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Media - Thursday, July 3, 2008

TopTenREVIEWS Raises $6M

Thumb Utah's TopTenREVIEWS has raised $6M in a venture round from Highway 12 Ventures and Village Ventures. TopTenREVIEWS said the funding will use the funding to expand its online review site, and increase its workforce. TopTenREVIEWS runs an online product and price comparison shopping web site, under the guise of objective reviews of products ranging from video games to anti-virus software. The startup says it plans to boost its headcount by 100 thanks to the investment. TopTenREVIEWS was founded by Jerry Ropelato who was COO of ContentWatch. He launched the company as a resource for parents and as it took-off he branched off into other items to review. The company makes a living through advertising. View - site... Continue...

Search - Thursday, July 3, 2008

Travel Search's Kango Becomes UpTake, Raises $3.95M

Thumb We covered Palo Alto's Three All Inc. (aka Kango, now UTake) back last August. The startup plans to help families to plan kid-friendly trips. Users get data like the ratio of kids to care-givers. how many kids on average are in a group, activities, hours, etc. We liked the idea in Alpha as it was geared to provide travel deals for families. If you have kids, you will get the value immediately. Sites like Expedia are not very helpful in guiding family friendly trips and if you have kids in toe, that's priority number one. Now that the company has officially launched, we discover that they also have pet friendly vacation deals, romantic getaway deals, and girls getaways. These ideas also seem to make sense. The challenge as we see it will be distribution. The company has been backed by NG Venture's Elliot Ng, who is VP of Marketing. He had been co-founder of Netcentives. Now UpTake has raised $3.95M in Series A, says PeHub, Shasta Ventures led the round. UpTake seems to have had some troubles out the gate as it has had to change its name from Kango and even has to direct traffic to Kaango.com from... Continue...

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ThumbTech:stocker - Ultratech, Forget The Name, Buy The Stock

Thursday July 3, 2008

With the street's unwanted welcome of the bear market today as the Dow Jones Industrials slipped 20% below their high of last October, we at tech:stocker think it's a good time to explain our investment recommendations for the current market. Having a portfolio that is no more than 60% equities, 5% bonds (as long as they don't invest in subprime mortgages), and 35% cash is a good strategy right now. We like having 35% cash under our mattress as there will be good opportunities to put investors in a position to take advantage of the economy when it recovers. Don't worry, it will recover. Our current strategy is to have a portfolio that is a mix of "stable staples" (companies that are of real importance to the consumer) and strategic selection of small and micro caps that are less immune to the wild mood swings of nervous investors. This brings us to Ultratech, Inc. (UTEK:NASDAQ), formerly known as Ultratech Stepper. If investing in companies were a beauty contest, Ultratech would be begging for change outside of the pageant because nobody would let them inside. Their site looks like a project for a high-school Internet class that only has access...

ThumbVermont's Putney Pasta Raises $2.35M

Wednesday July 2, 2008

We don't post much on Vermont nor food but here's one. The Sea Change Investment Fund, which has carved out a unique niche with a focus on enviro seafood, has invested $2.35M investment in Vermont-based Putney Pasta (The Natural Pasta Company). CEI Community Ventures Fund and The CDVCA Central Fund also joined. Putney has taken the meal in a bag concept to a more natural level. They recently launched a Skillet Meal line that will include all-natural, substainably-sourced seafood, with zero preservatives. We don't think the prices are bad at $5.99 for an 18 oz bag of pasta. View - site...

ThumbTech:stocker - It May Not Be Christmas, But Energy Recovery's IPO is Close

Tuesday July 1, 2008

Like toddlers the night before Christmas, we are as giddy as can be for Wednesday's IPO of Energy Recovery Inc. (EERI:NASDAQ). While three months is considerably less time than waiting a year, to have to wait this long for a venture-backed IPO hasn't occurred since 2003. And we believe Energy Recovery is worth the wait. While this is not a "I'm going to be buying everyone I know a Ferrari" IPO that we saw many times in 1999, Energy Recovery has the potential to a least provide minor glimmer of hope to many investors, venture capitalists, and struggling entrepreneurs who are tired of working 18-hour days. Recycling energy at water desalination plants is not our area of expertise. But living in a state whose population is growing faster than Wilson Phillips' waistline, Energy Recovery's product that ultimately reduces the energy expenditure of the power hungry desalination process. Water desalination processes have been around for many years but the reason the technology hasn't been adapted more universally is because of how much energy is expended in the process. Of the 14,000 global desalination plants, Energy Recovery has sold their PX Technology devices to over 4,000 of them and have made...

ThumbClay Felker: A Publishing Mentor

Tuesday July 1, 2008

As we have mentioned in this blog before, the a:c has a long and winding history. In fact, the brand is almost 10 years old and was first imagined as a magazine about technology and culture. We mention this because Clay Felker, an original friend and adviser to the a:c -- and a legend in publishing circles, died earlier today in his Manhattan home, aged 82. Clay, according to the New York Times, "was widely credited with inventing the formula for the modern magazine, giving it energetic expression in a glossy weekly named for and devoted to the boisterous city that fascinated him — New York." We knew Clay as a thoughtful and sage adviser, sharing in the excitement and audacity of trying to start a print magazine from scratch. The Times obituary recalls a man who many called "the best editor in the country, although some said he was autocratic and took joy in hectoring and humiliating them." On the latter count, our experience could not have been more different. Our periodic visits to his home in the Berkeley hills and his Manhattan apartment were punctuated with frank but encouraging assessments of our work. We came to him...

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