A business (and a name) inspired by Pangaea

PREMIUM CONTENT: Dec 28, 2012 
Startups & Venture Capital 
Startups: Panjiva’s continental shift 

Panjiva’s database helps connect buyers and sellers around the world 

Taryn Plumb, Special to the Journal

W. Marc Bernsau

The world’s land mass, it’s theorized, was taken up by a single continent known as Pangaea some 300 million years ago. Today, software-as-a-service firm Panjiva Inc. has taken inspiration from that in both its name and its business model.
The company, with offices in Cambridge, New York and Shanghai, serves as a matchmaker for buyers and sellers that are often continents — and cultures — apart.
“We like to think we’re bringing people together much like they (would have been) together back in the time of Pangaea,” Panjiva chief technology officer James Psota said.
Although there’s a lot of talk about the global economy, forging partnerships with companies half the world — or just a country — away isn’t a quick or simple process, as Panjiva CEO Josh Green discovered early in his career. Records can be incomplete, contact information difficult to come by, quality assurance sometimes impossible.
This prompted Green and Psota to start Panjiva in 2006, gathering and organizing data to eventually create a searchable database that has grown to include 6 million companies in 190 countries. The companies trade in anything from chemicals, to apparel, to auto parts. Panjiva’s recently-announced partnership with ThomasNet also now allows access to more than 500,000 U.S. suppliers.
Backed by roughly $10 million from Battery Ventures, Harrison Metal and angel investors, Panjiva now has 5,000 paying users — 42 of which are Fortune 500 companies — and attracts more than 1 million unique online visitors a month, according to Psota. Subscriptions range from $100 to $1,000 a month.
The site draws data from public and proprietary sources such as government agencies, credit rating institutions and U.S. Customs reports. It also makes use of a custom web-crawler that scours the Internet for email addresses and phone numbers.
Buyers and sellers can use the site to perform global searches, view company profiles and connect with executives and customers they might not otherwise have access to. People can be contacted anonymously, and users can create inquiries to algorithmically connect them with potential partners.
About a year ago, the company also broadened its vision to include more tools for sellers, enabling them to put up targeted ads, maintain more control over their profiles, and have more information on, and access to, buyers.
Meanwhile, because of all the data at its disposal, the 50-employee company (with 12 in Cambridge) also provides trend reports on various sectors.
Ultimately, Panjiva provides a good “calibration point,” said user Mike Matteo of Charleston, S.C.-based M-Squared Consulting LLC. Matteo said his practice focuses on international supply chain improvement projects, and that Panjiva’s data helps him stay attuned to new manufacturing regions and dominant importers in certain categories, while also educating him on suppliers and potential clients.
“You always want to understand the dynamics and the landscape of who the suppliers are, who the exporters are, who their key customers are,” Matteo said. “It’s a great tool for learning about the supplier landscape.”

Original story link here.

Paying with your cell phone

PREMIUM CONTENT: Dec 21, 2012

Startups & Venture Capital

Startups: Paydiant’s mobile payments platform 

Taryn Plumb, Special to the Journal

W. Marc Bernsau

Although estimates indicate that there are more cell phones in use in the U.S. than there are people, employing them as a viable payment method in day-to-day transactions has been a challenge.
Those on both sides of the process — consumers as well as banks and retailers — worry about security and privacy, while the institutions have further concerns about infrastructure and implementation.
But even so, many see a well-earned spot for phones at the checkout counter.
Chris Gardner, co-founder of mobile payments platform provider Paydiant Inc., acknowledges that “it’s something that will take time.” The Wellesley-based company’s ultimate aim is to help usher in that shift, he said.
Founded in 2010, the company offers a cloud-based, white-label mobile payments platform. Working with smart phones and existing point-of-sale systems and payment terminals, it allows banks, retailers, and processors to accept “contactless” payments and cash access requests through their own branded apps — so consumers don’t ever see, or interact with, Paydiant.
Compared to some of its competitors who have “Visa envy,” Gardner said, “we’re creating a network, but we don’t want to be the sticker on the door.”
But beyond the draw of the white label, Gardner noted the versatility of the technology ­­— it can do near field communication (NFC), and it also works with QR codes — as well as the high level of security applied to each transaction. The security aspect, he said, makes it particularly appealing to banks.
Paydiant has attracted some big-name customers and partners so far, including FIS Global, Capital One, Bank of America and Vantiv. The 50-person company is also backed by $24.3 million in funding — the most recent being a $16.7 million Series B round, announced in July. The round came from Stage 1 Ventures, North Bridge Venture Partners and General Catalyst Partners. Going forward, there appears to be substantial room for growth.
On a worldwide scale, research firm Gartner estimates that mobile payment transaction values will total more than $171.5 billion this year, a 61.9 percent increase over 2011, according to a press release. The firm expects the market to average 42 percent annual growth through 2016, when it forecasts it will be worth $617 billion.
Mobile payments could in fact become the payment method of choice in the future, according to Beth Robertson, director of payments research at Pleasanton, Calif.-based Javelin Strategy and Research. But ultimately, she said, “we have a significant way to go to get the infrastructure in place for both merchants and consumers, and to determine which models will be successful.”
Paydiant, of course, has big goals for its platform, and for mobile payment methods at-large. “We’d like to get our ecosystem and our acceptance method broadly deployed,” Gardner said.
Still, he’s realistic, saying that he expects a slow evolution. Also, he and others predict a progression beyond transaction fees, with more of a focus in the future on the data of transactions — what he called a “valuable asset.”
Ultimately, “changes in the payments industry take a while,” he said.

Original story link here.

Living more "deliberately" with less stuff

Like Henry David Thoreau, but with WiFi

By Taryn Plumb |  Globe Correspondent

December 20, 2012

Essdras M Suarez/Globe Staff

Joshua Fields Millburn (left) and Ryan Nicodemus gave up six-figure jobs and now live in a cabin in Montana.


For Joshua Fields Millburn and Ryan Nicodemus, “minimalism” is much more than a simple, spartan ethos. The 31-year-old Ohio natives have spent the past couple of years paring down their possessions and reordering their priorities. In the process, they’ve accumulated thousands of virtual followers.
The quest of “The Minimalists,” as Nicodemus and Millburn call themselves, is to cut through the clutter — both real and figurative. Through their website, theminimalists.com — which has 100,000 monthly readers — they chronicle their quest and offer regular essays on everything from self-help to meditations on the essence of being. They also travel, mentor, lecture, and recently published a book, “Minimalism: Live a Meaningful Life.” The initially 300-plus-page volume (“You can taste the irony, right?” Nicodemus quipped) was pared down to half that, and serves as a sort of “how to” on living contentedly with the least stuff possible.
“What we focus on is living more deliberately,” said Nicodemus, who, with Millburn, recently gave a talk at the Harvard Business School as part of their “Holiday Happiness Tour,” a journey that took them to roughly a dozen cities from New York to Vancouver in a little over a month’s time.
Minimalism is a concept that can be seen as “subversive” or even “radical,” Nicodemus said, but it’s a spectrum, with a different flavor for everybody. It’s not about convincing everyone to do it — and it’s also not about deprivation.
They, for instance, have cars, cellphones, laptops, cameras, furniture, art, and books. And Nicodemus is a snowboarder (with the equipment that goes along with that). But, as he explained, getting out on the trail “adds something to my life,” thus making its accoutrements much more than just “things.”
“It cleared the path to allow me to focus on more important things in my life,” said the tall, skinny jean-wearing Millburn, with an easy smile, a hint of a Southern accent, and a blond, James Dean-like pompadour. Which includes, most notably, writing, which he now does prolifically — sometimes 12 to 13 hours a day. He and Nicodemus, friends since childhood in Ohio, have released essay compilations, and Millburn has penned two novels.
Today, the two reformed consumers greet everyone they meet with a hug and identify the five most important things in life as health, relationships, cultivating a passion, growth, and contribution.
But getting to that point encompassed their own journey through materialism. In their early 20s, they were sure they had the formula for happiness: Making $50,000 a year. Soon that became $75,000. Then $100,000.
Eventually, they each had six-figure jobs in corporate sales. Nicodemus boasted a 2,000-square-foot condo with a two-car garage. Millburn filled his three-bedroom house with “all the gadgets,” a luxury car, Brooks Brothers suits, and Allen Edmonds shoes.
For Millburn, a revelation came after two stunning losses — a death and a divorce. In 2009, when his mom passed away, he was tasked with clearing out her home, which he described as being full of “three apartments’ worth” of items.
It turned out to be a cleansing experience. He began to realize that the memories he had of her weren’t in the things, they were in him. So he got rid of everything, except for some family photos.
Then, not long after he returned home, his marriage ended.
“I didn’t know what was important in my life anymore,” he said.
So, he began to comb through his own organized clutter, slowly discarding everything “superfluous.”
Eight months later, he’d gotten rid of about 90 percent of it.
The result? “Everything in my life became my favorite thing.”
For Nicodemus, it was a little more impulsive. In December 2010, he had what he called a “packing party.” That is, he packed up everything he owned — except he wasn’t moving. Instead, after work, he simply unpacked what he felt he needed for the night.
As time went on, he took out fewer and fewer items.
After 21 days, he realized that he wasn’t using 75 to 80 percent of the precious and just-in-case possessions he had collected and carted around with him — so he sold, donated, or threw away most of them.
“Here was all this stuff that was supposed to make me happy, and it wasn’t doing its job,” said Nicodemus, who, with a beard and shaggy hair, a baggy T-shirt and jeans, is the casual answer to Millburn’s crisp look.
Eventually, they both quit their jobs. And recently they relocated to a mountainside cabin in a Montana town with a population of 820 — an experiment they likened to “the Thoreau thing with WiFi.”
Their base of followers continues to grow, which in part prompted them to embark on their multi-city tour. (In keeping with their lifestyle, they loaded into a car and made a 12-hour trek up from Washington, D.C., battling both New York and Boston traffic along the way.)
A diverse crowd of about 40 gathered in a classroom at Hawes Hall at Harvard Business School to ask about balancing minimalism with materialistic jobs, handling the overwhelming onslaught of digital clutter, social responsibility, and how to be minimalist in suburbia.
The authors stress that they don’t judge anyone for having a particularly large library of books with un-cracked bindings, or an extensive Hummel collection, for that matter. They don’t spurn society. And they concede that they do cherish some stuff.
Minimalism, as they espouse it, is as much about de-cluttering the mind as it is about physical items; assessing what’s most important — and shedding what isn’t.
“It’s OK to have a lot of stuff,” said attendee Laura Moore of Concord, who runs Clutter Clarity and assists people with “letting go” of things. “It’s not OK when you’re physically and emotionally disturbed by your stuff.”
The Minimalists imparted much the same advice: “There’s nothing wrong with the things,” said Millburn. “The problem is the meaning we give to them.”

© 2012 The New York Times Company

Original story link here.

And more photos (some by Essdras M. Suarez; others provided by the "Minimalists):

 



 

Concord's own Christmas elf

93-year-old figurine maker keeps workshop humming

    

By Taryn Plumb

Globe Correspondent /  December 20, 2012 

In one room, hands ply and mold bits of clay. In another, airbrushes delicately puff out the slightest touches of paint. Elsewhere, heads hunch in inspection, and fingers adeptly connect tiny parts. 

Annette Petersen’s Carlisle studio is not unlike Santa’s workshop — albeit modernized, and with a singular purpose: to turn out hordes of miniature, whimsical mice.

Forty years ago, Petersen created her first, and admittedly rustic, mouse figurine. Today, the mother of three and grandmother of four oversees Wee Forest Folk,  a family-run enterprise that crafts hundreds of itsy-bitsy sculptures for shops (and fervent fans) all over the country.

“I never expected it,” said Petersen, who at 93 is spry, witty, and still sculpts regularly. With a shrug, she mused of her success, “It’s amazing.”

Her company’s line of mice — about 200 models are currently in production, and most no bigger than a couple of inches — includes furry, pink-nosed, big-eared creatures catching butterflies, chewing watermelon, feeding birds, pumping iron, playing golf, getting married, riding motorcycles, trick-or-treating, and building snowmen. There are even adorable rodent Romeos and Juliets professing love for each other, and others commemorate Christmas, Easter, and Valentine’s Day; a few dozen new figures are released each year.

There have also been bears, bunnies, opossums, and turtles included in the mix of Wee Forest Folk offerings, but the mice have always been the draw.

“It’s what people like, and I enjoy doing them,” said Petersen, a tiny figure herself, dressed in jeans and a blue sweater accented with a Christmas tree brooch, and a blue bow in her white hair. “With their little noses and ears, you can make them look really cute.”

She, her son Willy, and daughter Donna create each form in clay; then each piece is painted, assembled with minuscule accoutrements like flowers, books, bows, and candy canes carefully set in place, and “tailed” by the shop’s 25 employees or 20 home-based painters, who brush details on by hand.

The process, finely tuned over the decades, allows the shop to annually create thousands of the figures, which retail anywhere from $52 to $495 through the Wee Forest Folks catalog or smaller specialty shops (not department stores or retail chains).

Petersen is also particularly proud to be a family business: 57-year-old Donna, for instance, opted out of a medical career to be a sculptor, while Willy, 58, diverted from his plan to become a dentist.

Working with self-hardening clay, they form and shape the Lilliputian creatures, using their hands, brushes, water, X-Acto knives, and even toothbrushes.

“You have to be patient,” Donna, with clay caked beneath her fingernails, said on a recent sunny winter afternoon as she worked on creating a base with rustic floorboards and a braided rug. “You have to be willing to just sit there until you get it right.”

Nearby shelves were crammed with boxes of hundreds of miniature accessories; in an adjacent room, airbrush artists were tending to their meticulous work; in another, two assemblers attached tails and bases to half-finished pieces.

Meanwhile, in an office in the back, Petersen was at work on a mouse hardly bigger than a thimble, doctoring a broken-off ear.

“All right, now I have decisions to make,” Petersen said as she inspected the damaged part and brushed it lightly with water. “What is this little mouse going to be doing? It can’t just stand there.”

To foster those ideas, she looks through children’s books and studies real mice.

“There’s something intangible that she just looks for,” her daughter said, marveling. “If it doesn’t speak to her, she’ll just keep doing it.”

It is the fastidious and hard-working demeanor of a woman who grew up in a poor family in New York City. She never had any art training, so “her imagination was all she had,” Willy explained.

In 1949, she and her husband, Richard — they’ve been married for 63 years, after a chance meeting while sunbathing on a Coney Island beach — moved to Concord, and, as she described it, “I started using my hands to make different things.”

Her first creations were stone owls with glass eyes; soon she moved on to sun catchers, crafting frogs, snails, whales, owls, and turtles out of circular pieces of clear glass.

Then came her first mouse; made from bread dough, it had a pipe-cleaner tail and red berry eyes. Because it was too “realistic” looking, she said, on a whim she stood it up and decked it with an apron and a hat.

Although it was “primitive,” it was the first of her Wee Forest Folk.

From there, she evolved to more molds and different scenarios, with mice wearing dresses, scarves, bows, baseball caps and overalls, and drinking tea, playing piano, kayaking, riding a broomstick and romancing one another.

Until 1990, nearly all of them were created in her kitchen, until the operation simply became too big.

Over her 40 years in business, she has supplied numerous specialty shops, as well as a franchise known as the “Mole Hole,” and has displayed at trade shows, while fostering a cache of devoted fans.

“We have such a loyal following,” Donna said as she sat with her mother and brother in their studio, Petersen’s table cluttered with plastic containers of clay, pens, and brushes, with a small snapshot of a mouse (for inspiration) taped to an extendable lamp snaked with garland.

Those voracious collectors put on three expos a year, request tours of the shop (with some even crying when they meet Petersen), and some make it a point to collect every single figurine.

“A lot of friends have been made through Wee Forest Folk,” said Petersen.

That includes her — she described her employees as “another big family,” and, although her fingers are becoming a bit stubborn with age, she still enjoys sculpting and creating.

So, as a hale nonagenarian, what’s her secret to long life?

“Be thoroughly interested in something, and not bored.”

Original story link here.

And here's a nice slideshow by Aram Boghosian.  

© Copyright 2012 Globe Newspaper Company

High-wattage for holiday cheer

A Millis family goes all out for the holidays

By Taryn Plumb

Globe Correspondent /  December 20, 2012 

Think you have an impressive light display? Take a drive on over to Causeway Street ­—Millis’s own version of the North Pole.

Tucked away on 40 acres owned by the Meehan family is a bright, glowing, musical, sprawling spectacle that attracts thousands of drive-through visitors every season.

“They keep Christmas better than anyone I know,” Jessie Irwin, an envoy with The Salvation Army in Milford, said on a recent weeknight just before the gates opened and a steady procession of cars began creeping in.

Whatever you celebrate, traditions are an integral part of the holiday process: They forge family connections, fostering memories that get passed on for generations.

In Millis’ case, the elaborate Causeway Road display — staged by the Meehan family, fittingly called “Millis Wonderland,” and raising money for the Salvation Army — is one very distinct tradition that has evolved over the past decade.

“Every year,” Pat Sjogren of Millis said of the frequency of her visits as she sat in the passenger’s side of a slowly rolling SUV. Her twin 3-year-old granddaughters Catherine and Flynn were with her, marveling at the view. “It’s just enormous. It’s wonderful.”

And what a spectacle it is — encompassing thousands of lights, it can be seen from at least a quarter-mile away, and it is a wonderment of luminescence: strings of white encircle trees, glow along fences, trim the gables on buildings, and highlight crosses, setting the entire property in a radiant glow.

There are also life-sized nutcrackers, reindeer, elves, wreaths, a nativity scene, trolleys making constant runs around circular tracks, and enormous burly Santas who could double as Paul Bunyans in the offseason.

But perhaps the biggest lure — and the one that garners the most “oohs” and “aahs” — is the series of roughly two dozen, chalet-style glass boxes with various animatronic scenes: angels, Victorian carolers, playful penguins, Santa’s workshop. (And behind all that, barely visible, are electrical wires that cover the ground like overgrown vines.)

In the center of it all sits the Meehan’s home — decked out in shimmering trim.

“This is a place where the community enjoys starting off their Christmas,” said Irwin, dressed in a red Salvation Army smock and offering a wide smile to passersby.

“It’s nothing for 12,000 to 15,000 people to go through on a Friday and Saturday night,” said Kevin Meehan, who is the proverbial Father Christmas when it comes to the display.

Some people come from Rhode Island or New Hampshire; others have staged marriage proposals amid the glow.

“It’s celebrating life and celebrating love, and doing it all with a Christmas splash,” Irwin said as she and other volunteers huddled around a chiminea offering a comforting flame.

As is often the case, it started out simply enough: About 10 years ago, Meehan, who owns Imperial Cars in Mendon, began putting up decorations with his five kids.

“The initial objective was to get us all together,” he said.

And he can’t explain really why it grew so big, but it did — more and more each year — and then in 2004, it garnered nationwide attention when it won a contest held by the “Today” show. The interest after that was a bit overwhelming, Meehan noted, with mile-long backups that rankled some neighbors. But Meehan held a meeting with the neighborhood to talk about concerns, and now traffic is diverted and rerouted by town police if the turnout creates congestion.

Now an organized operation, it opens to the public Dec. 1 and runs four hours a night, seven days a week, until Christmas Day, with flaggers to control traffic, and a dedicated core of volunteers to keep things running. And although the look is free, visitors are urged to make a donation to the Salvation Army, which has a presence of Santa hat-wearing bell-ringers.

Friday and Saturday nights bring in 3,000 cars apiece, Meehan estimated, with many area senior centers and other institutions coming in small busloads.

Ultimately, it takes about five weeks to set up, and the layout changes every year. “It’s a lot of work, a lot of effort, a big invasion on your privacy,” acknowledged Meehan, who declined to say how high his electric bill climbs as a result.

Still, he keeps doing it because of “the smiles you put on everybody’s faces,” he said. “It’s a way of giving back to the community. [My family has] been blessed in so many ways, we can certainly afford to do it. If everybody who could afford it took the time to do something like this, we’d all be better off, don’t you think?”
As Dave Irwin — Jessie’s husband — explained, the monthlong event is a boon to charity.

Last year, visitors donated $32,500; he expects $35,000 this year. Ultimately, it has become the biggest single-spot collection in Massachusetts, with the money it raises used to help at least 1,400 local people with food, toys, and other services this holiday season.

Beyond the community assistance, Irwin noted the sheer grandeur. “I’m taken aback by how beautiful it is,” he said. “It’s breathtaking.”

On a recent weeknight, just before 6 p.m., visitors lined up in their cars, after winding down a narrow street with modest houses beset with subtler decorations — shrubs silhouetted with white, lit-up reindeer, Christmas trees visible through front windows.

Then, as 6 p.m. tolled, they moved slowly through, bumper-to-bumper — a seemingly endless procession of cars, ­SUVs, minivans, and buses.

Music emanated from speakers in the woods, and Salvation Army workers rang bells, sang carols, and called out “Merry Christmas!” and “Enjoy the lights!” to the cars rolling by in a happy holiday gridlock.

“Whoa!” was a common expression heard from half-rolled- down windows. Necks craned in cars jammed full. Tiny fingers pointed. Some kids, overcome with excitement, hung halfway out moonroofs for a better view.

Watching it all from the side, Jessie Irwin said with a smile, “it’s our favorite part of Christmas.”

For more information visit www.milliswonderland.com.

© Copyright 2012 Globe Newspaper Company.

Original story link here. 

And more pics by Jim Davis:

Simplifying Internet clutter for kids

PREMIUM CONTENT: Dec 14, 2012 

Startups & Venture Capital

Aiming to make the Internet safe for children

Taryn Plumb, Special to the Journal

W. Marc Bernsau

The goal of Billerica-based startup Playrific is to simplify the Internet’s clutter for parents, and ultimately foster an online safe haven for children. Led by CEO Beth Marcus, the company aggregates, categorizes, and packages educational content into a free, gender-and-age-appropriate app.
“It’s about letting kids safely connect with what’s going on in the outside world,” said Marcus, a co-founder who has been involved with more than a dozen startups in various industries, including Microsoft-acquired EXOS Inc.
Founded in 2010, the company is backed by $2.8 million from two rounds of funding. The firm announced raising $1.7 million on Dec. 4 led by Golden Seeds, along with Launchpad Venture Group, Walnut Venture Associates, Northeast Angels and Maine Angels. The startup is also supported by a new Boston-based education technology accelerator called LearnLaunch.
Playrific’s site now sees more than 80,000 unique visitors every month. The firm’s app was developed by co-founders Geraldine Tortelier and Isaac de la Pena, and is compatible with multiple platforms, including Mac and Windows.
The app is now being used by families and schools.
Primarily for ages 10 and under, the app can be initially accessed for free after a parent creates a username and inputs their child’s age and gender. The parent then, as Marcus explained it, “gets out of the way to let their kids explore.”
That exploration encompasses videos, games, virtual arts and crafts, reading and music, all incorporated into short, themed digital packages that the company calls “playpacks.” These playpacks center around topics such as science, math, letters, current events, dinosaurs, holidays, seasons and animals.
“I love to watch them learn sign language, sing along with their favorite characters, and dance around their computers,” said Catherine Allen, a Boston-area resident whose two daughters use the app.
Abigail Marsters, executive director of the Sharon Cooperative School, said Playrific allows her teachers to regularly integrate “exciting, intelligent and fun curriculum” into their classes.
The company, with about 10 employees, prides itself on its team of educators and parents who watch all the videos, and categorize and connect content.
In moving toward a monetization model, Playrific will eventually introduce low-priced playpacks, and also plans to work with device manufacturers to have its app pre-installed on devices.
“Kids are going to be in front of a screen anyway,” Marcus said. “We’re turning it into a positive experience that parents will be happy about.”

Original story link here.

Helping with life's "To-do's"

Cambridge startup Fetchnotes helps with 'to do' lists

 

Premium content from Boston Business Journal by Taryn Plumb, Special to the Journal

Friday, December 7, 2012

Alex Schiff

Life is a perpetual “to-do” list, an endless procession of things to keep track of.
And oftentimes, as people attempt to keep up with everything — calls to make, stuff to buy, books and movies to check out — they tend to create an “absurd patchwork” of reminders: hand-jotted notes, “to-do” documents, texts, emails and digital notifications, according to Alex Schiff, co-founder and CEO of startup Fetchnotes.
“Either you end up with one note with a billion things in it, or a billion notes with one thing in it,” said Schiff, adding that he’s been there himself, feeling “stressed” and “out of control.”
But Fetchnotes strives to simplify and condense those daily “notes to self.”
The company, a participant in the fall 2012 session of TechStars Boston, launched its free life-organizing tool in April.
After signing up, users input their “notes” to the digital notepad from their device of choice, then employ the same syntax as Twitter to label, organize and share them. For example, if you’re low on milk, you could create a tag (“#groceries”), attach a note (“milk”) and then share it with a family member by including their username.
One of the key objectives, Schiff explained, was to create a non-static platform that allows people to set it up and use it the way they want.
“It’s not prescribed, and it’s just so simple,” said Lucy McQuilken, a strategic investment manager at Intel Capital and TechStars mentor, who says she uses Fetchnotes for “managing my life and my interests.”
“You make the categories, you invent how you use it,” McQuilken said.
Schiff says the company “wanted to build something that works the way that you do, no matter who you are. It morphs to how you think.”
And so far, it’s proved to be an enticing tool for hectic, 21st century lives: In about six months, the app has grown to 33,400 users, with the most active turning to it five times a day, according to Schiff.
The four-employee company is working to raise a seed round of $750,000, a third of which has been committed, Schiff said. And, although its crew of young entrepreneurs left their homes and families — along with college careers at the University of Michigan — to take part in TechStars, they plan to remain in Boston. Schiff cited the city’s “well-developed” startup investing community, as well as its “talent, capital and mentorship” in that decision — the latter being the most influential.
“We want to surround ourselves with that level of mentorship,” he said. “The fact that there is a larger ecosystem was so valuable to us.”

Original story link here.

Top women: Constant Contact

The top 100 women-led businesses in Massachusetts

 

Premium content from Boston Business Journal by Mary Pratt, Marcella Garcia and Taryn Plumb, Special to the Journal

Friday, December 7, 2012

But for women executives and the businesses they lead, the U.S. economy would be in far more dire straits today. Indeed, for the roughly the past two decades, revenue and hiring growth among women-led businesses have expanded at a greater rate than the economy as a whole and now total more than 8.3 million establishments nationally.
Those organizations account for approximately 7.7 million jobs and slightly more than $1 trillion in annual revenue, or roughly 10 percent of U.S. gross domestic product.
And yet obstacles appear to remain in the path for women seeking to attain the same career milestones often associated with male executives at the top of their industries, particularly when it comes to math- and science-related fields. Progress also is slow when it comes to seeing more women in the corporate board rooms of America’s largest, publicly traded companies, not to mention many of the most influential businesses in Massachusetts.
Nonetheless, women continue to play a dynamic role both locally and nationally in creating the jobs and developing the technologies that are expected to spur the U.S. economy back to health. With that in mind, the Boston Business Journal is honoring three women-led businesses with its first-ever growth awards, determined by the number of Massachusetts-based jobs added over the past three years. The awards, provided to a small employer (under 100 employees), mid sized employer (100-to-500 employees), and large employer (above 500 employees) employer, represent the fastest-growing among this year’s Top 100, though they are just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the breadth and depth of the Bay State’s women-led businesses.

 

Large Company | Constant Contact

Marketing pioneer pays it forward through mentoring 

“Whatever role you’re in, take time to understand ‘How can I be a leader?’” says Gail Goodman, chairwoman, president and CEO of Constant Contact Inc. “People will see it, recognize it, and give you more leadership opportunities.”
Goodman has certainly never hesitated to take the reins. After holding top positions at OpenMarket, Dun and Bradstreet Software Services and Bain and Co., she took over Constant Contact in 1999.
Since then, the Waltham-based company has evolved from a small startup cultivating one email marketing product, to a public company with numerous products, six locations worldwide, more than 500,000 customers and annual revenue topping $200 million.
And though Goodman is part of a small, albeit growing, group of female CEOs at public companies, Constant Contact takes that distinction even further: Two of its top positions are held by women, with Ellen Brezniak as its senior vice president of customer operations.
So far the strategy has paid huge dividends. Since 2010, the company has added 154 new jobs in Massachusetts, equal to an approximately 28 percent expansion in its total head count in the state.
During a recent interview with the BBJ, Brezniak acknowledged that being a female in the technology business “is different,” although the times are definitely changing. She pointed to Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer, who at 37 years is the youngest CEO among Fortune 500 companies, Meg Whitman of Hewlett-Packard and, locally, Laura Sen of BJ’s Wholesale Club as top examples of the influential women who are reshaping the corporate world.
Brezniak said she intends to foster that evolution as a mentor both at and outside Constant Contact.
She said women often take themselves out of the running for management positions to raise children, when in reality they can still play an important role in the workplace. She also said women can sometimes be more tentative than men when it comes to networking and expressing their career goals.
“Women tend to say ‘I’m doing a fantastic job, why aren’t I getting more?’” said Brezniak. “You need to tell people what you want to do.”
Ultimately, it’s about “fostering healthy relationships” with colleagues and management, she said.
Meanwhile, Goodman encourages young women to draw from a “collage” of best practices and skill sets – for instance, she noted one former colleague who was “unbelievably calm under pressure,” and a current executive who is adept at asking tough questions without inciting defensiveness.
“There’s something you can learn from everybody,” she said.
And what others can glean? She described her ability to “get to the heart of an issue, to really peel off the side conversations and extraneous pieces.”
It’s an approach that has served her well in her current role as Constant Contact’s CEO. Involved in the early days of the Internet boom, she said she was “absolutely captivated” by the way the Internet could work for small businesses. Going forward, Constant Contact aims to continue to focus on that set through its email, event and social media marketing tools, online surveys, partnering programs and seminars, as well as its “evolving” nature to engage and coach customers.
“I love that our customers are small businesses,” Brezniak agreed. “They’re an entity that’s massively under-served.”

— Taryn Plumb,

Special to the Journal

Read the full article (and the other company profiles) here. 

Local "horse whisperer"?

Rowley horse owner gets help from an animal communicator

 

 

By Taryn Plumb

Globe Correspondent /  December 1, 2012 

 

One sunny morning this summer, Debbie Rosse led her horse, Jack, out of his stall toward his grassy pasture. 

The 1,650-pound, 12-year-old Percheron/paint cross took a few steps, collapsed, and struggled to get up. When he got to his feet, he was walking like a drunken sailor.

Jack was rushed to Tufts’ large animal hospital in Grafton, where his condition deteriorated rapidly, requiring him to be stabilized in a full-body sling suspended from the ceiling. After weeks of tests and prodding, but no significant improvement, veterinarians gave the dire news that it was unlikely he’d leave the hospital alive.

“There was nothing I could do; he was a diagnostic mystery. I had lost hope,” recalled a teary Rosse, who owns Darmore Farm in Rowley.  So she sought help from a different kind of specialist — James Salvia, an intuitive energy healer. Via cellphone, he “read” Jack. The horse communicated to James that he felt fine, there was nothing wrong with him, and he was more concerned with Rosse’s emotional turmoil following the recent deaths of loved ones, including her mother.

Relieved to be told that her horse was not concerned about his own illness, Rosse found new hope that he’d beat the odds and recover. Now, 2½ months later, he’s home and nearly his old self again.

“It’s not me, it’s spirit, it’s energy,” said Salvia, a self-described animal communicator, energy healer, and specialized kinesiologist from Natick, who helped Rosse persevere while Jack got on his feet again.“I’m just a vessel.”

You might call him the “horse whisperer,” but that name’s already been taken.

What Salvia does through his practice, “The Whole Body,” is a mixture of science, mysticism, and a bit of the unexplained.

Much like Monty Roberts,  who promotes the concept of natural horsemanship by learning a horse’s language, and Buck Brannaman, the inspiration for the novel and film “The Horse Whisperer,” Salvia says he communicates with animals with a goal to clear, tune, and balance their energy patterns, and remove “blocks.”

Using kinesiology — a form of muscle testing — various essences, crystals, and the intuition of his hands, he seeks to identify harmony and disharmony, balance and imbalance, and works to actuate, encourage, or disrupt energy flow in both animals and their two-legged counterparts.

Still, when asked, it’s hard for the soft-spoken and contemplative Salvia to find words to explain precisely what he does, or how. It’s intangible, more of a feeling.

“I wish I could tell you how it works,” said Salvia, who also is employed in a much more grounded and clinical (but similarly healing) profession, as a paramedic for the city of Boston. “I just have to trust it.”

It’s an intuition he has fostered for years; he said he’s long felt he had a sort of gift, an ability to feel, sense, and know things about animals and other people.

But it wasn’t until the late 1990s that he began looking into alternative forms of healing (initially for himself), such as natural essences, crystals, and the Seneca philosophy taught by the Native people of western New York — based on identifying a person’s purpose on earth, unique gifts, and talents – and specialized kinesiology.

First, he practiced what he learned on people – or “two-legged animals” as he likes to say – but soon expanded to horses, dogs, and cats. Through various sessions (over the phone or in person), he helps animals and “their people” — he doesn’t like to use the term “owner” — get through various physical and emotional issues.

He recalled one horse that he worked with: Her human caretakers wanted her to be a show horse, but in “talking” with her, he learned that she wanted to be a mother. She’s since been a successful broodmare.

In another instance, with a different horse at Rosse’s farm, he homed in on an orthopedic issue with a forefoot, which he saw as “black.” It turned out to be ringbone, extra-bony growth near the hoof that was so small, it could not be detected by the eye.

Just as humans do, animals like to have a job, a purpose, something to believe in, he said, and his work — although he acknowledges that some think it’s “crazy” — is about “honoring the animal.”

Where that can get stuck is in the unintended transfer of stress and anxiety.

“Animals are very clear: We’re the ones who tend to bring in the baggage,” Salvia said as he sat outside Rosse’s barn, tucked away on more than 20 acres off a windy Rowley road. “If we don’t take care of ourselves, it’s sometimes hard for them to take care of themselves. They can mirror our own issues.”
Throughout Jack’s ordeal, he was held standing still in a full-body sling in the isolation ward, and given numerous tests. The vets at first thought it was Equine protozoal myeloencephalitis, a neurologic disease, but they also tested for Lyme disease, West Nile virus, and Eastern equine encephalitis. 

Ultimately, it was believed to be a sudden-onset neurological issue that was not definitively diagnosed, Rosse said. It was a long and difficult six weeks of 70-mile drives from Rowley to Grafton to see her once robust horse and talk with the team of veterinarians, who she said stretched all their knowledge to make him well.

“I was so emotionally distraught,” she recalled.

Desperate, she contacted Salvia.

To help Jack, he told her, she had to take care of herself, and she could not be responsible for her horse’s life.

“When we take care of ourselves,” he said, “we can take care of others.”

“Calmness, that’s what you gave me, the chance to breathe deeply,” Rosse said, thanking Salvia. “It really helped me let go of what I had no control over.”

Veterinarians have told Rosse she should be able to ride Jack again one day.

The horse continues to get readings from Salvia, as was the case on a recent bright fall afternoon. After a bit of exercise, Rosse led the gentle giant with his black-and-white-splashed coat to the side of the barn.

The tall and thin Salvia stood at his side, rubbing his hands over the animal’s muscular withers, shoulders, back, flank, and hips; at certain spots, he fluttered his fingers in mini-circles in the air. Jack shifted, pert ears scanning.

Other horses fenced in nearby snorted, whinnied, and kicked, seemingly jealous of the attention, while a quiet and shy rescue hound named Flora explored the grounds.

Salvia turned to a box of small tubes full of liquid, then held his hand out for Jack to lick (it was an offering of lymphatic energetic essence).

Seeming to understand that his part was done, Jack moved along to start chomping on tufts of grass.

“It’s a nice way to be a voice for them,” Salvia said. Animals of all kinds can “offer an amazing insight into our world.”

To learn more, go to thewholebody.net.

 

Accompanying slideshow here. 

 

Original story link here.

 

© Copyright 2012 Globe Newspaper Company.

Not drained?

Energy and Clean Tech

Battery makers charge forward

After a flurry of prominent busts, the state’s portable-power sector continues to grow

 

Premium content from Boston Business Journal by Taryn Plumb, Special to the Journal

Friday, November 30, 2012

Sandie Allen

Phil Giudice, the CEO of Ambri in Cambridge, says demand will remain strong for longer-lasting and more portable battery technologies. 

Rumors of the battery industry’s demise have been greatly exaggerated.
Given the recent spate of battery-sector implosions, including the local high-profile bankruptcy of A123 Systems Inc. and Boston-Power’s decision to essentially move all operations to China, it would be understandable for one to assume that the market for renewable battery technologies and interest among venture investors is on the decline. The reality is that the industry’s star has never been brighter.
“We’re now looking at a period of increased innovation,” said Phil Giudice, CEO of Cambridge-based Ambri (formerly Liquid Metal Battery Corp.).
A handful of local companies — most of them, including Ambri, using technology born in the lab of battery guru and Massachusetts Institute of Technology professor Donald Sadoway — are developing batteries big and small for numerous applications, from grids to gadgets, using a variety of materials.
Ambri, for starters, is working on a liquid-metal battery that would be used for grid-scale electricity storage. As Giudice explained, the aim is to ultimately create shipping-container sized batteries that are long-lasting, low-cost, portable, silent and quick to respond to demand. A prototype is now in the works, with a goal to deploy by 2014.
The 25-employee company, which is recruiting, recently landed a $15 million Series B round of funding led by Khosla Ventures and supported by energy firm Total and Microsoft Corp. founder Bill Gates.
SolidEnergy Systems Corp., also based in Cambridge, is another battery maker on the move.
Incorporated in April and incubated at MIT, the award-winning startup is developing a polymer ionic-liquid lithium battery that is safe, non-flamable and designed to last twice as long as lithium ion models, according to founder, president and chief technology officer Qichao Hu.
Hu said prototypes to potentially target consumer electronics, downwell drilling operations and luxury vehicles is expected within the next few months. The company is also looking to close a $5 million Series A round by the end of the year. “Our goal obviously is to go global,” said Hu.
All told, some say this cluster of new companies, including another Cambridge-based company Pellion Technologies, is providing a much-needed recharge, so to speak, for a local market that has been beset by pitfalls. The most notable downfall included Waltham-based lithium ion battery manufacturer A123, once a darling of cleantech, which is in the process of liquidating its assets.
“There’s obviously some disappointment” in the battery sector in general, said Michael Lew, an analyst with investment bank Needham and Co. in New York.
Still, local startups say failure can provide insight and opportunity. Hu says he finds lessons in the mistakes, achievements, business models, management structure and technology of A123 and other companies. In fact, he hopes SolidEnergy can round out its team with former A123 and Boston-Power employees.
“Individual companies will do well or they won’t, certain technologies will reach fruition or they won’t,” Ambri CEO Giudice agreed. “That’s all part of the creative process.”
And while it is a tough climate to raise funding in cleantech, more companies are turning to strategic investors who can provide more targeted expertise, he said.
Lew agreed, noting that, whether they succeed or fizzle, renewable energy companies ultimately contribute to technology advancements. He said demand for new battery technologies will never die.
“The bottom line is you’re going to see more battery types being tested,” he said. “It’s all being driven by the need for more energy.”

Original story link here.