2011 March Archive - The May Report

Archive for March, 2011

The May Report: 3/30/2011: University of Chicago undergrads are onto something big: A site for college hook-ups and casual s**, now spreading to other campuses like VD (or wild fire) — and only a week or so old, Jay Leno has already joked about them; Whatever happened to SwapSimple?; Gary Slack’s site bizydeal, a Groupon knock-off launches with a silly deal; Radian6, not a Chicago firm but a Canadian one, sold to Salesforce.com for $326MM or $340MM if you count the $14MM for the founders; Roy Santoro is the producer at WFLD who puts Howerton on TV; Thornton’s numbers, to be continued; Dr. Robert J. Sobel defends his practice’s decision to dump Medicare patients and cites his dad, Dr. Gerald Sobel, saying “You don’t get paid for your brain.”

The May Report March 30th, 2011

The May Report: 3/30/2011: University of Chicago undergrads are onto something big: A site for college hook-ups and casual s**, now spreading to other campuses like VD (or wild fire) — and only a week or so old, Jay Leno has already joked about them; Whatever happened to SwapSimple?; Gary Slack’s site bizydeal, a Groupon…

The May Report: 3/29/2011: No time to consult the headline writers for TMR. I just can’t sit on this: Melanie has cured my depression over the doc situation with this YouTube video — tell your boss you have to watch it even if it is in the middle of the day at work. BTW, is it true that only two out of 5.9 million people got the Final Four picks right?

The May Report March 29th, 2011

The May Report: 3/29/2011: No time to consult the headline writers for TMR. I just can’t sit on this: Melanie has cured my depression over the doc situation with this YouTube video — tell your boss you have to watch it even if it is in the middle of the day at work. BTW, is…

The May Report: 3/28/2011: Four Square draws 120 as it holds birthday party at Digital Bootcamp, organized by Todor Krecu; Two bozos who registered but did not show up: David Dalka and Fred Hoch, but they were not missed!; Howerton has some sort of gig at Fox News but he doesn’t have the common sense or the regular cents to bring his own gadgets; Groupon adds 150,000 square feet at 303 E. Wacker; Dick Reck rakes it in as a board member; Thornton not far behind pocketing an extra $60K a year sitting on the board of Advanced Life Sciences; Melanie reviews six or more events she attended recently and Antonio Wells has some bones to pick; A sad and depressing story of doctors dumping their Medicare patients and moving toward a high income boutique practice with membership fees in many cases, ignoring years of loyalty from patients

The May Report March 28th, 2011

The May Report: 3/23/2011: In Feb. 2011, Tech Crunch wrote about two hours ago, Groupon’s Feb. revenues dropped from an average of $81MM over the previous 3 months to $61MM!; Andrew Mason tells writer Erick Schonfeld that comScore’s traffic numbers are bullsh** — if he’s going to curse, maybe he should hire Weinstein after all; Groupon Inc. President and Chief Operating Officer Rob Solomon is leaving — what so soon?! and he was only there a year!; We’re still keeping that magical $1MM first round of funding: Lightbank funds Seattle firm Zaarly for you guessed it, $1MM; Now you tell me: Does Brad Keywell really need $100K from the Joyce Foundation and $100K from the MacArthur Foundation for an event he’s planning in October? — I’d bet that if he wrote the check himself it wouldn’t bounce; Melanie on the mobile roundtable over the weekend; SS&C Technologies announced the company’s plans to open a new service and technology center here, creating up to 500 new jobs by 2014 in an Evansville Tech Center; BNC VC Group holds Indiana night

The May Report March 23rd, 2011

The May Report: 3/23/2011: In Feb. 2011, Tech Crunch wrote about two hours ago, Groupon’s Feb. revenues dropped from an average of $81MM over the previous 3 months to $61MM!; Andrew Mason tells writer Erick Schonfeld that comScore’s traffic numbers are bullsh** — if he’s going to curse, maybe he should hire Weinstein after all;…

The May Report: 3/21/2011: Bulletin: Charles Schwab to buy OptionsXpress for a value of $1B in stock; Mayor Daley attends the last MCTA meeting under his tenure; David Weinstein shows up for his first public appearance since leaving the CEC in disgrace and is David trying now to make Groupon his next BlueMeteor?; Matt McCall provides a wrap up of the deals done with the City’s venture fund of $5MM; Hyde Park Angels invested in HoneyApps in February 2011 and Media Chaperone in March 2011 and that deal was lead by Leo Capital Holdings following a $250K angel round from October 2010 for a Facebook app; Happy 326 birthday anniversary, Johann Sebastian Bach, a man many believe to be the greatest composer of all time

The May Report March 21st, 2011

The May Report: 3/20/2011: Bulletin: Anonymous note: James C. Tyree’s Accidental Death? Or possible reaction to the ongoing Sun-Times coverage of David Koschman’s 2004 murder? The circumstances surrounding James C. Tyree’s ‘highly-unusual’ accidental death must be diligently-investigated by a qualified, professional third-party that is independent from the Chicago Police Department, Cook County Law Enforcement as well as independent from Federal Law Enforcement Authorities.

The May Report March 20th, 2011

The May Report: 3/20/2011: Bulletin: Anonymous note: James C. Tyree’s Accidental Death? Or possible reaction to the ongoing Sun-Times coverage of David Koschman’s 2004 murder? The circumstances surrounding James C. Tyree’s ‘highly-unusual’ accidental death must be diligently-investigated by a qualified, professional third-party that is independent from the Chicago Police Department, Cook County Law Enforcement as…

The May Report: 3/18/2011: Some very disconcerting news: Jim Tyree did not die of stomach cancer but rather from an “accident” involving a dialysis catheter and an air embolism!; Wake and funeral Monday; If Groupon is #1 in Chicago high tech with its new question “Are you hungry?” or “Are you bored?,” GrubHub is certainly #2 with a Series D this week for $20MM from DAG Ventures and Benchmark Capital which also funded OpenTable, Yelp and Zillow; Matt Maloney claims they will have 80,000 restaurants in 3 months up from the current 13,000; They’re now in Chicago, New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Boston, Philadelphia, Washington D.C., San Diego, Oakland, Seattle, Portland, Denver and Boulder; For ignoring Japan and for promoting his own party instead, Frank Gruber proves he’s the ultimate SXSW dou**bag

The May Report March 18th, 2011

The May Report: 3/18/2011: Some very disconcerting news: Jim Tyree did not die of stomach cancer but rather from an “accident” involving a dialysis catheter and an air embolism!; Wake and funeral Monday; If Groupon is #1 in Chicago high tech with its new question “Are you hungry?” or “Are you bored?,” GrubHub is certainly…

The May Report: 3/17/2011: The CEC grows up!; Now, will the ITA wake-up?; Google’s Kevin Willer to head CEC, replacing the departed les enfants terribles David Weinstein — coming from the private sector with a business background and an angel investor background, Willer could be a big improvement/boost, assuming that they control and monitor his conflicts of interest and that his follow through w/entrepreneurs is better than I hear it was at Google; Do NBC 5′s Phil Rogers and Jeff Goldblatt belong in the TMR Hall of Shame?; Who’s the bigger scumpuppy (note that is opinion): Mirchael Kurgan or Bob Bernard?; How can Tom Churchwell who could not raise a fund here get a freebie from Tom Thornton for $5MM?; Surprising tidbit: Michael Gruber of Cornerstone signed an NDA with crowdSPRING

The May Report March 17th, 2011

The May Report: 3/17/2011: The CEC grows up!; Now, will the ITA wake-up?; Google’s Kevin Willer to head CEC, replacing the departed les enfants terribles David Weinstein — coming from the private sector with a business background and an angel investor background, Willer could be a big improvement/boost, assuming that they control and monitor his…

The May Report: 3/16/2011: Sad news: 53 year old Jim Tyree, a southwest sider who worked his way up to become CEO of Mesirow Financial who has been a true friend to Chicago high tech, is dead of stomach cancer

The May Report March 16th, 2011

The May Report: 3/16/2011: Sad news: 53 year old Jim Tyree, a southwest sider who worked his way up to become CEO of Mesirow Financial who has been a true friend to Chicago high tech, is dead of stomach cancer Editor and publisher: ron@themayreport.com, ronaldmay@aol.com, www.themayreport.com , 773-525-3944. Assistant editor: Melanie Adcock, iPHONE: 312-259-0610, melanie_adcock@msn.com…

The May Report: 3/14/2011: Well, it is Pi day and Einstein’s birthday to boot. I’m going to Swirlz Cupcakes on West Belden for a $3.14 deal and I should mention Monica Metzler’s IL Science Council; My goodness, how quickly the plot thickens: A long call at 3pm from a person who helps biotech start-ups in Kansas who told me that a group of people wants to see that “lying SOB Tom Thornton fired” but it is not so easy to do since Thornton is entrenched and he just gave himself a $100K bonus when the state of Kansas is broke (his and his wife’s combined income is $470K) but the more important issue is that he ignores and cuts off the small start-ups in favor of big industry deals and he controls a whopping $581MM!!; lots of Tarkus Murphy and David Baeckelandt

The May Report March 14th, 2011

The May Report: 3/14/2011: Well, it is Pi day and Einstein’s birthday to boot. I’m going to Swirlz Cupcakes on West Belden for a $3.14 deal and I should mention Monica Metzler’s IL Science Council; My goodness, how quickly the plot thickens: A long call at 3pm from a person who helps biotech start-ups in…

Archive for March, 2011

The May Report: 3/16/2011: Sad news: 53 year old Jim Tyree, a southwest sider who worked his way up to become CEO of Mesirow Financial who has been a true friend to Chicago high tech, is dead of stomach cancer

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