Recent posts and comments

• LaserMotive Wins $900K NASA Prize

  Kent, WA-based LaserMotive has won $900,000 in a NASA competition to build a small prototype device that one day could help lead to a commercial “space elevator,” a cable that could... Read more »

• Porn Always Wins, Bacon Salt Expands, and Other Thoughts from Entrepreneur University

  I’m not going to do justice to this event. Let’s just get that out there right now. There were some great speakers and panels at yesterday’s Entrepreneur University in Bellevue, WA,... Read more »

• Elias Zerhouni Talks Public Health Challenges, Culture Wars at WBBA Annual Meeting

  Just came back from the Washington Biotechnology & Biomedical Association’s annual meeting in downtown Seattle, where 500-plus biotechies and distinguished guests (including more than a few local politicians) gathered for a... Read more »

• A Tale of Three Cities: How Boston, Boulder, and Seattle Measure Up as Tech Innovation Hubs

  I was chatting with a couple of local investors at the TechStars (seed fund and mentorship program) event in Seattle on Wednesday. They thought the VC panel discussion of the... Read more »

• Evri, SEOmoz, Topsy, and Sage to Present at “Future of Search” Forum

  Want to know what the real opportunities are for startup companies and investors in the field of Web search and information discovery? Or what happens when you put Google and Bing... Read more »

• Report: RealNetworks Lays Off 70

  Seattle-based RealNetworks is cutting 4 percent of its worldwide staff today, about 70 out of 1,700 jobs, according to All Things Digital. The report cites the economic downturn and cost-cutting... Read more »

• VC Len Jordan Joins Madrona, Says Frazier Technology Ventures Won’t Raise Another Fund

  Len Jordan, a general partner at Seattle-based Frazier Technology Ventures, will be joining Madrona Venture Group, also based in Seattle, as of January 1, 2010. Jordan will start at Madrona as... Read more »

• Kashless Expands, Enters Marketing Phase as It Rewards Consumers for Recycling Products

  I caught up yesterday with noted entrepreneur and investor Martin Tobias, after his latest startup, Seattle-based Kashless, announced a partnership with RecycleBank to reward people for recycling items at Kashless.org.... Read more »

• Movaya Bought by Digby

  Seattle-based Movaya Wireless, a mobile software startup, has been acquired by Digby, a mobile commerce firm based in Austin, TX. Financial terms were not announced. Movaya was founded in 2006 by... Read more »

• Microsoft Lays Off 800 More; Washington and Massachusetts Affected

  Microsoft has confirmed it is cutting 800 positions across the company today, in its third round of layoffs this year. About a quarter of the jobs are in the Seattle area,... Read more »

• Microsoft’s Craig Mundie on Future Interfaces, Computer Science Education, and Life After Bill G

  Craig Mundie is a geek, and I mean that in the best possible way. Microsoft’s chief research and strategy officer, the 17-year veteran of Redmond, WA, still talks like an engineer,... Read more »

• Calypso Teams Up with Siemens

  Seattle-based Calypso Medical Technologies announced today it has signed a strategic development agreement with Siemens Healthcare to jointly develop products for radiation therapy of pancreas and lung cancer, as well as... Read more »

• Amazon Closes Zappos Deal, RF Arrays Raises Cash, 16 Under the Radar Financings, & More Seattle-Area Deals News

  It was a quiet week for deals in the Northwest, but we dug up some important ones in business software, wireless, and biotech.

  —Seattle-based Amazon’s (NASDAQ: AMZN) acquisition of Zappos,... Read more »

• $1.2B Amazon-Zappos Deal Closes

  Seattle-based Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN) said today its acquisition of online apparel and shoe seller Zappos, based in Las Vegas, has closed. The Zappos management team will remain intact, the company... Read more »

• Tasktop Finds Path to Profits, Via a More Efficient Interface Inspired by Brain Science

  For Mik Kersten, it all started when he saw Maria Klawe speak at the University of British Columbia. It was the mid-1990s, and Klawe, a distinguished mathematician and computer scientist—now the... Read more »

• Greylock Adds Reid Hoffman as Partner

  Greylock Partners, a Silicon Valley venture firm formerly based in the Boston area, announced today it has hired Reid Hoffman, the co-founder and executive chairman of LinkedIn, as a partner. Hoffman,... Read more »

• Who’s Up, Who’s Down in Tech Company Earnings Land

  Well, we can’t all be Amazon. While the Seattle-based e-commerce giant (NASDAQ: AMZN) raked in a $199 million profit for the third quarter of 2009—a 68 percent increase in net... Read more »

• Onehub Raises $1.3M Series A

  Bellevue, WA-based Onehub announced it has raised $1.3 million in Series A financing from Bellevue-based Ignition Partners and angel investors. Onehub makes cloud-based software for collaboration and file-sharing, and was founded... Read more »

• Prolifiq Wins at OEN Venture Northwest

  Beaverton, OR-based Prolifiq was named winner of the day at the annual Oregon Entrepreneurs Network (OEN) Venture Northwest investor forum in Portland, OR, today. Eleven companies, including three from the Seattle... Read more »

• Top Tech Events of the Fall—an Xconomy Guide

  My head is exploding trying to keep up with all the tech-business events going on around Seattle these days. Here’s a quick guide to the most prominent ones on my brain,... Read more »