EPIC Ventures was formed in 1994 in partnership with Zions Bank. Since inception, the EPIC Team has invested in over 80 early-stage companies and delivered significant returns to investors. EPIC focuses exclusively on working with driven entrepreneurs to build successful and lasting companies. EPIC now manages four funds, equaling $240 million of capital under management.
www.epicvc.com
Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays
and Best Wishes for the New Year
From the EPIC Team
Recent Exits – HP Acquires LeftHand Networks
HP acquired LeftHand Networks Inc. for
$360 million
in cash, subject to certain purchase price adjustments.
Company Highlight: SpinSpotter
John Atcheson, left, and Todd Herman, creators of SpinSpotter.
Online Watchdog Sniffs for Media Bias
By RICHARD PEREZ-PENA Published: October 15, 2008 New York Times
If you don’t trust the news media, what are your options? You can fume about bias, wonder what you’re missing and suppress the urge to throw things. Or ignore some sources and turn to those whose slant you like.
But what if there were a device that objectively flagged questionable elements in online news articles, poking and parsing words and phrases, and letting you contribute your own critiques? Well, a Seattle company called SpinSpotter has produced a piece of software — a free download that works within a Web browser — that tries to do just that.
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Q&A with John Atcheson, CEO of SpinSpotter
Q: What does SpinSpotter do?
A:
SpinSpotter brings truth and transparency to Web content through a unique combination of crowd-sourcing and technology. Focusing initially on the news category, SpinSpotter invites users to highlight specific instances of bias or inaccuracy right on the page of origin. Users are then invited to describe, annotate, and edit the violation for all other SpinSpotters to see, and share their work with their friends and colleagues using social platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, Digg, StumbleUpon, etc. The intelligence submitted by users in turn feeds a computer algorithm we call the SpinBot, which combs the Web to find more of the same (e.g., "Bush’s third term", "Big Three bailout", etc.). The intelligence we gather regarding what consumers perceive to be spin and where it appears is then aggregated, contextualized, and ultimately sold to PR firms, corporate marketing departments, political campaigns, academic institutions, and others. It’s a unique data set, and we believe it will prove to be of significant value.
Q: What in your background enabled you to have the skills you needed to develop SpinSpotter?
A:
I’ve spent over 20 years creating businesses that bring media and technology together, from MusicNet (the first interactive music service) to RealNetworks’ RealPlayer and beyond. I know a lot about building cutting-edge services in new and fast-changing markets, where you have to operate with very little information. I’m familiar with the needs of marketing communications professionals, having previously sold to the advertising and PR industries. And I believe that over the years I’ve built a reputation for fairness and integrity that is critical to the culture and market success of an endeavor like SpinSpotter.
Q: What has helped SpinSpotter progress the most in terms of getting it off the ground and into the market?
A:
Well, we’re just getting off the ground, having launched a very early beta version of our service in September. We’re in a phase of high-listening, high-learning, and high-tweaking right now. We were surprised, and frankly a bit overwhelmed, by the extensive press coverage we’ve received. It’s great to get top billing in The Wall Street Journal’s coverage of DEMOfall08 and feature stories in both Business Week and The New York Times, but it’s really premature for us — we’re still testing and perfecting. I would much rather have gotten that coverage a month or two from now, when we’ve had time to implement all we’ve learned over this early beta phase.
Q: What advice do you have for entrepreneurs who are starting their own company?
A:
The Three Ps: Persistence, Planning, and a Positive Attitude. They are the keys of all successful entrepreneurs.
Q: Why did you choose to partner with Epic Ventures?
A:
Kent Madsen, Todd Herman (SpinSpotter’s founder and Chief Creative Officer), and I all worked together on the board of Todd’s first company, theDial, back in the late 1990s. I was impressed with Kent’s integrity and commitment, and the three of us had worked well together. So it seemed a natural to have Kent and Epic lead the initial investment in SpinSpotter.
Follow-on Financings
EPIC invested in Aspen Avionics during a bridge financing. Aspen Avionics is a manufacturer of drop-in multi-function device displays for light aircrafts.
EPIC invested in Pivot Solutions, Inc. during a bridge financing. Pivot Solutions is a leading provider of technology solutions and the developer of IMTrader, a revolutionary securities trading platform that combines instant messaging and multi-network electronic trading.
EPIC invested in TriCipher during a bridge financing. TriCipher offers a software solution on an appliance that provides strong security to identity management systems.
Porfolio Company Highlights
Everspin Technologies Expands MRAM Product Line with Byte-wide and Small Footprint BGA Package Options
Everspin Technologies is expanding its MRAM product line to address the storage and consumer markets with the introduction of new byte-wide and small footprint ball grid array (BGA) products. The Everspin MRAM product family now includes 8-bit and 16-bit data widths and SRAM compatible TSOPII and BGA package options, serving the majority of battery-backed SRAM and nonvolatile RAM applications. Everspin’s 8-bit MR2A08 and MR0A08 byte-wide MRAMs and 16-bit MR2A16 MRAM BGA device are available now for production, serving a wide range of computer, consumer, industrial, automotive and aerospace applications.
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Aspen Avionics Continues to Expand Approved Model List for Evolution Flight Display
Aspen Avionics has added several more Class II airplanes, including some heavier twins, to its FAA Approved Model List Supplemental Type Certificate (AML-STC) for the EFD1000 Primary Flight Displays (PFDs). These latest additions include the Beechcraft Baron 58-series, and a subset of the Aerostar 600-and Twin Commander 500-series twin-engine airplanes. Aspen continues to add new makes and models to its AML-STC for Class I and II airplanes (those under 6,000 lbs.) on a regular basis. The company expanded its original AML by adding over 200 new models in July, another dozen in September, and another dozen now, bringing the total number of approved models to more than 650.
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Advent Solar Signs $350M Polysilicon Wafer Agreement with Deutsche Solar AG
Advent Solar, Inc., a leading manufacturer of innovative solar cells and modules, announced an agreement with Deutsche Solar AG, a subsidiary of SolarWorld AG and one of the largest global producers of mono- and multi-crystalline silicon wafers for the photovoltaic (PV) industry. Under the agreement, Deutsche Solar will provide Advent Solar with its SOLSIX® wafers through 2018 with a total value of more than $350M. This steady silicon wafer supply will enable Advent Solar’s rapid business expansion through the introduction and delivery of next-generation solar modules based on its Ventura™ Technology, the solar industry’s first comprehensive cell-to-module solar architecture.
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www.epicvc.com
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EPIC Team Highlights
Stephanie Spong was asked to join the Santa Fe Business Incubator Board. The Santa Fe Business Incubator is a nonprofit organization that promotes economic development in the Santa Fe community. Stephanie also served as the Selection Committee Chairperson for the InvestSouthwest Conference held December 10-11. Invest Southwest is the premier capital conference in Arizona and the Southwest. This event connects the region’s most promising ventures with knowledgeable investors.
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Where We’ve Been
Oct. 6-7
– Personalized Medicine Conference (Todd)
Oct. 7
– Columbus Community Foundation Dignity Through Work Awards Breakfast (Todd, Michael, Spencer)
Oct. 9
– UVEF Luncheon (Michael)
Oct. 15-16
– Solar Power Conference in San Diego (Katie)
Oct. 22
– TiE Event at Skysong (Stephanie as a Panelist)
Oct. 24
– UTC Hall of Fame Dinner (Todd, Kent, Nick)
Oct. 29
– Governor Huntsman VC Meeting (Kent, Nick)
Oct. 29-30
– Venture Northwest OEN (Todd)
Nov. 4
– OGA Workshop (Todd)
Nov. 6
– Midwest Alternative Energy Venture Forum (Katie)
Nov. 11
– Biomedical Tuesday / NMBio (Katie on board of NMBio)
Nov. 10-14
– BYU Hawaii International Business Conference (Todd)
Nov. 17-19
– DFJ Summit (Kent)
Nov. 19
– Santa Fe Business Incubator 10th Anniversary Celebration (Stephanie as a board member)
Nov. 19
– NACD Luncheon (Todd)
Nov. 20
– USTAR Angel Summit (Todd)
Dec. 3-4
– NACD Summit (Todd)
Dec. 4
– Utah Philanthropy Day Luncheon (Michael)
Dec. 10
– Arizona Venture Capital Association dinner in Phoenix (Stephanie)
Dec. 9-12
– InvestSouthwest Conference (Stephanie as Selection Committe Chairperson, Katie spoke on the Green Investing Panel)
News/Press Articles
HP Acquires LeftHand Networks to Extend Leadership in Storage and Virtualization Solutions
HP (NYSE:HPQ) announced it has signed a definitive agreement to acquire LeftHand Networks Inc., a leading provider of storage virtualization and iSCSI storage area network (SAN) solutions. LeftHand Networks’ solutions enable midsize companies and remote offices or branches of large corporations to easily and cost-effectively protect critical business data. HP has agreed to purchase LeftHand Networks for $360 million in cash, subject to certain purchase price adjustments.
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Q Therapeutics Seeks to Repair Rather than Replace Neurons
Deborah Eppstein, president and CEO of Q Therapeutics Inc., acknowledges that developing stem cell therapies to replace damaged organs is a daunting task.That’s why her company uses glial progenitor cells to repair rather than replace neurons, an approach she anticipates may be applicable in treating a host of neurodegenerative diseases. The company’s Q-Cells are “technically not stem cells,” Eppstein explained. They are lineage-restricted glial progenitor cells that differentiate into oligodendrocytes, which produce the myelin sheaths that insulate neurons, and astrocytes, which make growth factors and support the health of neurons.
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Lumidigm / Innometriks Biometric Reader Passes TSA Evaluation for TWIC Pilot
The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) has evaluated and passed the Innometriks Rhino™ for deployment in critical pilot tests of the Transportation Worker Identification Credential (TWIC) program. The Rhino, a ruggedized smartcard-based access control device with integrated Lumidigm multispectral biometric technology, is now ready for deployment in the upcoming TWIC pilot sites in California, New York, Texas, and Maryland. The decision by the TSA adds the maritime industry’s first fully NEMA 4 weatherproof rated reader using multispectral imaging technology to the TWIC Initial Capability Evaluation (ICE) list.
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Medsphere Adds VueCentric Graphical Framework to Growing Line of Healthcare Open Source Tools
Medsphere Systems Corporation, the leading provider of Open Source healthcare IT solutions, today introduced VueCentric®, a graphical user interface (GUI) framework used in hundreds of healthcare facilities nationwide that integrates patient information from disparate applications and delivers a user-friendly presentation of clinical data to healthcare providers. VueCentric expands Medsphere’s portfolio of Open Source healthcare IT solutions, which includes the OpenVista® electronic health record (EHR) system, the company’s flagship product. A commercialized version of the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs’ comprehensive VistA solution, OpenVista is now in use at healthcare facilities and care delivery organizations across the country.
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Pivot and Marco Polo Network Partner to Accelerate Global Trading
Pivot, Inc., a real-time enterprise collaboration network serving the capital and OTC markets, today announced that Marco Polo Network, the largest independent platform for electronic trading in and out of global emerging markets, is distributing the IMTRADERTM module of Pivot 360°TM to buy-side participants around the world. Marco Polo Network’s deployment of IMTRADER allows users to seamlessly transform instant message texts into global electronic FIX orders. The network leverages structured messaging that is integrated with FIX protocol to transform simple text requests into true, electronic orders. Rollout is underway in multiple markets across Africa, South America, Asia and Europe.
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FatPipe Networks Is Granted Its 7th Patent Providing Greater Internet/WAN Security and Reliability Tools for Business Continuity
FatPipe Networks(TM), the inventor and multiple patents holder of WAN optimization, redundancy and security products, announced today that it has successfully secured its seventh patent. The U.S. Patent No. 7,444,506 protects the methods, devices, and systems for efficient secure parallel data transmission divided over hybrid Wide Area Networks (WANs), with the ability to segment portions between encrypted traffic sent over a public network and unencrypted traffic sent over a private network.
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Ingeo Launches Ingeo iPrepare for Submitters
Ingeo Systems, Inc., the nation’s number one provider of electronic document recording technology, recently launched its newest product offering, Ingeo iPrepare®, a streamlined electronic document recording process for submitters. With this new capability, customers can visit Ingeo’s website, read about the new offering, sign up online and handle all the processing automatically. This is especially helpful for small or occasional users.
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