Here is a focused application of Web 2.0 that makes a lot of sense. Last week I spoke with Umberto Milletti, CEO, and Rand Schulman, Chief Marketing Officer, of InsideView. They have tool that aggregates the stuff available on the Web together with some top subscription services to bring, what they call, “opportunity analysis” to sales and marketing. They aggregate information from such Web sources as LinkedIn, Facebook, blogs, and press releases and such traditional sources as D&B, Hoover’s, and Reuters. Today, the good news/bad news for sales and marketing is there is much more information available on people and organizations. Why not leverage the accessibility of this information and the ability to select, distill, and aggregate it to obtain just what you need to be more effective? (Read More)

CEO Jeff Wolfe is pushing his solar tech company into the mainstream and turning a profit.

As America continues to search for solutions to the country’s energy and environmental needs, some companies are positioning themselves as potential answers to the problem. One such entity is groSolar of Vermont, the largest value-added national distributor of photovoltaic (PV) solar systems. Formed in 1998 by a husband and wife team of engineers with a desire to change the culture of American energy consumption, groSolar’s growth has been as blinding as the sun itself.

”It gets harder to grow as the numbers get bigger, but our growth projection for 2008 is 100%,” said CEO and founder Jeff Wolfe, whose company now sits at $30 million in revenue. He noted that the industry is growing at a rate of 35% to 40% per year. “We’ve been at our current growth rate for a few years, but it would be foolish to say it will keep doubling forever. The plan is to push the envelope and grow at a substantially higher than industry rate.” (Full Article)

SAN FRANCISCO, CA — 10/30/07 — Zola Açaí, the world’s first Brazilian Superfruit Juice and the best selling single Açaí drink in the natural foods channel according to the SPINS market research firm, today announced the appointment of Felix Maez as CEO.

Maez brings to Zola over 30 years’ experience at companies that include RJR Nabisco, Del Monte USA, and Kraft Foods. His accomplishments include growing net sales at Celestial Seasonings from $25M to $70M and directing Thai Foods’ Thai Kitchen and Simply Asia brands to #1 market positions. The company also announced the appointment of Stephen Buszka, Jr., a 25-year veteran of the food industry, as vice president of sales.

Zola Founder & President Chris Cuvelier, who created the Zola Açaí beverage, said, “With our backing from Emigrant Capital, the addition of Felix to our team means that we now have the leadership in place needed to take us to the next level of strategic growth. This will also enable me to devote significantly more time to new product research, development and marketing.”

Maez commented, “The Açaí and superfruit beverage markets are seeing explosive growth relative to other CPG segments, giving Zola the potential to achieve a dominant market position. Açaí is looking more and more like the next pomegranate, and with Chris’ ability to create the best-tasting, healthiest drinks on the market, I am looking forward to helping Zola realize that potential.”

John G. Appel, III, managing director of Emigrant Capital, noted, “We invest in companies capable of being the #1 brand in their segment. By expanding the strategic, sales and financial depth of our executive team, we are now well positioned to execute on our goals for the long-term.”

About Zola Açaí
Zola Açaí combines an authentic Brazilian recipe and a proprietary processing technology to produce an organic, all-natural, shelf-stable product that tastes great. The key ingredient in Zola is the organic Açaí berry, which is wild-harvested by hand in the heart of the Amazon jungle. Açaí berries contain more antioxidants than any other edible fruit on the planet, including pomegranates and blueberries. Zola is made from 100% unfiltered pulp of antioxidant- and omega fatty acid-rich Açaí berries and infused with energy-sustaining Guaraná powder, making it perfect for people on the go who need hours of healthy, sustained energy. Zola’s packaging is 12-month shelf stable, making it ideal for both produce coolers and grocery shelves. The company strongly supports sustainable harvesting and medical and educational programs for the Açaímu people who harvest its Açaí berries. Zola is sold nationally at Whole Foods, Wild Oats, Cost Plus and Vitamin Shoppe, and regionally at King Sooper, Ralphs and Wegmans. Zola is available in Açaí Original, Açaí + Pineapple, and Açaí + Blueberry flavors. Visit www.DrinkZola.com.

Contact:

Steven Mason
650.776.7968
steven@zolaacai.com

Venue affords showcase for proven practices in applied Web 2.0 technologies that increase sales.

Sunnyvale, CA (PRWEB) October 25, 2007 — Apprema, Inc., in collaboration with Oracle, Cisco/WebEx, InsideView, Landslide Technologies, Genius.com., and dozens of other industry leading companies, today announced its founding sponsorship of the inaugural Sales 2.0 Conference, (www.sales20conf.com) to be held at the St. Regis Hotel in San Francisco October 29-30, 2007. Apprema will exhibit its platform for collaborative e-mail (StarMail), collaborative payment (StarPay), and e-gifting technology (StarGift). The Apprema platform works with existing e-mail, sales force automation, customer relationship management and Web 2.0 business applications.

“Sales 2.0” refers to the integration of Web 2.0 technologies with proven sales techniques that increase sales velocity and volume. Apprema’s presence at the Sales 2.0 conference at the sponsor and exhibitor level underscores the power of next-generation Web technologies when combined with innovative sales processes for dramatically accelerating the sales cycle. (Read More)

Calix Teams with 180Squared, Scientific Atlanta, a Cisco company, Clear Access, GridNetworks, MobiTV, Motorola, Tandberg, and Vudu to Demonstrate Advanced Broadband Applications Over 2.5 GPON, VDSL2, and ADSL2+ at TelcoTV.

ATLANTA—Calix will demonstrate advanced new IPTV and internet video services delivered over the Calix C7 and E5 access platforms at TelcoTV in Atlanta (October 23-25, Georgia World Congress Center, booth #613). This demonstration of standard and high-definition video over 2.5 Gbps GPON, VDSL2, and ADSL2+ will include such rich IPTV features as picture-in-picture, instant channel change, digital video recording, interactive caller ID, and video on demand, as well as advanced new on-demand and broadcast internet video currently being deployed by Calix customers. (Read More)

InsideView and Jigsaw Partner to Provide Sales and Marketing Organizations with Relevant, Time-Saving Information That Will Help Discover New Customers and Close More Deals

Jigsaw’s Directory of Seven Million Business Contacts Will Be Accessed From Within InsideView’s Unique Sales and Marketing Intelligence Application

SAN BRUNO, Calif. & SAN MATEO, Calif.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–InsideView, the on-demand sales intelligence application, and Jigsaw, an online directory for business contact and company information built by and for its global membership, today announced a partnership to provide contact and company information from Jigsaw’s directory of seven million business contacts directly to InsideView. The partnership furthers the mission of both companies to provide a greater ROI to their customers by uncovering relevant intelligence to help marketing and sales professionals discover new customers and close more deals. The collaboration comes in advance of the Sales 2.0 Conference, to be held October 29-30 in San Francisco, which both companies are sponsoring.

Business contact and company information from the Jigsaw directory will automatically populate an InsideView user’s custom results of aggregated sales triggers and personal connections. Access to Jigsaw’s directory will enable InsideView users to easily identify and reach the right person at a target company, saving sales and marketing professionals valuable time. (Read More)

An interview with Jack Hallahan, vice president of advertising and brand partnerships at MobiTV

MobiTV is a mobile TV distributor for channels such as MSNBC, ABC News Now, FOX News Channel, Fox Sports, ESPN 3GTV and NBC Mobile. Jack Hallahan joined the company in 2005 as vice president of advertising and brand partnerships.

Before joining MobiTV, Mr. Hallahan was managing director at Wirestone, where he drove ad strategies for Apple, TiVo and William-Sonoma. He has also served as vice president at AKQA Advertising where he managed brands such as CNN/SI, Mattel, Macy’s, Nike and Visa USA. eMarketer spoke with him about mobile TV viewer demographics and marketing campaigns.

eMarketer: Who is watching mobile TV?

Jack Hallahan: It used to be strictly early adopters who would put up with poor video quality just to say they had mobile TV on their phones. In 2005, the content was OK, but the end-user experience was not that great, thanks to carrier and other tech factors.

As service providers started improving data services, the experience and content improved. Handsets have also improved, so now viewer demographics are going much more mainstream. (Read More)

HOUSTON–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Selling Power magazine’s publisher and founder, Gerhard Gschwandtner, declares Sales 2.0 a key element of success in the sales profession. “Getting up to speed on Sales 2.0 methodologies and the supporting technologies is critical for success in today’s demanding sales environment,” says Gschwandtner. The first-ever Sales 2.0 conference (www.sales20conf.com) will be held at the St. Regis Hotel in San Francisco, October 29-30, 2007, and is being produced by Genius.com Inc. in collaboration with Oracle (NASDAQ:ORCL); WebEx, now a part of Cisco (NASDAQ:CSCO); InsideView; Landslide Technologies; and dozens of other industry-leading companies.

Gschwandtner will moderate a panel on October 30 at the Sales 2.0 conference titled Collaborating to Build the New Sales 2.0 Funnel. Audience members will work together to incorporate Sales 2.0 methodologies into their own sales processes. “I’m looking forward to sharing ideas with conference participants and speakers alike, and I believe this meeting offers a great opportunity for collaboration and learning,” says Gschwandtner, who was an international sales-training consultant before he created Selling Power magazine in 1980.

He also says that Selling Power is considering adding a new category to their 2008 Sales Excellence Awards program called Best Sales 2.0 Implementation. The Sales Excellence Awards honor the efforts, accomplishments, and positive contributions of companies, sales leaders, and account representatives. “Within the next year we will see an exponential increase in the adoption of Sales 2.0 technologies. These techniques have great potential to reduce sales cycles, increase productivity, and enhance the lives of millions of sales professionals,” says Gschwandtner. “We want to recognize and honor those who successfully integrate the power of Sales 2.0 into their daily selling routine.” (Read More)

MobiTV announced it has entered into a multi-year agreement to offer Sprint customers mobile television and video experiences including Sprint TV®, Sprint TV Xtra, and Sprint TV en Vivo®.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
(PRLog.Org) – Oct 22, 2007 – MobiTV, Inc., the leader in mobile and broadband entertainment services, announced today that it has entered into a multi-year agreement to offer Sprint customers the best mobile television and video experience. As part of the agreement, Sprint and MobiTV will continue to work together to advance and extend the successful Sprint TV®, Sprint TV Xtra, and Sprint TV en Vivo® services to customers throughout the U.S.

Together, Sprint and MobiTV have pioneered the mobile television space, attracting a large number of subscribers, single handedly securing mobile content licensing rights for an untapped distribution or delivery medium, developed features and functionality consumers expect in a home viewing experience and much more. The two companies continue to stay several steps ahead of the competition, keep consumers engaged and satisfied, while maintaining a viable and scalable business opportunity for Sprint, MobiTV and the content partners. (Read More)

Phenomenal Growth Continues as Leading Mobile and Broadband Television Provider Now Serves One Million Additional Subscriptions in Six Months

SAN FRANCISCO, Oct. 22 /PRNewswire/ — CTIA WIRELESS I.T. & ENTERTAINMENT — MobiTV, Inc., the leader in mobile and broadband entertainment services, today announced the Company has surpassed three million subscriptions for its services worldwide; adding one million in six short months. Also announced today, the MobiTV board of directors has appointed Charlie Nooney, the Company’s new CEO, as chairman effective October 15th, 2007.

“After a very short time in my role as MobiTV’s new CEO and chairman, I’m proud to announce such a significant milestone on behalf of the Company,” said Nooney. “MobiTV’s persistence and innovation has single-handedly advanced awareness and demand for on-the-go programming and viewing. It’s inspiring to see this level of growth and demand, but most importantly that consumers rely on our services for their mobile entertainment and informational needs.” (Read More)

(Multichannel News) _ MobiTV extended its agreement with Sprint Nextel, announcing a multiyear agreement to continue providing mobile television and video services to Sprint customers and to subscribers of the Pivot service marketed by four cable companies.

Terms of the deal were not disclosed. In the coming months, MobiTV and Sprint said, they expect to debut a new interface for all Sprint TV services powered by MobiTV, including Sprint TV, Sprint TV Xtra (formerly called Sprint TV Live), Sprint TV en Vivo and Pivot. The Pivot service is offered in various markets by Comcast, Cox Communications http://www.multichannel.com/article/CA6485959.html, Time Warner Cable and Bright House Networks.

MobiTV also said it plans to enhance video quality and offer more support for full-screen viewing; increase channel-change speeds; and provide support for more devices, including those running Microsoft’s Pocket PC platform.

Separately, MobiTV said it now had more than 3 million users of its services worldwide, having added 1 million subscribers in six months. In addition, the company announced its board of directors appointed recently named CEO Charlie Nooney http://www.multichannel.com/article/CA6485968.htmlas chairman effective October 15.

PALO ALTO, Calif., Oct. 18 /PRNewswire/ — Sharpcast today announced the addition of three key new members of its management team. Veterans of the mobile and web industries, they will help execute Sharpcast’s mission to provide a completely new consumer experience for managing digital media and files seamlessly across mobile phones, desktop PCs, the web and other digital living devices.

Sharpcast’s patent-pending consumer media synchronization platform helps wireless carriers, ISPs and computer and mobile handset manufacturers deliver converged media solutions that dramatically simplify the complex tasks of synchronizing, backing up, accessing and sharing digital assets such as documents, music, video and photos, regardless of the device they are using either online or offline.

Domingo Mihovilovic, 45, joins as vice president of engineering, coming from MobiTV where he served as vice president of engineering. He is a highly accomplished information technology professional and senior executive with over 17 years experience in conceiving technical innovations and bringing mobile, enterprise and consumer solutions to market for world-leading organizations.

At MobiTV, which delivers live television to mobile phones, he led development, quality assurance and operations. Previously, he was a senior executive at Siebel Systems, responsible for the development of Siebel’s core technology framework and components used as the foundation of scalable enterprise-level applications. (Read More)

Industry Veteran Steve Fritz Named Director of Marketing in Additional Key Hire
Continuing its recent expansion and growth, Aravo Solutions, Inc., the leading provider of on demand Supplier Information Management (SIM) software and services, today announced that Jon D.  Bovit has joined Aravo as vice president of strategy. In this new role, Bovit will expand Aravo’s market opportunities and fuel the growth trajectory for the already expanding organization. His role includes overall business strategy, including product and sales strategy, organizational leadership, operational execution and aligning the company’s strategy with the constantly evolving marketplace.  Prior to joining Aravo, Jon was director; Platform Sales at Salesforce.com where he led sales efforts focused on selling on demand SaaS solutions to CIOs and senior IT executives. Preceding Salesforce.com, he was the managing director at Ariba, Inc. in charge of selling Supplier Connectivity solutions in North America.  Under his leadership at Ariba, Supplier Connectivity became one of the firm’s fastest growing solution areas. Prior to joining Ariba, Jon was a technical team leader with Oracle Corporation. He has a BS in Business Administration from Monmouth College, an MS in Information Management from the Stevens Institute of Technology and is a doctoral candidate in Technology Management also from the Stevens Institute of Technology.

Aravo’s premiere product, Aravo SIM™, removes the cost and complexity of enabling and managing supplier information, providing enterprises with a proven, on demand framework for enabling and managing supplier information within leading ERP and e-procurement applications such as Oracle, SAP and Ariba. Aravo’s newest product module, Aravo Sustain™, enables global buying organizations to proactively obtain, analyze and manage crucial sustainability data, such as supplier and factory regulatory compliance, toxic substances monitoring, carbon footprinting and fair labor practices.

“Aravo is poised for incredible growth, and their solution set delivers clear bottom-line benefits and ROI to their customers. Aravo SIM and Aravo Sustain not only enable buying organizations to efficiently and proactively manage supplier information and supplier enablement, but also to proactively implement new sustainable supply chain best practices that are quickly becoming de rigueur for Global 2000 companies,” said Jon D. Bovit, vice president of strategy at Aravo. “I look forward to working with Aravo’s distinguished leadership to help our customers realize the value of streamlined automated supplier information management.” “With a solid and deep professional history at leading companies such as Ariba, Oracle and Salesforce, and extensive hands-on experience with supplier enablement and management, Jon is uniquely positioned to formulate and execute a winning growth strategy as our new VP of Strategy,” said Tim Albinson, Aravo’s CEO.  “The entire Aravo team welcomes Jon and we’re certain he will be a key contributor to our continued success.”

Aravo also announced that Steve Fritz has joined the company as director of marketing. In this role, Fritz will lead the development of Aravo’s marketing strategy for all products and services, and drive the execution of Aravo’s marketing campaigns. Prior to joining Aravo, Fritz held numerous senior marketing management positions including SAP Labs and Sun Microsystems. At Sun, he launched and managed marketing campaigns for many of Sun’s high-profile products and solutions. Earlier in his high-tech career, Fritz held senior marketing positions at three innovative Silicon Valley start-ups: Dolch Computer Systems, Liberty Electronics and Raster Graphics. Fritz received his B.S. in marketing from Cal State University and received his M.S in journalism from the University of Oregon.

About Aravo Solutions
Aravo helps companies quickly and accurately on-ramp and manage supplier master data, enabling them to create error-free transactions, provide actionable decision support and turn supplier information into a valuable asset that can be leveraged throughout the organization. Aravo SIM™ is an on demand enablement platform providing enterprises with a proven framework for enabling and managing supplier information within leading ERP and e-procurement applications such as Oracle, SAP and Ariba. Aravo is headquartered in San Francisco, California. For information, visit Aravo’s Web site at www.aravo.com.

Public Relations Contact:
Chris Greenfield
Aravo Solutions
415-292-0840, extension 206
cgreenfield@aravo.com

Linkage Biosciences Inc., a developer of molecular diagnostics products designed to streamline complex genetic testing, has completed a financing round led by Greenhouse Capital Partners LP, a seed-stage venture capital firm, which brings the total funding raised thus far to approximately $1 million. Linkage Biosciences said the new funds will be used to accelerate development of its initial line of diagnostic products for solid organ and stem cell transplantation.

“Our strategy is to deliver products that solve important clinical needs in ways that are faster and less labor intensive than ever before,” said Zachary Antovich, President and CEO of Linkage Biosciences. “With our proprietary technology and strong business and scientific teams, we are confident we have the resources to make a lasting impact in our market.”

Linkage Biosciences’ Scientific Advisory Board includes:

• F. Carl Grumet, M.D., Emeritus Professor of Pathology and Emeritus Director Stanford Histocompatibility Laboratory, Stanford University
• Clifford Lowell, M.D., Ph.D., Professor and Chair of the Department of Laboratory Medicine, University of California, San Francisco
• Rade Drmanac, Ph.D., Chief Science Officer of Complete Genomics
• David Ginzinger, Ph.D., Acting Vice President Research and Development at Linkage Biosciences

“A pioneering entrant in the diagnostics-testing space, Linkage Biosciences has what we believe is a rare and promising opportunity to re-define today’s standards and significantly grow this market,” said Peter D. Henig, Managing Partner of Greenhouse Capital Partners. “We look forward to helping the company enhance its technology development and time to market, and to also structurally prepare them for subsequent financing rounds.”

Linkage Biosciences also announced that Mr. Henig has joined the company’s board of directors.

Stealthy molecular diagnostics company Linkage Biosciences Inc. has raised about $1 million in seed funding as the company prepares to raise a Series A round in the next 12 months.

Greenhouse Capital Partners led the round, which also included other undisclosed institutional and individual investors. Linkage Biosciences President and Chief Executive Zachary C. Antovich declined to disclose the valuation of the seed funding.

San Francisco-based Linkage Biosciences is developing molecular diagnostics for application in complex genetic testing. The company plans to use the seed funding to develop its first diagnostic products for its first applications in organ and stem cell transplantation.

“Our intent is to do our Series A round of financing in the next 12 months,” Antovich said. “We’ll raise the money in ways that make sense, whether it’s a combination of institutional and private investors remains to be seen.”

Agreement Gives Video Access to Cable’s Pivot Subscribers

MobiTV extended its agreement with Sprint Nextel, announcing a multiyear agreement to continue providing mobile television and video services to Sprint customers and to subscribers of the Pivot service marketed by four cable companies.

Terms of the deal were not disclosed. In the coming months, MobiTV and Sprint said, they expect to debut a new interface for all Sprint TV services powered by MobiTV, including Sprint TV, Sprint TV Xtra (formerly called Sprint TV Live), Sprint TV en Vivo and Pivot. The Pivot service is offered in various markets by Comcast, Cox Communications, Time Warner Cable and Bright House Networks.

MobiTV also said it plans to enhance video quality and offer more support for full-screen viewing; increase channel-change speeds; and provide support for more devices, including those running Microsoft’s Pocket PC platform.

Separately, MobiTV said it now had more than 3 million users of its services worldwide, having added 1 million subscribers in six months. In addition, the company announced its board of directors appointed recently named CEO Charlie Nooney as chairman effective October 15.

Greenhouse Capital Partners has closed on $11 million for its inaugural, seed-stage clean-technology fund.

The Sausalito, Calif.-based venture fund is something of an anomaly in what has increasingly become an investment sector dominated by big dollars and frothy valuations.

“If you look at the cleantech market right now, you have to be extremely careful,” said Managing Partner Peter Henig in an interview. “There’s an oversupply of capital chasing too few deals; a lot of the deals are not capital efficient, and the opportunity for exits is not nearly what it needs to be.”

Despite his grim outlook on the short-term prospects in the sector, the pressures that the overall cleantech market faces aren’t actually concerns for a small, seed-stage investor, Henig said.

“We don’t necessarily need to find deal flow, per se, we need to create deal flow,” Henig said. “Where we’re looking at things that are literally two guys and a dog, we can deploy a good amount of money at a valuation of less than $5 million and a deal size of $250,000 to $1 million.”

That addresses the same problem that afflicts the overall venture industry, Henig said. “If you’re an entrepreneur, where do you go to find smart money when you only need $250,000 to $1 million?”

Joining Henig, a former journalist and an early-stage investor, on the Greenhouse Capital team are general partners Michael Schwab, who also manages his own fund, Big Sky Partners, and David Ferrara, a serial entrepreneur.

Portfolio companies include the Santa Clara, Calif.-based solar technology developer Solaicx Inc., and the San Francisco-based biosciences technology developer Linkage Biosciences Inc.

SAN BRUNO, Calif. –(Business Wire)– InsideView, the on-demand sales intelligence application, announced today that Rand Schulman, a leader in SaaS and Web analytics industries, has joined the company as chief marketing officer. Schulman is responsible for directing InsideView’s marketing strategy and positioning, in addition to leading the company’s efforts in gaining increased acceptance in the CRM space.

Schulman brings over 20 years of industry experience to InsideView, having served as chief marketing officer of WebSideStory (VSCN) and taken the firm through its IPO; headed product strategy at Webtrends/NetIQ; and most recently served as General Manager Internet Products at Unica Corporation (UNCA), a leading provider of Enterprise Marketing Management solutions. Schulman was founder and CEO of one of the first software as a service (SaaS) and web analytics companies (1997), Keylime Software (acquired by Yahoo!) and is also a founder and previous board member of the Web Analytics Association (www.webanalyticsassociation.org). Rand has been named one of the top 100 B-to-B marketing executives by BtoB Magazine in 2006, and he has been an executive at a number of other software firms including executive vice president at Software Publishing. He is also a principal at Rand Schulman Partners (www.randschulman.com) and sits on various boards.

“We are very pleased to have Rand join our leadership team at InsideView as he has a proven track record in pioneering both new sectors and technologies,” said Brian Jacobs general partner at Emergence Capital Partners and a member of the InsideView Board of Directors. “As an investor in salesforce.com (CRM) and other prominent technology-enabled services companies, we focus on investing in firms developing disruptive technologies that will significantly impact the business landscape.”

InsideView belongs to a new class of SaaS applications that is transforming the way that sales and marketing organizations find connections with relevance to key decision-makers and keeps the sales pipeline filled with opportunities. Customers use the company’s proprietary aggregation technology to strategically target verticals and companies undergoing specific business changes, approach prospects with a customer-centric value proposition, discover decision makers and leverage introductions to bypass inefficient cold-calling efforts. InsideView’s growing customer adoption rate is based on the ease-of-use of the product, integrated mashups with leading SFA/CRM providers and unparalleled ROI.

“Rand is a powerful addition to our team,” said Umberto Milletti, CEO of InsideView. “We wanted to bring the ‘best of the best’ in the SaaS space on board—someone who could help us think outside the box and introduce fresh ideas to the company.”

InsideView is gaining rapid acceptance in the CRM/SFA space since its release this year with a strong customer list, including SuccessFactors, WebEx and ServiceSource.

About Emergence Capital Partners
Emergence Capital Partners is a leading venture capital firm focused on early and growth-stage Technology-Enabled Services (TES) investing. Our mission is to help build market leading, successful businesses in partnership with great entrepreneurs. Our focus and team-based approach allow us to create unique value for our service-based portfolio companies. Emergence investments include Salesforce.com, SuccessFactors, HireRight and many others. Information on Emergence Capital Partners is available at http://www.emcap.com/.

About InsideView
InsideView is the pioneer and leading provider of actionable intelligence for cutting-edge sales and marketing organizations. InsideView automatically discovers rich selling opportunities, notifies salespeople in real time and delivers critical relevant information on companies and connections needed to engage customers and close sales. InsideView dramatically reduces cold calling and research, revolutionizes prospecting, drives higher sales and builds high-performance pipelines. The company is privately held and venture-backed by Emergence Capital Partners, JDM Capital (an associated fund of Greenhouse Capital Partners) and Rembrandt Venture Partners. InsideView also partners with salesforce.com and SugarCRM. InsideView’s customers include Aravo Solutions, GlobalKnowledge, Jobscience, Rearden, RightNow Technologies, saaspoint, ServiceSource, Symantec and WebEx. Founded in 2005, InsideView is headquartered in San Bruno, California with operations in Hyderabad, India. For more information, visit www.insideview.com.

Martyn Warwick questions MobiTV’s Co-Founder and Chiarman on the true future of Mobile TV and discovers why MobiTV has had such great success where others have falled flat within months of launch. (Watch Video)

Oversubscribed, $11 Million Seed-Stage Venture Capital Fund Is Targeting Startups in Cleantech and Other Emerging Technologies

Greenhouse Capital Partners, a seed-stage venture capital firm has closed its first fund, Greenhouse Capital Partners LP, an oversubscribed $11 million fund targeting opportunities in cleantech and select other emerging technologies. Founded in January 2006, Greenhouse Capital provides strategic guidance and seed and Series A financing to companies at their earliest stages of creation.

“Greenhouse Capital Partners targets investment opportunities at the ‘pre-VC’ stage, where entrepreneurs face a gap in the market for raising early stage capital, a segment that is often too early for traditional institutional investors and one which requires more hands-on strategic involvement than angel money can often provide. We have experience in taking true early stage risk while providing significant strategic value for our portfolio companies — a return to the roots of venture capital,” said Peter D. Henig, managing partner of Greenhouse Capital Partners. (Read More)

MobiTV, Acision and Handmark all kicked off the beginning of the fourth quarter on Monday with new CEOs. MobiTV claimed former Thomson Corp. President Charles Nooney for its top job, while Acision crowned former Ericsson exec Rory Buckley and Handmark brought aboard former Sprint vice president Paul Reddick.

MobiTV named Nooney to replace outgoing CEO Phillip Alvelda, the pioneering mobile content provider’s founding CEO. MobiTV officials said that MobiTV is evolving from a start-up to significant content player in the wireless space and needed a CEO with more experience in media to transition MobiTV between those stages. Alvelda will remain on MobiTV’s board and will keep his “visionary” role within the company, a spokesman said, but it’s not clear whether he’ll remain chairman of the board after Nooney officially takes the reins on Oct. 15.

Nooney’s background is definitely focused more on the television and new media side, rather than mobile. Nooney served as president of Technicolor Network Services, a global consultancy for Thomson, where he advised a long list of huge media brands, from BBC Worldwide to Disney, on the preparation, management and distribution of their content for new media platforms. But it was Nooney’s previous job running Premier Retail Networks—which was acquired by Thomson—that gives him his foundation for dealing with the new mobile TV space, Nooney said. PRM ran the country’s largest in-store television network, broadcasting targeted content to customers shopping at Wal-Mart, Best Buy, CostCo and many other outlets.

“I found there are a lot of similarities between what MobiTV is doing and PRN,” he said. “They’re both doing retail media on a large scale.” The major difference is the size of screen, he added. While he’s still learning the ropes of MobiTV, he said he already grasps the potential of the mobile medium for the mass-scale delivery of content. “From my standpoint I find an incredible attractiveness to the mobile device and the use of content on mobile devices for the simple reason you can carry them around with you 24-hours a day.”

Acision’s new CEO Buckley is an Ericsson veteran heading several regional divisions including as stint of president and head of northeast Asia. Acision, the former telecom division of LogicaCMG said his predecessor Chris McDermott was leaving to pursue other opportunities. In a statement the company said McDermott joined Acision originally hired to turn LogicaCMG’s telecom group into a high-value with the aim of a future sale. In 2007 he accomplished that task when Atlantic Bridge and Access Industries agreed to take the unit private for $525 million, changing the name of the newly separated company to Acision.

“Having achieved his goal, Chris is leaving Acision for a new challenge after he has a well deserved rest to refresh himself,” Acision said in a statement. “We wish him well and thank him for his valuable contributions.”

Mobile content and media company Handmark is bringing in Reddick, former Sprint vice president of partner development and product innovation, to take over for outgoing CEO and company founder August Grasis, who will transition to chairman of the board. Grasis will remain an active chairman, engaging with partners, but seems to have no problem passing the executive responsibilities off to the industry veteran Reddick.

“The most rewarding part of being an entrepreneur is taking the business to the next level and watching it take wings,” Grasis said in a statement. “Paul is the right person to realize my vision and propel our business forward on a global scale.”

Seasoned Media Executive Tapped to Lead Company’s Next Stage of Growth

EMERYVILLE, Calif., Oct. 1 /PRNewswire/ — MobiTV, Inc., the leading provider and platform for content delivery over mobile and broadband networks, today announced the appointment of Charlie Nooney as the Company’s chief executive officer. Nooney’s appointment is the successful culmination of MobiTV’s strategic search for a successor to Dr. Phillip Alvelda, the Company’s founding CEO and chairman. Nooney will assume full operational responsibility for the Company on October 15, 2007. (Read More)

About MobiTV
MobiTV, Inc. (www.mobitv.com) is the leading provider and platform for content delivery over mobile and broadband networks; delivering live television, premium and primetime programming, video-on-demand, satellite and digital music services from the top broadcast and cable television networks and major music labels to millions of users worldwide. Founded in 1999, MobiTV is a privately held company with headquarters in Emeryville, CA.

MobiTV and the MobiTV logo are trademarks, service marks, and/or registered trademarks of MobiTV, Inc. in the United States and in other countries. All other trademarks, service marks, and product names used herein are the property of their respective owners.
Website: http://www.mobitv.com/