Newark, Delaware-based Quantum Leap Innovations launches Buzz, a different approach to social media analytics

Tom Paine


Joseph Budner Elad has spent much of the past 12 years developing a "Pattern Based Analytics" engine, which uses a combination of statistical, mathematical, heuristic and other tools to discover patterns in data that otherwise might not be seen by different methodologies. Elad, born in Israel, came to the US to do graduate studies at the Univesity of Delaware before getting drawn into the entrepreneurial world. The company he founded, Quantum Leap Innovations, has about 15 employees and is based in the Delaware Technology Park in Newark. Up until now, most of Quantum Leap's work has been project-oriented, particularly for the Department of Defense, and also for corporations such as DuPont and and Verizon, and Life Sciences companies. Examples of major projects include tracking pandemic influenza outbreaks, discovering patterns in Health Care fraud, and analyzing the trading patterns of individual traders. Quantum Leap says its approach allows "flexible discovery, visualization and analysis of informative patterns in large, complex data environments". Gartner named Quantum Leap one of its "Cool Vendors" in the Life Sciences sector for 2011.

Now Elad is making a pivot; while not walking away from the project business that currently pays the bills, Quantum Leap last week introduced Quantum Leap Buzz, a desktop app for analyzing trends and connections from the information posted on Twitter. Its available for Mac or PC for $10 per year beginning on February 29; until then a beta version can be downloaded for free. A more sophisticated version geared towards businesses is planned for release in the Spring with a price in the $500 per year range. The present version works only with Twitter, though Quantum Leap may eventually expand the software to work with Facebook and Google+ also. I used the beta version this past weekend to try to keep track of and separate all the rumors and facts coming out about Joe Paterno's declining health on Twitter, and found it helpful.

Moving from a project-oriented business to providing a software tool to a broad user base (Elad would like to have a million users) involves significant challenges. Though he is not taking on venture funds now, telling me in a phone interview that Quantum Leap is profitable and has no debt, Elad does have a powerful braintrust helping as advisors. Board of Directors members include Rick Bennett, a marketing consultant who contributed to Oracle's and Salesforce's early market succeesses and specializes in using guerilla maketing techniques to get early stage products noticed; he is also a member of Safeguard Scientifics' Technology Advisory Board. Others are Stephen H. Coltrin, a Bucks County resident and founder of Coltrin & Associates, Inc., a New York public relations firm which helped launch Palm Computing and the Salt Lake Winter Olympics, and Michael A. Cusumano, Ph.D., Sloan Management Review Distinguished Professor of Management at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Sloan School of Management. I asked Elad if he had considered forming partnerships with more established business intelligence software providers such as QlikTech or Tableau, but he says Quantum Leap is determined to build its own brand. Bennett says the company seeks to take a viral marketing approach to spread product adoption.

Social Media Analytics is a hot field right now. Salesforce acquired Radian6 for $326 million last year, and SAP recently formed a partnership with NetBase. SAS Institute is a major player, IBM has some excellent technology, and there are many startups focused on different segments of the market.







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Daily Links 1/24/2012: EPAM Systems commences IPO

EPAM Systems, Inc. (Newtown) Commences Initial Public Offering of Common Stock (Business Wire)

Verizon Posts Loss on Pension Costs as IPhone Boosts Expenses (Bloomberg)

Verizon Adds More FiOS TV Subscribers in Fourth Quarter (Hollywood Reporter)

Verizon's FiOS TV Passes Charter In Q4
Telco Adds 194,000 Net Video Subs, 201,000 FiOS Internet Despite DSL, Landline Losses (Multichannel News)


TAGSYS Ramps up Its Go-to-Market Strategy for the Americas
New executive leadership will spearhead expansion of TAGSYS' footprint in North and South America (Business Wire)
Tagsys' headquarters for the Americas is in King of Prussia.

Fledgling tech firm seeks NYC space (Crain's New York Business)
KEMP Technologies recently raised $7.5 million led by Edison Ventures. (Correction: It was actually $16 million, led by $7.5 million from Edison Ventures.)

Software AG plots Valley invasion by Terracotta army (The Register)

SAP Reaches Target for ByDesign Software, Euro am Sonntag Says (Bloomberg)
I've never considered that target to be that meaningful by itself, without some reference to the number of seats involved.

Philly's Red Tettemer, PopTent nail Super Bowl ads (Philly.com: Philly Deals)

Fisker having trouble delivering its hybrid cars (USA Today)



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Highlights: Last week on Philly Tech News (1/16/2012 to 1/22/2012)

The PricewaterhouseCoopers/NVCA MoneyTree Venture Capital report for the 4th quarter of 2011 came out, and as I noted it wasn't a very strong quarter for VC investments in information technology ventures in the Philadelphia area.

IBM acquired Green Hat, a software testing automation vendor with dual headquarters in London and Wilmington.

Scrutiny of the proposed Verizon Wireless spectrum purchase, resale agreement and technology joint venture with Comcast and other cable operators picked up. Comcast EVP David Cohen wrote a blog posted explaining Comcast's decision not to build out its spectrum, in part to explain Vice Chairman & CFO Michael Angelakis' recent comment that "[w]e never really intended to build that spectrum." Meanwhile, the companies submitted their marketing plans (carefully worded, I'm sure) to the FCC for a confidential review, while competitors and other critics insisted they be released publicly.
On the lighter side, the similarity between Comcast's and the FCC's logos made me wonder if there was some type of secret connection between the two.

Exton-based SaaS insurance vendor iPipeline announced a "significant investment" from Technology Crossover Ventures. iPipline raised $18 million in 2008 and $15 million in 2009, mostly from NewSpring Capital of Radnor and Fidelity Ventures of Boston (or Volition Capital LLC as its successor is known). Technology Crossover Ventures usually invests in big chunks, so it would not be surprising if this investment was also in the eight digits (Crunchbase shows the size of several recent rounds it has been involved in) . That means iPipeline's valuation must be getting pretty steep.

SAP AG, still waiting for its SuccessFactors acquisition to close, announced two other much smaller acquisitions: datango AG, a provider of software training tools, and SAF Simulation, Analysis and Forecasting AG , which has software that helps retailers better see into and manage their supply chains.

New York-based Charlie O'Donnell left First Round Capital to launch a new Brooklyn-based venture firm, appropriately named Brooklyn Bridge Ventures. And Rick Nucci, co-founder and former CTO of Dell Boomi, is now General Manager , succeeding Bob Moul who left at the end of the year and now heads up Philly Startup Leaders while exploring other entrepreneurial opportunities.

Philadelphia-based PE firm LLR Partners acquired a majority interest in Paragon Technology Group , a Northern Virginia-based supplier of information technology services to the Federal government. Scott Friedlander, former CEO of GTSI, also invested and was named CEO of Paragon.



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Daily Links 1/23/2012: Datatel, SunGard Higher Education close transactions to combine businesses

Datatel and SunGard Higher Education Close Transactions to Combine their Businesses (Business Wire)
Company will temporarily be called Datatel+SGHE ; headquarters will be in Northern Virginia, according to FAQ on website
according to FAQ on website. (pdf)

InterDigital Calls Off Patent Sale (New York Times: DealBook)
May still sell off pieces. InterDigital down almost 16% in after hours to $37.50.
InterDigital press release on concluding strategic alternatives review (Business Wire)
InterDigital Announces Preliminary and Unaudited Fourth Quarter 2011 Financial Results (Business Wire)

Newtown-based Epam Systems files to raise up to $133 million in IPO (Bloomberg)


TargetX: Helping colleges recruit (Philly.com: Philly Inc.)
A Conshohocken-based SaaS CRM vendor that built its offering on Salesforce's Force.com platform.

San Francisco-based Joyent gets $85 million for cloud expansion (Gigaom)

If Comcast can’t make it in the wireless biz, who can? (Gigaom)

Verizon spectrum deal faces scrutiny (New York Post)

VIDEO: Comcast Xfinity Commercials Interrupt Giants Vs. 49ers Game (SB Nation DC)
Report says its not clear yet whether it was Comcast or Fox who made the error.
(Update: It turned out to be an error on the part of DC Fox affiliate WTTG.)

Apply to Open Angel Forum Philly III (Gabriel Weinberg's Blog)

XBRL: A New Language for the Large Data Challenge (Safeguard Scientifics Blog)

Scala Introduces New Consumer Device Controlled Screen Communication Solution at ISE 2012 (PR Web)

Philly Tech People News 1/22/2012

Although there has been no public announcement that I have seen, co-founder Rick Nucci is now referred to as General Manager of Dell Boomi, succeeding Bob Moul who departed at the end of the year. Nucci was formerly CTO.


SAP Taps North American Channel Chief For Global Post (CRN)

SAP Names Exec To Lead North American Channel Efforts (CRN)

CES: Verizon Wireless Names Zafar CTO For MSO Joint Venture
Carrier to Work With Comcast, TWC, Cox and BHN to Develop Products That Integrate Wireless and Wireline (Multichannel News)
Report says joint venture likely to be based in Piscataway , rather than Philadelphia as some earlier reports indicated.

Dzuban Extends SCTE Contract Through 2017
Cable and Telecom Vet Originally Named President and CEO in 2009 (Multichannel News)
The Society of Cable Telecommunications Engineers is based in Exton.

Bianchi Named WTXF Philly GM
Moves across town to take over Fox station (Broadcasting & Cable)

Board of Directors for Ben Franklin Elects New Chairman and Vice Chairman, Two New Members (Ben Franklin Technology Partners)

Ben Franklin Board of Directors Honors Members (Ben Franklin Technology Partners)

USA Technologies Appoints Two New Directors (Business Wire)

Titan promotes Jeff Randazzo, Jon Roche and adds Matt Clark (Philly Ad Club News)



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New Jersey man turns campaign stint into software success (Philadelphia Inquirer)

Disruptions: The Sloshing Sound of Tech Valuations (Nick Bilton/New York Times: Bits)

TV's next killer app: Weather
(CNN)

Software & Internet VC for Q4 2011 in Philly area not too strong

Tom Paine

Fourth Quarter 2011 VC investment in the Greater Philadelphia region totaled $132.7 million involving 30 deals, according to the MoneyTree report issued today by PricewaterhouseCoopers and the National Venture Capital Association based on Thomson Reuters data. For the full year 2011, VCs invested $492.2 million in 122 deals here. Although the total investment represented 8% growth over 2010, it is still well below levels that prevailed for several years prior to 2009, and did not grow as much as investment nationally.

Looking at the VC picture for Internet, software and digital technologies in the region reveals larger concerns. In the fourth quarter, the four largest investments totaling $103 million were for companies with food processing and water purification technologies and for Pharma startups. Much less than the remaining $30 million went to Internet or software ventures. In fact, the largest Internet investment listed, slightly more than $4 million, was for SolveMedia, a company that's actually New York-based now though it still has a Philly office. The next largest was probably PHD Virtual Technologies; though the amount of its recent round is not shown in the MoneyTree report, CEO Thomas Charlton told me in a December interview it was for $4 million. DuckDuckGo raise $3 million, Sidecar (formerly Snipi) raised $2.52 million and Quik Inc of Blue Bell raised $2 million. One company I hadn't heard about before is LogoGarden of Wilmington, a site that helps people create custom logos, which was reported to have raised $2 million.

The remaining investments reported were all for well under $1 million, many of which were included in Ben Franklin Technology Partners' recent funding announcement.

The MoneyTree report may not capture some important dynamics, particularly in the seed/angel investment area. Although MoneyTree reports a decline of 48% in seed funding by VCs nationwide in 2011, many angels and private investors are not part of the reporting system used to collect this data, and their paticipation may not be fully reflected.

Nationwide, in 2011 venture capitalists invested $28.4 billion in 3,673 deals, an increase of 22% in dollars and 4% in deals, according to MoneyTree. One factor that could impact future investment is that VC firms raised $10 billion less than they invested last year, a pace that obviously can't continue forever. Further cuts in Ben Franklin's 2012-2013 funding could also have a negative impact locally.

Dow Jones VentureSource released its own set of numbers today released its own set of numbers today, which are somewhat different.



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Comcast & the FCC: Is the secret in their logos?

Tom Paine

For those conspiracy theorists out there who believe the FCC takes its marching orders from Comcast, I offer Exhibit A: note the eerie similarity between their respective logos. Maybe its a secret sign indicating that the two are, indeed, joined at the hip.










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DirecTV "Don't end up in a roadside ditch" ad

Tagline: See what happens when you make bad decisions. Get rid of cable and upgrade to DIRECTV.

Daily Links 1/20/2012: Verizon, Comcast Send Marketing Deals to FCC in Spectrum Review

Verizon, Comcast Send Marketing Deals to FCC in Airwaves Review (Bloomberg)
FCC Docket: Verizon Wireless and SpectrumCo, Verizon Wireless and Cox

Comcast Challenges FCC's Program Carriage Ruling That Landed in Tennis Channel's Court (Multichannel News)


Audrey Zibelman's Energy-Saving Software
Her startup Viridity Energy makes software used by buildings and factories to manage their power use. It also lets them sell energy back to the grid (Bloomberg Business Week)

Philadelphia-based online ticketing service TicketLeap’s beginnings couldn’t have been more humble (Ben Franklin Technology Partners SEP: KEYnotes)

After Laying Off 60 People, RueLaLa Raises $22 Million (TechCrunch)
Boston-based RueLaLa is part of Michael Rubin's Kynetic LLC holding company.

Update: RueLaLa says filing is about options, not new funding (Mass High Tech)

Salesforce's happy workforce
(Fortune Tech)

SAP Acquires Datango's Software, Entering Enterprise Training Race
Now SAP faces the huge task of convincing the jaded enterprise training market to invest in training. (Information Week)

ING Direct deal should close soon, Capital One says (Wilmington News Journal: Delaware Inc.)



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