Glenn, thought you might be interested in this article, especially if you're still building your website.
>>Starting Gate
What's New in Venture Capital
By DON CLARK
Staff Reporter of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
No Threat
Not long ago, just a hint that Microsoft Corp. was entering your market was enough to make venture capitalists holster their Palm-Pilots and head for the door. Not on the Internet.
For the latest evidence, consider Bigstep.com (www.Bigstep.com). The closely held San Francisco company, which offers an array of services to help small businesses get on the Web, Monday is announcing that is has raised $50 million from several venture firms as well as Compaq Computer Corp. and Office Depot Inc.
All this despite the fact that Microsoft, through a service called bCentral, this fall announced a high-profile plan to offer Web hosting and other services that are central to Bigstep.com's business.
Andrew Beebe, the start-up's chief executive officer, doesn't sound worried. Bigstep.com has 60,000 small businesses building Web sites with its help, up from 35,000 at the end of December, he estimates. And Compaq and Office Depot will promote Bigstep.com to small businesses that use their products. "Customer acquisition is everything to us," Mr. Beebe says.
Watching You
Most people wouldn't be surprised to learn that the biggest Web merchants have sophisticated tools to track shoppers' behavior. But what about all the others?
Coremetrics Inc., another San Francisco start-up, is trying to even out the data-gathering race with a comprehensive service to help merchants analyze their customers' movements. The company is announcing a $15 million funding round Monday, led by Accel Partners, of Menlo Park, Calif., and Highland Capital Partners, of Boston.
The service, dubbed eLuminate, would allow a jewelry merchant to track all the people who looked at a particular necklace, and compare the behavior of people who only browsed with those who have been regular buyers in the past, said Brett Hurt, Coremetrics' 28-year-old chief executive officer. It can also tell how many people came to a site by looking for a specific word on a search engine.
Similar analytical tools in the past might have to be installed on a merchants' own computers and take three to six months to integrate with a Web site. Coremetrics says its technology takes about three days to set up and is run from the company's Web site; merchants pay a start-up fee of $5,000 to $20,000, plus a monthly charge that ranges from $2,000 to $15,000, depending on user volume.
All this, of course, relies on tags called cookies that are placed on consumers' Web browsers. But Coremetrics allows consumers to opt out without turning off the use of cookies, unlike some rivals, Mr. Hurt says. David Farber, a prominent telecommunications professor at the University of Pennsylvania, has advised the company about such practices. "He's our checks and balances for the privacy policy," Mr. Hurt says.
Under the Radar
Inventors often seek out investors. Alternatively, some companies get started when investors get ideas and find entrepreneurs to execute them. Siemens AG, from a little-known outpost in Berkeley, Calif., is taking an even more activist role.
The electronics company's Siemens Technology-to-Business Center, quietly formed a year ago, is reaching out to contacts at colleges and universities, asking faculty members and others to consider commercially exploiting technologies they are working on.
Professors often move to the center, located two blocks from the University of California, where their ideas are refined and developed into companies. Siemens puts in seed money, and might spin-off the ventures or absorb them. "We go to the top of the entrepreneurial food chain," says Arding Hsu, a 16-year Siemens veteran who heads the center.
One example is Rether Networks Inc., which has developed technology to improve the quality of phone conversations over Ethernet data networks that weren't designed for that purpose, Siemens says. Rether's chief executive, Tzi-Cker Chiueh, had been an assistant professor of computer science at the State University of New York at Stony Brook.
Seedlings:
Groundswell Inc., a San Francisco Internet consulting and implementation firm, today is announcing a whopping $100 million infusion from Behrman Capital, the New York private equity firm. ...Two accomplished Los Angeles investors, Art Bilger and Kevin Hall, today are announcing a combination business incubator and venture firm called Shelter Ventures, which expects to raise $300 million and focus on Southern California start-ups. ... Keystroke.com, a Seattle company that develops automated loan-processing technology, has raised $15 million from investors that include Credit Suisse Group's CSFB Private Equity unit and Encompass Ventures, of Bellevue, Wash. ... ExpertCommerce Inc. (www.expertcommerce.com), a New York start-up backed by Odeon Capital Partners, this week is announcing its service for automating buying and purchasing decisions on the Web.<< |
