Venture Capital Firms

Wireless technology is not new. At the beginning of the 20th Century, wireless technology began with the advent of radio and later television. Furthermore, toward the end of the 20th Century, wireless technology came to the phone industry and by the late 1980s almost everyone already had a cordless phone. Through the 1990s and the beginning of the 21st Century, however, wireless technology has taken new bounds with WiFi, Bluetooth, and other signals. Adimos is just another example of how far has come in this century.

Adimos is not just another wireless company, but a wireless company that makes wireless transmitters and receivers that will connect just about anything, from video and audio equipment to your television set. Adimos even has technologies that lets you connect your iPod wirelessly to your home entertainment system.

If you browse over the Adimos company website, you can see all the types of applications that Adimos technology can apply. You can look at the company’s applications overview and see exactly Adimos offers. You can buy different devices that can even connect your computer and its peripherals to your TVs or other electronic equipment.

One of the unique applications that Adimos offers is the ability to connect your plasma screen TV with a digital media player, such as a DVD player or a DVR wirelessly. The way this works is that Adimos creates top boxes, which you can set throughout your home and some of these boxes will transmit a wireless signal, whereas others will pick up the signal. The receivers are wired to your TV and the transmitters are wired to your different video players.

Another innovative application that Adimos offers is a many to many wireless connection. This is a special wireless system that is designed to connect multiple devices that make up a home entertainment system. This setup allows you to connect all kinds of components to an entertainment system, such as your radio tuner, DVD players, DVR, satellite tuners, and different audio players. These devices can be wirelessly connected to your plasma screen TV and to speakers positioned throughout your house. The way this application works is that the different components of the entertainment system are wired to a small transmitter that transmits the wireless signal to a wireless hub, which is both a receiver and a transmitter. The wireless hub picks up the signal from the individual devices and then transmits it to either the television or speakers. What is the most amazing thing about this system is that you can even connect your different components of the wireless system to more than one TV set.

You can set up multiple video devices and even stream multiple video streams to different TV sets throughout your home, using the Adimos Set Top Box.

This does not stop there. Adimos, believe it or not, even has devices that allow you to connect your portable music player, such as your iPod, MP3 player, or other devices. This is a device that has a dock that your iPod can dock into. The dock has a wireless transmitter that can transmit the wireless signal to a receiver that is wired to your TV set.

Adimos also has devices that can connect any older device that was never designed to be a wireless device. Using the Adimos pair box, you can connect VCRs, DVD players, and other units to older TV sets and have them connected wirelessly. The way the pair box works is that one box is a transmitter, which is wired to your video source and the other is the receiver, which is connected to your TV set.

Adimos was founded by both Eran Igler and Dr. Michael Genossar, who are currently still working with the company.

Eran Igler, besides being the cofounder of Adimos, is also the company’s CTO. Mr. Igler has a great deal of experience in leading high-tech communications projects. Before founding Adimos, Mr. Igler worked for several technology and wireless companies, which include Floware Wireless Systems and Alvarion. When Mr. Igler worked for those companies, he was in charge of chip and development, which include HW and SW technologies. Mr. Igler graduated from the Technion Technology Institute with a BS in Electronic Engineering and then went on to graduate from the University of Tel Aviv with an MBA cum laude.

Dr. Genossar also works at Adimos as the company’s chief scientist. Dr. Genossar also has deep experience in the tech industry. His experiences include 20 years of research and development and led different technological groups who were involved in wireless signal processing, modem design, and wireless systems. Before founding Adimos together with Mr. Igler, he was in charge of the modem development group at Floware. He later went up the corporate latter at Floware, by becoming the company’s CTO in 1999. After holding that position, Floware merged with Breezecom, Dr. Genossar became the CTO of Alveron. Dr. Genossar graduated from the Technion Technology Institute in Israel with a BS summa cum laude in Computer Engineering. He then went on to graduate from Stanford University with a PhD in Electrical Engineering. Other achievements that Dr. Genossar has on his belt include winning the Philip Merlin Award and a Fulbright grant.

Adimos’s investors include JVP, Benchmark Capital, Gemini Israel Funds, and Genisis Campus; which invested $12 million in series A funding in August 3, 2009.

Founded in 1995, Benchmark Capital is a vc firm that is devoted to helping entrepreneurs build major companies in the tech industry and are in for long term growth. Currently Benchmark Capital has over $2.3 billion in committed capital and the vc firm believes in taking a labor intensive team approach when investing in a company. Other companies in Benchmark’s include 1-800-flowers.com, AllPosters.com, AOL, LogoWorks, ebags, eBay, Ofoto, Open Table, and others.

Gemini Israel Funds is one of Israel’s top vc firms that is dedicated to helping startup companies get their feet on the ground. The people at Gemini believe in helping talented entrepreneurs build successful companies in the tech industry. Some other companies in Gemini’s portfolio include Contextream, Massive Impact, Schema, Outsmart, and others.

JVP is a large international vc firm that primarily invests in early stage companies who are in the enterprise software, communications, communications, and mobile infrastructure industries. JVP currently has over $670 million under its management and has offices in New York, London, and Jerusalem. Some other companies in JVP’s portfolio include Allot Communications, Altair Semiconductors, CyOptics, Double Fusion, Infinite Memories, and others.

The Genesis Campus is a vc firm that takes a personalized approach to investing in early stage companies. The Genesis Campus likes to invest in entrepreneurs who are energetic and have both a vision and experience. Furthermore, entrepreneurs who are candidates for an investment from Genesis must have the desire to change the industry they are in. The Genesis Campus is different from other vc firms because unlike other vc firms, the Genesis Campus is made up of entrepreneurs itself and understands the stresses that entrepreneurs go through when they start up their own business. Other companies in Genesis’s portfolio include Arrowping, Inner Wireless, NA Solutions, 10C Technologies, and others.

Adimos is a privately owned company that is based in Mountain View, California. Currently there are no major competitors that provide a serious threat to Adimos.

For more information about Adimos, click here.

The most amazing thing about the internet is that it is a medium where anything goes. You can do all kinds of things on the internet, from watching TV and listening to the radio to playing sophisticated video games, but did you know that you can learn foreign languages on the internet as well? Yes, you can, with Babbel, a company that offers online courses in English, French, German, Italian, and Spanish. Founded in 2007 and based in Berlin, Germany; Babbel has a playful and interesting way to learn a foreign language online.

To get started with a course on the Babbel website, you need to first register with the program and it is free. Furthermore, the registration process is rather simple. First, you need to type in your first and last name, type in a username, type in a password and reconfirm it, and your email address. You also need to select the language that you want to learn. There are a few pros and cons about Babbel, however. One of the biggest pros that Babbel has is that they have a system where you can connect with people who speak the language that you intend to learn and you can greatly improve your language skills by communicating with native speakers. The biggest con that Babbel has is that, unlike some of the bigger offline language software packages available, like Rosetta Stone, the number of languages that you can learn on Babbel is rather limited. Right now you can only learn five languages of Babbel, but the company is still rather new, launching its service just two years ago.

Once you have finished the registration process, you can start the language that you want to learn. Babbel has many tutorials to show you how to use their program. You can then choose different courses that are available on Babbel, depending on the level of knowledge you have on the language that you are willing to learn. For example, the first course that you will see, this is especially the case if you do not know the language at all, but want to learn it from the very beginning, is very basic. For example, suppose you want to learn Italian, one of the languages available on Babbel. The first lesson you will see is about getting acquainted. These courses have some of the most basic phrases, such as saying “hello” or “How are you.”

The beautiful thing about Babbel is that the language courses are not just in text. They have voice recordings on the site that are recorded by native speakers. This is very important to learn how to speak in that language. You can see how it is written with all the proper accent marks on the accented letters, and if you want to hear how that phrase is pronounced correctly, you can click on the little orange circle with the play symbol to the left of the written phrase.

At the bottom of each learning page is a grey circle with the play symbol. When you click on that circle, it will take you to the next lesson. The following lessons show how you can express greetings both formally and informally. The second lesson also shows how you tell someone “good morning, good day, good evening,” etc. Toward the middle or the end of each lesson, the Babbel website will even quiz you on a 24 point scale. The way the quiz works is not exactly the best. It is a mix and match. There are six images that are labelled A to F. Each image is a photo of someone or people doing something together. Below the pictures are phrases that you can also listen to. To the left of these phrases, you see a line, on which you click and a drop menu appears with the letters A to F. You need to decide which picture corresponds with which phrase.

Following the first quiz, the lessons go on and you can learn and make more progress. Here comes another question. Suppose you are finished learning Italian or don’t want to learn Italian anymore. Can you change the language that you want to learn? Yes, you can. Suppose you want to learn German instead of Italian. At the top right hand corner of the website, you will see the flag of the country in which the language you are learning is spoken in. If you were originally learning Italian, you will see a circle with an Italian flag. If you click on that flag, you will see a pulldown menu, and you can choose from the rest of the languages that are available. You can use Babbel to learn one language after another.

Babbel is a privately owned corporation that employs 14 people and four people on its management team, who are Markus Witte, managing director; Lorenz Hein, managing director; Thomas Holl, technical director; and Toine Diepstraten, R&D and IT director. The four people on the management team also founded Babbel.

Babbel’s investors include KIZOO Technology Ventures, and VC-Fonds Berlin.

KIZOO Technology Ventures is a vc firm that is dedicated to the internet services industry. Some other companies in KIZOO’s portfolio include MegaZebra, Fun&Smile, and others.

Babbel does have many competitors. Some of these competitors include Friends Abroad, Lingus TV, and Live Mocha.

Friends Abroad advertises itself to have up to over 80 languages and provides a service similar to that of Babbel. The only thing is that is competitor must have gone out of business or acquired by Babbel, because when you click on its website you get redirected to the Babbel website.

Lingus TV has a service that is similar to Babbel, but incorporates video as well as audio. Lingus TV, however, is much more modest than Babbel, with only the ability to learn Spanish. Lingus TV is still undergoing beta testing.

Live Mocha is a language learning website that is also undergoing beta testing. This company has become one of the top Web 2.0 companies and Live Mocha can pose some serious competition for Babbel because it has over 200 languages available to learn.

For more information about Babbel, click here.

Many of you probably have had a computer that crashed. The likelihood of Windows is phenomenal, but Macs can also crash from time to time. Computer crashes can happen to any computer user, whether a PC or a Mac user. In some cases computers can crash severely and you can loose everything that is on your hard drive. Been there, done that? You probably have. Well the internet, believe it or not, can be a great tool to save a backup of all your files to a remote server. This is exactly the service that Nomadesk offers. Though there are other companies which offer similar services, Nomadesk claims to offer one of the most user friendly and secure file backup and sharing network.

In order to use Nomadesk, you have to download its special software. Nomadesk has a new software for you to download and is currently in beta testing. The software is free of charge, but the service that Nomadesk provides does have a cost. Nomadesk has a software version for both Windows and Mac Leopard. Nomadesk offers two services with different fees. The first service package that Nomadesk offers is the Team File Server, and the Personal File Server.

The Team File Server costs $15 per month and is oriented more to the business community. This service package would bill out yearly to $180 per year. Some of the features in the Team File Server package are synchronization for an unlimited number of PCs, allows for file sharing for an unlimited number of guests, secure storage, secure file server backup, email2 folder, has both free live chat and phone support, file link, and theft guard protection.

The Personal File Server package is much cheaper, costing only $50 per year. This service is much more modest than the Team File Server. This particular service package offers only synchronization to five PCs, no file sharing capabilities, secure file storage, secure file backup, no email2 folder, file link, free live chat and phone support, and theft guard protection.

On the Nomadesk site, there are many testimonials posted by small business owners, who use the Nomadesk software and services. The testimonials are on the whole positive. Many small businesses like the Nomadesk software and service, because it allows their management to share files from anywhere on the globe. People can store files on the Nomadesk File Server and be assured that these files are not only secure due to technical glitches, but from theft as well.

This service is especially good for freelancers. Freelancers are always on the go and Nomadesk allows them to access files from any computer and save files from any computer and access those files from other computers.

Nomadesk was founded by three people. These people are Philip Tack, Peter Geldhof, and Miguel De Buf.

Besides being one of the cofounders, Mr. Tack also works at the company as its CEO. Nomadesk was founded in 2004, and before coming to Nomadesk, Mr. Tack held some key positions in some major telecom companies. Mr. Tack also has experience in the IT industry. Mr. Tack graduated from Ghent University with both a BS and an MS in Bioscience. He then went on to receive his MBA from Vlerick Leuven Ghent Management School.

Another cofounder of Nomadesk is Peter Geldhof. Besides being one of the three cofounders of Nomadesk, Mr. Geldhof is also working at the company as its COO. Mr. Geldhof has deep experience in IT service management and in other areas of communications, including quality assurance. Mr. Geldhof also graduated from Ghent University with a Bachelor’s Degree. Mr. Geldhof is an IT specialist and clearly understands the value of IT products.

The third cofounder of Nomadesk is Miguel De Buf. Mr. De Buf also works at the company as its CTO and has deep experience with project management and IT service management. Mr. De Buf’s experience is very crucial to Nomadesk, because his area of expertise is client-server application design and development. Mr. De Buf also graduated from the University of Ghent with a Master’s Degree in Civil Engineering and a Post Graduate Degree in Information Technology.

Nomadesk’s investors include the three cofounders, Business Angels, IWT, and Participatiefonds; which invested $450,000 in seed funding in August of 2005, and then were joined by GIMV for a $4.5 million investment in series A funding.

Founded in 1992, Business Angels was founded to match successful entrepreneurs with angel investors who have both the money and the expertise to make a business successful. Business Angels is not necessarily a vc firm, but connects angel investors with small to medium businesses. The people at Business Angels believe that small business and business ventures are key to a healthy economy.

Based in the Netherlands, Participatiefonds is a federal financial institution of the Netherlands that finances self-employed professionals.

GIMV is an independent investment company that is located in Belgium. GIMV primarily deals in both venture capital and private equity and primarily invests in European companies. GIMV is on the Euronext list in Brussels. The investment company searches for active participation and an enterprise environment.

Although there are some different companies that are similar to or provide slightly similar services to Nomadesk, the company does not have any noteworthy competition as of yet.

For more information about Nomadesk, click here.

Business can be tricky sometimes. Many successful businessmen fail many times over before they become successful. This is especially true with Cafe Press. What is Cafe Press? Cafe Press is a combination of an advertising company and a printing company. Cafe Press prints T-shirts, coffee mugs and other ceramics, stickers and buttons, cards and calendars, and arts and posters. Cafe Press also offers gifts for sale as well. When you first pull up the Cafe Press website, you will see many different T-shirts that Cafe Press has printed for different people and business. Many businesses use Cafe Press for their marketing as well. There are many products that Cafe Press has to offer, and what is even better, Cafe Press offers reasonable prices for custom printing on just about anything.

The top product from Cafe Press, however, is T-shirts. On the website, you can see some of the hottest T-shirts that Cafe Press has printed for various businesses, organizations, and social groups. If you own a business or want to sponsor a fundraiser, Cafe Press might just be the right thing for you. Cafe Press has some T-shirts that are humor of all sorts, ranging from political to geek to other types of humor. Not only does Cafe Press sell all kinds of different T-shirts, and other accessories, the company also allows you to make your own T-shirts. By clicking on the hyperlink that is at the very top of the website, “Make Custom T-shirts and More,” you can see a broad range of T-shirts, sweatshirts, and other articles of clothing that you can have Cafe Press customize just for you. You create the design and Cafe Press will print it. Cafe Press also even has T-shirts for dogs that you can have something printed on.

It does not even stop there. Besides T-shirts, Cafe Press also offers a wide range of other different customizable products for you to choose from. Perhaps you want to place your business logo on a coffee mug, or on some other type of article. Well, Cafe Press has something for you too. Cafe Press also has a wide range of different cards, stickers, bumper stickers, and calendars that you can customize for yourself or your business or charity. Cafe Press also makes banners, yard signs, greeting cards, posters and more.

Cafe Press also has a small variety of different drink ware that you can customize for yourself or your business or charity. These include water bottles, coffee and beer mugs, keepsake boxes, and tile coasters for hot pots on the table.

In a nutshell, Cafe Press will practically print on anything for you. Other things that Cafe Press customizes are mouse pads for your computer, wall clocks, dog and cat food boles, buttons, refrigerator magnets, and much more. If you want Cafe Press to customize a large quantity of items for you, they even offer a bulk price and the company also has no minimum limits. This is great for the individual who wants a T-shirt for him or herself.

Cafe Press is a true success story. As the title of this article mentions, the founder of the company has had many failures before he succeeded with Cafe Press and not only is this company successful in the United States and in the area where it was founded, on the West Coast, but internationally as well.

Besides the company’s main website in the United States, Cafe Press also has websites for the United Kingdom, Australia, and Canada. The US website is also the website that Cafe Press uses for doing business throughout the world. Cafe Press also accepts several other currencies, besides the US Dollar, which include the British Pound, the Euro, the Canadian Dollar, and the Australian Dollar.

The cofounder of Cafe Press is Fred Durham, who also works at the company as its CEO. When you click on the About Cafe Press hyperlink on the Cafe Press website, you can watch an interesting video that has Mr. Durham explain everything about the company and how it was founded. In the video he explains that he came to the Bay Area in southern California, because that is in his view “the Hollywood for Geeks.” He also states in the video that he had ten business plans about two types of businesses, helping businesses sell their products on the internet and providing a medium for businesses to print their advertising material on. Nine of these ten business plans failed, so Mr. Durham came up with the idea to combine the two things together and change them a bit. This idea became the core idea that grew into the successful Press Cafe. In the video, Mr. Durham was doing most of the narrating and explained that he could create a company that allows businesses to sell something on the internet and have something that can be customizable and be generated on demand. This is the main idea that is behind Cafe Press.

The company video also features some of the customers that Cafe Press has acquired. Cafe Press has acquired a unique variety of different customers who have different ideas about their products and have turned to Cafe Press to produce their ideas. One of these customers, featured in the video is Matt Jervis of Kulture Hero Designs. According to Mr. Jervis, Cafe Press is a neat place for him to express himself. This is also another unique thing about Cafe Press. You can also sell your creativity on Cafe Press and many T-shirt artists sell their T-shirts on Cafe Press and make a profit.

Another Cafe Press customer featured in the company promotional video is Jolene Sugarbaker, of Jolene’s Trailer Park. The business plan that Ms. Sugarbaker is to “right the trailer park name,” which she has been doing with not only her products, but also through the internet and hope shows. Mr. Sugarbaker further went on to explain that though her theme is the trailer park, she wants to turn a negative into a positive. She went on to say that there are many people whop either do not like something or are anxious about something, such as going to the dentist. She will use these anxieties or dislikes that people have about certain things, such as going to the dentist. She comes up with all kinds of shirt designs, such as “sexy waitresses” and other ideas. Ms. Sugarbaker also believes that many people are on the internet begging for money, and she says that there is something wrong for that. Ms. Sugarbaker further stated that she feels fulfillment, since she knows that when someone buys her product, she knows that someone is helping her cause and at the same time she knows that her images, slogans, etc. are being worn by real people around the world.

A third Cafe Press customer featured in the company promotional video is Lisa Spodak of Lisawalks.com. She runs a charity against breast cancer, which she started when her mother was diagnosed with the disease. Ms. Spodak has a walking fundraiser where she walks and raises money, from which the proceeds go to help fight breast cancer. She goes on in her video to explain how she started with this fundraiser where she needed to raise a minimum of $1800 but with her first walk she managed to raise over $4400 and then in her second walk she managed to raise $7800. She noticed that she was being successful with her fundraiser and wanted to reach out to people who were not her close acquaintances, so she turned to Cafe Press for help. Along with walking 14 Avon Walks to help fight against breast cancer and wearing T-shirts that were printed by Cafe Press, Ms. Spodak was able to raise over $110,000. Lisa Spodak further stated that social expression can be very important and when she wears one of her T-shirts people can see what is important to her.

The video closes with Mr. Durham again explaining that Cafe Press is at the heart of the trend of people wanting to express themselves and this is one of the reasons that the company is so successful.

Cafe Press was founded in October of 1999 and is based in San Mateo, California. The company currently employs ober 300 people.

Cafe Press’s investors include New Millennium Partners, PacRim Venture Management, and Staenberg Venture Partners who invested $1.2 million in series A funding in March of 2000. These investors added another $300,000 to the series A funding in May of 2001. These investors were later joined by Sequoia Capital for a $14 million investment in series B funding in 2005.

New Millennium Venture Partners is a vc firm that primarily focuses its investments in angel and seed and first round companies who are in the internet industry. The vc firm believes in turning entrepreneurs and their ideas into great companies. Some other companies in Millennium’s portfolio include CodersLife, WildTangent, Kana, LookSmart, Four11, and others.

Based in Seattle, Washington, Staenberg Ventures is a vc firm that is committed to the companies that it invests in. Staenberg Ventures primarily invests first in the early stages of the company and co-invests together with other institutional investors in later stages in the company’s life. Some other companies in Staenberg’s portfolio include Aprimo, Blue Marlin, Care2, Corrigo, Intrepid, and others.

Serquoia Capital is a vc firm that invests in early stage companies who are in the healthcare, energy, internet, outsourcing services, and tech industries. A typical investment from Sequoia Capital ranges from $1 million to $10 million per round. Some other companies in Sequoia’s portfolio include A123, Achates Power, AdBrite, AdMob, FireEye, InfoBlox, and others.

Though Cafe Press does show signs of success, it does have a few competitors that it has to deal with. A couple of Cafe Press’s major competitors include Zazzle and Spreadshirt.

Zazzle was founded in 1999 and provides a service that is similar to the service that Cafe Press offers. Zazzle prints and sells everything from T-shirts to postage stamps and pays artists commissions to sell their designs on the Zazzle site.

Spreadshirt is also a company that has a similar service to the service that Cafe Press offers. Spreadshirt was founded by a German graduate student who later built the company and based it out of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Spreadshirt’s service allows anyone, to be either an individual or a company to design and market their T-shirt with the company.

For more information about Cafe Press, click here.