Resonant Venture Partners

Startup = Pirate Ship?

Jason — Thu, 26 Apr 2012 21:07:00 +0000

One of our portfolio companies subscribes to the belief that your organization should be run like a pirate ship. Since they have been doing extremely well and we like pirates, we wanted to share with you the original Crash Dev article that this philosophy was based on. Check it out here.

MINTS Makes First Investment

Jason — Tue, 27 Mar 2012 21:07:59 +0000

The Michigan Investment in New Technology Startups (MINTS) program, announced by University of Michigan President Mary Sue Coleman in October 2011, made it’s first investment in an advanced memory development company based in Santa Clara, CA. While good news for UofM startups, it should be noted that this was a Series B investment and not an investment in perhaps the more underserved seed/early stage space. See the original article here.

Duo Security Releases VPN Hunter

Jason — Mon, 26 Mar 2012 17:38:06 +0000

VPN Hunter is a service that discovers and classifies the VPNs and other remote access services of any organization. Given their nature, remote access services inherently must hang off the public Internet, allowing attackers to find them and attempt to gain access to an organization’s internal network by compromising weak credentials through malware and phishing attacks. VPN Hunter was created by Duo Security to raise awareness of strong two-factor authentication for VPNs and other remote access services. Type the domain name of the organization you’d like to hunt here: www.vpnhunter.com

The Startup Roller Coaster

Jason — Wed, 14 Mar 2012 17:05:42 +0000

Fred Wilson posted a great graphic of Paul Graham’s startup curve: “which describes, using feelings and energy, the experience every startup goes through – from the initial exciting bounce through the “trough of sorrow” to improvements, and either a crash or the promised land, acquisition and beyond”. I always compare the entrepreneurial experience to a roller coaster ride, because no matter how smooth the track you are on, you are bound to scream for some reason sooner or later. See the graphic on Fred’s Blog

Google Ventures Backs Duo Security

Jason — Fri, 02 Mar 2012 22:53:48 +0000

Resonant portfolio company Duo Security has raised $5 million in a Series A round led by Google Ventures for technology that uses cell phones to help protect log-in and password information. Earlier seed backers True Ventures and Resonant Venture Partners also took part in the round. Read the full press coverage below:

Wall Street Journal
TechCrunch
peHUB
VentureBeat
Benzinga
AnnArbor.com
Concentrate

File Sharing in the Post MegaUpload Era

Jason — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 05:17:35 +0000

On January 18, 2012 global file sharing traffic collapsed. In a series of coordinate raids, US and New Zealand authorities seized thousands of MegaUpload servers and arrested its founder (at his own birthday party, no less). As the largest file sharing service on the Internet, MegaUpload downloads represented 30-40% of all file sharing. In the space of an hour, Internet traffic globally plummeted by an astounding 2-3%. Read more on Deepfield Networks’ Blog

Jon Oberheide Honored in Forbes “30 Under 30″ List

Jason — Tue, 20 Dec 2011 06:09:56 +0000

Jon Oberheide, the CTO of Resonant portfolio company Duo Security, was recently honored in Forbes “30 Under 30″ List of Technology Entrepreneurs. Jon was selected for digging up major security bugs in the Android operating system, as well as co-founding Duo Security. Duo specializes in modern two factor authentication, allowing individuals to secure their logins and transactions using their smartphones. Congrats Jon!

The SBA Launches $1B Early Stage Innovation Fund

Jason — Mon, 12 Dec 2011 20:39:08 +0000

Over the past 4 years only 6% of all venture capital has been deployed in financing rounds between $1-4M, with 70% of the financings going to only three states – California, Massachusetts and New York. The Innovation Fund will target this gap, providing a 1:1 match to private capital raised by early stage seed funds. Click here to read the full White House Press Release.

House Passes Crowdfunding Bill

Jason — Wed, 16 Nov 2011 03:32:59 +0000

The House of Representatives passed a bill that will allow startups to raise money via crowdfunding sites such as Kickstarter. Dirty cap tables – here we come! We’ll see if the Senate and President share the House’s enthusiasm. In the mean time, you can read the details and full bill here.

Jen Baird Named MVCA Entrepreneur of the Year

Jason — Wed, 09 Nov 2011 21:06:37 +0000

Jen Baird, the CEO of Resonant portfolio company Accio Energy, was recently named as the MVCA Entrepreneur of the Year. Along with Colin Rich, Jen co-founded Ann Arbor-based Accuri Cytometers Inc., which was sold in February to New Jersey-based Becton, Dickenson and Co. for $205 million. Congrats Jen!