How To Say No, And Other Tips From Inside SRI’s Venture Process
Editor's note: Norman Winarsky is the Vice President of Ventures at research and technology development organization SRI International. What have we learned over more than 65 years of invention and commercialization? There are several specific ways in which our venture processes stand in contrast to what is in vogue today. These are lessons that anyone in the business of innovation should consider.
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Software Comparison Service CatchFree Acquires KISSinsights, Shifts Focus To Real-Time Customer Feedback
Web analytics company KISSmetrics is today announcing the sale of its web-based survey tool, KISSinsights to CatchFree, a former TechCrunch Disrupt participant and the maker of a socially-infused comparison service for finding free web and mobile software solutions. Launched in 2010, and backed by $5.5 million in funding from Index Ventures, First Round Capital, True Ventures, Polaris and 500 Startups, CatchFree previously collected feedback from users across the web, compiles the results and presents orderly comparison charts rating the software's various features. KISSinsights, meanwhile, offers tools for acquiring customer feedback directly from a business's website through a small pop-up that appears at the bottom right-hand corner of a web page. Through the development of its service, CatchFree found that customers were getting more value out of the insights it provided versus the traffic it drove to the software companies. For this reason, post-acquisition, CatchFree will be evolving ...
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SkyGiraffe Raises Seed Round From 500 Startups Partner And Original .Net Creator For Mobile App Platform
SkyGiraffe, an enterprise mobile platform provider, has raised a seed round from well-known investors, including Parker Thompson, a partner at 500 Startups and Yuval Neeman, a former corporate vice president at Microsoft, who started and led the company’s .Net development. SkyGiraffe makes a platform called SkyGiraffe Studio that connects data from different business groups with mobile apps, giving employees access to data from systems of record such as ERP or CRM environments. An IT manager downloads the client, installs SkyGiraffe Studio and then selects the back-end and data source to connect. IT can then define security access and other IT policies, said Co-Founder Boaz Hecht. Within 30 minutes, Hecht says an enterprise can provide employees with secure access to on-premise data from several backend systems. The opportunity is summed up in the corporate transition to a mobile culture. But the tools people use in the office have historically been accessed on desktops and laptop computers. ...
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BootstrapAccelerator Asia Wants To Bring Promising Southeast Asia Startups To Silicon Valley
Though Southeast Asia is one of the world’s fastest growing economies and benefits from a youthful, tech-savvy population, the region’s startup ecosystem is still in its infancy and many founders lack resources. The freshly launched BootstrapAccelerator Asia seeks to address that gap. Founded by San Francisco-based seed and venture capital fund BootstrapLabs and Malaysia’s MAD Incubator, BootstrapAccelerator Asia is currently seeking startups that have the potential for global expansion. The year-long program will focus on “early-stage capital efficient startups that leverage the speed of Internet distribution and the scalability of cloud infrastructure,” bringing promising candidates to Silicon Valley. Foreign startups that BootstrapLabs has previously relocated to Silicon Valley include Prezi, Witsbits, AudioDraft and Zerply, which have raised a combined $25 million in funding. MAD (Make A Difference) Incubator is the largest private incubator in Malaysia, with the goal of helping ...
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Goldman Sachs' Anthony Noto On What To Look For In A CFO
Anthony Noto, the global co-head of Goldman Sachs’ global telecommunications, media and technology group in investment banking, took the stage at this morning’s TechCrunch Disrupt NY 2013 event to talk about the IPO market, trends, and other topics related to tech companies going public. In one interesting portion of the conversion, Noto offered his opinions on what startups should look for when they’re ready to hire their first CFO. Noto, for those unfamiliar, has a diverse background in the industry. Before serving as co-head of the Technology, Media and Telecom (TMT) Group at Goldman Sachs, he was co-head of the Global Media Group for TMT Investment Banking. He rejoined Goldman Sachs in 2010 after serving as the National Football League’s executive vice president and chief financial officer for nearly three years, where he oversaw finance and strategy functions, including corporate development, labor finance, operational finance and accounting, tax and treasury. And before ...
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