or bringing in outside investors), the company “might not stay afloat.”  Based on a filing last week with the SEC, Leith reported that the company does not have enough cash to operate through this year, based on losses of $191.8 million last year. 

Helio is a mobile virtual network operator (MVNO), meaning that the company offers mobile phone service over other companies’ networks.  The company’s value proposition is unique devices and services that it can offer on top of basic phone service.  The market is notoriously hard to crack.  For example, ESPN offered a sports-focused MVNO a few years back, but ultimately threw in the towel on the venture. 

Amp’d Mobile is another local company going head-to-head with Helio for the MVNO market.  Amp’d has slight advantage with the news cycle because it is privately funded so it can withhold subscriber and financial numbers, unlike Helio which is backed by two large public companies.

Despite the fact that it is bleeding cash, Helio may have as good a chance of success in this market as anyone.  It has recently released a number of top-notch Helio-branded phones, and is run by a team of experienced executives, including EarthLink and Boingo Wireless founder Sky Dayton.  In addition, the company has the backing of two huge consumer-focused companies.  But the question remains whether it will be enough to compete with the likes of AT&T Wireless and Verizon.  Here’s the article from the AJC: EarthLink’s cell venture running low on cash (reg req'd)

-Speaking of Amp’d Mobile… which has hit the market with a number of content deal announcements in recent weeks—if you’re curious, a review of its much vaunted Amp’d TV offering can be found at PC Magazine: Amp’d TV – Review by PC Magazine

-Miscellaneous - This has little to do with startups, but it’s interesting nonetheless for web surfers.  A site called Pingdom has compiled a list of the total downtime to date this year for the top 20 web sites.  Here is TechCrunch about the list: Top Twenty Sites: Most Downtime

Answerbag Launches Next Version of Social Q&A Service

4/2/07 – Santa Monica-based social networking web site Answerbag.com has launched an upgraded version of its question-and-answer service.  New features include channels that separate “social” topics and “serious” topics, an enhanced ratings tool and enhanced navigation.

Answerbag says the company honed in on three distinct areas for the upgrade—the separation of social and fact-based question-and-answer, simplification of the search/ask process and the ability to personalize users’ experiences on the site.

The upgrade—version 5.0—of the site is up now at www.answerbag.com.  Answerbag recently released a social question-and-answer API that gives users full access to their structured database of user-generated questions and answers.  For more on the company, see Answerbag’s entry in The Pitch, by StartUp Beat.

Answerbag – www.answerbag.com

Language Weaver and across Systems Sign Strategic Partnership Agreement

4/2/07 – Language Weaver, the Marina Del Rey-based developer of enterprise software for the automated translation of human languages, and across Systems GmbH, a spin-off of AG, Germany, have signed a co-marketing and technology integration agreement.  The partnership is based on use of the across Language Server, a collaborative business solution for all language resources and translation processes, including a translation memory and terminology system, as well as tools for project and workflow management.

The companies say that using the across Language Server, product managers, translators and proofreaders all work together within one system, either in-house or smoothly integrated with translation service providers.  Across says it will provide an interface for the Language Weaver integration, allowing its customers to opt for Language Weaver automated translation modules.

Language Weaver says the partnership will be launched concurrently on April 16 at AIIM Expo in Boston, and at the Forum ITC in Hannover, Germany.  Language Weaver and across say they entered into the partnership to provide international customers with a complete translation solution that goes beyond the benefits that either company could offer independently.  The alliance also expands Language Weaver’s presence in the international enterprise and translation services markets and adds statistical translation capabilities to across Systems functionality.

The technology behind Language Weaver, founded in 2002, resulted from research and development at the University of Southern California’s Information Sciences Institute.

Language Weaver – www.languageweaver.com

across Systems – www.across.net


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