Wireless schmoozing
Published Oct 8 2001
Circata Corp., a relative newcomer to the Twin Cities'
technology scene, introduced its new product, Exellar, last week.
The technology allows wireless devices, including cell phones,
two-way pagers and personal digital assistants, to connect to
any kind of application.
Circata founder Matt Mahmood says wireless Web technology
is ready to take off. How quickly it takes off is just a matter of
marketing, he said. And Circata executives were in full
marketing mode last Wednesday, schmoozing with potential
clients and writers from national trade publications who were
invited to a company-sponsored luncheon.
"In my opinion, they have a good offering," said Kamalesh
Dwivedi, chief information officer of ADC
Telecommunications. Circata's software will let ADC's sales
force access a central database through wireless devices.
KARE-11 also has been testing Circata's new technology,
offering weather information to subscribers.
Circata, founded in 1999, employs 22 and has offices in India,
Chicago and Minneapolis.
It's alive
Hip, hip hurray! Technology lives on. And the 15th Annual
Venture Finance Conference last week at the Minneapolis
Convention Center proved it. The conference was well attended
and the money people were still looking for investment
opportunities. Take the workshop on intellectual property,
financing and technology transfer , for instance. About 50
people listened to tips on how and why to patent technologies
and inventions.
Another panel called "Minnesota's Strong Suit in Healthcare
and Medical Technology" had a large turnout. Panelist Kris
Johnson of Affinity Capital Management said more than half
of its portfolio is invested in Minnesota companies and many of
those investments are in health-related technology companies.
"Chronic disease has been underserved," she said. Heart disease,
for instance, is a progressive disease mainly treated with drugs,
but recently technology has been applied to treatment, she said.
Gov. Jesse Ventura made an appearance at the conference,
saying he was still reeling from the emotions of his visit to
Ground Zero in New York City. "It was probably the most
heartfelt thing I've done in this job," he said. Ventura also
noted that he's held on to all of his investments since the Sept.
11 terrorist attacks: "If a company was a good investment on
Sept. 10, then it's still a good investment today."
-- MinneBytes is a weekly column devoted to technology.
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