All Posts Tagged ‘VC’
Lexington, Mass.-based CommonAngels has reportedly raised $10 million for a new (it’s third) co-investment fund, according to a regulatory filing today. The last time the group raised funds was back in 2005, to the tune of just over $10M.
CommonAngels, named after the city’s historic public meeting grounds, is a group of 75 leading private investors and several dozen limited partners in two co-investment funds (make it three now). Their main focus is on capital efficiency: Series A rounds of $5ook-$5M with total capital less than $20M.
Congrats to James Geshwiler and everyone at CommonAngels on this latest fund raising; this news will certainly excite the innovation economy here in Boston.
Tags: CommonAngels, VC
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One hundred degree heat didn’t stop upwards of 100 people making the trek from the Kendall Square T stop to SCVNGR’s new office at the old Orange Labs on Second Street in Cambridge last night. The DartBoston community was welcomed to the ninth episode of Capitalize with Upper Crust pizza, cold drinks and a bit of networking before this month’s Capitalize event kicked off.
The crowd was full of newbies excited about seeing Peekaboo Mobile pitch to Highland Capital Partners, but also to network and check out the hot new space that SCVNGR just landed a month ago — complete with bamboo gardens, chic workspaces and a sprawling amount of space to dominate. We were all in awe. How can one pitch their way to landing that accelerator-VC check to help get their startup into a space like SCVNGR’s?
Alex Taussig of Highland Capital Partners
It was the question on everyone’s minds.
The cool thing about this location is that Seth Priebatsch, the 20-something CEO of SCVNGR, sees the space as one where events like Capitalize can and should occur all the time. He and his employees want to support other young entrepreneurs in the area and host entrepreneurial events to get the community interacting.
Last night, Alex Taussig and Matt Nichols of Highland Capital Partners had the privilege of putting Ben Dolgoff and Mike Fruzzetti of Peekaboo Mobile on the hot seat in front of a large group of inquiring minds. It takes guts to present to a VC in the boardroom, but when you have a 100 others watching you as well, then it is really something to be proud of.
Since you can all watch the video of Peekaboo’s pitch to Highland, we figured it would be more useful to spotlight a few things that we can all learn from a VC pitch like Peekaboo’s and what you should have prepared if you’re ever on DartBoston’s monthly boardroom-style pitch event, Capitalize. (more…)
Tags: Captialize, dartboston, Highland Capital Partners, peekaboo mobile, VC
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Talk to Boston's angels on Twitter
There’s been a lot of angel investment talk recently in the wake of Jon Pierce‘s Angel Bootcamp, the Open Angel Forum, and a ton of blog posts talking about what Boston can do to get angel money flowing. Thanks to Twitter we can have discussions about angel investing directly with angels themselves; Boston has a bunch of angels who are doing their thing on Twitter.
In true BostInnovation style we’re counting down the top 8 angel twitterers in Boston. This time we didn’t take follower numbers into account; we looked at what these angels are tweeting about, how often they’re tweeting, and how engaged they are in Boston’s startup scene. The best part is, we picked a “sweet tweet” from each angel to show off their personality.
Let the countdown begin. (more…)
Tags: Angel Boot Camp, Angel Investors, Dave Balter, David Cancel, Dharmesh Shah, Don Dodge, Lists, Rich Miner, VC
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Roy Rodenstein
When I hear the word hacker, all I can think of is a lonely college student, sitting in a dark room, spending every waking minute on a computer. That image is about to change. According to peHUB, a new angel investment group is evolving on the streets of Boston. Calling themselves Hacker Angels, an homage to their MIT programming roots, these guys are looking for the next hot IT startups.
The group was formed by Gabriel Weinberg, who has recruited fellow hacker entrepreneurs and angels to the group. Weinberg opined on the project in a recent blog post:
“I believe that there are many good hacker entrepreneurs who are not getting the funding or advice they need to get traction for their startups. I also believe hackers relate well with other hackers, which is why I think the concept of hacker angels is so compelling,” he wrote. “We’re currently just an informal group that I’m sure will evolve as we get interaction and new members.”
Hacker Angels currently consists of 5 seasoned entrepreneurs:
(more…)
Tags: Company News, delicious, duck duck go, going.com, Hacker Angels, hot or not, MIT, punchfork, VC
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Some people just know what they want.
Cambridge-based CustomMade announced this morning that they’ve secured $1.1M in funding from a set of unnamed investors. The two-year old company is a marketplace for custom services in the form of wood, metal and glass goods.
“The Company is very pleased to have been able to close this convertible-debt transaction so quickly. Less than 90-days after we decided to pursue outside investment to fuel our growth, the $1MM USD round was over-subscribed,” said Co-founder and CFO Seth Rosen in a press release sent to BostInnovation. “The Board had initially contemplated pursuing Series A Venture Capital, but given how fast the company’s revenues are growing, a bridge round was determined to be a prudent interim step.”
CustomMade have now secured some $1.65M in just two years. One of the investors on this round of funding is the same angel who supplied the initial capital CustomMade needed to get off the ground. Co-founders Rosen and Mike Salguero raised $500K in angel funding back in 2008 to purchase the stagnating brand and relaunch it as a tool for customers with specific goods in mind. We first profiled CustomMade back in May, and have been keeping tabs on their activity ever since. At that point, they were solvent and supporting 12 full-time employees.
The site is currently home to 2,100 paying artisans, all of whom showcase their skills on the site in the form of photos and descriptions. Customers surf the site to find the right craftsman for the job they have in mind.
(more…)
Tags: Company News, CustomMade, Edu, VC
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Founder Institute's first Boston class is forming now!
Ever since Y Combinator left Boston in early 2009, a myriad of entrepreneurial enclaves, incubators, resources and mentor-rich associations have been springing up left and right. (Peace out, Y Combinator!) The latest in this long list of new startup community builders is Founder Institute, created by Adeo Ressi, the mind behind the VC rating site TheFunded.
Founder Institute has existed in Silicon Valley for just over a year, and expanded to Seattle, Washington D.C. and San Diego over the winter. The four-month training program will be in at least seven locations this summer: San Francisco, Boston, Denver, San Diego, Singapore, Paris and Los Angeles.
Founder Institute Boston is currently accepting applications. The program is being spearheaded locally by Ariel Assaf, who I caught up with last week to find out what sets Founder Institute apart from some of the other startup schools in Boston.
“The program is really by founders and for founders. The conversation is always founder-to-founder,” said Assaf. “We’re also much more focused on the long-term success of our founders. We’re already set up to successfully do that, because of the way our equity pool works.”
That’s right folks; Founder Institute is a true incubator, where participation means sharing equity. (more…)
Tags: Edu, Founder Institute, Op-Ed, VC
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Angel Boot Camp teaches us what Boston needs to improve to get more seed funding
A common complaint among Boston startupers is the lack of angel investors — high net worth individuals who invest in early-stage startups and are often entrepreneurs themselves. Angels give early-stage companies without venture capital funding a chance to survive the financially and exhausting first years of a startup.
Yesterday, at Angel Boot Camp the angel investment scene in Boston was somewhat demystified. Although Boston angels and entrepreneurs have a long way to go, it was encouraging to see an emergence of new angels and vocal support for them from veteran angels.
Angel Boot Camp was organized and hosted by Jon Pierce, founder of Betahouse, who’s also a founding member and trustee of The Awesome Foundation. A seasoned entrepreneur, Pierce has been a vocal advocate for angel investment in the Boston community. Held at Microsoft N.E.R.D, Angel Boot Camp brought in over 250 attendees and 20 speakers like angel, Bill Warner and Google Ventures partner, Rich Miner to teach entrepreneurs and perspective angels about the world of seed funding and what can be done to improve it here in Boston. Angel Boot Camp was also a time for angels to connect with one another, and gave first-time investors a chance to talk about joint funding. The entrepreneurs were not forgotten either. They had the opportunity of a lifetime — the chance to pitch to a room full of angels. (more…)
Tags: Angel Boot Camp, Angel Investors, Bill Warner, Dharmesh Shah, Jon Pierce, Op-Ed, VC
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BostInno had the opportunity to attend 12th Annual TiECON East 2010 conference out in Waltham, Mass., last Thursday and Friday — a two-day event featuring over a dozen panels and keynote speeches from leading industry experts. Marketed as an event to help entrepreneurs “Win in the New Climate,” the speakers were top-notch across the board representing a myriad of local and international companies.
“The mission of TiE is to foster entrepreneurship,” said Vanita Shastri, Exectutive Director of TiE Boston, which hosted the conference. “We’re an organization that works with entrepreneurs getting businesses started and growing them. This is an annual event focused on the market. It’s a big networking event, but it’s also a good place to see where the gaps are and find out about what is happening in each field.”
TiECON East hosted some 550-plus attendees, most of whom were founders, CEOs, board members and other upper-management types. Talks happened simultaneously in four different tracks: Life Sciences, Clean Tech, India and Tech and IT.
TiECON East also featured a brand new Startup Bootcamp with help from Babson College, which brought more great speakers and hosted dialogue aimed at younger startupers.
Perhaps the most interesting panel was one I attended focused on mobile technology and titled “The Mobile Decade.” (more…)
Tags: Babson, Edu, General Catalyst Partners, Movik, Skyhook Wireless, TiE Boston, TiECON East, VC
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Pictured from left to right: Beth Goldstein, Barry Horwitz and Rainer Frost
Babson F. W. Olin Graduate College of Business sponsored the Entrepreneurship Bootcamp at TiECON East on Friday. Four one-hour sessions led by industry professionals, aimed to help startups seeking capital, and dedicated to targeted subjects took us on a tour through the startup journey. The bootcamp started on Thursday, but here’s a quick recap of the lessons shared on Day 2 of TiECON East, which was a larger entrepreneurial event hosted by TiE Boston.
Track 1: Learn to Prepare the Right Tools to Pitch Your Company to Investors
Rainer Frost, Principal of Clarity Consulting Group, approached this topic with the daunting executive summary, an entrepreneur’s blue print to success. Two pages long, essentially this is an abbreviated version of your company model on the first page with and overview of your financials attached. By creating your executive summary, you are sharpening your focus or, as Frost put it, “You only have one page to cover your main points, which will help you to prepare for all conversations about your company whether to investors, potential team members, etcetera in the future.” VC’s are looking for home-runs and by defining your executive summary you prepare yourself to explain in a concise manner what your business is all about. (more…)
Tags: Babson, TiE Boston, TiECON East, VC
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Terrafugia's 2M in financing, bringing us one step closer to flying cars
Locally based Terrafugia, the company behind the development of the first flying car just secured a sweet $2M in equity in a round of Series B financing.
Twenty investors, who CEO and co-founder Carl Dietrich declined to name, participated in Terrafugia’s Series B round of financing. Key players in Terrafugia along with Dietrich include co-founders COO Anna Mracek Dietrich, Carl’s wife, and VP of Engineering Samuel Schweighart.
Terrafugia is an aircraft manufacturing company in Woburn, Mass., founded by graduates of MIT. Terrafugia has been buzzing lately for their “Transition” aircraft, a “street-legal,” flying car. They plan on having the “Transition” in the air in a year. (more…)
Tags: Carl Dietrich, Company News, flying car, Terrafugia, Transition, VC
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DartBoston's Capitalize pairs VCs with entrepreneurs
Last night, I got to sit in on a VC pitch at the Venture Café inside the Cambridge Innovation Center. It wasn’t just me. Dozens of startupers were lucky enough to sit in on the boardroom pitch to New Atlantic Ventures. The Second Glass founder Tyler Balliet and co-founder and marketing director Morgan First jumped in feet first despite the unusual fact that there was an audience.
The event was DartBoston‘s Capitalize, and attendees were there to get an inside look of a face-to-face pitch and hear useful feedback from New Atlantic Ventures partner Stephen Marcus, who was honest and resourceful in his reactions.
The Second Glass is providing wineries a way to tap into consumers in the 21-35 age range. The platform will integrate content, SEO, and blogging to enable wineries to tap new clientele as well as sustain them over time. The Second Glass is turning wine tastings into direct sales for wineries that need access to this demographic by giving tasters a place to follow up on the wines they enjoy most.
Most people in this targeted age range are either 1.) Buying wine based on advice from their knowledgeable vino-drinking friends or 2.) Buying wine based on what the liquor store clerk is telling them they’ll like. How can the wineries tap the 12 million millennials who drink wine currently? The Second Glass believes it has the answer to this problem. (more…)
Tags: Cambridge Innovation Center, Capitalize, CIC, dartboston, New Atlantic Ventures, The Second Glass, VC
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Couchange turns abandoned digital assets into donations for nonprofits
Last week, we told you that Couchange, a local startup bent on helping charities raise funds using social media, won the first-ever MIT $100K “Twitch” (Twitter pitch) competition. Today, Couchange updated us, explaining that they raised $20k for the Dream Corps, a nonprofit organization that supports education in rural China, as a result of the buzz created by the award.
“We are pleased to support Dream Corps efforts to bring additional educational resources to rural China,” wrote Couchange CEO, Jia Ji in an Email to BostInnovation. “We encourage people worldwide to support their local schools, which is why our next major initiative going forward is rolling out a nationwide campaign for public, private, and charter schools across the US to assist schools with fundraising.”
Couchanged touched over 60,000 Twitter users with the campaign behind the Dream Corps promotion, which was enough to earn the company the MIT $100K award.
So how’d they hit so many people? (more…)
Tags: Company News, Company Profiles, Couchange, MIT, MIT $100K, Paul Fireman, VC
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Dogpatch brings new talent to their fratty, fratty space
Watch out Cambridge, because a new rowdy crew of startupers are moving into Dogpatch Labs.
Created by Polaris Venture Partners, Dogpatch Labs is a collection of comfy office spaces providing an open-minded environment for innovators to stretch out and flex their entrepreneurial game. It recently expanded, and has already hosted some great companies in its short, one-winter history.
On the Dogpatch website, coordinators describe the labs as “sorta like frat houses for geeks,” which immediately evokes scenes from the 1984 classic, Revenge of the Nerds (not so much Revenge of the Nerds II: Nerds in Paradise).
As far as I’m concerned, the guy who plays Goose in top gun is cooking up sick startup ideas just across the Charles. Joining him, is an ambitious group of fellow new recruits who will get a few months worth of rent for free and some solid mentoring without having to share equity with their new host. We’ve covered and gotten to know many of these newly-accepted companies here at BostInnovation, and we’re pumped to see them accepted at Dogpatch. So without further ado, here’s the new class of Dogpatch Labs Cambridge along with links to their BostInno features: (more…)
Tags: Cambridge, Company News, DOgpatch Labs, VC
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Did you know that IBM spent $1.8M on the Massachusetts tech and entrepreneurial ecosystem last year? How about that IBM has over 4,000 employees here, and has had offices in the Bay State for 97 years?
Well if IBM isn’t doing enough to get those facts out to startupers and technophiles like you, then there’s probably no way you realize that they’re hosting one of the coolest New England startup mentoring events of the year on June 3. It’s called SmartCamp and it’s only happening in seven spots globally in 2010.
SmartCamp is still accepting applications, and only the top five companies will be selected. What do they get? For one thing, the five companies selected for SmartCamp Boston will have the chance to meet with 25 marquee mentors from the venture capital, academic and entrepreneurial worlds. It should also be noted that the companies accepted to SmartCamp will officially be on the radar of IBM’s VC and acquisition arm.
“It’s a way of identifying companies that we can go to market with,” revealed IBM Venture Capital Group Partner Eric Apse in an interview this week. “We’re looking for companies that enhance our Smarter Planet theme. We’re looking for companies that already have a product in place, so it’s different from a lot of the other competitions that just tend to be an idea or concept. Those are great, but we’re trying to generate real revenue and real marketing and real activity after the event.” (more…)
Tags: Company News, IBM, IBM Venture Capital Group, SmartCamp, VC
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Let’s face it. Just being accepted at MIT is an accomplishment in itself. Being a finalist in the MIT $100K competition should come with a badge of honor to be worn into all facets of an entrepreneur’s professional career. Some MIT students were so excited about the competition they even made a music video about it.
Twenty-six teams and two “wild card” teams went through a long process of formal mentoring, intense research and development, and three rounds of judging to get to the final celebration of the nationally acclaimed business plan competition, which took place in Cambridge, Mass., last night at MIT’s Kresge Auditorium.
With one of the most rigorous judging processes in the world of startup competitions, and an unbelievably track record of producing viable companies, the MIT $100K Competition is arguably the beating heart of innovation and entrepreneurship in Massachusetts.
Over the past two decades, the $100K MIT Entrepreneurship Competition, as it’s formally called, has had the pleasure of helping to start 130 companies and has in turn created over 2,500 jobs.
So who won this year?
The $100k Grand Prize went to C-Crete, which is working on improving concrete by making it more durable, less expensive, and friendlier on the environment. The Twitch Contest was won by Couchange and the Audience Choice Award went to Aukera Therapeutics.
Here’s the rest of the rundown, plus a list of the finalists, all of whom should be holding their heads up high this morning as they walk across MIT’s campus. (more…)
Tags: $100K Challenge, MIT, VC
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