On Rad's Radar? - vc Archives

Money, Market, Launch - News

2012-10-12T18:28:47Z

I can't always write about everything happening, so here are some tidbits:

The TCA added 17 more members at the CPExpo in Orlando as the TCA closes in on 550 members - about 200 of whom have signed up to get certified as a CTP.

The US Secretary of Defense announced that Cyber-attacks could threaten US infrastructure. The DoD is working on a response. It is a constant game of cat and mouse - and the mouse is a fixed target.

SaaS company, Workday, IPO'ed today with a 70% bump to rake in $637M. "The company has not turned a profit." And revenue last year was $134M. That cloud buzz is a hit with investors.

"Integra Telecom today announced that investment funds affiliated with Searchlight Capital Partners, L.P. have acquired a significant equity stake in the company."

Virtual Communications Express is VZ's Broadsoft based SMB Hosted PBX offering that has some integration with Google Apps and a dashboard. I know someone who is exhausted and glad it launched!

An inside look at the Sprint-Softbank negotiations. Customers? No a worry in those rooms.

Master Agency, Intelsys, blogs about the huge opportunity in sales that agents have. "Conservatively we believe the US addressable market share for the telecom services channel of which we are all part is $100 billion annually, or $8.3 billion in monthly spend. This excludes most of the Fortune 1000 on the high end, and the SOHO/consumer segment on the low end.... , Intelisys Sales Partners will own about 0.2% of the addressable net billed market share." The numbers say we need more volume to move the needle.

End Caps

2012-01-21T14:49:32Z

This was the week that we learned that online protesting can work -- if enough people get involved and if you get the support of some powerhouse websites like Google and Wikipedia. It looks like SOPA was dropped and the vote on PIPA was delayed. (It is still alive due to Democrat lawmakers who are beholden to Hollywood like Florida Senator Bill Nelson. If he knew how to turn on his laptop by himself I could understand it, but come on!)

We don't really need any more copyright laws. If we did, would the feds have been able to fly to New Zealand to arrest the owner of MegaUpload? What was he arrested and renditioned for? Online piracy.

Not for nothing, but don't we have more important things to be spending federal dollars on? We are a nation with lost priorities.

And yet another carrier joins the CLOUD: "US Signal recently released an Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) product offering, what US Signal calls Managed Data Center. Customers have increasingly requested US Signal to host their applications, for financial reasons, scalability, security, and more."

Yesterday, TCA held its monthly agent webinar with Netwolves presenting on Managed Services. With most of the telcos offering Managed Servcies, we at TCA thought it was time to give an overview of what Managed Services are from carriers, who is buying them and how does an Agent sell them. How does an Agent start that conversation with the prospect about managed services? The webinar was recorded and TCA members can play it back at any time.

Nemertes Research predicts a shortage of colocation space in the U.S. beginning this year. That is likely because some colo space is being used for PAAS and IAAS. Also, some colo houses don't want to sell colo any more because there is more cash in xAAS. (Or so they say.) I have seen that trying to find single rack colo slots are getting more difficult. Personally, I thought that when Amazon, Facebook, Google and others built their data centers, a lot of space would be opened up in other data centers.

The other issue with colocation is that Equinix, InterNAP and now Savvis have cut the channel out of selling their space. Other data centers - like Vegas' SwitchNAP - are difficult to deal with. That kind of affects colo sales, too. Luckily, ViaWest and TELX are still agent friendly.

Code 42 Software, a cloud backup service named Crashplan, got $52M in funding from Accel Partners. It seems a massive amount of funding for an online backup company.

Is 5G around the corner? Heck, most of the US is still in 2.5G-3G land.

VoIP Consolidation Well Underway

2011-02-23T04:09:26Z

There's been some M&A among VoIP Providers this year but there is more on the horizon. CLEC's are looking to get in the game with an acquisition. Indeed EarthLink did just that with its quiet acquisition of STS Telecom, a former UNE-P then Sylantro shop in South Florida (to go with its purchase of Deltacom).

Other ITSP's are actively seeking an acquisition or hoping one will come along.

It hasn't been all peaches and cream for Hosted PBX providers. There have been a number of stumbling blocks like QOS, call quality, E-911, fees and taxes, uptime, inter-operability, reliability, growth and scale. Coming on the heels of the Vonage lawsuit mania; the SunRocket implosion; VoIP Inc. bankruptcy; and other bad news in the sector that led some prospects to shy away from VoIP.

Compact that with free VoIP calling, iPhone apps, and the market got crowded real fast. Meanwhile, a real marketing campaign and clear messaging were lacking from many companies. The sales process for this service is different from other telecom services (TDM), which created a hurdle to sales growth (and scale).

Now we come to a time when VC money to Hosted VoIP (or Hosted UC or Cloud Comm) is slowing down, while the MSO Hosted PBX sales effort is launching.

Fair warning to ITSP's: Get your sheep together! Now!

By 2Q2011, Comcast and Cox will be rolling out Hosted PBX (99 seats and under) to top markets. This will put intense pressure on ILEC's, CLEC's and VoIP companies. Why?

For the following reasons: Both Comcast and Cox have

a brand.
a marketing machine.
an installed base of customers.
deep pockets.
knowledgeable product team.
own the network to control QOS and call quality.

As a client mentioned, "This isn't a message you want to hear (as a VOIP Provider), but it's one to take seriously." So get your ducks in a row, fast.

2 More Acquisitions

2011-01-06T16:55:40Z

Rumor from SFGate is it that Skype bought Qik for $100 million. Qik's smartphone video streaming service has grown to 5 million users. That doesn't mean revenue though - and Skype should know, right? Only 6% of its 124 million users contribute to the bottom line.

Meanwhile, GENBAND bought Cedar Point, a provider of integrated packet-based voice and multimedia switching technologies to the cable industry, which is the industry that GENBAND wants to dominate. GENBAND is banking that cable voice will grow along with cable broadband sales (at the expense of ILEC DSL).

In non-acquisition news, LightEdge was named to Gartner's Visionaries list for UC as a Service. "The LightEdge Connected Office suite includes: hosted PBX voice services, hosted e-mail (Microsoft Exchange), hosted instant messaging and presence (Microsoft Office Communicator), hosted desktop faxing, and voice/web conferencing." The fact that Iowa-based LightEdge melds email and OCS with the other voice stuff makes it different. Only a few providers do that - Alteva in Phillie.

Please note my one point is that these Hosted PBX companies are getting crazy with the marketing terms: Converged Comm in Cloud, Converged Comm AAS, UCaaS, blah, blah. Do you think any of your prospects is shopping for that? I'm in this Industry and can barely keep up with the term of the week that your PR firm made up. How about developing a real USP / Value statement / elevator pitch / brand statement?

Ask Gives Up (and other news)

2010-11-09T21:56:03Z

A bunch of stuff from my twitter feed, which produces all those useless facts in my head (and distracts me all day).

Ask.com gives up on search [RRW] they will just do Q&A (for now).

Twilio raises $12 million to let you call from web apps to phones. [venturebeat] Twilio is a 2x sponosr of StartupCamp Communications.

23% of all US households report that no one in the home uses the Internet anywhere. [Ars]

Phone.com Offers 100% Automated Voicemail Transcription

What does an entrepreneur do for fun? Think, talk, and dream about business.

Mobile payments: Square is processing millions of dollars in transactions each week [TC]

Cisco - 42% of employees restricted from using social media at work.

@HeinzMarketing: "my product is better" triggers a price war. "my product is different" drives discovery and value. #sm20

Do you really think blogging is being replaced by FB, twitter? Thought leadership doesn't happen in 140-420 characters.

Cisco led the Series C funding round which closed last week for RingCentral. RingCentral launched an agent program a couple months ago and already have 150+ sales agent partners. (It's not quantity; it's quality/relationship).

HD Medical Video

2009-02-24T18:55:35Z

Now here's where a niche really pays off.

"Rivulet Communications, whose technology enables flawless HD medical video on the hospital IP network, has raised an $11.5 million round from ATA Ventures, Menlo Ventures, Performance Equity Management and Scorpion Capital Partners... The company won several patents for its technologies, which include its wide-area network Internet Protocol quality of service technology in 2008. ... Its technology helps high priority network traffic avoid bottlenecks, speeding real-time traffic and maintaining video quality. It can be used on existing networks."[TechJournal South]

Tele-Presence and Video Conferencing and HD Voice are services on the growth path, but certainly HD Medical Video is a specialization.

Call for Telecom Startups

2008-10-29T12:52:14Z

from today's HARO:

"The Telecom Council of Silicon Valley is now accepting applications to present to their Investor Forum on December 5th, location in Silicon Valley (TBA).

Over the past 6 years, 50% of presenters to our Service Provider and Investor Forums have started talks with our members and 20% of those lead to a deal.
This Quarterly Investor Forum meeting attendees include both the Service Provider and Investor members of the Telecom Council who gather for one purpose - to invest in new telecom technologies and companies. As a start-up in the telecom industry, there is no better room to be in, and no better audience to pitch to. In addition to providing high level networking and quality investment opportunities to our forum members, another one of the Telecom Councils goals is to help interesting start-ups kick start their business development cycles. For an idea of who to expect at our December meeting, past attendees include AT&T, Sprint, Orange, Vodafone and many more.

It is free to apply and applications to present to the 12/5 Investor Forum will be accepted until 11/8. Please submit requests at:
http://www.telecomcouncil.com/speakers.php
All applications are reviewed by the Investor Forum steering committee, and companies selected to present will be notified on November 10. Presenter registration is free for Telecom Council members, or $500 for non-members.
Feel free to contact Liz Kerton for more information on the forum, liz (at) telecomcouncil.com."