Ben Shoemate's Notebook

Mark Hendrickson via TechCrunch shared by 6 people

Now that Congress has failed to bail out Wall Street, the country (and world, to a lesser extent) has begun bracing itself for nuclear winter. The technology sector is no exception, even if the Silicon Valley tends to fancy itself as immune to broader economic turmoil.

As Fred Wilson points out, startups fortunate enough to enjoy venture capital will fare the best during these hard times. So we compiled a list of all the technology startups that have raised at least $25 million over the past two years, according to CrunchBase. The ~160 startups to stockpile that much capital recently are listed below.

Facebook tops the list with $455 million raised over the last two years (the bulk of its total $496M). Clean tech comes in highly as well with Nanosolar having raised $300 million, eSolar $140 million, and SulfurCell $134 million.

Of course, to know truly how well-prepared these startups are for the next few years, we’d have to see other figures like burn rates, revenue and head counts, not all of which are publicly known. Nevertheless, their recent funding rounds provide a good guideline.

Have we missed any relevant companies or funding rounds? Submit them to CrunchBase and we’ll update this list.

1. Facebook - $455M
2. ZeniMax - $310M
3. Nanosolar - $300M
4. OverSee - $210M
5. OANDA - $200M
6. Kayak - $196M
7. GridPoint - $167M
8. Plastic Logic - $150M
9. eSolar - $140M
10. Demand Media - $135M
11. SulfurCell - $134M
12. Modu - $120M
13. United Mobile - $115M
14. Zhaopin - $110M
15. Ning - $104M
16. Glam Media - $104M
17. hulu - $100M
18. 9You - $100M
19. SpinVox - $100M
20. Specificmedia - $100M
21. Rearden Commerce - $100M
22. Ausra - $97.8M
23. CDNetworks - $96.5M
24. Move Networks - $91.3M
25. Spot Runner - $91M
26. Tesla Motors - $85M
27. Big Fish Games - $83.3M
28. Realtime Worlds - $81M
29. Adconion Media Group - $80M
30. The Active Network - $80M
31. HelioVolt - $77M
32. Youku - $77M
33. Datapipe - $75M
34. Trion World Network - $70M
35. A123Systems - $70M
36. Vantage Media - $70M
37. Arcadian Networks - $70M
38. Boston Power - $68.6M
39. Infinia - $66.5M
40. LinkedIn - $65.8M
41. Fisker - $65M
42. Brightcove - $64.4M
43. SilkRoad technology - $64M
44. Coremetrics - $60M
45. ReachLocal - $55.2M
46. Veoh - $55M
47. Federated Media - $54.5M
48. Slacker - $53.5M
49. RockYou - $52.5M
50. 51.com - $51M
51. Slide - $50M
52. Blowtorch - $50M
53. HealthCentral - $50M
54. GarageGames - $50M
55. ChannelAdvisor - $50M
56. Revolution Money - $50M
57. obopay - $49M
58. Strands - $49M
59. JumpTap - $48M
60. ice - $47M
61. Greenplum - $46M
62. Internet Mall - $45M
63. Clear - $44.4M
64. Jingle Networks - $43M
65. freebase - $42.5M
66. Avail Media - $42M
67. Amobee - $42M
68. BitTorrent - $42M
69. Metaweb Technologies - $42M
70. Teneros - $40M
71. Undertone Networks - $40M
72. Enforta - $40M
73. SiBEAM - $40M
74. Trilliant - $40M
75. Turbine - $40M
76. Pure Digital Technologies - $40M
77. SearchMe - $39.6M
78. fabrik - $39.2M
79. Zynga - $39M
80. Turn - $38.5M
81. LifeLock - $37.9M
82. Digg - $37.2M
83. GreatCall - $36.6M
84. Yodlee - $35M
85. Bestofmedia Group - $35M
86. Segway - $35M
87. Angie’s List - $35M
88. hi5 - $35M
89. Lehigh Technologies - $34.5M
90. Sermo - $34.5M
91. ooma - $34M
92. Dailymotion - $34M
93. meebo - $34M
94. Clearspring - $33.5M
95. XunLight - $33M
96. Seatwave - $33M
97. Cuil - $33M
98. Dilithium Networks - $33M
99. Waterfront Media - $33M
100. Mzinga - $32.5M
101. PicScout - $32M
102. Vuze - $32M
103. Vanu - $32M
104. Pando - $31.9M
105. Etsy - $31.3M
106. BuzzNet - $31M
107. Global Roaming - $30.5M
108. NebuAd - $30.2M
109. MFG - $30M
110. Eyeblaster - $30M
111. Zazzle - $30M
112. Leapfrog on-line - $30M
113. GodTube - $30M
114. Batanga - $30M
115. VideoJug - $30M
116. Zillow - $30M
117. IGA Worldwide - $30M
118. Viagogo - $30M
119. 56.com - $30M
120. MobiTV - $30M
121. Metacafe - $30M
122. badoo - $30M
123. MOLI - $29.6M
124. Automattic - $29.5M
125. Genius - $29M
126. Intacct - $29M
127. LiveOps - $28M
128. RadioFrame - $28M
129. PGP Corporation - $27.3M
130. Milestone Systems - $27M
131. Tideway - $27M
132. Palo Alto Networks - $27M
133. BlackArrow - $26.8M
134. ChoiceStream - $26.5M
135. Solarflare - $26M
136. Ruckus - $26M
137. ContextWeb - $26M
138. Quantcast - $25.7M
139. Become - $25.5M
140. DeviceVM - $25M
141. Verimatrix - $25M
142. Optaros - $25M
143. Zecco - $25M
144. SpringSource - $25M
145. Splunk - $25M
146. InMage Systems - $25M
147. Meraki - $25M
148. Yelp - $25M
149. Nimbuzz - $25M
150. Dash - $25M
151. Trulia - $25M
152. Gemini - $25M
153. Firefly Energy - $25M
154. PharmaNation - $25M
155. Visible World - $25M
156. Reunion - $25M
157. Retail Convergence - $25M
158. Mimeo - $25M
159. Koolanoo Group - $25M
160. Aurora Biofuels - $25M

Crunch Network: MobileCrunch Mobile Gadgets and Applications, Delivered Daily.

Filed under: Art, Lux Tips

Know what? Your local art gallery wants you to come look at the art. It's not all about money. You don't have to be a prospective buyer. Most art is made to be seen and digested by the public.

While an invitation to, say, the Louvre's special exhibition opening party might be hard to procure, your local art gallery is probably advertising their next opening in your newspaper or event magazine, and it is probably free!

Art openings often include free wine and free hors d'oeuvres, and always include mingling with interesting arty people and, best of all, the ART.

So, go to art gallery openings.

It's just another easy way to make life more lux for cheap or free.

 

Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments

Nobel laureates endorse Democratic candidate and his plans for science.

"no description"

"lady bug on flower petal"

"no description"

"no description"

via http://www.coloribus.com/paedia/prints/2008/06/09/202045/show/

Enterprise social software company Socialtext is releasing Socialtext 3.0, with the features we previewed here in April: the corporate social network Socialtext People, and a revised home page for business users called Socialtext Dashboard. These functions, plus a revised and streamlined user interface, will be embedded in the Socialtext suite, along with a new feature that records a running stream of who's doing what and where on the system, which users can subscribe to from their profile pages or their dashboards. It's almost, but not quite, Socialtext's own Twitter for enterprise customers. Missing is the capability for users to post free-form, Twitter-like items into the stream. That function is coming later, according to Ross Mayfield, chairman, president, and co-founder of Socialtext.

What's the hold-up? Mayfield showed me a prototype business nanoblog called Socialtext Signals, as if to prove that the company could make such an app. (It didn't take long, he admitted). But he said of the app, "We're going to throw it away"--the code, that is--and start over to build a more robust business nanoblog that offers what people in a workplace really need.

Mayfield says that just giving users a Twitter clone doesn't solve the dual problems of information overload on the one hand, and personal isolation at work on the other. He believes that the most important communication between workers in a company is what they are doing. "When I work," Mayfield says, "I'm sharing knowledge as a byproduct of getting work done. In the enterprise, what someone does is more important than what they say."

So the new Socialtext will let users subscribe to wiki pages and to the activity stream of other users, to see when files are edited, and when tasks are accepting and finishing. The product also displays comments left on wiki pages. But the feature that lets users ask free-form questions to their workgroup is missing.

Mayfield told me Socialtext will eventually release a standalone, desktop version of Signals that lets users "Twitter" to their co-workers. A private beta of the app is entering testing now.

I'm not sure Socialtext's delay is due to a lag in development or if it's strategic. I suspect the latter. Mayfield, who speaks in somewhat Delphic riddles regarding the nature of work, says, "The updates box (in Socialtext Signals) is less about trying to have conversations. It's about surfacing conversations that people are having in workspaces."

I'm glad to see a contemporary groupware company like Socialtext taking the longer view of the Twitter concept than upstarts like Yammer and Present.ly. In this space, I've been a fan of Socialcast more than those apps, because it's based on the larger vision of integrating information from numerous group applications. That's what Socialtext is doing, too, and it's the right thing for business. "The end state for this kind of application is a connected collaboration platform, not standalone microblogging, which is relatively shallow," Mayfield said. But I still believe that the company should hustle up and get its Twitter-alike product into the hands of its customers. Not everyone appreciates the long view.

Related Webware reviews:
Yammer: A 'Twitter for the enterprise'
Present.ly is smarter than Yammer
Socialcast is FriendFeed for your business

via http://zulu-eos.deviantart.com/art/Take-to-the-sky-74685129