This year’s MassTLC Innovation UnConference, in Boston on Friday, was as overwhelming—and inspiring—as ever. Apart from the “secrets of scaling startups” session, which I recapped in a separate story, there was a lot going on. Far too much for any one person to take in.

There were sessions on picking the right startup accelerator; building the right company culture; choosing board directors; common mistakes startups make; the talent and recruiting crunch; and the interplay between the New York and Boston innovation scenes, as well as sector-focused sessions on gaming, big data, analytics, mobile cloud, social marketing, and so forth.

To keep track of the main themes this year, I benefited from random chats with Lawrence Schwartz of Tokutek; Michael Raybman of WaySavvy; Gus Weber of Dogpatch Labs and Polaris Venture Partners; Semyon Dukach of SMTP; Vineet Sinha of Architexa; Jeremy Levine of StarStreet; Josh Bob from Textaurant; Dharmesh Shah of HubSpot; and many others. My colleagues Erin Kutz and Lilly O’Flaherty roamed the halls and sessions as well, so I will include some of their observations too.

Here’s a quick sampling of what we all learned about:

1. There are about 100 “big data” companies around Boston. That was the count given at one of several sessions focusing on big data and analytics, led by Steve O’Leary of Aeris Partners and Bob Zurek of Endeca (nice exit). For comparison, earlier this year MassTLC estimated the huge mobile/wireless cluster around Boston to be about 400 companies strong. Big data encompasses big companies like Netezza (part of IBM), Oracle, EMC, ITA Software (Google), Vertica (HP), and Progress Software, as well as upstarts like Hadapt, Jana, Ginger.io, Hopper, Kyruus, and Tokutek. The common thread is technology to help people and companies manage and make sense of tremendous amounts of data so they can make better business decisions.

2. If you’re tired of SoLoMo (social-local-mobile media) as a tech theme, try SoMoClo…the social mobile cloud. In case your eyes just glazed over, think of it this way: Google is mobile plus cloud (see Android). So is Apple (more mobile than cloud, but getting there). Facebook is social plus cloud. Whoever gets all three wins. Beyond consumers, an emerging sector for this technology is healthcare. Jeffrey Tingle of PolyRemedy talked about opportunities in making electronic medical records accessible by patients and doctors—along with the major challenges of privacy, security, and compliance.

3. Web content and advertising are becoming much more interactive—and that interplay leaves an opening for startups. “Traditional church-and-state separation of content and commerce is dying,” says Michael Raybman from travel site WaySavvy. “Sidebar display ads are totally 2005. Commerce and advertising are becoming personalized and contextual, while content is becoming increasingly actionable, where ‘share with friends’ is not the only action. This brings immense opportunities for the travel vertical.”

4. Just when you thought the engineering talent crunch couldn’t get much worse: Undergrads aren’t coming out of school with the right coding experience, and startups can’t afford the time or … Next Page »

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If you talk to enough venture capitalists, you’ll hear certain universal truths. For one thing, venture-backed companies provide something like 20 percent of all jobs in the U.S. Second, despite some contraction and a decade of generally lousy returns, the VC industry is as strong as ever. And, yes, the IPO and acquisitions markets could really heat up in 2011 after a couple of very tough years.

On a more personal level, you’ll probably hear all about the strengths of their firms’ portfolio companies (and the weaknesses of others’). You’ll hear that “super angels” are overblown in terms of their overall impact and competing with VCs for deals. And, of course, that any tax increase on carried interest (VC profits) is an abomination.

But—get enough VCs in a room together and ask more probing questions, and you’ll hear deeper stories and discussions. That’s just what Xconomy did last week at our “VC65” conference, which we organized in partnership with the National Venture Capital Association and the MIT Museum, and held at Kresge Auditorium at MIT. The idea was to celebrate the 65th anniversary of venture capital in America by bringing out insights and stories from some prominent VCs and venture-backed entrepreneurs—and nearly 1,000 people turned out to hear what they had to say.

Some pieces of the program I was already familiar with. Mick Mountz of Kiva Systems and Ajay Agarwal of Bain Capital Ventures showed their usual dazzling robotic-warehouse videos, with a twist—they also talked about a key early meeting between Kiva and Staples (before Bain invested in Kiva), which highlighted the importance of VC customer networks; Staples has gone on to spend some $20 million on Kiva products, and Kiva , which has raised $33 million in VC investments, recently became profitable.

MIT biotech and materials science inventor Bob Langer and Terry McGuire of Polaris Venture Partners talked about their “formula” for building companies together over the past 18 years. They said each of their 17 companies is based around six elements: a platform technology, products (not information), a key scientific paper in Nature or Science, patents (“to block everyone else”), in vivo data, and a core team of students, postdocs, and collaborators.

Henry McCance of Greylock Partners talked about his Cure Alzheimer’s Fund and implored VCs to use their skills and resources to transform society in a broader way—by focusing on their personal passion, whether it’s the environment, education, medicine, poverty, or hunger. “Over the last 65 years, you’ve changed the for-profit world,” he said. “Now change the nonprofit world.”

But there was also plenty of thought-provoking stuff I hadn’t heard before, from other luminaries across a wide range of fields. Now that I’ve had a few days for ideas from the event to sink in, here are my top 10 takeaways:

10. VCs aren’t bad singers. At least when they’re crooning “Happy Birthday” to themselves, as Bob Metcalfe from Polaris (and the University of Texas) famously led them to do early in the afternoon. It was a little surreal, but honestly, I’ve heard worse renditions. Much worse.

9. Traffic disrupts everything. Not just your commute. Metcalfe made the point that Internet traffic has disrupted everything from advertising to telecom, from music to television. The natural evolution of that trend, he says, is that the next wave of traffic across video, mobile, and embedded networks will disrupt three main industries—education, healthcare, and energy. (He didn’t say exactly how, but we didn’t give him enough time for that.)

8. Every company, especially a successful one, has its make-or-break moment. Howard Hartenbaum of August Capital told the story of Skype’s almost getting shut down by … Next Page »

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Our big VC65 event in MIT’s Kresge Auditorium was a tremendous success. The intent of course, was to celebrate the 65th anniversary of venture capital in America—but in a way that drew out lessons and insights about building great companies and great partnerships between VCs and entrepreneurs.

We drew an amazing crowd of nearly 1,000 people, including 500 from the National Venture Capital Association’s annual meeting. The speakers included leading venture capitalists and entrepreneurs from around the country. There was lively repartee on the “speed-dating” panels, capped by incredible stores of entrepreneurial and venture success—all followed by a reception in the MIT Museum’s MIT 150 Exhibit celebrating the 150th anniversary of the Institute.

You will soon be able to read our recap of the afternoon, and see photos of the speakers and crowd, elsewhere on Xconomy.com. But I wanted to take a moment to thank all the great partners and participants who made it happen.

First, our speakers, some of whom flew across the country to join us, in order of appearance,: Jack Lasersohn, Bob Metcalfe, Henry McCance, Mick Mountz, Ajay Agarwal, Ed Roberts, Bryan Roberts, Theresia Gouw Ranzetta, Noubar Afeyan, Jason Mendelson, Howard Hartenbaum, Scott Kupor, Bob Langer, Terry McGuire, Phil Sharp, John Durant, Bill Sahlman, Peter Brooke, Linda Rottenberg, and Tim Draper.

Thanks to our event sponsors, starting with Platinum Sponsor Microsoft, Gold Sponsors Silicon Valley Bank and WilmerHale, and Silver sponsors Advent International and SNR Denton. We really appreciate your support!

I’d also like to thank our event partners, the NVCA and the MIT Museum. The great teams at both of these organizations made the day smooth and successful.

Thanks as well to our Event Supporters: MFA–Moody, Famiglietti & Andronico; Mintz Levin; Charles River Ventures; TA Associates; and Wolf & Company.

Our excellent Design Partners were Mixture and Upstatement, and our great and comfortable stage furniture was provided by Turnstone.

We’d also like to thank the underwriters and venture members who support us throughout the year. Without you, none of this would be possible. First, our charter underwriters, who have supported us since our launch in mid-2007: Alexandria Real Estate Equities; Biogen Idec; Science and Technology Directorate, U.S. Department of Homeland Security; and WilmerHale.

Our other great underwrites are: BNY Mellon Wealth Management ; Goodwin Procter; Invest Northern Ireland; J. Robert Scott Executive Search; Kauffman Foundation; Latham & Watkins; Schwartz Communications; SRI International
; Turnstone; and UK Trade & Investment.

Our venture capital members include: Advanced Technology Ventures; Arch Venture Partners; Atlas Venture; Avalon Ventures; Boston Millennia Partners; Flagship Ventures; LaunchCapital; North Bridge Venture Partners; and Polaris Venture Partners.

Thanks to one and all again. And, finally, thanks to you, our great audience. We look forward to seeing you at our next big event here in Boston, XSITE 2011 (the Xconomy Summit on Innovation, Technology, and Entrepreneurship), which will take place at Babson College on June 16. A formal announcement will be coming soon, but save the date, and we will hope to see you there.

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We are down to the wire, and up to some 900 guests and counting. That’s the expected attendance at tomorrow’s VC65 event celebrating the 65th anniversary of the birth of venture capital in America—and 65 years of innovation in how to help support great entrepreneurs.

Get your tickets and see the full agenda here.

This is your last chance to attend this incredible event, which features some of the leading VCs and entrepreneurs from around the country. The event takes place tomorrow afternoon (April 6) in MIT’s Kresge Auditorium. Xconomy has partnered with the National Venture Capital Association and the MIT Museum to hold the event in concert with the NVCA’s annual meeting this week in Boston. Some 400-500 venture capitalists will be bused to Kresge to join a similar number from Xconomy’s audience. Afterwards, we will all walk to the MIT Museum for a reception in the fabulous MIT 150 Exhibition celebrating the 150th anniversary of the Institute.

The core of the afternoon will feature stories and insights that entrepreneurs and investors alike will want to hear. Kicking things off will be entrepreneur and investor Bob Metcalfe, now professor of innovation at the University of Texas. He will be followed by Henry McCance of Greylock Partners, who will share his firm’s Four Principles of Building Great Companies, and how he is applying those principles to non-profits. The rest of our lineup includes:

—The Skype Story: Told by Howard Hartenbaum of August Capital, the founding investor in Skype.

—Ajay Agarwal of Bain Capital Partners and Mick Mountz, founder and CEO of Kiva Systems, describing Fulfillment 2.0—how a new era of robotics is fueling e-commerce growth.

—Legendary MIT inventor and serial entrepreneur Bob Langer and Terry McGuire, co-founder of Polaris Venture Partners, will share the secrets of their longtime collaboration that has spawned some 14 companies.

—Scott Kupor of Andreessen Horowitz will talk about his firm’s new model for doing venture—what has worked, and what hasn’t.

Other speakers at VC65 include Tim Draper, of Draper Fisher Jurvetson; Theresia Ranzetta of Accel Venture Partners; Jason Mendelson of Foundry Group, Bryan Roberts from Venrock; Peter Brooke, founder of Advent International; Noubar Afeyan of Flagship Ventures; Linda Rottenberg of Endeavour Global, and William Sahlman, a professor at Harvard Business School.

And that’s not all. We will also show a special 7-minute clip from More than Money, a documentary about venture capital featuring legends like Tom Perkins, Arthur Rock, and Don Valentine.

Then the networking begins. It should be a great afternoon. Get your tickets now. We hope to see you there!

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Chance favors the prepared startup mind. Excuse the slight variation on an old saying. But with our VC65 conference set to take place on April 6, just 9 days from now, I find myself thinking more and more about what makes a successful startup—and how much of it you can control.

A lot, of course, if you have the right combination of team, attitude, and investors. But platitudes about hiring, vision, and venture capital partners are the easy part. How do you put those things together, what do you look for, how do you know when it’s time to shift gears? In short, how you do you go beyond lip service to really stack the odds in your favor, and put your company in a position to capitalize on opportunity?

Answering such questions is a big theme of our conference, which will take place the afternoon of April 6 in MIT’s Kresge auditorium. If you are ruminating on similar subjects, I hope you’ll come on down. To hold VC65, which celebrates the 65th anniversary of the birth of venture capital in the U.S., we’ve partnered with the National Venture Capital Association and the MIT Museum (which is hosting our networking reception in the MIT 150 Exhibit honoring the Institute’s 150th anniversary). In the audience will be hundreds of venture capitalists from around the country, along with hundreds of Xconomy readers. And taking center stage will be some of the world’s best investors and entrepreneurs to share their insights and lessons about building great companies.

Consider: Kicking things off will be Bob Metcalfe, a wildly successful entrepreneur (a founder of 3Com), inventor, investor, and now professor of innovation at the University of Texas. Then there is Greylock Partners’ chairman emeritus Henry McCance, who will be sharing his four cornerstones to building great companies. MIT inventor and entrepreneur extraordinaire Bob Langer will be taking the stage with Polaris Venture Partners’ Terry McGuire to talk about what they’ve learned launching 14 startups together. Mick Mountz, founder and CEO of Kiva Systems, will be teaming up with his lead investor Ajay Agarwal from Bain Capital Ventures. Howard Hartenbaum of August Capital will be here in person to share the Skype story-that’s one wild ride, I can tell you. And Scott Kupor of Andreessen Horowitz will be detailing his firm’s vision of a new way to stack the deck and clear the way for entrepreneurs through things like its Talent Agency that connects startups with computer programmers, developers, and the like.

And that just a few of the great speakers and stories we have lined up. MIT Sloan School of Management professor (himself an entrepreneur and investor) Ed Roberts will host a great panel focusing on the future of U.S. venture (think shrinkage, early stage deals, and competition with super angels and micro-VCs): the panelists are Theresia Gouw Ranzetta of Accel Partners; Jason Mendelson of The Foundry Group; Noubar Afeyan of Flagship Ventures; and Bryan Roberts of Venrock.

Bill Sahlman of Harvard Business School (we have balance here, despite being on MIT’s home court) will moderate a fantastic panel on investing in international markets. His group includes Peter Brooke, the pioneer in international venture capital, Linda Rottenberg of Endeavor Global in New York, and Tim Draper, founder of Draper Fisher Jurvetson and son of Bill Draper, and himself one of the most prominent venture capitalists in the country (Tim will be on hand during the break to sign copies of his father’s book, for which he wrote the afterword).

I can hardly wait for this show to begin. If you act fast, you can still snag one of 50 copies of The Startup Game: Inside the Partnership Between Venture Capitalists and Entrepreneurs, the new book from legendary investor Bill Draper. We’ve only got a few left. But don’t fret too much if you are late, as we also have 30 copies of A Vision for Venture Capital, a book by equally legendary investor Peter Brooke, founder of Advent International and TA Associates. They will go to the next 30 who buy a ticket after Draper’s book is gone. (One exception to these offers: those purchasing student tickets are not eligible, sorry.)

VC65 promises to be a great afternoon of insight-sharing and networking. I hope you can come. Get your tickets here.

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Here at Xconomy, we know something about the great investor-entrepreneur relationships that are often behind the best companies: not only are we a startup ourselves, we write about the venture capital and startup scene every day. And as you may have heard, together with the National Venture Capital Association and the MIT Museum, we are also planning a fantastic event in MIT’s Kresge Auditorium on April 6 that will honor the legacy of great investor-entrepreneur partnerships—VC65: Celebrating the 65th Anniversary of Venture Capital in America.

But if you stack our knowledge up against that of Bill Draper…well, let’s just not go there. Draper is the legendary venture capitalist who founded Sutter Hill Ventures and later his current firm, Draper Richards. Along the way he has backed scores of successful companies, including Yahoo, Baidu, Skype, Hotmail, and OpenTable, to name a few more recent investments.

Now, we are pleased to announce another great partnership of sorts—between Bill Draper and Xconomy. Draper, who serves on the Founders Circle planning group for VC65, has just donated 50 copies of his acclaimed new book, The Startup Game: Inside the Partnership between Venture Capitalists and Entrepreneurs. These will go to the next 50 people who buy a non-student ticket for VC65.

So act now to get your ticket. Bill isn’t able to make the event, but his son, Tim, who is co-founder of another prominent venture firm, Draper Fisher Jurvetson, will be one of our VC65 speakers. He wrote the afterword to his father’s book (the forward is from Eric Schmidt of Google), and he will be on hand during the break to tell you more about the book and sign copies if you’d like.

You can read more about Bill Draper’s book here on Amazon. But let me just quote from one reviewer, Brad Feld, a not unknown VC himself:

“Bill Draper (officially William H. Draper III) has written a gem called The Startup Game. It’s a mix of practitioner stories with some autobiography mixed in…Draper talks about the early days of venture capital, the creation and evolution of the industry, and many of the early players whose names are well known to any VC insider. Along the way he tells stories about companies he’s funded (or missed funding) and generally teaches at least one lesson in each story.”

A lot more lessons will be brought forward at VC65, where many of the world’s top venture capitalists and some leading entrepreneurs will be sharing their insights: Greylock’s Henry McCance, Peter Brooke of Advent International, Venrock’s Bryan Roberts, MIT’s Bob Langer, Mick Mountz of Kiva Systems, Theresia Gouw Ranzetta of Accel, and Terry McGuire and Bob Metcalfe from Polaris are some of the speakers.

You can see the rest of the lineup and get your tickets here. Act fast, and your copy of The Startup Game will be waiting for you at VC65. (You must be present to get it, otherwise we will give it to someone else.) I hope to see you there.

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Great venture capitalists and entrepreneurs aren’t in it for the money or fame—they are out to build outstanding companies that make the world safer, healthier, more productive, more accessible, or just more fun. And, usually, it takes a great partnership between investors and entrepreneurs to pull that off.

Celebrating such successful partnerships is the main focus of a tremendous event Xconomy is proud to have taken a leading role in organizing. It’s called VC65, and it marks the 65th anniversary of the birth of venture capital in America, as embodied by the formation of American Research and Development, the pioneering venture capital firm formed by Harvard Business school professor General Georges Doriot in 1946. This gathering, which will feature leading venture capitalists and entrepreneurs from around the country, will take place the afternoon of April 6, in MIT’s Kresge Auditorium.

The power-packed lineup for VC65 features keynotes from legendary entrepreneur and investor (now professor, read on) Bob Metcalfe and pioneering venture capitalist Henry McCance of Greylock Partners; a series of VC-entrepreneur stories designed to bring out key lessons or insights about building great companies; and lightning panels about the future of venture capital and entrepreneurship. There’s more on the program below, and you can find the full agenda here.

To put on VC65, Xconomy has partnered with the National Venture Capital Association and the MIT Museum. On the afternoon of April 6, some 600 venture capitalists will make their way to Kresge following the first session of the NVCA’s annual meeting, which opens that morning in Boston. They will be joined at the VC65 conference, which is open to the public, by New England entrepreneurs, technologists, student, and other members of the innovation community—in short, by you, Xconomy’s readers. Then, after a great session with some special surprises soon to be announced, everyone will walk down to the MIT Museum for a reception in the recently opened MIT 150 Exhibition, which celebrates the 150th anniversary of the Institute.

It promises to be a fantastic day of sharing big ideas and networking. The early bird rate ends Thursday, so get your tickets now at VC65.eventbrite.com.

The afternoon’s festivities will include:

—An opening keynote talk by Metcalfe, inventor of the Ethernet and co-founder of 3Com. In 2001 Metcalfe became a partner at Polaris Venture Partners, and has now joined the University of Texas at Austin as Professor of Innovation. He knows both sides of the VC-entrepreneur partnership personally.

—Henry McCance of Greylock will talk about his firm’s four principles of building great companies, and how he is hoping to apply those principles to cure disease.

—Howard Hartenbaum of August Capital, who was the founding investor in Skype when he was with Draper Richards, will share details from the Skype story.

—Mick Mountz, founder and CEO of robotics company Kiva Systems, will be taking the stage with lead investor Ajay Agarwal, managing director of Bain Capital Ventures. Their story is called Fulfillment 2.0, and it is about a new era of robotics enabling e-commerce growth.

—Scott Kupor, a partner at Andreessen Horowitz, will talk about his firm’s new model for doing venture investing. The upstart venture firm was co-founded by Marc Andreessen, co-founder of Netscape and inventor of the first widely used Web browser.

—Bob Langer, the most prolific inventor in America today, will be joining Terry McGuire, co-founder of Polaris Venture Partners, to talk about their great collaborations, which have resulted in some 14 biotech companies at last count.

And that’s hardly all. Other speakers at VC65 include Tim Draper of Draper Fisher Jurvetson; Theresia Ranzetta of Accel Venture Partners; Jason Mendelson of Foundry Group; Bryan Roberts from Venrock; Peter Brooke, founder of Advent International; Noubar Afeyan of Flagship Ventures; Linda Rottenberg of Endeavour Global; and William Sahlman, a professor at Harvard Business School.

And as I mentioned, we have a few more treats in store, to be announced in the days ahead. But get your tickets now to take advantage of the early bird rate.

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Boston-based Bain Capital Ventures is planning to open an office in Palo Alto, CA, according to a report in PE Hub. Managing director Ajay Agarwal and several associates will be relocating to Silicon Valley, and the firm plans to hire several senior executives in the area, the report says. BCV has not confirmed the news. Agarwal has been involved with investments in such companies as AdReady, Kiva Systems, m-Qube, Skyhook Wireless, and VMLogix. Last July, the venture firm announced it was opening a virtual innovation center aimed at providing resources and contacts for early-stage startups.

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Thanks again to all who helped make Xconomy’s “5×5: Five Cities, Five Big Tech Ideas” forum a smash hit this week. I wrote up a quick recap with a few takeaways from the event here. Now it’s time for the pictures.

We heard keynote talks from Boston-area innovation stalwarts Bill Warner and Bob Metcalfe (the latter gave a “terminal keynote” and closing observations). We took deeper dives into five of the potentially most transformative companies in our network of cities, from Joaquin Silva of On-Ramp Wireless, Mick Mountz of Kiva Systems, Craig Labovitz of Arbor Networks, Roger Reynolds of TerraPower, and Tommy McClung of CarWoo.

We also got to hear “burst” presentations from Sarah McIlroy of FashionPlaytes, Dug Song of Duo Security, Bettina Hein of Pixability, Iker Marcaide of peerTransfer, and Joe Viola of Prysm.

And we got to ask questions, schmooze, drink beer and wine, and enjoy some cool demos from Avaya, Turnstone, Prysm, Duo Security, and peerTransfer. Thanks again to the Fidelity Center for Applied Technology for supplying such a great space.

Special thanks to Keith Spiro from Kendall Press for snapping some great photos, which I’ve stitched together below.

You can click on the thumbnails to see larger versions of Keith’s shots:

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We had such a great time at our “5×5” Xconomy Forum yesterday, I just wanted to share a few thoughts from the talks and discussions. I think it was very useful and entertaining stuff, especially for entrepreneurs and investors.

First, a note of thanks to all our participants, several of whom flew into frigid Boston from warmer climes. And a very special thank you to our host and sponsors, who made this event possible. Our host, the Fidelity Center for Applied Technology, was wonderful in every respect—it was a fantastic event space, and the supportive staff helped us with logistics and a lot more. Our event sponsors—Avaya, Comerica Bank, Duane Morris, and Turnstone—provided much-needed support and some really cool demos that added depth to the program and reception. We also got support from our design sponsor, Upstatement; our event partner, Mass Technology Leadership Council; and our media partner, Greentech Media. Thanks again to all of you.

Now here are my top five takeaways from a rousing set of speakers:

1. Bill Warner turned our thinking around. The entrepreneur evangelist and renowned angel investor spoke from the back of the room and made us all turn our chairs around, to emphasize his unconventional approach to startups. “I intend to help people follow their heart,” he said. “I believe people are pushed to follow their head.” Essentially, a startup’s philosophy boils down to what he calls the “negotiated invention” model—what most entrepreneurs follow by leading with their idea or technology and making compromises based on the market and egos—versus his “from the heart” approach, which involves sticking to your true beliefs and intentions and building a loyal following (and taxing them as little as possible—see Google, Facebook, Twitter).

2. CarWoo gave us tips on how to become the next Groupon. Founder and CEO Tommy McClung, from the Bay Area, talked about targeting established business models in big markets, which are “usually ripe for disruption”; riding the emerging trend of “online to offline” (like Groupon, getting merchants up and running online while also getting customers into physical stores); and balancing incentives for your customers (in CarWoo’s case, letting car dealers in for free while charging consumers a service fee).

3. Kiva Systems is profitable. The Woburn, MA-based robotics, er, warehouse automation startup, is cash-flow positive and now gets business from 10 of the top 100 retailers, including Amazon (Zappos, Diapers.com), Staples, and Gilt Groupe. CEO and founder Mick Mountz showed some nifty action videos and talked about lessons learned from dot-com disaster Webvan, All in all, not bad for a robotics company (sorry Mick, but retailers have to get with the robot revolution) that’s been quietly building its business since 2003.

4. Whether it’s the energy grid or the Web, we need situational awareness. That was the message from two of our out-of-town speakers, Joaquin Silva of On-Ramp Wireless (San Diego) and Craig Labovitz from Arbor Networks (Detroit). Silva discussed new ways to harness super-sensitive wireless sensor networks to monitor global electricity and water systems for safety and efficiency. Labovitz talked about the vulnerabilities in today’s Web and mobile systems (hint: firewalls are not secure), and how to fight back in the escalating battle between hackers and security experts. (He also stuck up for Ann Arbor as a key contributor to the modern Internet.)

5. TerraPower will change the world—if it works. Technology advisor Roger Reynolds talked about Bill Gates and Nathan Myhrvold’s nuclear reactor design and its many challenges. The 20-year goal: cheap, safe, and plentiful energy for everyone, and the eradication of poverty. Reynolds’s deadpan style worked well—with an idea this big, you don’t need bluster, you need expertise to make it work. (Or as Bob Metcalfe put it, “Why is this taking so long? It was very clearly explained. Just build it and ship it.”)

Speaking of whom, here’s a bonus takeaway:

Bob Metcalfe isn’t leaving, he’s expanding. The Internet tycoon’s move to Austin, TX, is part change of scenery (and weather), part new career (Professor of Innovation at UT), and part “strolling into Whole Foods and buying everything in there.” But there’s something more profound in this, too, and it’s really about the spread of ideas and influential technologists and business leaders to new clusters. “Is innovation a zero-sum game?” Metcalfe said. “I don’t think so. We want innovation to be everywhere.” To that end, Metcalfe proposed the idea of an Xconomy “6×6” conference next year—adding Austin (or perhaps another city) to our network. We shall see, Professor. We shall see.

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Make no mistake—this is Boston’s big bet on the future of robotics.

Cambridge, MA-based Heartland Robotics is announcing today it has raised $20 million in Series B financing led by new investor Highland Capital Partners. New investor Sigma Partners also participated, as did existing investors Charles River Ventures and Bezos Expeditions. All in all, it’s a vote of confidence by the Boston-area venture community in one of its homegrown companies—even as the region faces increasing competition in robotics from Google and other Silicon Valley companies.

More specifically, the new money and support will help Heartland Robotics “finalize product development” and bring its “innovative line of robots to market,” said Heartland CEO Scott Eckert, in a statement.

The company is still being cagey about giving any details on its technology or specific applications. The basic idea, it says, is to make U.S. manufacturing more productive and efficient by “introducing a new generation of robots” into “places that have not been automated before.” In a statement, Heartland founder and chief technology officer Rodney Brooks said the firm’s robots will be “intuitive to use, intelligent and highly flexible. They’ll be easy to buy, train, and deploy and will be unbelievably inexpensive.”

That last bit is key—the robots have to be really cheap for the economics to work out, and for Heartland to reach its goal of keeping American manufacturing jobs from migrating to low-cost regions. That would seem to preclude robots that have human-like dexterity, which was the focus of research Brooks conducted in recent years at MIT involving robotic arms and hands that can manipulate tools and everyday objects using tactile sensors and computer vision. But the robots could have some dexterity—enough to load and unload equipment parts, say, or perform assembly-line tasks. And they probably could be mobile, like iRobot’s Roomba, and could help move items around the workplace, like Kiva Systems’ warehouse helper robots, for example.

Heartland Robotics previously raised a $7 million Series A round from Charles River Ventures and Bezos Expeditions, the Seattle-based investment firm of Amazon.com founder and CEO Jeff Bezos. Heartland was founded in 2008 by Brooks, the co-founder of iRobot (NASDAQ: IRBT) and former director of MIT’s Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory. Brooks retired from MIT last summer to spend more time on his new company.

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Activity in the Boston-area innovation community seems to be picking up steam as we head into the holiday season. We’re getting excited as we gear up for our next Xconomy Forum in Boston on Dec. 8, which is called “5×5: Five Cities, Five Big Tech Ideas.” This is a chance to see, up close and in person, how some of the most exciting companies in our national network of cities are plotting to change the world. We’ve just posted the detailed agenda here, together with registration info.

Bill Warner, the angel investor, entrepreneur, and startup evangelist, will set the table with a keynote about “how to build your startup from the heart.” I’m looking forward to some personal inspiration here, and I’m sure it’ll be delivered in Warner’s usual thoughtful and understated manner.

Then we’ll have detailed talks on specific ideas and companies from Joaquin Silva, CEO of On-Ramp Wireless (San Diego); Mick Mountz, CEO of Kiva Systems (Boston); Craig Labovitz, chief scientist of Arbor Networks (Detroit); John Gilleland, CEO of TerraPower (Seattle); and Tommy McClung, CEO of CarWoo (San Francisco).

Interspersed with these talks (and plenty of networking time), we’ll have three-minute startup “bursts” from some of the most promising tech startups in our networks—ones that haven’t gotten tons of exposure yet: Sarah McIlroy, CEO of FashionPlaytes; Dug Song, CEO of Scio Security; Bettina Hein, CEO of Pixability; Iker Marcaide, CEO of peerTransfer; and Amit Jain, CEO of Prysm. We’ll also have a demo area set up where you can check out some of the companies’ technologies and products up close.

It should be a really fun and inspiring afternoon—we hope to see you there, at the Fidelity Center for Applied Technology in Boston, on Dec. 8.

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If some is good, more is better. That’s certainly the case for “5×5: Five Cities, Five Big Tech Ideas,” the next Xconomy Forum taking place in Boston. It’s all happening on the afternoon of Dec. 8 at the Fidelity Center for Applied Technology, near South Station.

We’ve got some big additions to the lineup. Bill Warner, the Boston-area startup evangelist and angel investor, has signed on to give a keynote. We’re hoping he’ll share some of his perspective on how to think about big ideas in technology—and how to build viable businesses around them. Warner knows a little something about that, having founded Avid Technology (NASDAQ: AVID), Wildfire Communications, Warner Research, and a number of other companies over the past 35 years.

Warner joins Bill Taylor, the co-founder of Fast Company and the author of Mavericks at Work and the forthcoming Practically Radical, as a keynote speaker. Together, the two Bills will help frame the day’s discussions about what it takes to turn a big idea into a promising company—and help inspire all of us to change the world.

Now here come the big ideas. In addition to the five featured presenters, who each represent one city in Xconomy’s network (see below), we will also hear shorter talks from five promising startups, each with a big idea of its own: FashionPlaytes (online customized clothing), peerTransfer (global financial transactions), Pixability (online videos for businesses), Prysm (next-generation laser-based displays), and Scio Security (mobile and Internet security). It’s an interesting mix of technologies, markets, and business strategies—and it’ll be really instructive to hear about the genesis and execution of each company’s plan.

The program is anchored by a select group of five other companies, who will each do a deeper dive into their technology and business strategy—and make their case for why their idea is transformative. The presenters will be Mick Mountz, CEO of Kiva Systems, a warehouse robotics firm that could reshape retail, distribution, and manufacturing (Boston); Joaquin Silva, CEO of On-Ramp Wireless, a data tracking and wireless monitoring startup named a technology pioneer by the World Economic Forum (San Diego); John Gilleland, CEO of TerraPower, a nuclear power startup that could fundamentally change the energy landscape (Seattle); Craig Labovitz, chief scientist of Arbor Networks, an Internet security firm that is unifying Web and mobile (Detroit); and Tommy McClung, CEO of CarWoo, an online car-buying startup out of the Y Combinator incubator (San Francisco).

We will keep the sessions informal and interactive; we want to encourage audience participation, and lessons to be shared back and forth on things like honing company ideas, formulating market strategies, and building businesses. We are also planning a demo area, a first for Xconomy.

Last but not least, we are convening a top-notch audience as well as speakers, and we hope you’ll be part of this special event (early bird registration and details here, including special rates for students and employees of startups). Looking forward to seeing you on Dec. 8.

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None of this would have happened 10 years ago. Where to begin?

Last month, I walked into a room of about a dozen robotics experts and technology startup investors. It was one of the sessions at the MassTLC Innovation “unConference” in Boston. The discussion centered around how to build a successful robotics company. But it was some of the newer context around this question that turned the session into a watershed moment I won’t soon forget.

Two main takeaways: First, robotics companies around Boston have come a very long way since 2000, when I was a postdoc in a robotics group at the MIT Artificial Intelligence Lab. That sort of academic research is still going strong, but the bigger story of the past decade has been the business success of robotic vacuum cleaners, bomb-disposal units, and surveillance drones, and how that has helped pave the way for a new generation of companies.

My second takeaway is that the business community thinks there is a new threat to Boston’s competitive position in robotics—and its name is Google. I’m not usually one to fan the flames of Boston vs. Silicon Valley arguments, but in this case the discussion hits close to home, so I wanted to see if there’s much truth to it.

The Boston area, of course, is home to numerous robotics companies—iRobot (NASDAQ: IRBT), Boston Dynamics, Harvest Automation, Heartland Robotics, Kiva Systems, iWalk, and CyPhy Works, just to name a few. Many of those companies were represented in the unConference session, along with investors from CommonAngels, Founder Collective, and General Catalyst. Historically the region has had lots of expertise, both in universities and industry, in key technologies underlying robotics such as sensors, actuators, control algorithms, artificial intelligence, computer vision, and data storage.

Yet 10 years ago, most early-stage investors (angels and VCs) wouldn’t think of touching a robotics startup. The development costs and business risks were too high, and the technology infrastructure—onboard processing power, wireless communication, programmable chips, sensors, algorithms—wasn’t quite ready for prime time. Now things have changed, certainly in investors’ minds, … Next Page »

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For entrepreneurs, sometimes the next great Twitter app or IT software package just isn’t enough. Sometimes you need to build something that takes longer than a few months to design and test. Sometimes you need to think big—really big.

What are the biggest ideas in technology, and where are they coming from? How will they rock your world? And, most importantly, how are startups and investors building viable businesses around them? Rather than looking only here in New England, Xconomy decided to canvass its five-city U.S. network for some of the most potentially transformative tech ideas—across mobile, software, hardware, energy, robotics, Internet, and other fields—and select a few intriguing companies that we think can best answer these questions.

Now, on December 8, we’re convening a special afternoon forum called “5×5: Five Cities, Five Big Tech Ideas” in downtown Boston. The half-day event (see lineup and registration info here) will be held at the state-of-the-art Fidelity Center for Applied Technology. We’re doing everything we can to make this a can’t-miss opportunity for anyone interested in the future of technology, and the companies (and strategies) that will lead the way.

Here’s how it will work: One potentially disruptive company will be on hand from each of Xconomy’s five metro areas-Boston, Detroit, San Diego, San Francisco, and Seattle-to make feature presentations in highly interactive sessions. We are also planning a few bonus appearances and demonstrations (see below). At the root of each company, and each speaker, is a seriously big idea—but even more important, a way to turn that idea into a real business that could change the world.

Bill Taylor, the co-founder of Fast Company and bestselling author of Mavericks at Work and the forthcoming Practically Radical, will kick things off with a few words of inspiration—and some ways of thinking about business problems that will have you seeing things in a new light.

Then we will have a series of compelling talks from our featured companies:

—Kiva Systems (CEO Mick Mountz), from the Boston area, will present the latest in warehouse robots that could help transform retail, distribution, and manufacturing.

—On-Ramp Wireless (CEO Joaquin Silva), from San Diego, will discuss its technology for wireless monitoring and data tracking to make the electric grid and water supply more efficient.

—TerraPower (CEO John Gilleland), from the Seattle area, will talk about its approach for reinventing nuclear power production, and fundamentally changing the energy landscape. (Yes, you heard it right, nuclear power.)

—Arbor Networks (chief scientist Craig Labovitz), whose roots and tech base are from Detroit/Ann Arbor, will discuss the future of mobile and Internet security, and a unified system for keeping data and networks safe. (He might also tell you about how the company saved the Internet from hackers on multiple occasions.)

—CarWoo (CEO Tommy McClung), from San Francisco, will present its approach to helping consumers buy cars online without the hassle of negotiating with dealers.

We will also have bonus presentations from stealth startup Scio Security (from Ann Arbor, MI) and Prysm, a next-generation laser display maker (based in San Jose, CA). A few more bonus appearances are on the way. Stay tuned for further updates to the program…

We’re really looking forward to convening the New England innovation community around these big ideas, speakers, and business lessons. You can register for the event here (we’ve created a special low price for anyone at a startup company); see you on December 8.

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Billerica, MA-based robotics company Harvest Automation announced today that it has closed its Series A round of funding at $5.3 million, thanks to a $1.3 million investment from Founder Collective, with offices in New York and Cambridge, MA. The company, whose technology comes from iRobot veterans and is out to automate the commercial harvesting of shrubs, announced the first $4 million of its Series A financing back in January, with money from Massachusetts Technology Development Corporation, Life Sciences Partners, and Cultivian Ventures, which was formerly named the Midpoint Food and Ag Fund. With the newest funding, Founder Collective managing director Eric Paley joins the board of directors at Harvest Automation. The company, formerly known as Q Robotics when it emerged from stealth mode in 2008, is also adding Kiva Systems CEO Mick Mountz and iRobot CEO Colin Angle to its newly formed advisory board.

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This week, I’ve learned a lot about game-changing ideas and how to think about making them work. Like anything meaningful, some of the lessons will take more time and effort to sink in. But here are five lessons to take away from our Xconomy Forum (“What’s Your Breakthrough Idea”) held at the University of Washington on Monday:

1. Not everything is, or should be, a breakthrough idea. Nick Hanauer of Second Avenue Partners framed the whole discussion by pointing out that entrepreneurs have different motivations: some might want to make a lot of money whether or not they change the world; others may want to change the world whether or not they make much money. Either approach is perfectly valid; just be true to yourself.

2. Venture capital alone won’t sustain breakthrough ideas. VCs don’t fund new ideas or the invention process, said Nathan Myhrvold of Intellectual Ventures. Instead, they fund “zillions of ‘me-too’ ideas,” he said. Which is why Myhrvold is trying to create a new “invention capital” marketplace—and why his company has awarded $315 million to individual inventors in the U.S. and has deals with more than 100 universities to support the invention process.

Meanwhile, Hanauer told me last week that most VCs don’t take risks anymore because the VC business model rewards those who can simply avoid a major screw-up. “The business model is toxic to risk-taking, because it’s so unbelievably profitable for the partners just if it doesn’t fail,” he said. (Of course, VCs will tell you that their model isn’t broken—because it isn’t.)

3. The proper mindset of breakthrough-idea thinking is to be “narrowly insane but not a total whack job,” as Myhrvold put it. By narrowly insane, he meant that inventors need to be crazy enough to think they can do something unprecedented, without being delusional. Put a different way, it’s helpful to be a “high-functioning contrarian,” as Hanauer says Jeff Bezos has described him. (“A low-functioning contrarian means you’re in prison,” Hanauer adds.) In other words, try to see the world differently, and imagine what would happen if things were arranged in other ways. Amazon.com, for example, delivered more than 10 times the selection of a brick-and-mortar store at a cost savings of more than 25 percent. That’s the kind of thinking that can transform an entire industry—in this case, those who sell books (for starters).

4. Part of being a good entrepreneur means not listening to your critics, or the entrenched interests. As Lee Hood from the Institute for Systems Biology and Integrated Diagnostics put it succinctly (I’m paraphrasing), people have seriously doubted him six or seven times in the past—and he’s been right every time. (He didn’t say how long it took to be proven right.) But the basic message was that if you want to change the world, you will meet with resistance—the people and companies in power don’t want things to change—but don’t let that deter you. Hanauer stressed the importance of … Next Page »

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There’s no crying in baseball—or in innovation. Yet I’ve been hearing a fair bit of lamenting around town about how Seattle startups or venture capitalists are not making the top-whatever lists (Wall Street Journal, Technology Review, you name it) of most innovative companies or investors around the country.

Who cares? The city that brought the world Microsoft, Amazon, Boeing, McCaw Cellular, RealNetworks, Starbucks, and any number of other game-changing companies, should not be too worried. It should, however, be motivated. And it is.

That’s why we’re gathering an elite group of technology and life sciences leaders to talk about how to spot the biggest, most promising ideas in their fields, and how these ideas could really change the world, at our half-day Xconomy Forum, “What’s Your Breakthrough Idea?” on March 29 at the University of Washington. (Tickets are going fast, but there are still a few left at our special saver rate—you can register here.)

This is about thinking big as a community. But it’s also about the realities around making the biggest ideas work—building the right teams for the right companies, understanding who the customers are, handling competition, and so forth. And although the focus will be mostly on Seattle-area companies and leaders, the impact that we’re talking about here is decidedly global.

Here’s a little more about the program and speakers for March 29 (topics are subject to change):

—Nick Hanauer of Second Avenue Partners will open with a keynote about the mental calculus behind identifying a true breakthrough idea, versus a really, really good idea that probably won’t get traction. Nick doesn’t think of himself as a technology guy, yet some of his blockbuster investments happen to be in tech—Amazon, aQuantive, Insitu. (There’s a lesson already: don’t think in terms of your specialty area, think about an aspect of society that could be radically changed.)

—Christina Lomasney of Modumetal will talk about how growing the right kinds of “nanomaterials” could help reinvent the steel industry—and how this will impact energy efficiency, transportation, and defense. She might also tell us a thing or two about what she learned from her time at Boeing.

—Mick Mountz of Kiva Systems (from the Boston area) will discuss how mobile robots are transforming the logistics and operations of warehouses, especially in the e-retail business. Kiva’s robots move shelves of inventory around automatically and are able to help staff distribution centers for companies like Staples and Zappos (now part of Amazon).

—Steve Seitz of the UW’s Department of Computer Science and Engineering will talk about a breakthrough idea from computer vision (and maybe about creating 3-D virtual worlds … Next Page »

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Whether you’re an entrepreneur, an investor, a researcher, a corporate executive, a journalist, or a patent attorney, you’ve heard it: an idea that will supposedly change the world. In fact, you probably come across someone trying to pitch you an idea like that every week, if not every day. Maybe you even have one you’re working on yourself.

Breakthrough ideas are catalysts of innovation and progress. Think Amazon and its online books, Google and its Web search algorithms, Apple and its iTunes and iPhone. But in the technology and business world, seemingly great ideas are a dime a dozen. For every Amazon, there are dozens of online retailers that have failed. For every Google, dozens of search companies that went nowhere. And so on.

What really counts, of course, is forethought, execution, and results. But that’s much easier said than done. So what makes for a true breakthrough idea? And how can startups and business leaders make their biggest ideas more marketable and scalable, and really change the world? (Thanks to Nick Hanauer of Second Avenue Partners for inspiring this thread in a talk he gave at an NWEN event in December 2008.)

We’re asking these big questions, and we’re going to try to answer them. On the afternoon of March 29, Xconomy is convening a special forum in Seattle called “What’s Your Breakthrough Idea?” The event (agenda and registration info here) will be at the University of Washington, in the atrium of the Paul G. Allen Center for Computer Science & Engineering. We are doing everything we can to make it a must-see for technology, life sciences, and business leaders who have a deep interest in the world’s biggest ideas—and how they will (or won’t) impact the future.

The centerpiece of the afternoon will be an in-depth discussion between two of the area’s top thinkers in innovation across broad realms of science, technology, and society: Nathan Myhrvold, the co-founder and CEO of Bellevue, WA-based Intellectual Ventures, and Leroy Hood, the co-founder and president of Seattle’s Institute for Systems Biology (ISB). They will tackle the important issues of how to think about big ideas, how to tell promising ideas from not-so-promising ones, and how to get maximum bang from ideas that survive. They will speak from experience.

Myhrvold comes from the worlds of physics and software. As Microsoft’s former chief technology officer and the founder of Microsoft Research and later Intellectual Ventures, his company focused on the business of invention, he knows a thing or two about evaluating global-scale ideas. Meanwhile, Hood comes from the worlds of biology, life sciences, and genomics. As the co-founder of ISB as well as a new company focused on early detection of diseases, called Integrated Diagnostics, Hood can speak with great depth on the progress and challenges in biomedicine and human health. Their combined perspectives should make for a tremendously revealing and entertaining cross-disciplinary chat and Q&A.

We’ll also do some deeper dives into specific breakthrough ideas from a select group of speakers, who will include: David Bluhm, CEO of Seattle startup Z2Live, focused on mobile social gaming; Mick Mountz, CEO of the Boston area’s Kiva Systems, a robotics firm working on warehousing and logistics applications; Steve Seitz, professor of computer science and engineering at UW, an expert in computer vision and graphics (he helped develop the technology behind Microsoft’s Photosynth); Dan Weld, UW computer science professor, the co-founder of Netbot, AdRelevance, and Nimble Technology, and a venture partner with Madrona Venture Group; and Norm Wu, CEO of Qliance, a Seattle firm that provides healthcare to thousands while circumventing insurance companies.

Of course, changing the world is never easy. But we’re hoping the discussions and talks on March 29 will inspire our audience to think big, and think realistically—while also making useful connections that otherwise might not happen. Plus we’re going to have an absolute blast with this star-studded lineup, and we think you will too. For more information, and to register for “What’s Your Breakthrough Idea?”, please visit our event page.

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Robotics startup Kiva Systems of Woburn, MA, and medical device giant Boston Scientific (NYSE: BSX) said today that Kiva’s robots will be used to automate order fulfillment in two Boston Scientific warehouses, one in New England and one in the Netherlands.

It’s a big win for Kiva, whose shelf-toting robots are increasingly common in the warehouses of consumer goods distributors like Zappos, Staples, and Diapers.com, but which has never before landed a customer in the health or medical sectors, where there’s less room for error.

“Accuracy in order fulfillment is important if you’re doing office supplies or T-shirts, but if you are supplying medical devices to operating rooms, it’s an imperative,” says Mick Mountz, Kiva’s CEO and founder. In Boston Scientific’s existing warehouses—as in most traditional distribution centers—human pickers roam the aisles, grabbing products from bins. Making sure that each outgoing shipment contains exactly the right products involves time-consuming double and triple checking, steps that aren’t needed in Kiva’s largely automated system. “Kiva naturally provides a more efficient way to achieve that super-high accuracy,” says Mountz.

In a Kiva-equipped warehouse, central command software sends orders wirelessly to a fleet of squat, wheeled robots. A robot’s job is to navigate to the mobile shelving unit that contains the requested product, lift up the whole shelf, and transport it to a picking station, where a human operator grabs the product and transfers it to a box for shipping. (The process, which is quite beautiful to watch, is described in more detail in this April 2008 profile.)

Such a computerized system has a special advantage when it comes to handling highly regulated products such as the stents, catheters, and myriad other medical devices that Boston Scientific manufactures by the thousands. “The FDA sends out notifications quite frequently about [devices] that need to be double-checked or put on hold, and that is very disruptive to a manual operation,” says Mountz. “What we can do, just before we present something to the operator, is ask the host system, ‘Is this still okay?’” That way, products that have been flagged for regulatory reasons never make their way into boxes for shipping.

Kiva’s robots are also adept at carrying a large assortment of product packages, from very small to very large, which, according to Mountz, makes them more flexible than the competition: “automated storage and retrieval systems” in which transportation is typically provided by a bucket sliding along a conveyor. Ken Pucel, executive vice president of operations at Boston Scientific, backs up that point. “Other material handling approaches would have required us to integrate different technologies to handle units, cases, and pallets, as well as a wide range of product sizes,” Pucel said in today’s announcement. “Kiva is able to provide us a proven solution with the flexibility and ease-of-use of a single technology for our needs.”

Kiva will be installing its system as part of a multi-year “rolling upgrade” to existing Boston Scientific warehouses in Boston and Kerkrade, the Netherlands, according to Mountz, who says the deal represents an important foothold for Kiva in the medical-device market.

“We think the message is already out there that this is the highest-fidelity way you can do order fulfillment,” says Mountz. “What we excited about now is bringing that message that we have FIFO-style [first-in, first-out] workflow and inventory management to the medical device industry, the pharmaceuticals market, and other device suppliers. That is a big and growing opportunity for us.”

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