SynapticMash, a Seattle education company led by Ramona Pierson, has raised $1.25 million in new funding, according to a regulatory filing. It raised a $3 million round last summer from Raycliff and Vantage Partners, Microsoft Corporate Vice President Debra Chrapaty and others. 

Maybe you shouldn't spend a lot of time writing a business plan. A new study from researchers at The University of Maryland finds that venture capitalists don't pay attention to business plans, making their decisions on other factors such as referrals and personal instincts, reports The New York Times.

Amazon.com, as promised, has begun allowing publishers to switch off the "text-to-speech" feature on Kindle electronic books, Slashdot reports. The feature, which reads text aloud in a robotic voice, has generated controversy, with the Authors Guild raising copyright concerns and the National Federation of the Blind saying it gives the visually impaired access to e-books.

Seattle supercomputer maker Cray Inc. has named Duncan Roweth -- co-founder of the United Kingdom's Quadrics -- as a principal engineer in charge of the company's research activities in Europe.

Targeted Genetics, which is on the verge of bankruptcy or closure, said that it has received an extension from Nasdaq to try get to a minimum of $2.5 million in shareholder's equity, $35 million market value or $500,000 in net income. The extension runs through July 22.

In case you missed the Seattle Tech Startups meeting this week, Startpad.org's Mike Koss shot video of the talks given by SEO guru Vanessa Fox and I Can has Cheezburger's Scott Porad. 

And speaking of Mike Koss, check out this blog post on how he discovered a bug in Google AppEngine and why he remains a big fan of the search titan. 

Orbach

Cascadia Capital has named Michael Orbach as its newest managing director, with the chemical engineer and University of Washington MBA overseeing efforts in the software and services arena. Orbach previously served as a managing director of Pagemill Partners, a Silicon Valley investment bank that specializes in mergers and acquisitions, and co-founded companies such as Simulation Sciences and Skyva International.

Two former Amazon.com employees have been charged with stealing more than $68,000 worth of software and games from an Amazon warehouse, according to AP.

Gizmodo found a new electronic reader product on eBay: an Amazon "Kindling" made entirely of wood. The Amazon Kindle replica doubles as a cutting board -- or firestarter.

Headline of the day comes via Webware: "Why isn't Zillow dead?"