It’s being circulated in the New York Times and Techcrunch that Google Ventures has purchased $25M in shares of HomeAway from existing shareholders at a reported valuation of $1.4B. Techcrunch speculates that the company is seeing revenue of $200M and putting a healthy $70M per year to the bottom line. That would be a price to earnings ratio of 20, which is slightly lower than the average of 21 of the S&P 500 (someone should check my Wall St. math on this).
We last reported on Riptano’s launch in April – and just a few months later the company has announced they already raised a tidy $2.7MM in a Series A.
Lightspeed Venture Partners led the round, while Sequoia Capital and Jason Calacanis also got in on the action. John Vrionis of Lightspeed Venture Partners will join Riptano’s board. The company said they will use the cash to hire developers and further build out their business team to better serve their customers.
Matt Scherer, a contributing blogger, had the opportunity to interview C. Enrique Ortiz, the founder of MobileMonday Austin and a panelist for InnoTech Austin’s Mobile Application Marketplace session. Here’s Ortiz’ take on what is happening within the “mobi” space not only in Austin but also in the U.S. Details on Innotech can be found here. Q1: What caused you to want to get into working with mobile telephone platforms in 1998? A: Back in 1998 I used to [...]
So, it’s been a year since you were named as the AI TP I nformation Technology of the Year. What is happening with the flux capacitor and the Whurley movement? It’s been an insane year. I left BMC Software in November of 2009 and took a few months off to be with my family. In January, I co-founded Chaotic Moon Studios (The Mobile Application Studio) and everything has been a blur since. Currently, the flux [...]
With a spirited gubernatorial race just days after the Oct. 28 October Innotech, it seems only natural that a major focus on social media would be how Governor Rick Perry and Bill White are using this communication tool. Mike Chapman, a partner with Apogee Communications, is working with Bill Leake in programming the eMarketing summit for next Thursday’s Innotech. He spoke with Matt Scherer, the publicist for 2010 Innotech and an Austin Startup contributor, on [...]
Contributing blogger Matt Scherer recently interviewed Sheila Scarborough. Scarborough, the co-founder of Tourism Currents, will speak at the Austin Innotech eMarketing Summit Oct. 28 at 1 p.m. She discussed the changes within social media for the travel industry. Q: What inspired you to start blogging on travel? Sheila Scarborough: After doing some writing about maritime topics while on active duty in the Navy, I decided when I left the military that since I loved to [...]
Patient Conversation Media, Inc., (PCMi) an eHealth 3.0 company, announced today it has successfully closed its initial strategic funding, securing capital and assets exceeding $1 million dollars. PCMi will utilize these assets to expand its content publishing capabilities, acquire assets and extend its Pay-Per-Conversation advertising network. “Patient Conversation’ s 1-800-brands are well positioned to capture significant market share in the pre-appointment industry,” said Donald W. Hackett, CEO of PCMi. “Our Pay-Per-Conversation business model delivers what [...]
I have the pleasure of hosting the Innotech Beta Summit again for 2010, and I have a select group of the freshest technology products that Austin has to offer. In prior years, we’ve featured companies such as OtherInBox (which has since gone on to raise $4M), Spredfast (which raised $1.6M), Game Salad (which raised $1M), Phurnace (profitably acquired by BMC). This next round of companies holds just as much promise. If you haven’t yet, you [...]
Spiceworks announced the availability of the fifth generation of its free social IT management software application, which is currently used by more than 1 million IT professionals at small and mid-sized businesses (SMBs) worldwide. Some of the top new features available in Spiceworks 5.0 include the ability to monitor and manage applications, devices and cloud services based on the people who use them within the organization; advanced network configuration management capabilities; and a centralized help [...]
For many years now the Austin technology community has been behind the annual Operation Turkey program, which feeds thousand of homeless in Austin (and around the country) every Thanksgiving. The main source of funding to buy the food comes from the Austin Yam Jam ticket sales ($15 pre-sale here) which is an incredible lineup of musicians every year. This year, the lineup features: Van Wilks Guy Forsythe David Grissom Lance Keltner Malford Milligan Dave Holt [...]
