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Brocade Drives Record Engagement with Vivecoach Executive Exercise Challenge Web Application

VC-List.com — Mon, 16 May 2011 20:14:28 +0000

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Vivecoach Executive Exercise Challenge at Brocade Drives Record Engagement

Menlo Park, CA: Vivecoach, the leading corporate wellness challenge application company, announces that its customer, Brocade (recently ranked one of the Top 10 Best Places to Work in the San Francisco Bay Area), has recently completed a 531-person global exercise challenge. With an employee completion rate of over 97% for participating employees and the commitment of the entire Brocade executive team, this was one of Vivecoach’s most successful challenges. The challenge reinforced the power and value of executive involvement in driving health engagement.

To kick off the challenge, the company’s top 12 executives formed a team and challenged all employees to compete against them in teams of 12. In all, 44 teams comprising 531 employees joined the challenge. Brocade set a target of 30 minutes of exercise per day per participant. The goal for this challenge was consistency and engagement in getting a large number of employees to exercise a healthy amount on a daily basis. If each member of a team completed 30 minutes of exercise for at least 10 of the 14 challenge days, that team was eligible to win Brocade-branded fitness gear. Bonus points and prizes were also doled out for completing “extra credit” activities. Ultimately most teams appeared to value the bragging rights, team building, and competition above the prizes.

By the end of the challenge 70% of the teams and 75% of the individual competitors reached or surpassed the 10-days-of-activity goal. Two hundred competitors reached the 30-minute threshold for all 14 days and one team finished with a perfect score. In all, 97% of all competitors actively participated in the challenge; a huge success for a group of this size. Setting a pragmatic, attainable target helped get more employees involved and taught them that completing the AHA-recommended exercise amount was achievable. Further, the teaming that occurred over the course of the challenge helped these employees keep one another on-track and accountable for their exercise goals.

“This challenge was a huge hit at Brocade and we look forward to doing many more challenges with Vivecoach!” Lisa McGill: VP Worldwide HR-Brocade, Chair of WellFit Committee.

The group was very social and took full advantage of the Vivecoach “Challenge Wall”. The group posted team photos and made more than 600 other wall posts, many of which mentioned walking, sports, and exercise groups that had formed during the challenge. Many users committed that they would continue to exercise with their new groups after the challenge ended.

“The exercise challenge encouraged me and a few of my coworkers to start playing squash at lunchtime. The challenge is over, but we’ve decided to keep playing a few times each week,” said one participant.

Other participants reached out to Vivecoach for more challenges to keep them going.

“Just finished the challenge! I’m feeling light, energetic and I lost a few pounds. Looking forward to a similar challenge in the future,” said another.

Vivecoach continues to demonstrate the value of fun and social interaction in bringing visibility and action to corporate wellness efforts. Employees’ acceptance of events and programs that can improve their health behaviors, while having fun with their co-workers and building esprit de corps, is being well proven.

###

Press Contact

Joanna Laznicka

joanna@phaze-9.com

408-448-3113

“This challenge was a huge hit at Brocade and we look forward to doing many more challenges with Vivecoach!” Lisa McGill: VP Worldwide HR-Brocade, Chair of WellFit Committee.

Other participants reached out to Vivecoach for more challenges to keep them going.

“Just finished the challenge! I’m feeling light, energetic and I lost a few pounds. Looking forward to a similar challenge in the future,” said another.

###

Press Contact

Joanna Laznicka

joanna@phaze-9.com

408-448-3113

Investor Profile: Launch Capital LLC

VC-List.com — Fri, 08 Apr 2011 16:00:03 +0000

Elon Boms, Founder and Managing Director, Launch Capital LLC

Elon S. Boms, Founder and Managing Director of Launch Capital LLC, joins the Venture Capital community with significant finance, consulting and marketing experience. His venture capital experience includes structuring bio-tech, consumer products and software development deals. Most recently, Elon was a managing consultant at Fidelity Investments where he worked primarily on strategy initiatives for financial investments in emerging markets. Prior to his work with Fidelity, Elon worked in Corporate Finance for Citigroup. Elon began his career as a brand manager at Georgia Pacific Company?s Dixie Foodservice division, where he assumed responsibility for $25M in capital investments and engineered a complete profit turnaround for the paper cup business. This wide spectrum of experiences has enabled Elon to approach business from a holistic perspective and has instilled in him a passion for developing and investing in new business concepts.

Elon earned his M.B.A from the Yale School of Management where he graduated with distinction in venture capital and a concentration in finance. Elon completed his B.A. in Economics from George Washington University. Elon is an avid golfer, skier, and gourmet chef. He lives in Boston with his soon to be wife.

Elon participated in the FundingPost event: Boston Early-Stage Angel and Venture Event
on Wednesday, June 24, 2009 in MA

Launch Capital LLC

LaunchCapital addresses the capital needs of companies that are in the earliest stages of funding by providing a needed source of financing to companies that can quickly advance to the next level of development. Our market-agnostic approach to investing enables us to quickly take advantage of emerging technologies and trends and best help our portfolio companies reach critical developmental, corporate and market milestones.

With a focus on capital efficient companies, we are able to quickly fund seed rounds individually or within our network of syndicate partners. LaunchCapital is committed to developing entrepreneurial talent both within our client base and through the relationships we have developed with leading universities across the country. Our difference is our ability to combine all of these elements into a program that quickly provides our companies with the tools they need to succeed.

Some Example Investments:

Helium

is an industry leader in online content creation based on its sophisticated, patent-pending, and gaming-resistant internet-based rating engine targeting the subjective information marketplace. Helium’s unique peer-ranking process enables its user community to sort the good content from the bad, creating a credible engine to help identify the best content and best writers.

Carsala

Based in Berkeley, Carsala is a service that uses proprietary technology to help its customers find the right used car, without the negotiating hassle, at a desirable price. Carsala is not just a tool or listing site; it’s the complete service.

www.FundingPost.com – Meet Angels and VCs

Boston, MA: VC and Angel ConferenceApril 14, 2011 Come meet and network with VCs and Angels in AZ!http://www.fundingpost.com/breakfast/reg1.asp?event=184&refer=rss

Las Vegas, NV: VC and Angel ConferenceApril 28, 2011 Come meet and network with VCs and Angels in AZ!http://www.fundingpost.com/breakfast/reg1.asp?event=181&refer=rss

New York, NY: VC and Angel ConferenceMay 12, 2011 Come meet and network with VCs and Angels in NY!http://www.fundingpost.com/breakfast/reg1.asp?event=185&refer=rss

Madison, WI: VC and Angel ConferenceMay 19, 2011 Come meet and network with VCs and Angels in Madison!http://www.fundingpost.com/breakfast/reg1.asp?event=187&refer=rss

Los Angeles, CA: VC and Angel ConferenceJune 16, 2011 Come meet and network with VCs and Angels in SoCal!http://www.fundingpost.com/breakfast/reg1.asp?event=186&refer=rss

Silicon Valley, CA: VC and Angel ConferenceJune 23, 2011 Come meet and network with VCs and Angels in CA!http://www.fundingpost.com/breakfast/reg1.asp?event=182&refer=rss

Washington, DC: VC and Angel ConferenceJuly 21, 2011 Come meet and network with VCs and Angels in DC!http://www.fundingpost.com/breakfast/reg1.asp?event=183&refer=rss

Chicago, IL: VC and Angel ConferenceAugust 25, 2011 Come meet and network with VCs and Angels in Chicago!http://www.fundingpost.com/breakfast/reg1.asp?event=188&refer=rss

FREE Conference Call with VCs and Angel Investors! Available for immediate listening. Hear from 13 VCs and Angel Investors. You can register for the conference call MP3 here:
http://www.fundingpost.com/pvc

Additional 2011 events will be announced shortly!

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Los Angeles VC and Angel Event, Thursday, June 16, 2011

VC-List.com — Fri, 08 Apr 2011 16:00:02 +0000

Interested in meeting early-stage Angel Investors and Venture Capitalists in the LA Area?

Then register for the FundingPost event on June 16

FundingPost has hosted 180+ sold-out venture events in 20 cities over the past 9 years.

At our next event, the panel of investors will focus on Early-Stage Venture Investing:
How to meet investors, pitch them, and what it really takes to get them to write you a check! We will be discussing trends in Early-Stage Investing, hot sectors, sectors that these Angels and VCs look at, things that are most important to them when they are considering an Investment, the best and worst things an entrepreneur can do to get their attention, additional advice for entrepreneurs, and, of course, the best ways to reach these and other Investors. Now with a better sound system! There will be plenty of time for networking with the Investor panelists, both before the panel & after the panel at the Cocktail Party!

As an additional benefit, entrepreneur 1/4 page summaries will be given to the investor speakers and attendees. All of the Investors will get your company description and contact info!

Register today, as this event will sell-out and is limited! There are only 85 tickets left!

Additionally, there will be an Optional Pitching Workshop Lunch from 11am-1pm. The cost to participate will be $350. This Lunch Workshop includes the $75 ticket to the event, and a 1/4 page listing in the Venture Guide Magazine (normally $125). During this workshop we will completely deconstruct your elevator pitch, and work with you on formulating a clean and concise elevator pitch giving the important information that investors NEED to hear to make an educated decision on your company! Then you get to give your new Elevator Pitch in person to the Panel of Investors during the event! There are only 13 spaces left in the Workshop.

Bingham McCutchen LLP

355 South Grand Avenue, Suite 4400

Los Angeles,
CA90071-3106

Thursday, June 16, 2011,
2:00pm – 6:15pm (workshop is 11am-1pm)

MDBlackBox Launches Free Web Based Electronic Medical Record System (EMR) Tool for Practitioners and Clinics.

VC-List.com — Tue, 01 Feb 2011 18:23:24 +0000

MDBlackBox, announces the availability of their free, on-demand, no-risk Practice Management EMR suite, which also includes wellness tools for use by patients. All at no cost to the physician or clinic.

MDBlackBox was founded by a Hospitalist Physician who was not satisfied that available EMR systems sufficiently eased challenges while simultaneously providing safe, secure and user-friendly access for patients.

The feature-rich MDBlackBox is not only for patient record keeping, but also appointment scheduling, billing, laboratory and radiology order entry, electronic prescription transmission, staff management, and arrangement of referrals yet is designed to be user-friendly, secure and easily used from any web-accessible computer, phone, or tablet.

MDBlackBox security and reliability equals that of online banking systems. Keeping all of a patient’s records in a single maximally reliable data vault prevents the information gaps that can develop when a patient sees multiple practitioners. Records are also robustly shielded from damage or loss.

MDBlackBox is designed for use in practices ranging from solo practitioners to large clinics. Its wide spectrum of features make it easier to communicate with patients, manage their care and follow their progress as well as substantially increasing practice management efficiency and aiding in human resource management and practice marketing. The integrated wellness tools help patients monitor and relay their daily condition and activities improving compliance with ongoing treatment programs such as weight management. Similarly, mobile device text reminders can be generated to help patients maintain their medication schedules.

Users can obtain and have MDBlackBox up and running in less than one day with no licensing or hosting fees and without purchasing special equipment. As the nationwide goal of universal EMR adoption by 2015 approaches, MDBlackBox is an excellent across-the-board solution that is ready right now. Interested physicians and clinics can start the process of evaluating and adopting MDBlackBox with a visit to www.mdblackbox.com.

About MDBlackBox
MDBlackBox addresses the complexities and critical needs of today’s healthcare environments by providing a revolutionary web-based, on-demand platform for record keeping and patient support that eliminates the costs and challenges associated with licensing, implementation, integration and support usually experienced with leading enterprise software solutions. With MDBlackBox providers can deliver the highest level of care and service to their patients simply, easily and inexpensively. Learn more at www.mdblackbox.com

Tulip Telcom Buys Data Centre SPV For Rs 230Cr

VC-List.com — Tue, 18 Jan 2011 21:45:06 +0000

Tulip Telecom Limited (Tulip), an enterprise data services provider, today announced the acquisition of a data centre facility in Bangalore owned by SADA IT Parks Private Limited (SADA), a special purpose vehicle, at a value of Rs 230 crore.

This is the company’s fifth data centre with its other centres in Delhi, Bangalore and Mumbai. The new Bangalore facility will be owned and operated through a wholly owned subsidiary of Tulip named Tulip Data Center Private Ltd, the company said in a filing.

Spread across an area of 9 lakh sq ft, the Tier 4 Data Center will be set up in Bangalore with a total investment of Rs 900 crore spread over a period of 3 years. After the completion, this will become India’s largest and the world’s third largest single site data centre, the company claims.

“Our new data center will help meet the rising customer requirements for co-location, managed hosting & data storage and a suite of other complementary services including managed security services and storage requirements of our customers from across the globe,” Sanjay Jain, CEO, Tulip Telecom Ltd, said.

“This acquisition will provide us a platform to roll out numerous other services including Cloud Computing, SAAS and Managed Application Services,” Lt. Col. HS Bedi, VSM, Chairman and Managing Director, Tulip Telecom Ltd said.

The new eco-friendly data centre has state-of-the-art infrastructure and can house up to 16,000 racks, backed by up to 100 MW Power supply through 5X20 MW substations and will be able to host over 2,000 technical and managerial workforce. The facility would be ready to be utilized in less than 6 months.

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Adobe Buys Behavioral Data Management Platform DemDex

VC-List.com — Tue, 18 Jan 2011 21:44:44 +0000

Adobe just announced a big acquisition today; buying behavioral data bank DemDex. Terms of the deal were not disclosed in the release.

Demdex, which launched in 2009, captures behavioral data on behalf of Websites and advertisers and stores it in a “behavioral data bank.” The company then score each user across more than 40 behavioral and demographic variables to come up with a “traitweight,” which helps websites segment their audiences better and advertisers target their messages more exactly.

The beauty of DemDex is that it makes the behavioral data portable and puts it in the control of the Websites and advertisers themselves. They can plug it into whichever ad server or service they are currently using.

DemDex’s technology will be added to Adobe’s Online Marketing Suite, which is powered by Adobe-acquired Omniture. Of course, Adobe is looking to grab hold of a the $109 billion online ad market by offering ad optimization via its marketing suite. Of course, it should be noted that the data DemDex collects is based on anonymous cookie IDs and consumers can opt out of receiving targeted ads.

CrunchBase Information

Demdex

Information provided by CrunchBase

DemDex, which is based in New York, has raised $7.5 million in funding.

View full post on TechCrunch

Coastal Projects Picks 26% In Italian Tunnel Engineering Firm

VC-List.com — Tue, 18 Jan 2011 21:44:32 +0000

Coastal Projects Limited, Hyderabad-based tunnel engineering company with a turnover of over Rs 1,300 crore, has announced that it has acquired 26% stake in SELI (Societa Esecuzione Lavori Idraulici S.p.A), one of the world’s most experienced tunneling contractors based in Italy, for a total consideration of EUR 17.85 million (approx. Rs 108 crore).

Italy-based SELI has established operations across the world including India. SELI also designs & builds hard rock and soft ground tunnel boring machines and auxiliary equipments in its manufacturing facility in Italy. SELI has completed more than 520 km of tunnels with the use of mechanized excavation systems and has completed 68 projects around the world.

Coastal has completed over 75 km of tunnelling work and presently has 250 km under execution. The company is backed by prominent global private equity investors like Baring, Sequoia Capital, Fidelity and Deutsche Bank and has an order book of over Rs 7,500 crore.

Coastal Projects and SELI have also agreed to work together in South Asia. With increased number of tunneling projects in India expected to be implemented using Tunnel Boring Machines (TBMs), Coastal Projects stands to benefit from its association with SELI as it also designs and builds hard rock and soft ground tunnel boring machines and auxiliary equipment.

Coastal Projects already owns three TBMs in India and SELI’s global expertise in operations and manufacturing of these machines will be a key differentiator at the time of bidding and execution of projects.

Motilal Oswal Investment Advisors Pvt Ltd acted as the financial advisor to Coastal for this transaction.

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Apple’s Insane Q1 2011: $26.7 Billion Revenue; 7 Million iPads, 16 Million iPhones Sold

VC-List.com — Tue, 18 Jan 2011 21:44:23 +0000

Apple has had a rough couple of days. Yesterday, CEO Steve Jobs announced a medical leave of absence. As a result, the stock plunged today before rallying back to close down just over 2 percent. But this should cheer everyone up. Apple has just announced their Q1 2011 (their holiday quarter) earnings — and as many anticipated, they’re massive.

How massive? Well, coming off its best quarter ever in terms of revenue ($20.34 billion in Q4), Apple was projecting $23 billion in revenue for the quarter. The Street, meanwhile, recognizing that Apple always lowballs these numbers, thought revenue would be more like $24.38 billion. The actual number? $26.74 billion.

More to come.

View full post on TechCrunch

NYC Venture Capital and Angel Showcase, Thursday, February 3, 2011

VC-List.com — Tue, 18 Jan 2011 21:44:18 +0000

The Kick-off Venture Event of the Year!

Did you ever want to meet, shake hands and give your
summary to OVER 30 of the hottest Venture Funds & Angel Investor Groups
in the the NYC area?

Here is your shot! FundingPost is hosting its VC Showcase in midtown, NYC!
Our previous VC Showcases in CA, MA, DC, NY and PA were sold-out!

At this VC Conference, OVER 30 VC Funds & Angel Groups will be exhibiting their firms during a great cocktail party setting. Each Fund will have their own table setup for the sole purpose of meeting great new companies. 33 Funds have already been announced!

We call it a – “Reverse Venture Fair” – Where you go up and meet the VCs versus waiting for them to come and meet you.

Take advantage of this unique opportunity to meet investors – make sure to bring lots of executive summaries and business cards to hand out!

Additionally, there will be an optional Pitching Workshop from 2:30pm-4:45pm. The cost to participate in the workshop will be $400. This Workshop includes the $125 ticket to the event, and a 1/4 page listing in the Venture Guide Magazine (normally $125). Most importantly, it includes an exclusive advanced meeting with the participating VC & Angel Funds between 5 & 6pm, where you can shake hands and give your Elevator Pitch in person! There are only 13 spaces left in the workshop.

UPDATES FROM 2010
Due to the Huge demand last year, we’ve made the following updates:

We are requiring a minimum of 2 investors from each fund, cutting the lines in half.

Higher signs for the funds, and Maps on the back of each handout

More reminders mentioning the fund descriptions, helping you map out your evening and target the firms better. click the fund names below for the descriptions!

Line Cut Pass. Everyone gets one line cut pass where you can immediately see your top pick fund that evening!

Clip from our VC Showcase in PA

Credit Suisse

One Madison Avenue

NY,
NY10010

Thursday, February 3, 2011,
6:00pm – 9:15pm

Vivecoach launches gaming application designed to bring fun to corporate wellness.

VC-List.com — Thu, 13 Jan 2011 22:16:56 +0000

Vivecoach launches gaming application designed to bring fun to corporate wellness.

Menlo Park, CA – Vivecoach recently launched its web- and mobile-based wellness challenge application to help companies engage employees in improving their health and well-being. Gaming is rapidly evolving and changing the way people live all aspects of their lives. Vivecoach’s application brings gaming to productive use in the workplace in the form of wellness challenges and competitions.

Some examples of Vivecoach challenges include weight loss, walking (steps using pedometers), minutes of exercise, nutrition, and “Cold Turkey” challenges where participants give up things like dessert, junk food, or soda for a week at a time. Vivecoach challenges incorporate gaming mechanics that make it rewarding and fun for individuals to participate: Challenge Walls for social engagement, real-time Leaderboards to spur competitive spirit, social and tangible Rewards, and a Personal Achievements section where people can be recognized for their progress, earn points and badges, and share their challenge successes on Facebook.

Corporations can drive employee engagement by linking challenges to corporate culture, teaming, and community building. Vivecoach challenges are easy to customize and deploy. They can be launched company-wide, or for any size employee group. Further, any employee can create his or her own challenge and invite colleagues to join. The viral nature of Vivecoach’s challenges drives high levels of engagement.

To date, many corporations that have invested in wellness programs have seen decreases in absenteeism and medical costs, but overall employee engagement and effects on the bottom have remained low. “Companies have been trying to find the silver bullet for engagement and resulting behavior change and have so far been unsuccessful.” explains co-founder and CEO Doug Keare. “The only thing way to make it work is to tap into employee interests and make it fun” he adds.

Vivecoach is a web-based application that works on any computer with internet, and on all mobile platforms including standard cell phones via text messaging, and as a web-based application on iPhones, Android-based smart phones, and tablets such as the Apple iPad or Samsung Galaxy. Vivecoach requires no integration with existing data systems and can be customized to meet the needs of each client.

Vivecoach is currently deployed in leading Silicon Valley companies and is selling its service into companies with 1000 or more employees. Pricing is on a per-employee-per-month basis with rates based on the size of the employee population and Vivecoach covers dependents for free.

About Vivecoach

Vivecoach, founded in 2008 in Menlo Park, California brings gaming to work. Vivecoach’s fun web- and mobile-based corporate challenge platform helps corporations engage employees in any behavior change. Challenges bring gaming benefits to any activity where competition among individuals or teams, or even a group goal, can be used to motivate desired behaviors. Vivecoach has combined the universal appeal of gaming with the convenience of mobility and the power of employee initiative to help corporations drive organization performance.

Putting Online- and Mobile-Gaming to Productive Use in the Corporate Environment.
www.vivecoach.com.