Wall Street Journal names 50 "Next Big Thing" startups; none local, First Round Capital well represented

Tom Paine

The Wall Street Journal this week released its list of  50 "Next Big Thing" startups. The selections are chosen from privately held, venture-backed firms with valuations of less than $1 billion, to emphasize those with considerable potential that aren't that widely known yet.

There are no companies from anywhere near Philly on it, and only a handful from the east coast. The closest is video conferencing startup Vidyo, which is based in Hackensack. There are also a few that are based in New York. Whether this reflects a west coast bias, or simply the reality of where most of the VC money goes, I don't know.

First Round Capital did well, having four of its portfolio companies make it:

• Keep Holdings -AdKeeper,  online ad saving technology (New York)
• Tremor Video - Video technology for content and advertising (New York)
• UberMedia - Bid-based marketplace for Twitter (Pasedena)
• RockMelt - social web brower  (Mountain View)

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