TBJ Investments, LLC - Cambridge TechWatch

Social Media and the Iranian Election

I've had some time now to reflect on what we saw here at Buzzient with the recent Iranian election.

First of all, I was amazed at how quickly the social media community jumped on this issue and instead of being passive, became very active.

Second, I observed that the "digital resistance" organized very quickly, into self-managed and led groups. These folks put together proxy server lists, changed their posting locations to Tehran, whatever it took to add themselves to the legion of those wanting the results challenged. This resistance also took it a bit far with DDOS attacks and otherwise, but it was fascinating to see how quickly the partizans formed.

Last, I have to admit I felt proud that Buzzient's product, Buzzient Enterprise, was able to monitor Twitter in real time and create a social network of who was posting about the election. We've subsequently had more than a few requests to share the data, but we're going to err on the side of extreme caution here, as we don't want to endanger any of the people involved. That being said, it is remarkable to see how technology can enable both the resistance to political impropriety(suspected, not confirmed) as well as inform the casual observer.

Buzzient

After a long, self-imposed hiatus, I'm back posting. I've been deeply involved with the formation and launch of Buzzient. Buzzient is the result of work my cofounder Andreas Goeldi and I started at MIT in looking at cloud based applications. We realized that there was a huge opportunity not only in running an app in the cloud, but in helping enterprises understand the wealth of data growing in the ether.

Long story short, over the last 2 years we've built an application that harvests, analyzes, and quantifies what people are saying in social media. We've linked that to applications such as Salesforce.com and SugarCRM, and will expand the set of applications dramatically over the next two quarters. Thus, we're able to not only provide insights into social media, but can make social media actionable by connecting it to application workflows.

That's it for now. Check out www.buzzient.com or our crunchbase entry: Buzzient on Crunchbase   for more on the company.

Why I got out of the Homeland Security Business...

I've not posted for a while due to a stealth mode startup I'm involved with. In the interim, I've had the chance to reflect on past areas of interest, including homeland security technology. Though I still maintain active interests and relationships in this area, and have a deep belief that technology from our existing labs and universities can be marshalled to detect and project against terrorism, it's frankly a lousy place to do business.

Here's a classic example why:

Big Box Retailers block cargo container scanning

Net Net: Large, influential companies such as Home Depot and WalMart are actively lobbying to PREVENT the use of technology to scan 100% of containers coming into the U.S. . That's right, PREVENT the scanning of containers for potential radioactive, biological, or explosive threats. Why? Because it will generate  an expense of ~$20 per container. Now, there are 20M odd containers coming into the U.S. each year, so the aggregate expense is substantial, but spread across several multi-billion dollar revenue companies, plus a network of transporation interests, this strikes me as incredibly short sighted.

I had the pleasure to visit the Kennedy Space Center over the winter, and I marveled at how we once "girded our loins" (In the Shakespearean sense) during the '60s to go to the moon. Once upon a time, personal courage and national interest came together to achieve great things. Now we live in an age where large, stodgy companies who invent NOTHING block the use of technology so that they can keep the cost of Chinese flip flops as low as possible.

Time for Home Depot et al to Cowboy up and act responsibly. In the interim, there a sea of companies like AESI, Savi, etc. that could potentially help introduce new technologies to achieve a 100% scanning goal, but they're at the mercy of the big boys. Hence, a noble cause, but a lousy place to do business.

Global Mobility

I'm in Sweden and Holland for a week, but couldn't help but write about wireless and mobility on this side of the pond. I'm continually astonished at how mobile technology is embedded in Scandinavian society; on a trip out to Sandham in the Swedish Archipelago, we had top notch coverage on mobile devices and were able to download ringtones and songs on our way into the Baltic.

Contrast that with Sand Hill Road, where I ALWAYS lose a connection at the junction with Highway 280...Hmm....

Enterprise 2.0 update

I'm just coming off a week spent at the Enterprise 2.0 conference in Boston:  Enterprise 2.0 Conference

My general feeling is that this market is in the early stages where the food chain isn't clear. There are a number of collaboration companies that classify themselves as E2.0, but it's not obvious what if any greater capability they bring to users. Even more daunting is the lack of clear financial benefit to this movement. Though some dismissed my constant badgering of speakers/presenters as to the ROI, I think it's important that financial metrics be established to enable faster adoption.

Eba Systems

This is definitely a month where I'm having a lot of flashbacks. Today, someone in Australia sent me a link to a product I conceived and architected as founding CEO of Eba Systems.

Eba Systems Archived link

Download eba_systems_press.zip

Eba Systems product lives on!

Back in the early, painful, optimistic days of enterprise wireless data and WAP, I was convinced that enterprise users would demand corporate data on handheld wireless devices. Never mind the fact that in 1998, the convergence of the internet and wireless applications was just starting; I foolishly believed this would all come together in 3-5 years. At any rate, I put together a team that developed the first wireless application server that connected Siebel Sales Enterprise to PalmOS devices. We managed to generate about $250K in revenue AND ship the product in 9 months on only $1.2M of outside funding(yours truly was in the hole on this some additional amount I don't even want to know to this day).

We were early, I made a bunch of mistakes as a first time CEO, but came pretty close to selling the company to Siebel before having to settle for a lower cost sale to Iormyx. The day of our big demo to Siebel was probably one of the most important lessons I've every learned; EVEN if you delegate something to your direct reports...Verify, Verify, Verify...but that's another story...

I believe that enterprise wireless applications aren't dead at all; actually I speculate that a lot of companies are toying with deploying low cost, internally developed apps to WiFi or WIMAX  in the near future.  A lot of wireless development energy has focused on the consumer; I will be interested to see if the widgetization on the consumer side leads to better experiences for enterprises.

Download iormyx_wireless_framework.doc

MIT 100k 2007

I hadn't gotten around to posting this earlier, but this is the list of 2007 Semi-finalists for MIT $100k. I'm unfortunately going to be either in NYC at the Enterprise Search Summit, or on a plane to China, so I'll miss this year's presentation. That being said, the trick with $100k is not to find the winner, but the first or second runner up(those are the companies who end up being good investments, e.g. Akamai).

Download 2007_semifinalists_mit_100k.pdf

The Economist and Enterprise 2.0

I just found a great piece of additional validation of the Enterprise 2.0 theme. The Economist Intelligence Unit(EIU) just published a great survey of why companies have begun to use Web 2.0 technologies for business use. All of the major cost drivers previously mentioned are there, but it's also quite significant that a big reason is the ability to extend channel relationships and customer intimacy via these platforms.

The impending disruption for enterprise software, applications, and infrastructure companies will, IMHO be huge.

Download serious_business_web20_eiu_white_paper_o8eqe1.pdf

Biotech for Business

A friend of mine sent me a link to an old article from the Duke Alumni Magazine. It's about the time I spent at the "Biotech for Business" course at Duke. Duke Biotech for Business Certificate Program

I HIGHLY recommend this for people trying to get an overall grasp of biotech as an industry, and the key processes and technologies.

Actually, I'm tempted to attend again, since there's been so much change in just the last few years...

2007 Lemelson-MIT Prize

I'm setting up a meeting with Prof. Timothy Swager, who recently won the $500k Lemelson-MIT Prize.  Dr. Swager heads the Chemistry Department. Notable innovations include lasing sensors for building security, imaging agents for detecting Alzheimer's as well LCD manufacturing technology. One of his most notable inventions are fluorescent polymers that can be used to detect explosives. This technology was licensed to Nomadics, which has deployed the product as a hand held explosives detector:Dr. Timothy Swager, Nomadics, Lemelson Prize, Explosives Detection

This is an area I've spent a LOT of time in. Actually, four years of my life trying to spin out technology from Georgia Tech to do a similar thing:  BionTTech  Unfortunately, the technology at GA Tech wasn't mature enough, but we did get as far as TSA testing. It is good to see market validation of the idea, and acceptance by a device/platform vendor.

I believe that a number of innovations such at Dr. Swager's are out there that can be easily translated into working dual-use solutions for both Homeland Security as well as industrial purposes. With over 75% of the nation's infrastructure in private hands, I believe that infrastructure protection will become an increasingly more important agenda item for boards of directors and risk managers. Given that ADT was acquired for over $2B cash for simple fire and intrusion alarms, I have to believe that the opportunity to protect buildings, bridges, airports, shipping etc from explosives and chemicals is a much bigger problem.