I Am Adam Smith

Andy Sack

Got tipped off to the blog of Andy Sack today. Former Sloany, founded and sold Firefox and abuzz, among other hightech startups. Now runs Instinct Patners

About Instinct (They invested in Judy's Book):

Instinct Partners is a private partnership that creates and operates companies that tap the ubiquity and everyday utility of the Internet.

We use our own capital and expertise to prototype business concepts that are likely to generate significant positive cash flows within 12 to 24 months.

By risking our time and capital in the earliest phases of company formation, we expect to create a portfolio of companies that generates excess returns both for the partnership and for our later-stage corporate and venture capital partners.

Former Expedia CEO Launching New Travel Startup

Richard Barton, the man who built Expedia, is working on a new startup. From the Seattle Post Intelligencer article

Very little is known about the Seattle startup, though it will not operate in the online travel category that Barton helped pioneer.

Executives at the company registered the domain name Zillow.com in September and they are currently looking for software developers, product managers and others to fill out a new office in a downtown skyscraper.

"We have an idea that we are excited about, but there are many avenues which it could take," said Barton in an e-mail response. "As you probably expect, it's too soon to discuss the idea publicly at this time."

MIT Venture Capital Conference

The MIT Venture Capital Conference is taking place Dec. 4th at Sloan. I attended this last year, and found it well worth the money. Good for ideas/inspiration as well as networking. Met quite a few VCs and a few people who I've kept in touch with about TripInvite.

White paper on GDS Auditing

The travel consulting firm Carlsonwagonlit has a white paper on GDS auditing. Basically shows how you should go through once a year and check all of your negotiated hotel rates loaded into the GDS.

LeisureLink serves vacation rentals via GDS

LeisureLink serves up vacation rental properties via their GDS. They offer 10% commission, pictures, descrpitions, search by Airport or City code, prompt monthly payment. They support Galileo.

Venture Capital Investment in Online Travel Startups

Mobissimo has raised funds from

Cambrian Ventures
Cambrian is out in Mountain View CA.

Investment Focus

Our focus is software. We are interested in both enabling technologies like database or storage software, as also applications like consumer apps, enterprise apps, wireless, EDA, etc. Very simply if you have software where you believe there is substantial technology IP, we are interested. Alternatively if you have an application where you believe there is substantial network-effects we are interested (if you can get to critical mass!)

Index Ventures
Based in Geneva, they prefer European investments, unless working with a trusted US VC firm, like in the Mobissimo deal. They prefer Series A & B rounds in IT and biotech companies. Typical investment size is $3-10M.

Bernard Dallé was the lead investor for index on Mobissimo.

Benhamou Global Venture

Eric Benhamou, former CEO of 3Com and Palm runs his own investment fund.

Sidestep

SideStep has raised $17M in funding from Trident Capital and private investors.

Trident has offices in Palo Alto and Westport, CT.

Source

Woody Marshall, Managing Director for Trident Capital, noted, "We've been scouting for the next big winner in online travel for some time now and believe that SideStep is it.

Qixo,

The East Gate Group, and one other VC firm put about $1million into Qixo back in 99 or 2000.

East Gate is an early stage VC firm that

has a liquidity horizon for investments of 1-4 years. Total fund size is $70m and average investment per deal is $2m.

Kayak has gotten backing from General Catalyst Partners

FareChase had raised around $9.5 million in total VC funding, with investors including Boston Capital Ventures and DB Capital Partners Australia.

BCV

To invest in early stage, growth oriented companies which have or expect to generate revenues in the near term.

Focus on companies which provide software and communications products, as well as service-based companies which differentiate their offerings through the use of technology.

Investment liquidity to be realized within 3 to 7 years.

The companies BCV generally invests in require between $1 to $10 million in capital, already have a product or service that is being used or beta tested by at least one customer and are seeking experienced, professional strategic guidance on how to grow their business.

Ecommerce times had an article in 2001 on venture investment in online travel. The following come from this article.

Viajo.com, a travel site, en espanol, raised in the neighborhood of $7-$10M in a Series C round in July 2004. Dios Mio!

Investors in Viajo.com include JP Morgan Partners and GP Investimentos

France's Egencia said that it has raised 6.6 million euros (approximately US$5.6 million) in a second round of funding.

In June, Cruise411.com, an online cruise marketplace, received $7 million in Series B equity financing from TL Ventures.

Social Software Blogging: Class Assignment

Rich Smith, communication's proffesor at Simon Fraiser University, is teaching a class on IT. The students are required to keep a blog tracking an example of social networking technology.

Ivy Wang is tracking evite. She's had some interesting observations.

Below is info from a Canadian health drink company that contacted me. They're doing some interesting stuff marketing wise. Trying to build a community of sites.

A New Non-Surgical Approach to Looking Younger

Get informed about various wrinkle treatments and find out more about a new all natural product that has great results.

Information on Antioxidants Found in Xango Mangosteen Juice

Xango is a great tasting new drink that has utilizes Xanthones, some of the most powerful anti-oxidants, bringing the body energy and health.

Pomegranate

MonaVie is the first product to use the Acai Berry, recently discovered as the most important fruit in the world for its antioxidants and health properties.

Health Benefits of Moringa Found in Zija Juice

Zija is a new product that was recently launched, as has been raved as the most health beneficial supplements in the world. It's prized ingredient found in the Moringa Tree.

Trav Media

Trav Media is a resource for journalists to provide news, press releases, and company info on the travel industry.

Not sure what it costs to register.

Contact for the US are Mark Sheehan and Michelle Weiser.

+1 (310) 836 8925

S&P & Oil Price very tightly correlated

Barry L. Ritholtz's blog, the Big Picture is a great read for insight on the markets.

I've always understood that the price of oil is really important in valuing stocks, but never knew how tightly correlated the price of oil and the market is.

Here's a graph from today's Big Picture entry discussing this.

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