CORRECTION: Last week the url for Intelix, Inc., a provider of custom application development and integration services, was listed incorrectly. The correct url is: http://www.intelixinc.com


|||||||||||||||||||||| 1. News About The Program ||||||||||||||||||||||

1.1 I HEARD THE NEWS (ONLINE) TODAY, OH BOY
Hey, how about this spiffy new look for Netpreneur News? A little slicker and more streamlined, we think, (considering what you can do with plain text, anyway), but the even bigger news is that now you HTML fans can read News online. Starting today, just click on the new link that appears in the masthead, and Netpreneur News will be available for reading in your browser, including a clickable table of contents so you can go right to the stories that interest you most. Go ahead. Try it now: http://netpreneur.org/news

BTW, notice the new tag line? Just our way of reinforcing what Netpreneur News is all about -- the region’s startup tech businesses. We cover the companies, people, and community efforts that fly under the radar, so even if you think your news is to small for The Post, send it to editor@netpreneur.org. We can’t cover everything, of course, but keep sending us stories about your startup and we’ll include what fits. For more on how to get covered in Netpreneur News, visit: http://netpreneur.org/news/policy.html
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1.2 ON LEADERSHIP AND CORPORATE CULTURE
In the early days of a company, do-or-die concerns like building the product, closing customers, and generating revenue occupy almost all of your time. Those may be the priorities, but the importance of leadership in building a winning corporate culture shouldn't be overlooked either, especially as your company begins to grow. Organizational culture of the organization is typically created unconsciously, based on the values of the founders or top management, yet the success of many companies over the years has been due in no small part to the culture that evolved. Culture and leadership are too important to be left to chance, so on February 27, Coffee & DoughNets will focus on corporate culture and the values that permeate everything your company does, from how you work with partners, customers, and employees, to how companies build and maintain their winning (and losing) cultures. Speakers include Caren DeWitt, co-founder of webMethods; Matthew Pittinsky, co-founder of Blackboard; moderator Jeremy Brosowsky, founder and CEO of Washington Business Forward magazine; and Netpreneur's own Mario Morino providing the wrap-up. C&D will be Wednesday, February 27, 7:00 am, at the AMC Theatres at Union Station in Washington, DC. The event is free, but online sign up is required.

Sign up for C&D: http://netpreneur.org/events/doughnets


|||||||||||||||||||||| 2. Regional Netpreneurs ||||||||||||||||||||||

2.1 IMPROVING ENGINEERING EFFICIENCY
(Sterling, VA) Intersect Software introduced CrossPoint, an enterprise software application that boosts the efficiency of engineering and product development organizations. It manages inter- and intra-team commitments and deliverables, automates management and administrative processes, and improves the ability to find and communicate with the right people. In addition, CrossPoint captures the detailed daily transactions and tasks that comprise engineering management to provide an operational history for used in planning future projects.
http://www.intersectsoft.com
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2.2 SPIRENT FORMS DEFENSE GPS SUBSIDIARY
(Rockville, MD) Spirent Communications, a provider of performance analysis and service assurance systems, has formed a US subsidiary, Global Secure Systems, to provide simulation system technology to the Department of Defense for analyzing and assuring Global Positioning System (GPS) receivers. GSS will provide global positioning simulators, including government-required modifications or enhancements, and will support existing equipment for local and wide area network infrastructures, including Service Level Agreement (SLA) verification. Former Secretary of the Navy, Larry Garrett, is Chairman of the new firm; Ellen Hall is President and CEO. 
http://www.global-secure.com
http://www.spirentcom.com
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2.3 STEP 9'S SERVICE DELIVERY MANAGEMENT SOLUTION
(Fairfax, VA) Step 9 Software debuted iCustomer SDX, a service delivery management solution for communications service providers that tracks customers, products, and processes throughout the service delivery lifecycle. The Web-based product combines an end-to-end customer management framework, a multi-tiered product catalog, an enhanced Order Entry/Order Management function, and a Business Intelligence module that provides service delivery metrics, including workforce efficiency, cost/revenue analysis, and customer satisfaction measurements. http://www.step9.com
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2.4 ROUND-UP: ADVERTISING TECHNOLOGIES

-- Real-Time Online Ratings
(Charlottesville, VA) Who won the battle of the Super Bowl Ads? During Sunday's Super Bowl, PeopleSpace used its newest technology, the Real-Time Rating Tool, to gather audience opinions. More than an online poll, the tool allows thousands of users to rate an event as it progresses, and to continuously view the accumulated tally. Participants can vote in intervals as short as every five seconds, giving a timeline of feedback for applications from advertisements to political speeches to TV series. Users can vote using their computer, interactive TV systems, or wireless devices. On Sunday, PeopleSpace asked participants to rate the Super Bowl ads and the Half Time show for their impact and entertainment value, tracking the time of the votes and demographic information. (Yahoo's Talking Porpoise got the highest score, but the highest ranking single moment was when the Anheuser-Busch Clydesdales bowed to the Statute of Liberty.) PeopleSpace creates and runs online marketing and community events for customers that include Sesame Street, Lifetime TV, and Fox Sports.
http://www.peoplespace.com
http://www.realtimerating.com

-- Your Choice Of Commercials
(Gaithersburg, MD) WeatherBug introduced a new form of interactive advertising, called Sponsor Select, that gives consumers the ability to select the ads they want to see. WeatherBug is an online software application that streams live local weather data and forecasts to more than seven million registered users. At launch, nearly 50 advertisers have signed on to participate in the program. Consumers who download WeatherBug are asked to select their sponsor from a list of choices during the registration process. Users can then preview and accept their chosen sponsor company and its advertisement, or go back and select another. Once the WeatherBug application is up and running, the selected sponsor's ads will be displayed during the first 24 hours of usage via a patent-pending format, called BrandWrap, that integrates the sponsor's advertising message and the weather content together. WeatherBug is operated by AWS Convergence Technologies, which runs the world's largest network of weather stations.
http://www.weatherbug.com
http://www.aws.com
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2.5 ROUND-UP: SECURITY

-- Trust Digital Protects Expansion Cards
(Fairfax, VA) Trust Digital unveiled its new Secure Card application designed to encrypt data stored on an expansion memory card. The product targets the growing number of organizations that are providing mobile employees with proprietary data, much of which becomes stored on expansion cards. The product provides users with options for encrypting a single file, multiple files, or the entire card. Users can choose from a variety of encryption algorithms to determine how data is converted into "ciphertext," the un-readable text that is viewed on the device's screen before it is unlocked by an authorized user.
http://www.trustdigital.com

-- EyeTicket Launching Biometric Trials
(McLean, VA) EyeTicket and Virgin Atlantic Airways will work together to launch a trial program at Heathrow Airport to expedite airline passenger processing at the passport control stage.  The project represents the first large-scale application relying solely on biometrics, and is being conducted in cooperation with Virgin Atlantic Airways, BAA, UK Immigration Service, and another British airline. EyeTicket is also unveiling the latest release of its JetStream product line which uses iris recognition technology for passenger processing and is currently being used at Heathrow.
http://www.eyeticket.com

-- Para-Protect Closes
(Centreville, VA) Just so's you don't think everything's all RC Colas and Moon Pies as long as you're in the security sector, Para-Protect Services "is selling off its assets and preparing to go out of business," reports Potomac Tech Journal. The company was unable to make sufficient profits from its managed security solutions and began talking to potential buyers last October. Para-Protect had raised $11 million in two VC rounds, including investments from Novak Biddle Venture Partners, Winston/Thayer Partners, Mid-Atlantic Venture Funds and Riggs Capital.
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2.6 ROUND-UP: QUICK HITS

(Rockville, MD) Visual Mining released NetCharts 4.0, a Java-based charting product that enables programmers and Web developers to create interactive visual displays of quantitative information. Enhancements include new drawing features and chart types.
http://www.visualmining.com

(Washington, DC) SwapDrive, a provider of Web-based data storage, released a RIM platform interface that enables mobile users to log on to their Backup and FileShare accounts directly from a wireless device.
http://www.swapdrive.com

(Rockville, MD) FileTek's data storage and access management product, StorHouse, will be integrated into CA-based SAP Portals' Business Information Warehouse product.
http://www.filetek.com
http://www.sapportals.com

(Sterling, VA) A new partnership has Categoric Software's Xalerts product being embedded into products from CT-based Adeptra, providing an integrated technology solution for delivering personalization and event notification processing and functionality.
http://www.categoric.com
http://www.adeptra.com

(Annapolis, MD) Multimedia development firm Vansant Creations launched two new services targeting small businesses: "BusinessCard Web Sites" offers inexpensive, template-based websites; "Virtual Web Workshop" is an evaluation service for existing sites.
http://www.vansantcreations.com

(Baltimore, MD) The Berndt Group built the website for RI-based Context Media, a developer of software that controls access, distribution, and subscriptions to digital media content.
http://www.contextmedia.com
http://www.berndtgroup.net


|||||||||||||||||||||| 3. Funding & Finance News ||||||||||||||||||||||

3.1 DOUGH RAISE ME

$17.5 million in a Series C round for Chantilly based security systems integration company ISR Solutions. The round was led by Carlyle Venture Partners, with participation by LHC Corporation and Fairfax Partners. ISR specializes in large projects for governments and corporations. http://www.isrsolutions.com
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3.2 VC INVESTMENTS INCREASED IN Q4
Venture capitalists invested $7.1 billion in entrepreneurial enterprises in the fourth quarter of 2001, reversing a downward trend that began in the third quarter of 2000, according to the PricewaterhouseCoopers/Venture Economics/National Venture Capital Association MoneyTree Survey. "These fourth quarter numbers suggest that the economic and psychological climate for venture investing is beginning to improve after 18 months of steady decline," says the report. The survey also showed that despite an extremely difficult economic environment, $36.5 billion was invested in the 12 months of 2001, ranking the year as the industry's third best in terms of total dollars invested. For more highlights and data visit:
http://www.pwcmoneytree.com
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3.3 MONTAGU NEWHALL RAISES $52 MILLION FUND
(Owings Mills, MD) Venture capital firm Montagu Newhall Associates announced that it had closed Montagu Newhall Global Partners, L.P, a fund with over $52 million in capital. The new fund already has made commitments totaling $33.25 million to nine venture capital partnerships and co-investments totaling $1.9 million in four life sciences companies. The firm says that the fund "is expected to diversify its portfolio in IT, communications and healthcare/life sciences, as well as broad coverage of the major venture capital markets of the US and Europe." The new fund has made commitments to partnerships raised by a number of VC firms, including Abingworth, Atlas Venture, Accel Partners Europe, Boulder Ventures, Domain Associates, New Enterprise Associates, North Bridge Venture Partners, Oak Partners, and Polaris Ventures. General Partner Ashton Newhall is the son of New Enterprise Associates founder Chuck Newhall. 
http://www.montagunewhall.com


|||||||||||||||||||| 4. Resources & Opportunities |||||||||||||||||||

4.1 ONE MORE FOOTBALL GAME
(Chantilly, VA) Now in its third year, the Capital Cyber Bowl is a football game between Northern Virginia tech executives and their traditional business counterparts that benefits the National Foundation for Teaching Entrepreneurship (NFTE) and its efforts to bring Internet knowledge to inner-city classrooms. The "Web Warriors" won in 2000, the "Brick & Mortars" won in 2001, (appropriate, huh?) making this year the rubber match. You can only attend by webcast, but check it out at TV Worldwide at 11:30 AM EST on February 10.
http://www.tvworldwide.com/event_020210_cyberbowl.cfm

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