Curt Woodward

Online memorial service Mylestoned, the latest startup from Dave Balter

Balter has raised $1.5 million in seed investment for Mylestoned, from Founder Collective, Boston Seed Capital, Converge, and angel investors. He said there are seven people already working on the company, which hopes to create a more modern way to remember the departed.More →

Cleantech

Energy efficiency startup Next Step Living shuts down, raised more than $70M

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The shutdown comes about three months after Next Step Living announced it was replacing founding CEO Geoff Chapin with the company’s finance chief, Chris Catalano, who was charged with leading the company into new markets and continued growth.More →

Food

Chef Nightly food delivery app shuts down amid intense competition

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It’s the second on-demand food service to shut down just this week: Berkeley, CA-based SpoonRocket announced it was shutting down on Tuesday.More →

MIT

Berkman Center lawyer to run new cyberlaw clinic for BU, MIT students

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The new Technology and Cyberlaw Clinic will help students tackle regulatory and legal hurdles that might trip up their cutting-edge research projects — something that MIT students in particular have run into before.More →

People

Spark Capital’s Koyfman departs as firm targets $370M fifth fund

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Spark, headquartered on Boston’s Newbury Street, was founded about 10 years ago. The firm is currently raising its fifth venture fund, which could be worth up to $370 million according to paperwork filed this week with the SEC.More →

Politics

Did EMC’s sale push noncompete reform over the edge? Not exactly

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“How I wish,” said Ellen Rubin, CEO of data-storage startup ClearSky Data. “If it were a movie, that’s how it would go.”More →

deals

EMC, Dell identify top leaders of combined company as deal moves ahead

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Dell is raising nearly $50 billion in debt to finance its purchase of EMC, which was announced in October. The buyout plan, expected to close later this year, recently won approval from the European Commission and the US Federal Trade Commission.More →

economy

Report: Biotech, med device wages climb 18 percent over five years

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The jump came even as jobs in the industry grew by 2.5 percent, an indication that the surging pay wasn’t merely because a shortage of talent is driving up prices. That’s significant in an era when many tech-industry executives report a shortage of employees as their top concern.More →

Transportation

Uber Boston says its carpool service has “saved” nearly 1M miles in six months

By Curt Woodward Follow

The company didn’t disclose any detailed statistics about uberPOOL use in the region. It said the “miles saved” figure was determined by calculating the distance that would have been traveled if additional passengers in a carpooled ride would have taken a solo Uber ride instead.More →

IBM

IBM buys Resilient Systems, third local security acquisition since 2011

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Big Blue bought Waltham’s Q1 Labs for an unknown price in 2011 and paid a reported $800 million for Boston’s Trusteer in 2013. Xconomy reported last week that IBM was paying more than $100 million for Resilient Systems.More →

Ethics

Review: HubSpot book portrays “ruthless, predatory, unforgiving” culture

By Curt Woodward Follow

“Disrupted” became the subject of intense discussion in the local tech industry well before its publication because of its central role in a mysterious ethics scandal at HubSpot. The company announced in July that it fired chief marketing officer Mike Volpe for ethics violations “in connection with attempts to procure a draft manuscript of a book involving the company.”More →

Networking

Acacia Communications updates IPO filing amid stagnant market

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Acacia’s products sit at the connection point between datacenters and the fiber-optic networks that deliver data across the Internet. They help translate digital signals into the light pulses that travel over fiber lines, and reverse the process on the other end of the connection.More →

Curt Woodward

Articles By Curt Woodward