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Office-As-A-Service RocketSpace Doubles Real Estate To Accomodate Bigger …

Fri, 29 Mar 2013 13:28:05 +0000

Startups around the world are desperate for office space in the San Francisco Bay Area, so tomorrow RocketSpace will announce the lease of a new 50,000 sq. ft. office so it can house startups with up to 60 employees instead of capping them at 30. Along with this RocketSpace Suites project, the “office-as-a-service” plans to lock down another 100,000 sq. ft. spot and open a space in London this year.

RocketSpace currently provides plug-and-play office space for 130 startups and their 600 employees at a per-person, per-month rate. It lets founders concentrate on their businesses while RocketSpace handles leases, security, bandwidth, firewalls and other office hassles. Its relationships with venture capitalists and corporate accelerators have kept at least one of its residents securing funding every week, and it runs inspiring events featuring speakers like Peter Thiel and Vinod Khosla.

CEO Duncan Logan told me in a meeting today that one of RocketSpace’s biggest problems is that due to space contraints, “we kick out companies when they get to 3o employees.” Fast-rising startups like Uber, Spotify, Kabam, and Leap Motion have all gotten the boot. It’s also receiving far more qualified applicants than it has room for. RocketSpace needed more, well, space. Meanwhile, its current real estate is literally about to get steamrolled. Tomorrow, the city of San Francisco will announce RocketSpace’s current 181 Fremont location will be demolished to make way for a new Transbay Tower transportation hub.

So after a year of searching, tomorrow RocketSpace will announce the lease of a 50,000 sq. ft. space just north of Market Street at 180 Sansome. Eventually it hopes to take over that whole tower. But RocketSpace Suites is just the start of its expansion. It’s currently looking at a 90,000 sq. ft. Bay Area space to replace the Fremont home it will have to vacate. Logan says it will be able to host 2,000 people in its combined 140,000 sq. ft. space. By the end of 2013 RocketSpace plans to have added a London space. And even though it’s completely bootstrapped, after that it’s eying Tel Aviv, Berlin, and Vancouver for additional locations.

Logan says RocketSpace aspires to become an “innovation campus” that he calls a “Stanford for startups.” He explains that “young companies are like young people. They’re a product of their environment. We can build the best possible environment for startups.” By surrounding themselves with similarly ambitious makers, Logan believes startups can be more creative and productive.

Just watch out for your neighbors poaching your engineers.

ROCKETSPACE

Startup. Blast off.

RocketSpace is an accelerator for high-growth, seed-funded tech startups. We provide the fuel that every startup needs to accelerate: access to top talent, tier 1 venture capital, and blue-chip brands representing millions of potential customers.

Our programs are focused on creating the perfect tech startup ecosystem: speakers classes in our dedicated event space, services from the best startup service providers, and research analysis covering over 10,000 startups worldwide representing the “what’s next next” in technology.

Located in…

? Learn more

Article source: http://techcrunch.com/2013/03/28/rocketspace-suites/

High-rise Condo Living Getting New Life in San Francisco

Mon, 29 Oct 2012 19:45:28 +0000

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PR Web

San Francisco, CA (PRWEB) October 29, 2012

Real Estate Marketing Insider offered its expert opinion about a new trend of modern high-rise investment by young tech professionals in San Francisco, stating it was great news for the real estate market as the number of high-price and high-demand properties available in the city would increase exponentially as a result.

The New York Times stated that the tech industry’s San Francisco base of operations is in the South of Market area of the city; it has been there for decades, but the newest generation of young professionals in that industry have been investing in high-rise condo living, a real estate option that simply wasn’t present in San Francisco until recently. Now there are downtown glass-and-steel real estate site design condos available downtown for prices for substantially less than some New York housing options.

These downtown high-rise condos include The Montgomery, Millennium Tower, Four Seasons, and One Hawthorne. The areas outside of South of Market, like the financial district and Mission Bay have their own offerings, like Madrone, the St. Regis, and the recently-filled Infinity. The residents of these condos, while primarily employed by local tech companies like Google, Twitter, and Zynga, come from many different walks of life. They include real estate professionals, venture capitalists and even celebrities like former San Francisco 49er Joe Montana and chef Michael Mina, both residents in Millennium Tower.

The newer neighborhoods of South Beach, Mission Bay and Rincon Hill have much more relaxed zoning regulations than older neighborhoods like Golden Gate Heights or Fisherman’s Wharf, enabling investors to construct more ambitious, luxurious properties. Millennium Tower, the city’s tallest residential building at 645 feet, is a harbinger of things to come as more developers tap into these prospective markets.

The single biggest motivator for the purchases of these high-rise properties, above and beyond desire for luxury and convenient living, is the tight rental market in San Francisco. These downtown properties offer a rare chance for city living that rental does not, and other benefits, like proximity to on-ramps and train stations that ease the commute to Silicon Valley, make these sales an easy decision for young tech professionals.

The Real Estate Marketing Insider released a statement regarding the New York Times’ report that high-rise condo living in San Francisco has exploded in popularity among young tech professionals in the city. The newer neighborhoods like South of Market and Mission Bay have seen an influx of new high-rises in the last five years, and the properties contained therein are selling well among techies, as well as other wealthy Bay Area professionals.

About Real Estate Marketing Insider:
Real Estate Marketing Insider is an online journal providing hot news, trend analysis and marketing tips to real estate professionals. REMI is based out of La Jolla, CA.

Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/san-francisco-high-rise/steel-glass/prweb10067686.htm

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Article source: http://www.equities.com/news/news-headline-story?dt=2012-10-29&val=643723&d=1&cat=headline

Zynga’s IPO flop could hurt some Silicon Valley startups

Mon, 26 Dec 2011 04:12:55 +0000

Zynga’s unexpected IPO flop this month could be bad news for other Silicon Valley startups.

With buzzed-about social media companies having failed so far to make a lasting impression on Wall Street, the bar for going public is likely to remain high. That could dampen the wealth-generating effect a raft of initial public offerings can have on Bay Area employment, housing prices and luxury auto dealerships.

And if venture capitalists can’t take their portfolio companies public, they’ll have to find buyers for them or consider less attractive alternatives: Feed them more cash, pull the plug or let them die a slow death.

“There are going to be a lot of ‘walking dead’ startups that can’t close that third or fourth funding round,” said Tim Young, founder of San Francisco social networking startup Socialcast. The company, which sells Facebook-style collaboration software to corporate clients, was acquired earlier this year by VMware.

Not everyone agrees a zombie invasion is around the corner. After all, they note that venture capital firms still have cash to invest.

“I haven’t been this busy in a decade,” said Curtis Mo, a securities lawyer at DLA Piper’s Silicon Valley offices.

Still, even the optimists concede that the valley’s mojo could weaken in the new year absent improvements in the broader economy. That could

hurt startups that have garnered a few million venture dollars but can’t find a willing buyer and are still far from IPO-ready.

“I think it’s a real possibility,” said Mike Smerklo, chief executive of San Francisco-based Service Source, which went public in March before the stock market went sideways. Smerklo, a former investment banker, hearkens back to the dot-com bust and notes: “As soon as the public market investor starts to pull back, it has that ripple effect on the whole funding cycle.”

Smerklo said it may be more appropriate for many companies to stay private in such an environment — provided they can carefully husband their cash. “I’d be looking for alternative sources of funds, and I’d be realistic about valuations,” he said.

One such alternative is Industry Ventures, a San Francisco firm that invests in venture-backed companies whose original backers are getting antsy for a return. “We have seen an uptick this quarter,” said founder Hans Swildens, “and we also see an uptick for next quarter. It’s natural that our market sees more deals in times like this.”

Swildens said his firm is getting more calls from venture capital firms that raised funds over the past decade and are running out of time to show returns to their outside investors.

Nationwide, Swildens said, “There are 65 tech companies on file to go public, and it’s pretty clear all these guys are not gonna be able to go out.” Those that can’t find a buyer or aren’t profitable enough to stay private may be forced into deeply discounted takeovers by buyout firms.

In addition, he noted, “All these seed and ‘angel’ funds backed thousands of small companies, and now they all need series B rounds, and there’s not enough capital to fund them. A lot of those companies are probably not going to make it.”

Although Zynga’s tepid reception on Wall Street was surprising, given the buzz around the company and its $1 billion in yearly revenue, it was also in keeping with recent history.

Birinyi Associates, a money management and research firm in Greenwich, Conn., notes that of the 31 Internet and social media companies that have gone public since the beginning of last year, 19 are trading below their IPO prices. Zynga, which opened at $10 a share on Dec. 16, closed at $9.39 on Friday.

And many of the ones that have managed to stay above that line, including LinkedIn and Groupon, finished Friday well below their first-day closing prices.

It’s little wonder that the National Venture Capital Association recently reported that VC optimism about the IPO market was on the wane.

A recent forecast from PricewaterhouseCoopers was more bullish, predicting that the $1 billion Zynga raked in through its stock sale despite a lackluster reception from retail investors would encourage more companies to go public in 2012.

But the report also noted that a number of companies shelved IPO plans in the fourth quarter of this year. And the $6.4 billion raised via U.S. initial public offerings during the quarter was just a fraction of what companies raised by going public in the same period a year ago.

Ken DeLeon, a broker with Keller Williams Realty in Palo Alto, expects that many startup employees planning to buy new homes on IPO riches will have to think again in the wake of Zynga’s flop. That could lead to fallout for nontechies as well.

“I think it will dampen” the housing market in most parts of the valley, he said.

That said, the biggest IPO looming on the local radar — Facebook’s — should keep demand robust in Palo Alto, Mountain View and Menlo Park, where DeLeon said he’s sold a whopping $270 million worth of homes this year.

Many employees of the social networking giant have money to burn, thanks to secondary markets for private stock that have enabled them to offload some of their holdings. And, said DeLeon, “Normal people are buying in fear of the Facebook IPO and trying to get out in front of it.

“This little microclimate of Palo Alto and Menlo Park will fare better than others,” he said. “But even Los Altos and other nearby markets are starting to soften.”

Contact Peter Delevett at 408-271-3638. Follow him at Twitter.com/mercwiretap.

STOCK PRICES Fall

Internet and social media companies that went public since the beginning of last year, according to Connecticut-based research firm Birinyi Associates.

Of those companies, more than half are trading below their IPO prices, including Zynga, which opened at $10 on Dec. 16 and closed at $9.39 on Friday.

Article source: http://www.mercurynews.com/business/ci_19618020?source=rss

Tampa losing flashy startup tech company to California

Fri, 23 Sep 2011 12:22:55 +0000

TAMPA –

One of Tampa’s hotter startup companies, TourWrist, is flying the coop and moving to the technology capital of the planet, the San Francisco Bay Area.

“We would have preferred to stay in Tampa,” said founder Charles Armstrong, but the company has started attracting interest from venture capitalists and will likely complete a first round of funding within six weeks.

TourWrist was something of a technology offspring of the Tampa advertising and branding firm Spark, through its Spark Labs project, and it developed a smartphone and tablet application that lets users view 360-degree photos on their phone.

By using the phone’s compass and motion sensor, users can physically spin themselves up, down, left and right and seemingly peer through their device into another place in the world.

The name plays on the word “tourist” and using one’s “wrist” to spin around.

For instance, automakers have been using the app to display the interior of their cars, and real estate agents and hoteliers have been using it to display their properties. TourWrist only went live on the Apple system in the spring of last year, but it became one of Apple’s most popular apps, with more than 20,000 downloads a week.

Just this June, TourWrist won awards at the Tampa Bay Technology Forum’s coolTECH event for local technology projects.

Other companies are getting into the 360-degree game as well, and Nissan recently launched a similar app to show the interior of its cars.

TourWrist had only a handful of employees, but the symbolism of its departure is a bitter pill for Tampa with only a small silver lining, say executives here who have been trying to build more of a technology community.

“TourWrist is a win for Tampa and demonstrates that we have the means to incubate hot companies and prepare them for Silicon Valley’s venture scene,” said Brent Britton, an attorney at Gray Robinson and adviser to TourWrist. “It’s unfortunate TourWrist could not get funded here. We’ll miss the jobs they would have created.”

Britton noted that technology investing takes skill and a tolerance for risk, and there’s a common sentiment that “Tampa’s early-stage investors wouldn’t know a hot startup if it bit them on the rotary phone they use to dial up their AOL account. But I think we can change that.”

Tampa Bay has plenty of wealthy investors, said George Gordon, chairman and chief executive of the energy software company Enporion and past chairman of the Tampa Bay Technology Forum.

“A lot of those people made their wealth in real estate or manufacturing and not so much tech,” Gordon said. “And people like to invest in things they know and understand and where they can add value.”

San Francisco is flush with technology billionaires, Gordon notes, and successful early-stage or “angel” investors in technology visit companies they support monthly, if not more often, “and they don’t want to live on airplanes to get there.”

Article source: http://www2.tbo.com/business/business/2011/sep/23/spbizo1-tampa-losing-flashy-startup-tech-company-t-ar-259884/