Congrats to the Throckmortons
Huge congrats to Emily and Jason Throckmorton on the birth of their first two children, Miles and Jonah. Miles Benjamin arrived last night at 10:44 pm weighing 5 lbs 14 ounces; his brother Jonah Walker came next at 10:46 pm weighing 6 pounds. Everyone is doing great!
Recent Client Additions
We’ve been very busy during the first five months of 2008, and here’s
a long overdue list of the clients we’ve added to our roster this year:
- Brightroll (San Francisco), an online video advertising company;
- Collective Media (New York), an online advertising network;
- Elsevier’s illumin8 (New York), a technology intelligence solution for
R&D groups;
- Entriq (Carlsbad, CA), which helps companies manage digital media content;
- Mochi Media (San Francisco), the largest online games ad network;
- Ocarina Networks (San Jose), which just launched its online storage
optimization technology;
- Sonoa Systems (Santa Clara, CA), a provider of appliances for SOA and
Web Services;
- StoreXperience (Berkeley, CA), a provider of mobile shopping software;
- Vivaty (Menlo Park, CA), a Kleiner-backed company that creates 3D
virtual world communities.
LaunchSquad is now working with 30 companies that are creating some of the most exciting new technologies and businesses in the world. Keep tabs on What’s New to find out what this latest crop is up to.
Optimal Technologies Electrifies
As anyone who’s been following the news lately knows, green technology is truly the next big thing, with everyone from Texas oilman T. Boone Pickens to the VCs at Kleiner Perkins jumping in with both feet. Our client Optimal Technologies represents the bleeding edge of this trend, and this week the company made a major announcement: the release of its flagship product AEMPFAST, more than a decade in the making. This remarkable software platform gives the power grid a real “brain”; it acts as an operating system that makes it possible to significantly lower electricity’s impact on the environment. CNET, GigaOm’s Earth2Tech, VentureBeat, and many other influential publications covered the news, with several more stories in the works.
In the midst of all this excitement, Optimal threw a party to celebrate the opening of its U.S. headquarters in downtown Raleigh, N.C. Raleigh Mayor Charles Meeker attended the bash, as did over 200 local business and city leaders. LaunchSquad had a presence as well, and we met the smart engineers and programmers that are powering this company’s rise. Partygoers mingled while munching on local, organic catered treats and getting a first-hand look at the company’s brand new robotics lab, where Optimal is developing and building an ultra-high tech electrical optimization product for homes and buildings called SUREFAST. Due out later this year, SUREFAST is a little bit like an “iPhone on steroids,” that makes it possible to power every appliance in a home (Internet, heat, lighting, security, etc.) in the most efficient way possible, thus sparing the earth any wasted pollution from overuse of electricity.
What a great few weeks for this promising green tech company!
On left, Raleigh Mayor Charles Meeker on right, Roland Schoettle, CEO of Optimal Technologies at the May 13 Office Opening Gala Event.
Mandell On Macs
This past weekend, our resident Apple fanboy Jason Mandell was a guest on radio show Tech Talk With Craig Peterson to talk about LaunchSquad’s exclusive use of Mac computers over the past eight years. LaunchSquad was also featured on Apple’s business site last year, highlighting our use of Apple products. In fact, the very computer that the original LaunchSquad business plan was written on, an early Powerbook model, still sits prominently in our “LaunchSquad Tech Museum” which GreenAmy wrote about a while back. We do love our macs (and iPhones too!).
Volunteer Day at Crissy Field
Last Thursday, a group of eight LaunchSquad-ers spent the morning at San Francisco’s Crissy Field working as volunteers as part of an ongoing project to keep the Presidio one of the most beautiful and unique public spaces in the country. We spent three hours in the very rare 90 degree heat pulling weeds and grasses out of a sensitive beach path.
One ongoing discussion as we dug away, sparked by the venerable Green Amy, was how invasive and environmentally wasteful airplane-led advertisements in the sky are. It wasn’t something I had thought about before; these ads may be the most egregious waste of fuel out there. Does Geico (whose ad passed us by a handful of times that morning) really need to partition some of their enormous advertising budget on planes flying over beaches, stadiums and parks? Green Amy will be investigating this topic on her blog later.
It wasn’t the easiest work, but we had a blast and were all grateful for being able to enjoy the spectacular weather. Our guide DeWaine (one of only two Presidio gardeners) was impressed by our work ethic and announced that we had filled 18 large garbage bags with unwanted vegetation, making room for the natural plants and flowers to flourish, and helping to make sure Crissy Field (which DeWaine told us was the first San Francisco airport, opening in 1915) stays one of San Francisco’s wonders.
Look out for more LaunchSquad Volunteer Days throughout the year.
Adding Digital Fuel to the Fires of Businesses Everywhere
Last week our client Digital Fuel, a provider of customer-facing service management software, launched the latest release of its ServiceFlow solution with a focus on the emerging global trend of businesses shifting from selling products to selling services. To understand this trend, think of what Dell does. It doesn’t just sell the physical computer; it provides all of the services associated with computing, from technical support to updates/grades to maintenance.
In the context of the modern service provider, consider this example: 10 years ago, a company had its own IT department to take care of all of its computers, servers, network, troubleshooting, etc. Now, that same company buys IT services from an IT service provider. That company will outsource its HR needs too. It’s like the adage, “People don’t buy quarter-inch drill bits because they want them, they buy them because they want quarter-inch holes.”
Similarly, more companies are realizing that they can more effectively fulfill their IT, HR and other services-based needs without burdening themselves with having to establish and maintain IT and HR departments and infrastructure. As more and more of these services are outsourced, the complexity of keeping track of these various contracts and commitments gets increasingly complicated.
What Digital Fuel is doing with ServiceFlow is tabulating which service agreements have been made and with which service providers; monitoring how well those services are being provided according to those predetermined agreements (SLAs); and calculating and reporting on the business impact of the entire transaction. In short, it allows for companies to closely track this complex web of relationships to ensure that they fulfill their obligations to their customers.
Leading up to this launch, we’ve talked to a ton of reporters, bloggers and analysts and there seems to be an almost universal sentiment that Digital Fuel is addressing is a really fundamental component of how businesses are going to look at these issues in the future.
This an exciting vision with huge ramifications for the way businesses are evolving and it’s been great to help Digital Fuel share this story with the world.