Recent posts and comments

• Zoora Aims to Marry Indie Designers with Shoppers Hungry for Options

  She started her career as a management consultant, but Aubrie Pagano says she always knew she wanted to be an entrepreneur. And she was particularly energized by fashion.

  So Pagano spent her free... Read more »

• Brightcove, Radius, Synchroneuron, & More Boston-Area Dealmakers

  Plans for IPOs and venture funding dominated the New England deals news this week.

  —A new seed fund, backed by venture firm New Enterprise Associates and hosted by Harvard, came out of... Read more »

• FDA Approvals for Alkermes & Vertex Among the NE Life Sciences News

  News of FDA drug approvals shone the spotlight on some New England biotechs this week.

  —Waltham, MA-based Alkermes (NASDAQ: ALKS) and San Diego-based Amylin Pharmaceuticals(NASDAQ: AMLN) won FDA approval for... Read more »

• Social Shopping App Snapette’s “Unexpected” Journey Takes It To NY

  Snapette was supposed to be an unusual way for Sarah Paiji to spend the summer between her two years at Harvard Business School. It was a mobile app idea she started working... Read more »

• Avila, iRobot, Verastem, Illume, & More Boston Deal News

  This week’s deal news covered a breadth of sectors: biotech, medical devices, mobile applications, software, and robotics. Not to mention a major venture capital fund raise.

  —Waltham, MA-based drugmaker Avila Therapeutics was bought by... Read more »

• Vsnap Building Business on Vision of “Ubiquitous” Video Messaging

  The blow from getting a higher-than-expected bill from someone like your lawyer could be softened it if came attached to a 60-second video message explaining the special things he or she actually did... Read more »

• ConforMIS Adds $89M to Expand Sales, Manufacturing, Technology

  Burlington, MA-based ConforMIS, a medical device company with a newly FDA approved knee replacement system, announced today that it has secured $89 million in a Series E investment.

  The money comes from London-based AGC Equity... Read more »

• Millennium, Vertex, Avila, & More Boston Life Sciences Newsmakers

  It was a busy news week in the New England life sciences scene, with acquisitions, clinical data, and partnership deals.

  —Thanks to a new co-promotion deal, Genzyme will begin marketing a diagnostic test for... Read more »

• Xconomist of the Week: Mark Lowenstein on Mobile’s Next Waves

  Mark Lowenstein has made some pretty bold statements about what’s going to happen in the wireless industry this year. More mergers and acquisitions among mobile operators. Same goes for the handset... Read more »

• Constant Contact, Bluefin Labs, HP, & More Boston Dealmakers

  An acquisition and startup financings made up the New England deals news this week.

  —Waltham, MA-based marketing software firm Constant Contact acquired the Boston startup CardStar, the developer of a mobile app... Read more »

• Intrepid Labs: Boston’s Newest Co-Working Spot for Maturing Startups

  Boston has no place for “serious, venture-backed startups” to grow from five employees to 25 employees, akin to San Francisco’s RocketSpace, or New York City’s General Assembly, says Mark Kasdorf.... Read more »

• Apptopia Hopes to Bring Broker Flair To Mobile App Marketplace

  The vast majority of mobile applications in the marketplace aren’t coming from well-established businesses, but experimental developers. The apps can even accrue a good user following, but those developers don’t exactly have... Read more »

• OpenView Labs Aims to Prime Portfolio Companies for Big Growth

  “Money is money, anyone can do that,” says Brian Zimmerman, managing director of Boston-based OpenView Venture Partners.

  Go on.

  “We have this idea of providing real value to our portfolio companies. If... Read more »

• Flagship, Joule, Constellation, and More of The Week’s Boston Dealmakers

  Web startups, venture firms, life sciences companies, and a biofuels developer rounded out the deals news this week.

  —Cambridge, MA-based Flagship Ventures announced it had closed a $270 million fund, surpassing the... Read more »

• What Should Students Study? Read the Xconomist Report on Education

  Yesterday Bob told you about a special report we put together by canvassing the Xconomists—some of the world’s leading innovators, entrepreneurs, and investors—for their thoughts on what students should study to... Read more »

• Joule Socks Away $70M For New Mexico Green Fuel Facility

  Joule Unlimited, a biofuels startup located in Bedford, MA, announced today that it has pocketed $70 million in financing to put toward a facility underway in Hobbs, NM, that will demonstrate Joule’s... Read more »

• The Boston Life Sciences Newsmakers: Civitas, Blend, Forma, & More

  Development deals, clinical advances, startup funding, and new hires made up the New England life sciences news this week.

  —Chelsea, MA-based Civitas Therapeutics, a spinout from the Waltham, MA, biotech Alkermes (NASDAQ: ALKS... Read more »

• LogMeIn, Safari, Forma, And More Behind the Boston-Area Deals News

  Boston area software and life sciences startups are starting off the new year right with a slew of financing, acquisitions, and partnerships news.

  —Marlborough, MA-based Physicians Interactive Holdings received a $17 million... Read more »

• With a Fresh $17M, Pyxis Mobile Pivots Business and Rebrands as Verivo

  For almost two years, Pyxis Mobile has been restructuring its business to sell platforms for mobile app development, but was lacking the capital to make the switch official, says CEO Steven... Read more »

• Par8o, from Sermo Founders, Aims to be Patient-Physician Matchmakers

  [Updated 1/11/12 5:15 pm. See below.] “Sermo has been my baby, my blood and tears,” its former CEO Daniel Palestrant told me in a phone call last week.

  So it was... Read more »