Perminova, a San Diego startup developing Web-based software for use in cardiology centers, says today it has raised $7 million in a combination of equity and credit financing. The company says it is pioneering healthcare’s move from outdated client-server technology to secure cloud-based computing.

The company was founded several years ago by Gregory Feld, a professor of medicine at the University of California, San Diego, and director of UCSD’s cardiac electrophysiology program. What began as a database for tracking electrophysiology procedures and patient care, though, has evolved into a more comprehensive workflow system provided as software-as-a-service for everything from patient scheduling to post-procedural documentation and billing.

The company’s first product, Perminova EP, is being used by the UC San Diego Health System and at New York’s Mount Sinai Hospital.

In a statement this morning, the company says its financing includes $3 million in Series A equity funding and a $4 million credit facility that can be accessed by the company as needed. Perminova CEO Craig Collins declined to identify the company’s investor, saying, “We have a large institutional investor and they don’t want to have their name out there.” He characterized the investor, though, as a super angel.

Collins says the funding will be used to expand product development, and for working capital, product development, sales, and marketing. “This round of funding provides us with an ample runway to gain market traction and market acceptance while creating a clear path to sustainable growth,” Collins says in the statement from the company.

“We now have the resources to expand our product offering, which will ultimately establish Perminova as the market standard in web-based software and cloud computing in healthcare,” added Collins. “This round of funding provides us with an ample runway to gain market traction and market acceptance while creating a clear path to sustainable growth.”

Perminova has been based at EvoNexus, the free startup incubator operated by CommNexus, the San Diego nonprofit technology industry group, since mid-2010. Securing financing, however, usually signifies that a fledgling EvoNexus company is ready to move out on its own. Collins indicated the company would likely move into its own commercial office space sometime in January.

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SweetLabs scored what could be construed as a Google seal of approval in April 2010 when the San Diego startup, then known as OpenCandy, landed $5 million in a Series B round of venture funding led by Google Ventures.

Today, the four-year-old startup says it has scored a similar coup—raising $13 million in a Series C round of venture funding led by Intel Capital, the Santa Clara, CA-based chipmaker’s global investment arm. Google Ventures and another existing investor, Bessemer Venture Partners, also participated in the round. With this latest cash infusion, SweetLabs has now raised a total of $21.5 million in venture capital.

“What’s interesting is that we weren’t officially raising capital,” says SweetLabs CEO Darrius Thompson, who co-founded the Web 2.0 startup in 2007 with Chester Ng and other expatriates of San Diego-based DivX. Thompson says Intel was among several groups that came to SweetLabs with an offer to provide additional, unsolicited venture funding. Thompson says the deal also served as a kind of pre-emptive strike by Intel to keep other potential SweetLabs investors at bay.

Investors’ keen interest was triggered by the beta launch of Pokki, a new platform the company developed to provide an “always on” app-like experience for desktop PC users. As I reported at the time, SweetLabs used the occasion to also change its name from OpenCandy—the company’s original product category—and which SweetLabs continues to operate as a Web-based advertising network and online marketplace for downloading open source software.

SweetLabs San Diego Office

Ng, who is SweetLabs director of business development and sales, might have gotten Intel’s attention when he described today’s desktop PC experience as almost “prehistoric.” He explained that SweetLabs had developed the Pokki platform as a way to bring the simplicity and ease of the mobile app experience to the desktop.

While the Pokki platform is a cloud-based system, Thompson says Pokki apps are a kind of hybrid that reside partly on the computer and partly in the Web. Some online games, for example, simply run more efficiently when part of the program is installed in the computer.

In any case, the Pokki concept resonated within Intel, according to Thompson. He says the Santa Clara chipmaker is “completely aligned” with SweetLabs’ idea of re-inventing and revitalizing the PC, which remains one of the largest ecosystems for software development.

“It was definitely really exciting for us,” Thompson says. Among other things, Intel’s willingness to invest in SweetLabs represented a … Next Page »

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[Corrected 9/21/11, 1:05 pm. See below.] Independa, the San Diego startup developing Web-based services for the elderly, says it has closed on $1.6 million in early stage financing, and investor interest has been strong enough to extend the round to $2.2 million.

[Corrected to show $200,000 loan is in addition to $1.6M investment] Independa CEO Kian Saneii tells me the 2-year-old startup raised the capital from Miramar Venture Partners, based in Orange County’s Corona del Mar, and City Hill Ventures, a new healthcare-focused VC firm founded in San Diego last year by former Halozyme Therapeutics CEO Jonathan Lim. The company also secured an additional $200,000 loan from Silicon Valley Bank.

The company is raising the capital to expand its product development, add to its market-distribution arm, and to introduce new features of its Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) technology through pilot programs, Saneii says.

Independa’s Web-based software is intended to help the elderly maintain their independence by providing regular reminders for medication, appointments, and other needs while also providing friends and relatives a way to check on their loved ones. As we reported previously, the company released its advanced online program in June for beta testing. The system enables Independa’s elderly customers to use Facebook, Skype, calendars, e-mail, and other online social services, with no computer skills required.

The company plans to operate as an integrated software developer providing a suite of related Web-based services, Saneii says. The idea is to provide elderly customers access to social networking tools as well as health and safety services.

For example, Independa does not make sensors itself, but the company has been working with various hardware manufacturers to integrate wireless pill dispensers and wireless sensors for measuring weight, blood sugar, and blood oxygen, Saneii says. With the additional capital, the company plans to expand the capabilities of its system by integrating with more types of wireless health devices, such as a personal emergency response alarm, and blood pressure cuff.

Independa’s CEO says the goal is to integrate its technology in a comprehensive way, so that Independa can provide the broadest offering of wireless health services.

Independa’s system already is being used under several pilot programs, Saneii says. The company plans to sell its Web-based program to retail consumers as well as companies that manage enterprise software services for the elderly, such as assisted living operators and hospice caregivers. Caregivers share access to the system, Saneii says. “Sometimes a family member is the caregiver and sometimes it’s a professional caregiver.”

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San Diego’s OpenCandy has a new name today—SweetLabs. The change coincides with the beta launch of Pokki, a new platform the company has developed to provide desktop users with an “always on” experience more commonly found among apps for smartphones.

“We’re spoiled by having all these incredible apps on our mobile devices,” says Chester Ng, a SweetLabs co-founder and director of business development and sales. He says the desktop experience nowadays “seems prehistoric” (stone knives! Microsoft Office!) and “Pokki is all about bringing the app experience to the desktop.”

While SweetLabs is showcasing eight apps, including Google mail, eBay, Facebook, LivingSocial, The Wall Street Journal, and other popular Web-based services, the company’s primary focus appears to be making its Pokki software developers kit widely available to third-party software developers. The company says web developers using standard web languages such as HTML5, CSS, and Javascript can use the SDK to create new apps. The platform includes a built-in distribution channel through a “Pokki store,” which opens in a desktop window (see below).

The corporate name change came about partly because the Pokki application platform represents a new product category from OpenCandy, a Web-based network that provides a site for downloading open source software—and recommends related software that the user might want. The system and corporate namesake allows a software publisher to advertise its … Next Page »

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A little more than two years after Kian Saneii founded Independa, the San Diego wireless health startup says it is making its integrated telecare app, Angela, available Friday for beta testing.

The program, which will be generally available in September, provides a very simple interface that enables the elderly to send and receive e-mail, download photos, and to use Skype, Facebook, calendars, and other web services with no computer skills required. Independa plans to install its preconfigured software-as-a-service on an off-the-shelf touch-screen tablet. Elderly users will not need to know how to use a general-purpose computer, navigate with a mouse or type on a keypad.

“It’s super simple, with just one-touch access to all these things,” Saneii told me during a personal demo last week. “They don’t have to remember passwords or how to get updates.” He’s planning to demonstrate the technology again today at Connections: The Digital Living Conference and Showcase in Santa Clara, CA.

After raising some seed-stage funding last year, Saneii says he has been meeting recently with venture capital partners to raise additional funding for Independa as the startup expands its product offering. The company launched its first offering, the Independa “Smart Reminders” service almost seven months ago, and moved into San Diego’s no-overhead EvoNexus incubator in October. Smart Reminders also is a Web-based platform that combines apps for calendaring, medication reminders, and “life stories” into a browser-based system managed by caregivers.

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Cognitive Medical Systems, a previously unknown health IT startup based in San Diego, is today naming local software industry veteran Douglas Burke as president—and employee No. 4.

Burke, who was previously the CEO of San Diego-based DefenseWeb Technologies, announced the move in an e-mail blast to his professional contacts yesterday.

Mary Lacroix, a longtime health IT executive and chief operating officer for the U.S. Navy’s Center For Personal and Professional Development in San Diego, founded Cognitive Medical Systems here last year. The company says it provides a range of services to military health IT programs, including consulting, program administration, project management, software engineering, and database design. The San Diego startup is not related to Cogmed Cognitive Medical Systems AB, based in Stockholm, Sweden.

The idea was to help the government bridge the disparate health IT systems that have been created under various military programs, Lacroix said. “We’re creating software interfaces between existing legacy systems and all the providers,” she said. The company says it is primarily targeting the Department of Defense, Veteran’s Administration, and Indian Health Service as customers.

“Healthcare [IT] today is very similar to the banking systems of the 1970s,” says Burke (right). “There are lots of legacy systems that are not connected together.” The startup’s software is intended to meet interoperability requirements the government has been establishing since 2008 for the Nationwide Health Information Network (NHIN). The government conceived the NHIN to operate as a “network of networks” that will connect different organizations that need to exchange health information, such as state and regional health information exchanges, integrated delivery systems, health plans, federal agencies, and others. A number of federal agencies have been working to adopt standards-based technologies and integrate military health IT systems into the NHIN.

Cognitive Medical Systems has been self-funded so far. “In my opinion, the only way to build a company these days is by doing it the bootstrapping way,” Burke said.

Burke, an enterprise software executive, joined DefenseWeb as CEO in 2003 and continued to manage the business after Louisville, KY-based Humana acquired the privately held company for an undisclosed amount in 2007. He was previously the CEO of San Diego-based Prodesis, and served as an executive at HNC Software and SAIC. Operating under a variety of government contracts, DefenseWeb provides Web-based software and online services for military families, enabling them to form online communities, share information, exchange e-mail, and get online counseling, among other things.

Tim McClain, president and CEO of Humana Veterans Healthcare Services in Louisville, KY, has been named as DefenseWeb’s interim CEO.

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Fresh on the heels of advances in genome sequencing announced by Illumina and Complete Genomics earlier this week (and by Life Technologies last month), a French scientist tells me he is moving his startup, Portable Genomics, to San Diego.

Patrick Merel, a molecular biologist in Bordeaux, tells me by e-mail he has applied for an entrepreneur visa application that will enable him to move his company here. He writes in English, which is far better than my French, “Plans are to start end of this month to show up our business plan to San Diego and Silicon Valley investors.”

I met Merel in San Diego last May while he was attending a three-day summit organized by the Wireless Life Sciences Alliance. Even then he was thinking of moving to San Diego, saying, “In Europe we are facing difficulties in using genetic data, particularly in France where there are restrictions.” The vision for Portable Genomics, he said, is building tools that allow molecular biologists “to visualize your genome and to [help you] understand what is clinically important.”

The concept, which is still at a very early stage, is based on the assumption that it will be possible in another year to completely sequence an individual human genome for less than $1,000—and within three years, for less than $300. This is the promise of the recent announcements coming out of Life Technologies, Illumina, and Complete Genomics, as the speed of genetic sequencing increases and costs plummet.

The essential challenge, Merel told me, is figuring out how to get useful clinical data from the massive amount of computerized data generated by genome sequencing. “We want to have a tool on a portable device that will enable them to know information and what is important.” A woman with a genetic susceptibility to breast cancer, for example, should go more frequently for breast exams. Merel says software under development by Personal Genomics is intended to interpret a person’s genomic data and provide the relevant information to the consumer via a smart phone or other mobile devices.

Merel says that Portable Genomics’ software—which would work with data generated by a variety of sequencing technologies—would be offered on a subscription basis (i.e. software-as-a-service). The company is initially targeting … Next Page »

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Fred Luddy has been in the technology industry since 1973, but as a longtime programmer for mainframe computers and enterprise systems, he says he was still surprised by the advent of Web-based computing.

“I didn’t see this whole notion of software over the Internet, of on-demand, software-as-a-service in the cloud,” says Luddy, who now describes software-as-a-service (SaaS) “as a thing that is just steeped in common sense.”

These days Luddy views SaaS as a major evolving trend, and Service-now.com—the company he founded in November 2003—as an enormous beneficiary. “I don’t think it’s known how cloud computing will be leveraged by large organizations,” Luddy says. “But it’s top of mind with almost every large organization I’ve visited in the last 20 months.”

Fred Luddy

Luddy says he founded Service-now to meet the same business needs that were once served by Peregrine Systems, the San Diego-based enterprise software provider that imploded in a financial accounting scandal in 2002. Luddy, who was Peregrine’s chief technology officer, says he left Peregrine in 2002 and began developing the software for Service-now the following year.

Like Peregrine, Service-now’s software helps big companies and other organizations manage their far-flung IT operations, including their “help desk” functions. Instead of installing its software on a customer’s intranet, however, Service-now.com hosts the software on its own servers, enabling customers to outsource the technology and pay a flat monthly subscription fee for the service. In the last six months, Luddy says Service-now has added 75 new customers, including such major companies as McDonalds, Pepsi, and Coca-Cola. Luddy says the economic downturn also proved to be a good thing for Service-now, because companies turned to … Next Page »

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San Diego’s Active Network, which provides Web-based registration services for marathons, recreation leagues, and other activities, says it is launching a “deal-of-the-day” program tomorrow in the San Francisco Bay Area, with other regions to follow later this year.

Active.com says the first deals to be offered this week through its new “Schwaggle” service include a registration discount for the Bay to Breakers, San Francisco’s annual 12K run set this year for May 15; a deal on Sausalito, CA-based PacWest Athletics’ Wildflower triathalon training camp; and hydration belts from accessory maker FuelBelt of Barrington RI.

Active spokeswoman Tina Wilmott tells me the company’s Schwaggle service has several advantages over existing Groupon-type programs, including:

—While many companies with Groupon-type offerings face a huge challenge in winning subscribers, Active has an established subscriber base of tens of thousands that have already opted in to receive its promotions.

—Schwaggle discounts represent an incentive that should enable the Active Network to increase the number of online registrations for the thousands of events the company handles every year. Active says less than 10 percent of running, cycling, and triathlons sell out these days.

—Schwaggle will allow vendors to cap the number of deals they offer, so losing money on an offering is not an issue.

Active.com says it expects to introduce Schwaggle programs in Los Angeles, New York and Chicago during the first three months of this year, with 20 markets to be launched by the end of the year.

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After hiring a new CEO in May and securing an additional $2.5 million in financing in September, San Diego’s VMIX appears to be taking the first steps in a new strategy. VMIX, which provides Web-based software used by customers to manage their online video clips, said it’s opening VMIX offices in London and Glasgow, Scotland. In a statement from the company, VMIX CEO Pat Burns said the launch of VMIX UK is the first stage in a plan to establish itself as a global provider, and to extend the reach of its online video technology. “Establishing a presence in the UK allows us to build personal relationships with our European-based clients and partners, and provides critical insight into the growing online-video integration market there,” Burns said.

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Cambridge, MA-based Endeca Technologies and Del Mar, CA-based Mellmo said today they have formed a strategic partnership to share their respective technologies, which are focused on mobile business intelligence applications. The companies plan to integrate their flagship products, Endeca Latitutde and Roambi ES3, which will give authorized users the ability to query a corporate database from mobile devices. For example, instead of simply viewing reports as Roambi graphic displays on an iPhone or iPad, a user can ask, “How many units were sold in China between January and March?”

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MindTouch said today the San Diego startup is on track to triple revenues in 2010, although no numbers were disclosed. The company, which was self-funded and bootstrapped by co-founders Aaron Fulkerson and Steve Bjorg, said today it has hired a new chief financial officer, Byoung Lee, and plans to add about 50 employees in coming months. MindTouch said it also has added hundreds of new customers including Booz Allen Hamilton, SAIC, AutoDesk, Panasonic, and Hewlett-Packard. MindTouch is developing a Web-based business collaboration and integration platform on a “freemium” business model, and competes with such rivals as Microsoft Sharepoint, Oracle, IBM Lotus, and SAP.

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When Agoura Hills, CA-based Symark acquired Portsmouth, NH-based BeyondTrust for a little over $20 million a year ago, the deal was viewed as a complementary combination of similar IT security technologies for fundamentally different markets.

BeyondTrust specialized in providing IT security for Windows-based networks by managing the access privileges granted to both system administrators and ordinary users. Symark, founded in 1985, addressed the IT security requirements of Unix/Linux-based networks.

But the combined company, which took the BeyondTrust name, is aiming its IT security technology more specifically at the regulatory requirements that top public companies have to maintain and protect their internal financial controls. This became apparent when I sat down with CEO John Mutch, who recently moved the company’s headquarters from Agoura Hills, CA, near Los Angeles, to Carlsbad, CA, about 44 miles north of San Diego. Mutch, a San Diego enterprise software veteran, joined Symark at the end of 2008 as CEO and investor.

Mutch told me he now owns 10 percent of the company, after he partnered with Insight Capital, a private equity firm in New York that purchased Symark in December of 2006. “They saw the potential with the core product that they acquired at Symark,” Mutch said, “but then they really hired me to come in and execute a transition into a ‘freemium’ model software company.”

Freemium is a Web-based software business model that offers customers a basic software program or service for free, and coaxes them to pay to upgrade to a premium version with more features. It is a low-cost model that enables a software company to avoid establishing its own sales force or creating a network of sales partners. “So our whole thing is driving traffic to our website, getting people to download the free version of the product, and then converting them to buy the pay-for version,” Mutch said.

“We’re in a whole new innovation cycle in the [software] industry,” Mutch said, due in part to widely available access to online information and the “instant on” capability of mobile devices like the Apple iPad. “The way people buy things now, the way they consider purchases, and the way they research purchases has changed dramatically.”

How Mutch and BeyondTrust plan to ride this wave was less clear to me, however, especially since Mutch is targeting what he calls the “global 2000″ market of the top public companies around the world, rather than a mass market of small-business and home consumers. In addition to offering such corporations security software for delegating user privileges on their networks (technology categorized as “identity and access management”), Mutch says BeyondTrust is ideally suited to help public companies address matters of corporate governance, risk, and compliance.

I told Mutch it’s hard to see a stodgy public company downloading a … Next Page »

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—Personalization based on predicted intent instead of past behavior (based on cookie).

—More robust “universal search:” Better results for text and descriptive searches on videos, pictures, inside games, and applications.

—GPS-based hyper-targeting of search results and advertising on smartphones.

—Ubiquitous and non-text search: Search as an integrated activity rather than a separate activity into videos, music, etc. Search on images, tones, smells, and not just text-based phrases and descriptions.

—3-D search: Search will have new display and navigation metaphors beyond text and html links on a flat white background.

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San Diego’s Covario, a venture-backed startup in Web-based search engine optimization (SEO) and interactive marketing analytics for big companies, says it has acquired Netconcepts, a Madison, WI-based specialist in SEO for retailers and e-commerce websites. Financial terms were not disclosed. In a joint statement issued by the two companies, Covario CEO Russ Mann says by combining Covario’s Organic Search Insight software with NetConcepts’ GravityStream technology, “advertisers will be able to identify the SEO actions that drive better rankings, and also deploy those strategies quickly, and in a highly scalable way to achieve their ROI [return on investment] goals.” Covario investors include Dubilier & Co. FTV Capital and Voyager Capital.

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Venture fundraising came to life among for a number of San Diego’s high-tech companies in December, although the deals for the most part were relatively small. Here’s a roundup of recent deals that will no doubt help these startup founders rest a little easier over the holidays:

—Daylight Solutions, the specialized maker of solid-state lasers that is based in the San Diego suburban community of Poway, CA, has raised $1.25 million out of a targeted $2 million round, according to a regulatory filing. When I profiled the company, co-founders Tim Day and Paul Larson said they have focused their laser technology on previously untapped mid-infrared wavelengths that are “the color of heat” for molecular detection and imaging instruments. Larson, who did not respond to an e-mail inquiring about the new funding, told me earlier this year the company previously raised $13 million from Jade Invest SA, a Swiss venture capital firm; Innotech of Singapore; Chicago-based Masters Capital; and individual investors.

—The Active Network, the San Diego-based developer of Web-based software used for online registration, marketing, and event management, raised $220,500, according to a regulatory filing that notes the shares were issued as part of a recent acquisition by the company. In response to a query, Active Network spokesman Jake Gonzales confirms the deal, but says, “I should have more information to pass along to you at the first of the year.” The Active Network has raised more than $200 million from VC firms and other investors, including ESPN, Canaan Partners, Tao Venture Partners, Charles River Ventures, North Bridge Venture Partners, Comdisco Ventures, and Performance Equity Partners

—Edgeware Analytics, a San Diego software analytics developer, has raised $662,798, according to a recent regulatory filing. The company specializes in software analytics for the small business lending market, using statistical modeling and credit evaluation to create predictive models and systems to help lenders more accurately assess risk. The company’s software is used by national lenders, certified development companies, credit unions, and community banks. Much of the company’s funding has come from individual investors. Todd Gutschow, a co-founder of HNC Software, and Michael Elconin of the Tech Coast Angels (and a San Diego Xconomist) are board members.

—Ortiva Wireless, a San Diego company that specializes in software for mobile video delivery, has raised almost $1.7 million toward a $2.5 million equity round, according to a recent regulatory filing. Previous investors include Artiman Ventures, Avalon Ventures, Comcast Interactive Capital, and Mission Ventures, according to the company’s website.

—U.S. Local News Network, a San Diego company formed to operate the San Diego News Network and similar online news sites throughout the country, has raised nearly $2.7 million in a $3 million targeted round, according to a recent filing. After launching the San Diego News Network earlier this year, founder and CEO Neil Senturia formed the U.S. Local News Network as a parent company, and announced plans to launch 40 similar websites across the U.S.

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The three co-founders of San Diego’s Assay Depot started the company in 2006 as a for-hire cancer research outfit, with the big idea of creating a Web-based system that would make it super easy for biomedical researchers to order assays, screening tests, and other lab services.

“We were building the website and we really wanted it to be special,” co-founder Kevin Lustig tells me. “We wanted customers to come to our website and get information, request quotes, and place orders.”

But Lustig says they stopped in their tracks after several other contract research organizations (or CROs) that provide biotech laboratory services asked him if they could be included in the website that co-founders Andrew Martin and Chris Petersen were building. Lustig recalls asking himself, “Maybe we’re going in the wrong direction. Maybe what we should do is bring all the CROs into one place.”

Assay Depot CEO Kevin Lustig

Lustig, who got his doctorate in cell biology at UC San Francisco, has spent his career in biotech. He was previously a co-founder and research director at Kalypsys, a San Diego biopharmaceutical firm with high-speed molecular testing capabilities that was spun out of the Genomics Institute of the Novartis Research Foundation. But co-founders Martin and Petersen had fundamentally different skills. While they both had also worked at Kalypsys, Martin headed informatics and Petersen led software development. So their in-house expertise made it possible to transform what began as a biotech services startup into more of an IT startup—a full-service, e-commerce website that Lustig describes as an Amazon.com for biotechs and biomedical scientists.

Assay Depot automates a CRO hiring process that can take a principal investigator days or even weeks to work out, Lustig says. “If I’m a scientist, I have to talk to 10 CROs. I have to sign a master service agreement with each one, then a legal agreement, and then I can begin negotiating, and that all takes time.” In contrast, Lustig says Assay Depot’s online marketplace includes thousands of laboratory tests and services, and enables scientists to buy services they want or to post a request for bids.

The website also enables CROs to list the laboratory services they provide, and the prices. CROs pre-sign the requisite master services agreement, confidentiality forms, and other documents when they register to list their … Next Page »

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I met recently with Bob Nascenzi, the software industry executive who stepped in last May as the CEO of ProQuo, the San Diego startup that was created to help consumers control their personal information and reduce their junk mail.

I didn’t realize, however, that ProQuo had shut down. The last I heard about the company’s status was just over six months ago, when ProQuo founder Steven Gal sent out a mass e-mail to thousands of his contacts (including me) announcing Nascenzi’s appointment and his own departure to teach at Cornell University’s business school as a visiting professor. It seemed at the time like a straightforward change in CEOs.

Turns out it wasn’t. Nascenzi tells me he’s constrained in what he can say. But he says he worked with ProQuo’s chief creditor, San Jose, CA-based venture lender Western Technology Investment, to sell off the company’s assets and dissolve the corporation. Nascenzi says he shut ProQuo down at the end of July, and laid off the last six employees.

Gal, a veteran who worked at San Diego’s HNC Software and was a co-founder of ID Analytics, started ProQuo in 2007 as a way to enable consumers to review mass-market mailing lists and decide what junk mail they really wanted to receive. The service was free to consumers and the business concept was to make money by selling the customized lists of users to mass-marketing companies. ProQuo took in a total $15 million in venture capital from Draper Fisher Jurvetson of Menlo Park, CA, and San Diego’s Mission Ventures.

Mission Ventures’ Leo Spiegel confirms that ProQuo was the startup he was referring to during a San Diego Venture Group panel discussion a couple of weeks ago, when he said his firm has only shut down one portfolio company during the economic downturn. In an e-mail to me, Spiegel says “It was difficult to execute the plan given the economic [downturn] and the competitive landscape.”

I gleaned a little more insight from a recommendation for Nascenzi that Andre Durand, a ProQuo co-founder and board member, wrote on the professional networking site LinkedIn: “Bob was brought in at a very difficult time for ProQuo. The company had not yet validated it’s business model, was consuming its remaining cash quickly, and with the funding climate changed significantly for the worse, was being forced to shut down… During this period, Bob regularly communicated his progress to the board, and managed the company through a number of tricky and delicate negotiations with creditors and purchasers of the ProQuo assets. While it was unfortunate that after so much time and money, we ended dissolving ProQuo, we were very fortunate to have found Bob when we did.”

In response to my query, Gal sent me an e-mail that says, “I ceased any involvement with ProQuo as of the beginning of May, I was neither employed by the company nor on the Board when it ceased operations, and am under a confidentiality agreement with the company (as is Bob) which prevents me from divulging any information.”

The topic apparently remains sensitive. Gal also called me, saying, “In 15 years of doing these kinds of startups, this is my first failure. It was truly a painful experience, and I’m still not over it.”

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MeLLmo, a Del Mar, CA, startup developing graphics and visualization software, has raised $4 million from private investors to accelerate its penetration in the market for 3G mobile devices. The secondary round means MeLLmo has now raised a total of $10 million from its angel investors since the company was founded 21 months ago.

“I think we’ve ended up with a whole new paradigm for how to visualize and analyze data,” says Santiago Becerra, a co-founder and MeLLmo’s chairman and CEO. While the company initially focused its software for use on Apple’s iPhone, Becerra tells me MeLLmo intends to broaden its development efforts to other 3G smart phones. And as the advantages of its software become more widely understood, Becerra says he even anticipates demand among PC users.

The business-oriented iPhone application that MeLLmo introduced in May enables users to restructure statistics and other types of data gleaned from Excel spreadsheets, HTML table data, CSV files, and Salesforce CRM reports into interactive charts and graphical displays. The software also allows users to analyze and share their graphical displays with others.

The company, which currently has 28 employees, plans to use its new funds to expand MeLLmo’s sales and business development resources.

Becerra, who co-founded MeLLmo in January 2008, says it is his fourth company. His previous software company, Infommersion, developed Xcelsius, software that provides consolidated views of key business metrics. Becerra, a former Booz Allen & Hamilton management consultant with a Harvard MBA, sold Infommersion to Business Objects in 2005 (the software is now owned by SAP). He also was the founding CEO of Graphical Information, a software company he sold to Oracle in 1998.

Becerra tells me his current startup was still in stealth mode last … Next Page »

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Aaron Fulkerson begins his story about San Diego-based MindTouch in the middle. He says MindTouch today is a Web-based business collaboration and integration platform, with 20 million users and hundreds of thousands of active installations. The company’s software is meant to help engineering groups, business teams, and others collaborate on projects by sharing documents, information, images, and other information.

“Nobody, except maybe Microsoft [Sharepoint], has the installed base that we have,” boasts Fulkerson, the CEO and a MindTouch co-founder. “And we’ve done it entirely through shoestring guerilla social marketing with T-shirts and spending $5,000-a-month on Google ad words.”

Aaron Fulkerson

Fulkerson attributes the viral growth rate at MindTouch at least partly to an early decision he made with co-founder and chief technology officer Steve Bjorg to build their business around an open source wiki program. “One of the very important strategies we settled on at the beginning was to make it open source,” Fulkerson says. “We wanted to create an application that was easy-to-use, and in a Web-based environment that enables you to stop losing information and makes it easier to share that information with your colleagues.”

In recent weeks, the company’s collaboration software has ranked from No. 27 to No. 135 on the list of most-popular open source applications at SourceForge.net, the Web-based source code repository for software developers. “Even being consistently ranked in the top 200 open source applications on SourceForge and hitting the top 20 from time to time is a very good thing indeed, seeing that we have over 200,000 projects hosted,” SourceForge director of community Ross Turk writes in an e-mail.

Before launching MindTouch, Fulkerson and Bjorg worked together at Microsoft under then-CTO Craig Mundie in the software goliath’s advanced strategies and … Next Page »

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