Startable – Healy Jones’ & Prasad Thammineni’s Blog

Some of you may already have heard – Boundless has a new VP of Marketing, and I’m happy to say it’s me, Healy Jones! I came on board earlier in January, and am really I’m excited to help advance the Boundless mission – making textbooks and education more affordable and better.

Prior to joining I spoke with college students, who universally expressed frustration at the cost of textbooks, the poor quality of the traditional publishers’ ebook offerings and endless cycle of “new” editions created by publishers for the sake of making used books worthless.

The traditional textbook publishing industry is staring at a huge tidal wave of change, just as the encyclopedia industry did a few years ago. Textbooks must evolve into something that better suits students’ learning habits and pocketbooks. Boundless is really exciting since I get to be part of the solution.

Since I’ve officially joined we’ve released free textbooks in 18 subjects. And Boundless was covered in TechCrunch and USA Today, and had great blog posts about the  Boundless open textbooks on the Creative Commons blog and Semantic Web. AND, our semester is off to a great start with thousands upon thousands of college students electing to try Boundless free versions of popular books like Campbell’s Biology, Meyer’s Psychology and Principles of Microeconomics. If this is what changing the world feels like, I’m loving it.

I’m excited to be part of the Boundless revolution and look forward to helping students save some money!!

I have just been nominated for a very cool Boston area technology leadership award. That’s right, little old me, Healy Jones! I’m pretty pumped. The award is the MassTLC’s Emerging Executive of the Year; there are five finalists. Basically, the award recognizes Massachusetts executives who have launched successful products, developed new strategies and achieved benchmark successes in the last year. OfficeDrop had a pretty great year last year, so everybody here is really excited about this nomination.

More about the Emerging Executive Award by MassTLC

Here is what the MassTLC has to say about this award: “This year the Council introduced a new judging model for the awards program that included 55 executives, investors, analysts, media and thought leaders who participated in the finalist selection process. The pool of finalists will be further narrowed over the coming weeks and the winners will be announced on Thursday, September 13, at the MassTLC Leadership Awards Gala at the Boston Renaissance Waterfront Hotel in Boston. Details and advance registration are available at www.masstlcawards.org.”

I’ll point you to a post we did on the OfficeDrop Bostinno Channel that we did that talks more about the cool things I’ve been working on with the team here at OfficeDrop. You can read about Healy Jones being a finalist for emerging executive of the year here on our Bostinno Channel.

Also, sort of unrelated, but you can read an interview with me on an important scanning/imaging blog regarding OfficeDrop’s white label/OEM strategy where we power larger companies cloud storage.

Recently there have been a few interesting posts on the Boston internet startup scene. This genre of posts seems to come back every 18 months or so, and I thought I would revisit a piece I did a while ago called “Keeping startups in Boston.” I wrote the post in 2010, and the purpose of my points was:

I’ll try to elaborate on a few of the problems I see in Boston – problems that make it less desirable for startup founders to want to found/keep their companies here. My point of view is colored by the years I spent living in San Francisco and by the fact that I am not originally from New England. Also, please keep in mind that as a guy helping run a startup in Cambridge I actually do think this is a great place to found a technology company.

Anyways, I mentioned the following points:

1) Lack of funding sources to take a risk on less experienced founders. Sometimes I feel like this is starting to get better, sometimes not. I”m seeing a lot more seed rounds being done in Boston, but we’ll see how they translate to Series A or successful outcomes.

2) Little investor willingness to roll up the sleeves and mentor/help other companies. I see some serious improvement here, coupled with a real improvement with point #3 as well. Programs like TechStars have brought mentors out hiding and made it cool to help get small companies off the ground. This makes me happy.

3) Very few here-is-how-you-grow-your-company events. Totally getting better, with incubators leading the way + organized events at the CIC, MSFT Nerd and a few other places gaining steam.

4) Very little national, customer driving press. This is still a huge problem. A really huge problem. I don’t see it getting better soon, although Bostinno is trying hard to become a real East Coast tech reporting machine. I see them making real progress, but this will just take time.

5) It is hard to feel welcome as a “non-native” in Boston. Still a problem that most non-natives don’t get, nor do I expect them to.

So, there is some serious improvement on the “what ills” Boston startups since my post a few years ago… but has there been any progress on making better consumer startup/internet companies here? Yeah, I’d think so, just based on the number of companies I see actually growing and doing well, like RunKeeper or Boundless or CustomMade.

Only time will tell though. There needs to be a big company that becomes a tech spawner, where a bunch of engineers make a lot of $ and then go and start other companies. Maybe Hubspot will fulfill that role.

Finally, here are the articles that got me thinking about this, one by a reporter named Jim Kerstetter and one by Rob Go.

Looks like Harvard has an interesting initiative going to try to get startups going. I can’t seem to embed the video, so you’ll have to click here to get it.

I’m interviewed on NPR this morning! Very cool stuff.

The piece was about startup real estate in Kendall Square, the leading innovation district in Boston.

I (Healy Jones) am interviewed by well known NPR reporter Curt Nickish about our quest to find new office space. OfficeDrop is growing, and we are striking deals with large companies, so we want to move into better digs.

The piece pokes a little fun at our dog-centric culture, and is a good listen to anyone who knows the Boston startup ecosystem.

Some of you may know my complaint that the VCs are moving into Kendall driving up the rent. The piece goes a bit deeper and talks about how big companies are gobbling up all the real estate. And driving up rent for little companies like us.

Massachusetts has a couple of long-existing efforts to promote early stage company growth; there is a great write up in BostonInno on these funds. It is a critical evaluation on of their success and weaknesses.

Wait a second!

The MoneyTree/PWC Q2 venture capital dollars by region shows Boston still on top over NYC for dollars invested in Q2 2011!

NYC vs Boston VC investments

This does not mesh with the data from CBinsights that was released just a few days ago.

I’ve reached out to my contact at CBinsights to see if he has any info on this. I bet there are just some differences in how the data is collected. But in the PWC data above New England is quite a bit over NYC.

At the end of the day this doesn’t really matter too much as long as all the regions software investments are up. I don’t believe that this is a zero sum game, and there can be multiple regions outside of the valley that have thriving internet hubs. NYC and Boston should both be among these. I dream of a interconnected Northeast coast internet hub from NYC to Boston along the Acela route… it makes sense give how connected these two regions are that startup talent, dollars and ideas flow along the coast in a giant melting pot of new startups, people and exits.

Lots of reports of the end of Massachusetts as a startup hub due to the fact that NYC raised more venture funding in Q3 2011 than Boston.

First of all, I am not upset that New York is becoming a real startup hub. Let’s got those technologists out of the backrooms of hedge funds and out there making some awesome products that people can actually use!

Secondly, I don’t think that there is a zero sum game here; if more and more companies do well there should be enough capital to go around.

Third, Mass has been huge in healthcare investing and has been less than stellar in Technology investments for a while now. As healthcare venture capital investments have dropped pretty agressively it makes sense that Massachusetts would dip.

IMHO, the thing that Massachusetts needs now to get it’s tech/internet mojo back is to have a few major exits take place – followed by the employees of those companies starting the next generation of startups + the local VCs recycling money back into the area.

I see some great companies in Boston that are ripe for doing just this. I hope that we see success with a few of them and can get the startup juices flowing again. I feel that the NYC to Boston Acela line could be the next startup super cluster, and I’d like Boston to pull its weight. Check out the CBinsights report for all the details; it’s the source of these charts.

I’m pretty excited about a new partnership my company has that just launched. OfficeDrop is working with Nuance’s PaperPort desktop filing system to bring the newest version of PaperPort, PaperPort 14, to the cloud.

The team here at OfficeDrop was able to connect our APIs to PaperPort 14′s desktop client, making it simple to right click any folder from within PaperPort 14 and automatically sync all files to the cloud. If you include the mobile apps we developed this means you can right click a folder and the text search, browse and share the folder and it’s contents from your phone. It’s pretty cool and the tech press seems to be getting it. You can buy PaperPort 14 at paperport.com, where you can also sign up for a free PaperPort Anywhere account. And the mobile apps are here:

• PaperPort Anywhere iPhone and iPad App
• PaperPort Anywhere Android App

Obviously preparing for this was a ton of work, which is why I’ve been totally silent on the blogging front. Hopefully now that we are launched I”ll have time to get back to posting more frequently!

Below is the press release by Nuance talking about PaperPort Anywhere.

Nuance Launches PaperPort Anywhere Cloud Service

Making it Easy for Millions to Organize, Access and Share All of Their Paper and Digital Documents, Anywhere and Anytime

BURLINGTON, Mass., August 2, 2011 — Nuance Communications, Inc. (NASDAQ: NUAN), a leading provider of speech and imaging solutions, today introduced PaperPort® Anywhere, a new cloud-based service that makes it easy to organize, access and share documents from nearly any PC and mobile device. PaperPort Anywhere lets users manage and access their documents in the cloud using web browsers, as well as using free apps from Nuance for Apple® and Google® Android® mobile devices.

The service uses the market-leading Nuance OmniPage® OCR (optical character recognition) engine to automatically create searchable documents from scanned and camera-captured documents, as well as faxes, making paper content as easy to search and find as digital documents. As a result, users can organize, access and share all of their document content on PaperPort Anywhere.

“There is a reason that recent surveys show over 51% of people still use paper files – it is in large part because current cloud services treat paper content as an afterthought,” said Robert Weideman, vice president and general manager for the Nuance Document Imaging Division. “PaperPort Anywhere goes further than other services by closing the content gap between paper and digital documents – making it easy to scan to the cloud, improving the way users manage both their scanned and digital documents, and by making cloud access easy and convenient.”

PaperPort Anywhere also integrates with the new release of Nuance PaperPort 14 for Windows®, the world’s most popular scanning and document management application for the PC, which was also announced today. PaperPort 14 provides automatic synchronization of Windows folders and files with PaperPort Anywhere. It also adds conversion of scanned and PDF documents into fully formatted word and spreadsheet files that can be edited on Windows, the Macintosh and through cloud services such as Google Docs and Microsoft Office 365. PaperPort 14 provides robust PDF capabilities, including the ability to create PDF from practically any application, and includes PDF-MRC, which creates scanned files that are up to eight times smaller than scanned PDF files without compression.

PaperPort Anywhere is valuable to anyone that works with documents, including the over 20 million registered users of Nuance desktop applications, and users of the more than five million seats of PaperPort that are deployed each year. PaperPort Anywhere includes free apps for Apple iPhone, iPad and Google Android devices, and is free for up to one gigabyte of searchable storage space. PaperPort Anywhere subscription plans include $9.99 per month for 10 gigabytes and $24.99 per month for 50 gigabytes of storage space.

PaperPort Anywhere Key Features and Benefits

PaperPort Anywhere makes it easy to organize, access, and share any document – both paper and digital – anywhere and anytime. Key features and benefits include:

• Organize All Your Documents in the Cloud. PaperPort Anywhere is more than cloud storage – it provides a better way to organize and use your documents. PaperPort Anywhere’s thumbnail and clip views of paper and digital documents are key features that help you quickly organize documents.
• Search and Find both Paper and Digital Documents. PaperPort Anywhere is powered by the Nuance OmniPage OCR engine, which provides the highest levels of accuracy for scanned documents and image PDF files, such as those from fax services. The best OCR means users can find indexed paper documents just as they do Word and spreadsheet files.
• Access and Use, Anywhere and Anytime. PaperPort Anywhere is accessible through any web browser at www.PaperPort.com, the web gateway to PaperPort Anywhere cloud services. Nuance also provides free apps for the Apple iPhone®, iPad® and Google Android devices, and supports Microsoft Windows through PaperPort 14.
• Share and Collaborate. PaperPort Anywhere makes it easy to share links to files stored on the site. The service also supports secure and permission-based emailing of files into PaperPort Anywhere accounts, making it easier than ever to collaborate and share documents with others.
• One Click Scan to Cloud. Only PaperPort Anywhere integrates with PaperPort 14 – the world’s most popular scanning and document management application for the PC. The combination results in unmatched document productivity and convenience.

Pricing and Availability

PaperPort Anywhere with up to one gigabyte of searchable storage is free. PaperPort Anywhere Premium with up to 10 gigabytes of storage is $9.99 per month and $24.99 a month for 50 gigabytes of storage. For additional information on PaperPort Anywhere visit www.PaperPort.com.

About PaperPort Anywhere

PaperPort Anywhere is a new, innovative cloud service from Nuance that makes it easy to scan, organize and share documents – anytime, from anywhere. PaperPort Anywhere is powered by OfficeDrop. It delivers enhanced search-indexing capabilities using Nuance OmniPage OCR.

Nuance Communications, Inc.

Nuance Communications, Inc. is a leading provider of speech and imaging solutions for businesses and consumers around the world. Its technologies, applications and services make the user experience more compelling by transforming the way people interact with information and how they create, share and use documents. Every day, millions of users and thousands of businesses experience Nuance’s proven applications. For more information, please visit www.nuance.com.

Trademark reference: Nuance, the Nuance logo, and OmniPage and PaperPort are registered trademarks or trademarks of Nuance Communications, Inc. or its affiliates in the United States and/or other countries. All other company names or product names referenced herein may be the property of their respective owners.

# # #

Media and Industry Analyst Contact:

Jennifer Shelgren

Nuance Communications, Inc.

Tel: (781) 565-4758

Email: jennifer.shelgren@nuance.com

Cool news today, and props to BostInno for breaking the story on Performable being bought by Hubspot.

This deal makes sense if Hubspot customers are looking for deeper analytics, like the ones offered by Performable. It also combines a large and well known engineering team with Performable’s kick butt dev team. It’s good to see that Hubspot is putting some of that monster Series D money to good use.

The only issue I have with the acquistion is that it puts two of the top Boston area seed investors under the same roof. Dharmesh Shah and David Cancel are two really aggressive angel investors… hopefully them being in the same company won’t cause their individual deal flow to decrease as they spend more and more time together…