Root Wireless CEO Paul Griff -- whose company just raised $3.25 million in funding -- tells RCR Wireless that the Bellevue startup could have had an easier time raising $10 million from VCs. “But, the way we've designed the business is to be capital efficient and we didn't need anywhere near that amount of money and frankly that caused us a lot of problems," he says.

Microvision -- a Bothell maker of wearable display and imaging technologies -- said today that it has received net proceeds of $9.3 million through a common stock sale to a current institutional shareholder.

Apptio -- the Sunny Gupta-led startup -- has named Cisco Systems senior vice president and CIO Rebecca Jacoby as a strategic advisor to the the company's board. The Bellevue company -- which raised $14 million in August from Madrona, Greylock, Andreessen Horowitz and others -- is developing an online software system to help CIOs get a better handle on their IT costs.

New York entrepreneur and venture capitalist Charlie O'Donnell writes about how the "cool kid" tech crowd of New York City has begun hanging out at the Ace Hotel, though staff of the hotel aren't quite sure about the tech geeks taking up space (and free Wi-Fi). The Ace Hotel -- which also has locations in Seattle, Portland and Palm Springs -- was founded by Seattle entrepreneurs Wade Weigel and Jeff Ofelt.

Former AllRecipes and RealNetworks manager Jim Kreyenhagen has been named president of BookRags, a 10-year-old Seattle online service that provides study guides to students.

Port Townsend-based Intellicheck Mobilisa said today that it will "vigorously defend itself" against a recently filed antitrust lawsuit brought by Portland-based Eid Passport. The suit alleges that Intellicheck Mobilisa has a monopoly in the driver license validation military market, and that the company acquired a rival and a key supplier of Eid Passport in order to cut off access to software. Mobilisa CEO Nelson Ludlow said in a statement today that the allegations are "frivolous and without merit."

Seattle has the worst traffic congestion in the country, with 43 percent of the roads having heavy delays, according to study released today by navigation services company TomTom.

Groupon, the Chicago online group buying service that's a throwback to the old Mercata business model, has raised $30 million in venture funding from Accel Partners and others. Bellevue-based Mercata, which also attempted to aggregate the buying power of consumers, crashed and burned in 2001 after raising $89 million.

Headline of the day comes via Alley Insider: "Nintendo: Chicks Dig Our Wii"