TechFlash: Seattle's Technology News

Skytap, which helps companies cut costs by testing software applications in the cloud, has raised $10 million in fresh funding, according to a filing with the SEC. Founded in 2006 by University of Washington computer scientists Brian Bershad (now at Google); Hank Levy, David Richardson and Steve Gribble, Skytap has raised a total of about $23 million to date.

Investors in the company -- led by former iConcluded and ADIC exec Scott Roza -- include Ignition Partners, Madrona Venture Group, WRF Capital and Bezos Expeditions.

Venture capitalists are glass-half-full kind of people. And as 2011 approaches, investors in privately-held companies have reason for some new-found optimism. A string of positive exits of venture-backed companies -- including EMC's proposed buyout of Isilon Systems for $2.25 billion and Salesforce.com's planned purchase of Heroku for up to $249 million -- have raised the spirits of Seattle area venture capitalists.

Adding to the enthusiasm is a belief among many venture capitalists that cloud computing and Web-based services represent a transformational shift in the high-tech business.

Jonathan Roberts of Ignition Partners in Bellevue certainly feels that way. He calls the rise of cloud computing the most significant development he's witnessed since the PC revolution.

Seattle isn't quite known as a Mecca for high fashion. After all, this is a region which spawned the flannel tops and blue jeans of the early nineties grunge scene. But Shalonne Foster, Chief Executive of Fashion Network-Seattle, is trying to change that perception by writing about some of the innovative fashion activities in the Pacific Northwest. We chatted with Foster, a UW grad who previously founded the event planning company Posh Productions and interior design firm Foster Design Group, for the latest installment of Startup of the Week.

What’s your elevator pitch... Fashion Network-Seattle is the number one source of fashion related content in the Seattle Metro area.

We're concluding our look back at the top stories of the year today with a fun category. As loyal readers of TechFlash know, we like to cover breaking news, feature cool products and profile the leading minds in technology. But some of our absolute favorite stories are the offbeat pieces which tell the quirky and unusual side of the Pacific Northwest technology community. So, we decided to highlight our top 10 post -- nah, make that top 11 posts -- which can best be described as odd news.

Windows Phone parade: Thriller, and pallbearers carrying iPhone

What Microsoft learned from Jerry Seinfeld and Bill Gates

Microsoft apologizes for banning gamer from Fort Gay, West Virginia

Top five worst Google Fiber pitches

Read Ballmer's lips? Guess not

How to fix the Gulf oil spill: Bob Woodward says 'Call in Google'

Rapping monkey puppet says Amazon is buying Woot.com

Microsoft guys get girls; other Millionaire Matchmaker musings

Paul Allen's Brangelina moment

Microsoft: 1 in 5 young adults has dropped a phone in a toilet

Don't Kindle and drive

Previously on TechFlash: Top 10 Startup Stories of 2010. Top 10 Amazon stories of 2010. Top 10 Microsoft stories of 2010.

Trilogy International Partners, a Bellevue company which operates wireless networks in Bolivia, Haiti, the Dominican Republic and New Zealand, has raised $44 million in equity financing, according to a SEC filing. It is unclear how the funds will be used, and we've reached out to representatives of the company for comment.

Ignition Capital Partners has found itself in the middle of a complex legal dispute over the distribution of Budweiser beer in Vietnam.

Ignition Capital, the Seattle private equity arm of Ignition Partners, signed a letter of intent in February 2010 to invest up to $25 million in Gannon Hong Kong, an entity which had plans to construct a Budweiser brewery near Ho Chi Minh City, according to The Financial Times.

Dashwire, which has developed a mobile phone backup service that allows users to sync contacts, photos, music, text messages and other mobile content with an online Web service, has raised nearly $1 million in financing, according to a SEC filing. The Seattle startup, led by former Microsoft product manager Ford Davidson, could not be immediately reached for comment.

EnergySavvy has raised $1.1 million in financing and named former Redfin executive Rob McGarty to a new position in which he'll oversee the deployments of the energy efficiency tool in corporate environments. McGarty was the first real estate agent at Redfin, a company he joined in January 2006. He most recently served as director of lender programs.

While McGarty said that he'll miss Redfin, he added that the move to EnergySavvy will help feed his "startup addiction."

Oh, what a year. There's been no shortage of news stories on the technology beat in 2010, from the rise of Android to the introduction of Microsoft's Kinect to EMC's planned purchase of Isilon for $2.25 billion.

We've had a ton of fun covering it all, and we're looking forward to what's in store in 2011. But before we get there, we are taking a look back at the past year at TechFlash. Here's a look at the top 10 most read stories on the startup/venture capital beat in 2011. We'll return later in the week with lists of the top stories on the Microsoft and Amazon.com beats as well, so stay tuned. Thanks to everyone for tuning in.

"The 2005 email that spawned Picnik, Google's latest buy."

"PopCap CEO: Great games will beat Zynga's social media muscle."

"Jeff Bezos, Michael Dell and Drew Carey back health care startup."

"Who owns what? How to split equity in a new startup company." (Guest post via Damon Cortesi)

"TerraPower raises its profile amid new focus on nuclear energy."

"Michael Arrington on startups, skiing and getting Seattle's goat."

Patel

"MOD Systems co-founder Mark Phillips arrested for wire fraud."

"UW prof, 27, sells home-energy monitoring startup to Belkin."

"Picnik CEO: Google deal comes with a 'very happy number.'"

"Facebook to open Seattle office."

One of the new features we added in 2010 was the TechFlash Podcast. Over the course of 40 weekly episodes, we've gone from a makeshift basement setup to the studios of 97.3 KIRO-FM in Seattle -- having lots of fun along the way, and bringing in some great guests to enlighten and entertain us.

We're taking a hiatus from the podcast this month, but we'll back in early 2011 with a fresh batch of shows. In the meantime, for your holiday listening pleasure, we put together this special episode featuring some of our favorite moments from the past year.

Listen to TechFlash Podcast 040

Listen above or subscribe to the podcast using this RSS feed (http://feeds.feedburner.com/techflashpodcast), or via iTunes or Zune. Access the archive to hear full episodes of the podcast, and continue reading for links to the full versions of the interviews and segments excerpted in this highlight show. Here's the MP3 for this show.

BuddyTV wants to make it easier to control your TV. The Seattle startup has upgraded its iPhone and iPad so that users of the app can control TiVo devices remotely. (CEO Andy Liu says the app will control other digital video recorders in the near future). Among the new features is the ability to set reminders, receive calendar notifications and discover news shows based on what other users are watching.

Liu said that he's been testing out the new remote control TV app for a few weeks and it has basically replaced his TiVo controller.

Sometimes failure is the best way to find entrepreneurial success. That's the advice from Kevin McCarthy, whose first crack at the social shopping business didn't go quite as planned. But the entrepreneur learned from the mistakes and quickly shifted gears, positioning OtherPage Social Shopping for big things in the e-commerce sector. We caught up with McCarthy -- who previously founded SearchMarketing.com -- for the latest installment of Startup of the Week.

What’s your elevator pitch... With OtherPage Social Shopping, you earn cash back when you or your friends shop.

Google hasn't given up on the daily deal space. Earlier this month, Groupon turned down a $6 billion bid from the search giant, leaving some to wonder about Google's next step in the fast-growing sector. Now, The New York Post reports -- citing a source close to the situation -- that Google is in talks with other smaller daily deal sites.

That might be good news for Seattle-based Tippr, which touts itself as the third largest daily deal site behind Groupon and LivingSocial. Representatives at Tippr -- which earlier this year purchased group buying patents from Paul Allen's Mercata -- declined to comment on whether they are talking to Google.

The venture capital business can work in strange ways. Take for instance today's news that Teradata Corp. has agreed to buy Aprimo for $525 million. A dot-com survivor which pulled plans for an IPO in 2008, Indianapolis-based Aprimo makes software to help marketing departments more efficiently do their jobs.

But that's not what caught my eye. There's an interesting local connection to the deal. Frazier Technology Ventures of Seattle was an early backer of Aprimo, participating in the company's $20 million venture capital round in 2000 and subsequent financing rounds. Now, you may recall that Frazier Technology -- an affiliate of Frazier Healthcare Ventures -- made the tough decision last year to wind down operations after struggling to raise a new fund.

OrderMapper, a Seattle startup which helps pizza shops process orders from customers' mobile devices, has been selected by Dave McClure's 500 Startups as one of the first recipients of the Twilio Fund investment. As part of the deal, 500 Startups has agreed to invest $10,000 in OrderMapper for a one percent stake. The money is provided to those startups which are building on top of the Twilio voice communications platform, a San Francisco startup created by former Amazon.com employee Jeff Lawson.

“This is fantastic validation for us – our vision is to become the de facto mobile ordering platform and investment from Twilio and Dave McClure is a major vote of confidence in our business," said OrderMapper founder Jim Bricker, a former systems analyst at Microsoft and Avanade.