Venture Capital Firms

A new and unique service has appeared in the internet industry. Plaxo is the latest in internet innovation, claiming to organize your appointments, calendar, and even help you link together all your accounts on the well known social networks, such as Flickr.com, YouTube, Digg, and others. Plaxo also offers downloads for your computer for both Windows and Mac users. These downloadable applications can automatically update your appointments to your iCal, for Mac users, Outlook Express, etc. To use Plaxo, you must sign up and it is free, because Plaxo generates its revenues with advertising.

Signing up for Plaxo is very easy. All you need to do is to type in your full name, your email address, and your password. Once you have typed in all your prompts, you will be prompted to confirm your email address. Theoretically, you should be able to do this from the Plaxo website by clicking on a hyperlink, but the hyperlink is obviously inactive. That is a bit inconvenient, but it is no problem, because you can get to your email and you will see an email from Plaxo asking you to confirm your email. Once you open this email, you will be prompted to click on a hyperlink that asks you to confirm your email. Once you have clicked on that link, you will be led right into your Plaxo account. You will be prompted to type in your friends which Plaxo gets automatically from your address book. Plaxo works with all the internet emails, such as Yahoo!, Gmail, and others. You also have the option to add your work email, if you choose to do so. Plaxo will then take you to your friends list, which it gathers from your email’s address book and you can select or deselect contacts if you wish to do so.

Once you have entered Plaxo, you can update your profile. You can upload your photograph, which is very easy to do. You can upload either jpeg, gif or png files. You can also update all your personal data, such as your religious and political views, your activities and interests, and your favorite movies and TV shows. You can also add your favorite books to your profile. Your profile also allows you to change your contact information and hide your birthday if you choose to do so.

If you click on the downloads link at the bottom of the page, you will find that Plaxo offers four different downloads and you can download either one for free. The first download is a toolbar for Outlook and Outlook Express, which is great for those of you who use either one of these applications to access your email. This toolbar is also equipped with Pulse Integration.

The second download is a toolbar for Apple’s iCal application and it allows Plaxo to get everything up out of your iCal app and link it with your Plaxo account. This application is also equipped with Pulse Integration.

The third download that Plaxo offers is for Windows Mobile and is for Windows users. This app is designed to keep your Windows mobile phone in sync with your Plaxo account.

The fourth download is Pulse Notifier for Windows and this application is designed to alert you when your friends share videos, music, or messages on Pulse.

Plaxo is the brainchild of Todd Masonis and Cameron Ring. Both of these men are seasoned entrepreneurs and have both founded other successful companies before.

Besides being one of Plaxo’s cofounders, Mr. Masonis still works at Plaxo as the Vice President of Products and does all the lead user interface and windows design for the Plaxo website and apps as well. Before founding Plaxo, Mr. Masonis founded netElement and Natient Technologies. Plaxo is the third startup that Mr. Masonis participated in its founding.

Besides being the other cofounder of the company, Mr. Ring aslo works at Plaxo as the Chief Architect of Plaxo. Mr. Ring’s main duty at Plaxo is to oversee all the client side development at Plaxo, including the integration of the company’s software together with Outlook and Outlook Express. Mr. Ring also founded netElement together with Mr. Masonis.

Plaxo is based in Mountain View, California and is a privately owned company. Including the two above mentioned cofounders, Plaxo has nine people on its management team and six people on its board of directors.

Plaxo’s investors include Sequoia Capital, which invested $3.8 million in series A funding in 2002; Globespan Ventures, which invested $8.5 million in series B funding in 2003; Cisco, which invested $7 million in series C funding in 2004; and Duff Ackerman & Goodrich, which invested $9 million in series D funding in 2007.

Sequoia Capital is one of the largest global vc firms based in the United States and besides its main offices in the United States, Sequoia Capital also has offices in India, China, and Israel. Some of the companies in Sequoia’s Portfolio include Actona, Actuate, Agile, Aspect Development, Aster Data, Cast Iron Systems, Central Point, and others.

Plaxo does have a few competitors, one of which is its major competitor Linkedin. Linkedin offers a service similar to Plaxo, however, Plaxo’s downloadable apps give the company an upper edge in the market. Linkedin is also based in Mountain View, California and is a privately owned corporation that was founded in 2002 and has over 100 employees. Linkedin has 12 people on its management team and six people on its board of directors.

For more information about Plaxo, click here.

A year after Loopt was founded, a new company which offers services similar to Loopt’s has come out. Introducing Pelago, a company that advertises to remove all barriers to the access of information. Pelago mainly got its fame from its first product, Whrrl, which is a social network that has mixes in Google maps and blogs to create a unique social network that can allow you not only to locate your friends, but also allows you to have your blog as well.

When you open the Pelago homepage, you will not find any kind of sign up application, and unlike with Loopt, you do not need to worry whether you have the right phone and the right carrier. On the other hand, on Pelago’s homepage, you will find all kinds of blogs on Whrrl about different people and on different subjects. For example, the first blog on the website has a picture of a Cesna Airplane and the title reads, “Add Your Whirl Stories to Your Blog.” You can click on the picture and read the blog.

When you click on the photo, you will see the blog and a demo of how Whrrl works. Below the text you will see how the Whrrl widget actually looks like. Whrrl is basically a single story blog widget, which allows you to write a story on your blog and you can also upload photos. Look at the photo featured on the widget with the title “Hop, Skip, and a Jump Fly In,” and then click on the image. When you click on the image, you will go on Pelago’s Whrrl page, where you can either log on or sign in.

Signing up for Whrrl is very easy. You do not need to type in your cellphone number, like you do with Loopt. All you need to do is to type in your email address, your first and last names and a password and reconfirmation of password. Then at the bottom of the application you need to type in two encrypted words. You will then get an instant confirmation email that will ask you to click on a link that will confirm your email and that’s it, you are in.

Once you have logged onto Whrrl, you can send invites, get the Whrrl widget for your blog, and more. The Whrrl widget is a widget that is mainly designed for the iPhone. This widget is free and allows you to send your blogs onto iPhone users that have the Whrrl widget on their iPhone. With the Whrrl widget also allows you to do is to tell your story on the go and you can also use this widget to share your story as well. With Whrrl, you can also send your blog to other phones by sending text SMS messages.

How did Pelago get its name. Pelago got its name because it is actually part of the word “archipelago,” which is a chain of islands. The founders of Pelago came up with this name, because with the aim of what Pelago is doing is to be like a chain of islands. Pelago is not a chain of islands, however, it is a chain of information.

One of Pelago’s cofounders, Jeff Holden is still at the company as its CEO. Mr. Holden founded Pelago in early 2006 to develope unique and creative products that bring online information to the physical world. The first product of Pelago, Whrrl, is the brainchild of Mr. Holden and it was created to get user’s blog information to be off the computer, but also to the mobile phones or devices. The idea of being able to blog on the go, by using your iPhone or other cellphones is truly an innovative idea.

Before Mr. Holden founded Pelago, he worked at Amazon.com, where he held several key positions in the management. Some of the positions that Mr. Holden held at Amazon.com were Director of Supply Chain Optimization, where he led Amazon’s development, inventory, forecasting, ordering and purchasing transactions. Mr. Holden also held the position of Senior Vice President of Consumer Websites, Worldwide at Amazon, where he looked over every aspect of the company’s web design for all of Amazon’s websites globally. Mr. Holden graduated from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign with a BS and an MS in Computer Science.

Pelago’s investors include Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers or KPCB, which invested in the company in series A funding in 2006 together with Trilogy Equity Partners. This round of funding was $7.4 million. KPCB also participated in series B funding together with the T-Mobile Venture Fund, Trilogy Equity Partners, DAG Ventures, and Reliance Technology Ventures for a total of $15 million in 2008.

KPCB is a vc firm with a global presence with offices in the United States and China. KPCB is a vc firm that has a passion for the companies and entrepreneurs it has invested in. Besides gaining the financial support that entrepreneurs need to build their ideas into companies, but also much needed advice as well. The team at KPCB provides all of its portfolio companies with the resources needed to make it all happen. Some other companies in KPCB’s portfolio include 3V Biosciences, 3DV Systems, 3VR Security, 41st Parameter, AeroHive, and others.

Trilogy Equity Partners is a vc firm that has a primary focus on early stage companies. The industries of choice for Trilogy’s investments are the wireless, telecommunications, applications, and infrastructure industries. Trilogy usually joins in funding with other vc firms.

DAG Ventures is a partnership that seeks outstanding entrepreneurs with extraordinary ideas to invest in. DAG was founded in 1980, with the advent of Cable Television and it mainly focuses its investments in all sectors of the media, internet and telecommunications industries. Some companies in DAV’s portfolio include 3VR Security, AdBrite, Altra, Arresto, Birst, ClearTrip, BlueLane, and others.

Managed by T-Venture Fund, the T-Mobile Fund is the vc firm of T-Mobile, which is a major mobile service carrier in the United States and is a subsidiary of Deutsche Telekom. The T-Mobile Fund mainly invests in companies that are of great interest to T-Mobile or its operations.

Founded in 2006, Reliance Technology Ventures is a vc firm that invests in companies which are in all sectors of the wireless, internet, and tech industries. Some other companies in Reliance’s portfolio include Dhama, Vanco, WaveWorld, Stoke, Eband Communications, Yatra.com, and others.

Pelago’s main competitor is Loopt, which is a company that provides cellphone users the ability to turn their cellphones into social compasses and allows users to find their friends locations with the use of Google maps. The difference with Loopt and Pelago is that Loopt requires you to have a cell phone and a carrier together with a cellphone service that supports Loopt. Pelago allows you to blog online from your computer and you do not need to have a certain cellphone or carrier for Pelago. Furthermore, like Loopt, Pelago also has an iPhone app which is for free and is available through the iPhone App Store.

For more information about Pelago, click here.

Based in Israel and founded in 2007, SimilarWeb is a service that allows you to have easy access to related information from the web. This is not like other services, where you have to sign up and have an account with similar web to be able to use its services. SimilarWeb has downloads that you can download onto your computer, however, its applications are not compatible with Macs, unless you have a Mac that has Parallels Desktop or another virtual machine that has Windows installed on it. The downloads from SimilarWeb work only with Windows XP or Vista.

The SimilarWeb Download is actually a toolbar that goes to your Microsoft Internet Explorer browser and retrieves all similar data to the data you are looking up on the web. There is also a SimilarWeb download that will work with Mozilla’s Firefox.

The SimilarWeb tool bar is like any of the other toolbars on your Internet Explorer. With SimilarWeb, you have the choice to view in either thumbnail, list, small icon, or you can even have it as a toolbar button. However you have it, it will do the same thing, find related information and give you the information that you are looking up.

SimilarWeb was the brainchild of several IT and internet industry veterans who are dedicated to helping people get the information they need on the web.

The internet has revolutionized our lives and because of the internet, we have access to even more information than ever before. Furthermore, now we will be seeing Web 2.0, which is even faster and capable to handle much more bandwidth, so there will be even more data available. SimilarWeb does not disclose who is on the management team.

There has been some coverage about SimilarWeb from the different press, covering the tech and internet industry.

According to TechCrunch, SimilarWeb is a new startup that is starting to get attention because the people at SimilarWeb have spent over two years mapping millions of websites and are still adding more daily. This allows the SimilarWeb browser to search a website that a user has logged onto and SimilarWeb will search sites with similar content and provide those sites to that user.

WebWare’s article dated January 30, 2009 raves that SimilarWeb is a downloadable program that can simplify your search. According to WebWare, the SimilarWeb software works fairly well and allows users to rearrange lists and also submit new sites to that list.

SimilarWeb does not disclose its investors or the amount of funding it has received.

SimilarWeb does have a few competitors, however the most noteworthy competitor is Yoono, which is a company that provides a service similar to the one that SimilarWeb provides. Yoono is based in San Francisco and was founded in 2005. Yoono is a privately owned company that employs 22 people and has five people on its management team.

For more information about SimilarWeb, click here.

Loopt is a unique company that can locate your friends from anywhere by the GPS coordinates on their phones. Loopt is supported only by US carriers and the carriers that support Loopt include Verizon, AT&T, Sprint, Metro PCS, Nextel, Boost Mobile, and T-Mobile. Furthermore you cannot use Loopt with any phone, you must have a phone that is internet capable and 3G capable. Each carrier has different phones that support Loopt programs.

All of the different carriers and the phones that support Loopt mobile apps are listed below.

Verizon is the newest member to join the Loopt Family. Verizon is a mobile carrier with service throughout all fifty states of the United States, and has several phone brands and models available that support Loopt apps. Verizon supports Loopt on the Voyager, enV, VX9800, Dare, VX9400, enV2, Venus, VX8700, VX8600, Chocolate II, Chocolate, VX8350, and VX8300 from the LG product line. Verizon also supports Loopt from Motorola’s KRZR, RAZR V3c, RAZR V3m, SLVR, all RIZR models, RAZR Maxx Ve, RAZR2 V9m, and the V325i. Loopt is also available on Samsung’s A990, Flipshot, Alias u620, and the u550 with Verizon’s service. Verizon also supports Loopt on Casio’s G’zOne Type V and G’zOne Type S.

Another carrier that supports Loopt is AT&T which is the only carrier that supports Apple’s iPhone and yes, Loopt is supported on both the iPhone and the new iPhone 3G. Other phones that support Loopt with AT&T include all the Blackberry models, Motorola’s Z9N and RAZR2 V9n. AT&T also supports Loopt on Samsung’s Rugby, Propel, and Milky phones. Other phone brands and models that support Loopt with AT&T include the Nokia Tarpan, the Sony Erricsson Dylan, and both Pentech Matrix and Lena phones.

Sprint also supports Loopt with all the Blackberry phones with the exception of the Milky model, LG’s Musiq, Lotus, Fusic, LX400, Rumor, and the MM-535 phones. Sprint also supports Loopt on Motorola’s Buzz, Blend, KRZR, RAZR, Red RAZR, and RAZR2 phones. Loopt is also supported on a large variety of Samsung’s internet and 3G phones with Sprint’s service, and likewise most Sanyo 3G and internet phones can also support Loopt with Sprint.

Another new mobile carrier to have affiliations with Loopt is Metro PCS. Metro PCS can support Loopt on Motorola’s RAZR V3s, RAZR V3m, RAZR V3a, Hint, and ROKR phones. Loopt is also available on Samsung’s U520, Messager, MyShot, Tint, R410, and ByLine phones with Metro PCS. Other phone brands and models that can support Loopt with Metro PCS include Kyocera Mako, Kyocera E2000, Nokia 1006, UT Starcom 7126 M, and ZTE C79.

Netxtel and Boost Mobile support Loopt only with most Motorola phones with the exception of the RAZR series and Lotus phones.

T-Mobile is the US arm of Deutche Telecom and is a widely used mobile carrier in the United States and supports Loopt only with all Blackberry models, with the T-Mobile G1 phone.

This above information is very important if you want to signup for Loopt. The reason for this is because when you want to sign up for Loopt, you will first be prompted to type in your mobile phone number with the area code. The website will automatically tell you who your carrier is and this is also important, because some carriers will allow you to use Loopt’s services for free, whereas others will require you to pay for Loopt’s services, depending on the contract that Loopt has with that particular carrier.

After typing in your mobile phone number, you will be prompted to type in your first and last names, a password and then you will need to confirm your password. The password needs to be at least six characters.

Once you have read all the legal notices and agreed to the contract and all costs incurred for signing up for Loopt’s service you will come to a page that prompts you to check your cell phone for an SMS message that has a link. This is also very important, because if you do not have the service with the above mentioned carriers and the above mentioned phone models, Loopt will not work on your phone. On your SMS message that you will get from Loopt will have a link and you will need to open that link on your phone and confirm your membership with Loopt. After you have done that, you will then need to click on the I’m Done button and then Loopt will let you know if you have successfully logged on and can download the app on your phone.

Loopt advertises its product as having the ability to turn your mobile phone into a social compass and can let you locate your friends and get in touch with them. The way Loopt does this is that it will locate your friends on Loopt with an interactive map on your phone. This innovative technology that Loopt provides gives you the capability to be able to connect with your friends on the fly and find out what they are up to or whether you can join them.

The beginning of Loopt is also amazing in itself. Loopt was founded in 2005 by Sam Altman, who was at the time a sophomore at Stanford University with a major in Computer Science. The idea came to Mr. Altman when he walked out of class one day and had a conversation with a close friend, Nick Sivo, who would later join Mr. Altman in founding Loopt. During the conversation, the thought came to Mr. Altman about being able to open his cell phone and find out where all his friends are.

By September of 2005, the two cofounders of Loopt had a product prototype that would have an amazing response, and therefore, both Mr. Altman and Mr. Sivo decided to start Loopt. The prototype was so impressive that many investors were impressed, but the $5 million in series A funding was the offer that Mr. Altman accepted.

Along with Sequoia Capital, other investors include the Y Combinator and New Enterprise Associates.

The Y Combinator invested $0.015 million in seed funding. Y Combinator is a vc firm that is strictly dedicated to funding new startups in the tech and internet industries. On Y Combinator’s website, the vc firm states that they help entrepreneurs with the most difficult step, turning an idea into a company.

Sequoia Capital is one of Loopt’s biggest investors, investing $5 million, being a majority in an $8 million in series A funding in 2006 and then participating in $8.25 million in series B funding in July of 2007. Sequoia Capital is a global vc firm with offices in the United States, Israel, India, and China. Some companies in Sequoia’s portfolio include AdBrite, AdMob, Atom Entertainment, BillPoint, BitCommet, and others.

New Enterprise Associates was also a key investor in Loopt and joined Sequoia Capital in both series A and B funding. New Enterprise Associates or NEA is a large vc firm that has offices in the United States, China, and India. Some companies in NEA’s portfolio include 23andMe, 3Jam, Career Builder, Glu Mobile, Realtime Worlds, and others.

Loopt does have a few competitors. One of the most noteworthy competitors is Rummble, which also provides a service similar to Loopt, but Rummble is more about finding locations for content. Rummble is based in London and is a privately owned corporation. The company has two people on its management team.

For more information on Loopt, click here.

The online social network is increasingly growing with all kinds of new social networks out there just trying to get you to join them. Most of these social networks are free to join, whereas some others require payment. The social networks can be restricted to a specific topic, such as travel, or they can be open social networks that allow you to connect with your friends, like Facebook, Myspace, and others. Now there is a new social network joining this rapidly growing market. Introducing Utterli, which is still undergoing beta testing. It is a social network that allows you to create, connect, and share files anywhere. Utterli lets you upload image files and share them with your friends who are also on the Utterli network. You can access the Utterli network from anywhere, whether you are on a computer, mobile phone or other mobile gadget that has wireless internet connection.

The way that Utterli works is rather simple. First you need to sign up and it is free. When you sign up on Utterli, you need first to type in your email address and then confirm your email address. After that you will also be required to type in and confirm your password. You will also be prompted to enter a user name. You will also be prompted to enter and then confirm your mobile phone number with area code. Once you have submitted all this information and have successfully signed into Utterli, you will be able to create your profile. All of these options are optional and if you do not want to give all the information they ask about in these questions, you do not have to. One of the options allows you to add email addresses of your friends, so they can also join Utterli and you can socialize online with each other. Other information is strictly for your profile. These questions concern your basic personal information, such as your date of birth, gender, your favorite band, sport, team TV show, etc. You also have the option of not responding to these questions or you can answer them and next to the text boxes for each question, you can click on a check box that would allow Utterli to release that information to your online public profile.

Once you have done all that, you are in.

The management team at Utterli consists of three people, who are Michael Beyer, CEO, Paul Gagne, CTO, and Aaron Burcell, CMO.

Mr. Beyer is the one who keeps the business machine running smoothly. His job at Utterli as the company’s CEO is to make sure that the company gets the capital it needs to keep running and oversees all functions of Utterli’s functions. Before coming to Utterli, Mr. Beyer worked as both the CFO and COO for both consumer and B2B startups, including Revivio, which was later acquired by Symantec; LightChip, which was later acquired by Digital Lightwave and Confluent Phototonics; and MotherNature.com, where Mr. Beyer led the company’s IPO. Mr. Beyer graduated from Babson College with a BS and then went on to Cornell to receive his MBA.

Mr. Gagne’s role at Utterli as the company’s CTO includes all the company’s technical innovations. Mr. Gagne is behind all the technical parameters of Utterli and it is his work to have your experience at Utterli to be a pleasant and trouble free one. Before coming to Utterli, Mr. Gagne worked as the vice president and CTO of several tech companies, including ThinkEngine; SoundBite; Voicetek, later acquired by Aspect Communications; and Aspect Communications. Mr. Gagne graduated from Massachusetts State University with a BS in Computer Science, and then went on to receive an MSE from Boston University.

Mr. Burcell is the company’s CMO and he also has quite a bit of tech experience. Before coming to Utterli, Mr. Burcell worked at Microsoft’s Web TV and Bloomba, which is Correll’s WordPerfect email service. He also worked at several Web 2.0 startups, including PodShow and Jangle. Many entrepreneurs look up to Mr. Burcell, since his experience and success and has also gained many acquisitions in his entrepreneurial career.

Utterli is a privately owned company and is based in Maynard, Massachusetts and employes ten people. The company was founded in 2007 and their funding and investors are not disclosed to the public. Utterli mainly generates its revenues through advertising and also has links that can link you to other websites.

Utterli does not have any noteworthy competitors to compete against, however, the social network is a growing industry with many social networks out there, the two giants of the online social networking industry are still by far Facebook and Myspace.

Utterli’s services are not just limited to its website, but they also offer some apps and widgets. Utterli offers you to post your utters in cross posts with such online apps as WordPress, Flikr, Twitter, Blogger, and YahooGroups to name a few. Other apps that work with Utterli include a variety of social apps that can be added to Facebook and Bebo. Utterli also has a downloadable desktop app that you can download to either your desktop or laptop computer and use it for all your utters.

Utterli also provides a Widget Gallery that has a variety of widgets that you can add to your personal websites and the ones that are available are the Utterli Classic, Utterli Nano, and the Utterli Sidebar. These widgets can be placed on your website and it will automatically update itself with your latest utters.

For more information about Utterli, click here.