Pressroom
  • Tue
    03
    Jan
    2012

    Leader in Cloud Applications Extends Its Sales Enablement Cloud to Deliver Next-Generation Marketing Automation and Lead Management Through the Acquisition of Award Winning LeadFormix

    Press Release: Callidus Software Inc.

    Companies:

    Callidus Software Inc.

    RELATED QUOTES

    Symbol Price Change
    CALD 6.49 +0.01

    t

    PLEASANTON, CA--(Marketwire -01/03/12)- Callidus Software Inc. (NASDAQ: CALD - News), the leader in sales effectiveness and cloud computing, today announced it has acquired the leader in next-generation marketing automation and lead management, LeadFormix.

    "Every CEO on the planet wants more, faster, and better quality sales leads. Investment in the best, most innovative sales and marketing tools is a number one priority for all businesses. More qualified leads means more deals, and more deals means better Sales Performance," said Leslie Stretch, President and CEO, CallidusCloud.

    "LeadFormix has 200 SaaS customers -- bringing our total number of subscription customers to over 1100, further extending our cross-selling opportunity. The social and mobile enterprise has fundamentally changed marketing. By uniting sales and marketing, LeadFormix award winning Cloud solutions produce richer, targeted leads for sales along with easier access to qualified decision makers. The solution combined with our existing award winning SaaS tools further extends our leadership in the SaaS Sales Effectiveness space."

    Silicon Valley headquartered LeadFormix is the leader in next-generation marketing automation software: Marketing Automation 2.0. LeadFormix delivers a 100% multi-tenant SaaS solution that enables sales teams to rapidly identify and reach decision makers, and close deals faster. The solution is designed from the ground up to drive collaboration between marketing, inside sales, and field sales. LeadFormix empowers the sales team with superior lead intelligence and prospect information, provides analytics which help marketing and sales teams identify the right business opportunities to pursue, and delivers sophisticated lead scoring algorithms which enable both teams to prioritize leads by jointly deciding the ideal lead score to be considered 'sales-ready.'

    "Sales and Marketing collaboration is a hot market. LeadFormix' focus on sales and marketing alignment together with CallidusCloud's Sales Collaboration portal, Commissions, and Coaching solutions presents a huge opportunity," said Srihari Kumar, Chief Executive Officer, LeadFormix. "CallidusCloud's global reach coupled with their growing customer base will enable us to quickly capitalize on this opportunity. We look forward to working with CallidusCloud to deliver further value to our customer base as we extend our footprint into new channels and markets."

    Pursuant to the terms of the Agreement, the aggregate consideration to acquire LeadFormix consisted of approximately $9 million in cash, subject to final adjustments as set forth in the Agreement. A portion of the consideration is subject to a holdback in respect of the LeadFormix shareholders' indemnity obligations to CallidusCloud. CallidusCloud will provide additional financial detail regarding the transaction on its regularly scheduled fourth quarter and fiscal year 2011 earnings call.

    About LeadFormix

    LeadFormix is the leader in next-generation marketing automation software: Marketing Automation 2.0. LeadFormix delivers a game-changing real-time marketing automation solution that converts anonymous online visits into qualified sales leads, determines website visitor interest and intent, and enables sales teams to reach decision-makers more effectively and close deals faster using patented business intelligence and data mining technology. LeadFormix provides significantly richer lead data than any other solution, enabling enterprise sales and marketing teams to uncover hidden opportunities, accurately identify decision-makers, and deliver powerful, targeted, real-time responses and offers to potential customers. LeadFormix has offices in California, Michigan, England and India. For more information, please visit www.leadformix.com.

    About Callidus Software

    Callidus Software Inc. (NASDAQ: CALD - News) is the market and technology leader in sales effectiveness and cloud computing. CallidusCloud's customers gain a competitive advantage by maximizing sales cost efficiencies and driving improvements in sales effectiveness. CallidusCloud's award-winning multi-tenant SaaS applications set the standard for performance of a company's sales force and channel partners. Over 2.5 million users rely on our solutions to power their performance. For more information, please visit www.calliduscloud.com.

    ©2012. Callidus Software Inc. All rights reserved. Callidus, Callidus Software, the Callidus Software logo, CallidusCloud, the CallidusCloud logo, TrueComp Manager, ActekSoft, ACom3, ForceLogix, Salesforce Assessments, iCentera, Webcom, Litmos, the Litmos logo, and Rapid Intake are trademarks, service marks, or registered trademarks of Callidus Software Inc. and its affiliates in the United States and other countries. All other brand, service or product names are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective companies or owners.

    Contact:

    Press
    Rajendran Nair
    Callidus Software Inc.
    925-251-2255
    pr@callidussoftware.com
    IR Contact
    Linda Wells
    Market Street Partners
    415-445-3236
    linda@marketstreetpartners.com

  • Wed
    04
    Jan
    2012

    January 3, 2012
    CallidusCloud Acquires Marketing Automation SaaS LeadFormix For $9 Million Cash

    calliduscloud-acquires-leadformix

    Sales effectiveness cloud SaaS company Callidus Software Inc today announced its acquisition of LeadFormix, a B2B cloud-based lead intelligence SaaS. LeadFormix lets B2B vendors turn anonymous visits to their websites into qualified leads by identifying potential customers and reporting their intent. This solution will join the Callidus multi-tenant SaaS sales performance and effectiveness solutions that help companies hire better sales people, close deals, and incentivize sales performance.

    The acquisition will bring LeadFormix’s 200 SaaS customers to Callidus, which already serves AETNA, Nokia, Citrix, and JPMorgan Chase. Callidus will now have over 1100 customers, and will build upon its existing 2.5 million user base.

    LeadFormix’s CEO Srihari Kumar says ”Sales and Marketing collaboration is a hot market. LeadFormix’ focus on sales and marketing alignment together with CallidusCloud’s Sales Collaboration portal, Commissions, and Coaching solutions presents a huge opportunity.” With their products combined, Callidus will have serious might in the sales effectiveness space. LeadFormix data on what a potential customer might want to buy will assist CallidusCloud-powered sales people make the right value propositions when negotiating with potential customers.

    Just over a year ago, Callidus acquired sales coaching and talent development platform ForceLogix for $3.75 million. The publicly traded Callidus had a strong Q4 2011, bouncing back up to the $6.40 range after falling as low $4.05 in September. Following the LeadFormix acquisition news, the Callidus Software Inc [CALD] stock price rose by 0.94% to reach $6.48 at close.

    http://techcrunch.com/2012/01/03/calliduscloud-acquires-leadformix/

  • Fri
    27
    Jan
    2012

    This paper focuses on the key elements of creating an effective DR plan, and is appropriate for IT management and technical staff. DR is designed to provide a way for an enterprise to continue operations in the event of a disaster that shuts down business operations at one or more primary locations.

    www.infoworld.com

  • Mon
    19
    Mar
    2012

    New Intel Server Continuity Suite Powered by InMage Systems Offers Industry-Leading Data Protection and Recovery Technologies to Intel Customers and Partners

    SANTA CLARA, CA, Mar 19, 2012 (MARKETWIRE via COMTEX) -- InMage Systems(R) ( www.inmage.com ) and the Intel(R) Corporation /quotes/zigman/20392/quotes/nls/intc INTC +0.33% ( www.intel.com ) have collaborated to deliver Intel Server Boards and Systems with best-in-class business continuity and data protection to Intel customers and partners. InMage is embedding its award-winning recovery technologies into the Intel Server Continuity Suite, announced today at the Intel Solution Summit. The Intel Server Continuity Suite enables customers to manage server hardware, storage and backup from anytime and anywhere, with an unprecedented level of simplicity. This simplicity and level of integration was achieved through a multi-year collaboration between the companies. It builds upon InMage's patented data protection engine, which has been trusted for years by the most demanding enterprise customers. The software will be integrated with Intel Server Boards and Systems, extending best-in-class data protection features to hundreds of thousands of servers a year.

    "We are pleased to offer the benefits of InMage's recovery software within the Intel Server Continuity Suite," said David Brown, general manager of Intel's Enterprise Platforms and Services Division. "This is a very strategic offering for Intel, as it greatly simplifies the management of numerous data-driven IT functions, especially for the SMB market. InMage is playing a key role in helping us deliver the kind of data protection and recovery functionality that today's small to medium-sized businesses require."

    The Intel Server Continuity Suite is integrated with features such as predictive hardware failure to provide proactive and comprehensive data protection. Utilizing award-winning continuous data protection (CDP) technology developed by InMage, the Intel Server Continuity Suite backs up data in real time and offers almost immediate recovery time and recovery point objectives while eliminating backup windows. With the unified virtual presence GUI, users only have one interface to learn and run, and one place to set up alerting and schedule tasks. Other key features include application-consistent recovery points and single screen storage management.

    "By extending leading-edge data protection and recovery capabilities across their server products line, our collaboration with Intel for their Server Continuity Suite resulted in a versatile solution based on the ease of use and simplicity for tens of thousands of Intel customers. Their customers will benefit from continuous disk backup and disaster recovery, at a very affordable cost, in Intel server-powered physical and virtual environments," said Kumar Malavalli, CEO of InMage.

    Media Contact:

    Jennifer Sparks Bocchino

    Sparks & Associates

    Tel: (949) 388-9322

    SOURCE: InMage Systems

  • Sat
    09
    Jun
    2012

    NanoHorizons Announces Issuance of US Patent for Wash Durable Antimicrobial Textiles & Fibers

    Bellefonte, PA – June 7, 2012 – NanoHorizons Inc., a technology company focused on the development of nanoscale antimicrobial additives for healthcare, textile, and industrial applications, today announced that the United States Patent and Trademark Office has issued US Patent 8,183,167 B1 covering an antimicrobial and antifungal textile substrate with exceptional wash durability and efficacy. Based on a proprietary manufacturing using nanoparticles such as silver, this patented technology is applicable to fabric and fiber products across a broad spectrum of industries where long-lasting, high performance antimicrobial protection is required.

    “This patent is not only another important addition to NanoHorizons’ growing intellectual property portfolio,” states James Delattre, Vice President, NanoHorizons, “but it also provides the marketplace with a solution for high level wash durability and performance efficacy that has thus far eluded current antimicrobial technologies. Although the patent is specific to synthetic polymer fabrics and fibers, our antimicrobial additives can also be readily integrated into natural fibers and fabrics, coatings, foams and polymers to control the growth of bacteria, fungus and mold in devices, textiles and touch surfaces.”

    Leveraging its proprietary technology, NanoHorizons develops, manufactures and markets nanoscale silver additives under the brand SmartSilver® that significantly enhance silver’s inherent powers to control microbial growth. As a result, smaller additive amounts are needed to provide outstanding antimicrobial protection over a longer period of time. In addition, SmartSilver® protection does not thermally or UV degrade. SmartSilver® antimicrobial additives require no compromises in the manufacturing process or in product performance. SmartSilver® enhanced apparel and footwear stay fresh and odor-free. Foams and laminates protected by SmartSilver® resist microbe growth that causes degradation. Coating and plastics formulated with SmartSilver® protection prevent the growth of mildew and odor build-up. Hospital products that incorporate SmartSilver® additives help control bacteria on surfaces. The active ingredient in SmartSilver formulated products is EPA-registered under FIFRA and Oeko-Tex® approved as free from harmful levels of dangerous substances. SmartSilver® antimicrobial additives also have an FDA Device Master File in place. For more detailed information about SmartSilver®, visit www.smartsilver.com.

    About NanoHorizons

    NanoHorizons Inc. (www.nanohorizons.com) is a technology company in the emerging, cutting-edge field of practical nanotechnology for a broad range of healthcare, commercial and industrial applications. The company’s nanoscale silver antimicrobial additives are entirely developed and manufactured in the USA and marketed globally to customers in the apparel, healthcare, and coatings and plastics industries under the SmartSilver® brand (www.smartsilver.com). SmartSilver® offers highly durable, safe and cost effective bacterial control in a variety of products including natural and synthetic fibers and fabrics as well as coatings, foams and polymer applications. SmartSilver® technology is EPA registered and its additives are Oeko-Tex® approved. The company has a Device Master File (MAF) for the proprietary formulation of SmartSilver® antimicrobial additives on file with the FDA. NanoHorizons’ experienced team of scientists, engineers and operational managers provide product research, design, development and laboratory testing, manufacture, and customer technical and sales support. NanoHorizons is a private equity funded company, headquartered in Bellefonte, Pennsylvania, near the The Pennsylvania State University.

    Contact:
    NanoHorizons Inc
    814.355.4700
    moc.s1339275881nozir1339275881ohona1339275881n@ofn1339275881i1339275881
    www.smartsilver.com

  • Thu
    21
    Jun
    2012

    TNN | Jun 21, 2012, 03.22AM IST

    BANGALORE: Children sitting with books open in front of them while the teacher scribbles on the board - that's a typical image of any classroom. For generations, schools have meant books - a lot of books. But that seems set to change. Loaded schoolbags and crammed library shelves are set to make way for laptops and tablets.

    Some Bangalore schools are going digital, dispensing with textbooks and printed material. Among these is Indus International School.

    "All our content is online and digital. So when a student enters the classroom, instead of looking at the blackboard, she opens her teacher's webpage and goes to the day's lesson. She can also access the student activity guide, open a document on her desktop and start working from there," says Sarojini Rao, principal of Indus International School.

    Students are provided notebooks with all the course material uploaded. They can browse the web for additional information.

    "The traditional way of learning through textbooks no longer exists in our school. Children open laptops, not textbooks. We want to do away with textbooks. For this, the mindset of parents and teachers needs to change. We have provided textbooks to students for occasional reference, but they do not carry these to the classroom. We are slowly reaching that point. It's more like a homoeopathic dose of medicines rather than a surgical dose," says Rao.

    Information in books gets outdated, whereas online information is constantly updated, say school authorities.

    "While studying from a textbook, you cannot play videos or look at relevant pictures and reference material simultaneously. Going digital will enable kids to use such facilities," says Mansoor Ali Khan, member, board of management, Delhi Public School (DPS). All branches of DPS will completely do away with textbooks from the next academic year.

    "The process is on. We will distribute tablets with applications that will be used to upload the course material. Many publishers are working with us to digitize the content. Digitized textbooks will be available for children from classes I to class VI," says Khan. The tablets will be available on installments.

    The school is replacing 5 lakh volumes in its library with an e-library.

    In Ebenezer International School, it's only the library books that are being digitized. "We are digitizing our library first. We may do away with textbooks in the future. Doing away with all printed stuff right now will be too early," says Indrani Sudarshan, the school's director, academics.

    Way forward

    The move is definitely a way forward. As far people's reaction to the shift is concerned, voices were raised even when we moved from palm leaves to textbooks. No doubt, that it will be more engaging and absorbing. But care should be taken to give more importance to the content, and not to the carrier (laptop or tablet). Moreover, now that we are back to LCD and LED screens, what worries me is the harmful effect it can have on the eyes of youngsters.

  • Wed
    27
    Jun
    2012

    Spotted - 10- San Francisco entrepreneurs to watch!

    http://yfsentrepreneur.com/

  • Sun
    01
    Jul
    2012

    July 1, 2012

    BELLEFONTE, PA - NanoHorizons Inc., a technology company focused on the development of nanoscale antimicrobial additives for healthcare, textile and industrial applications, announced that the United States Patent and Trademark Office has issued U.S. Patent 8,183,167 B1 covering an antimicrobial and antifungal textile substrate with exceptional wash durability and efficacy. Based on proprietary manufacturing using nanoparticles such as silver, this patented technology is applicable to fabric and fiber products across a broad spectrum of industries where long-lasting, high-performance antimicrobial protection is required.

    James Delattre, Vice President, NanoHorizons, commented, "This patent is not only another important addition to NanoHorizons' growing intellectual property portfolio, but it also provides the marketplace with a solution for high-level wash durability and performance efficacy that has thus far eluded current antimicrobial technologies. Although the patent is specific to synthetic polymer fabrics and fibers, our antimicrobial additives can also be readily integrated into natural fibers and fabrics, coatings, foams, and polymers to control the growth of bacteria, fungus and mold in devices, textiles and touch surfaces."

    NanoHorizons Inc., Bellefonte, PA, is a technology company in the emerging field of practical nanotechnology for a broad range of healthcare, commercial and industrial applications. The company's nanoscale silver antimicrobial additives are entirely developed and manufactured in the United States and marketed globally to customers in the apparel, healthcare, and coatings and plastics industries under the SmartSilver(R) brand.

  • Thu
    19
    Jul
    2012

    PubNub

    PubNub is a service that powers your app by delivering real-time communications for mobile, web and server. It is known for delivering ‘human perceptive’ real time experiences that scale to millions of users worldwide. It delivers the infrastructure needed to build amazing MMO games, social apps, business collaborative solutions and more.

    You can experience the speed of PubNub. Type rapidly in one of the texboxs on the site and you can immediately see how PubNub performs in real time. You can also try it on your mobile device.

    You can build low-latency applications that scale to millions of users. You can add presence based push notifications via PubNub’s real-time messaging service. It is designed for mobile. You get seamless auto-reconnect on WiFi, 4G/LTE, 3G, EDGE and GPRS. You also get hassle-free development with 99.99% uptime guarantee.

    It provides you with worldwide replication to multiple data centres for speed and accuracy. PubNub works everywhere. You get going quickly with rich APIs for every popular mobile device, browser and server language.

    This leading cloud service takes care of monitoring and managing the servers, networks, security and administration. They ensure the scalability and reliability of the service and provide you with a guaranteed service level.

    PubNub is fast, globally scalable and is designed for devices to send and receive millions of messages in milliseconds without any excess overhead. Their distributed architecture is deployed worldwide in multiple data centres to deliver local access speeds across the world. With PubNub, any device can publish or listen to any other device anywhere in the world with amazing performance.

    PubNub is an excellent service that enables fast communication in real-time from server to client, server to server or client to client.

    http://startuptunes.com/

  • Fri
    05
    Oct
    2012

    2012_10$largeimg203_Oct_2012_155233040

    MILPITAS, Calif. — A sold-out crowd of 500 packed the India Community Center here for its ninth annual gala Sept. 29 that raised over $700,000 and presented the much-awaited Seva awards that honor nonprofits for their work in mobilizing youth, innovation, contribution to the local community and scale of outreach.

    icc-gala2The Bollywood-themed gala, which was a mix of true cinema-style entertainment, glittering saris and Armani suits, got a dose of some real Bollywood with emcee Omi Vaidya, the Indian American actor whose 2009 Hindi movie “3 Idiots” was the year’s biggest grosser. Vaidya’s witty standup and trademark Hindi renditions were an instant hit with the audience, but the crafty actor stayed true to the cause of the evening in urging the community to support the ICC.

    ICC Board member Venky Ganesan cheered ICC supporters for their continued support to the popular event and spoke of the immense impact ICC has on our community as a platform for education, for supporting so many nonprofit programs, and for being a place that connects us with each other and our culture.“The ICC brings us, people like me and you, back to our roots. It gives me and my children a chance to experience our heritage together,” Ganesan said.

    “I’m touched and humbled by the outpouring of support for ICC from our community that I have seen this evening. We have raised an unprecedented amount of money this evening and this is truly gratifying,” added Tanuja Bahal, executive director of the ICC.

    icc-gala3The evening stayed true to its theme as the ever-popular ICC senior group got the audience howling with some seriously energetic gyrating to the tune of “I am sexy and I know it,” while UC-Berkeley singing group Dil Se brought the Bollywood twist to the tradition of a cappella.

    And while the Mona Khan Dance Company literally brought the “Bollywood Through the Ages” theme to life with its eclectic performance, the surprise element of the evening were the ICC board members and trustees who banded together for an impressive performance on the aptly-chosen “Desi Boys.”

    The highlight of the evening was the Seva Awards where a total cash prize of $20,000 was given to four nonprofits in the categories of Youth, Scale, Local Community and Innovation. The Seva awards are part of the Sevathon initiative, which is an annual walkathon that promotes the spirit of “Seva” or “Service” where participants can walk/run for any one of the 60-plus participating nonprofits.

    icc-gala5“We had 63 nonprofits in Sevathon this year…this is truly an event the captures the essence of the community and for me personally it has been a rewarding experience to meet these exemplary people who do so much for their community,” said Raju Reddy, ICC Board member and one of the Sevathon chairs. “From a high-tech engineer who left his lucrative career to eradicate curable blindness in India to a young mother who had tragic loss of her child and turned her personal tragedy into an opportunity to help other special needs children… these are the real heroes in our community whose stories need to be told. Seva awards arean effort to recognize this organization and the people behind these organizations,” said Reddy.

    Roshni, an organization that works to bring employability and life skills to bright girls from some ofIndia’s poorest households, won the Youth Award for an organization that has been founded by youth, led by youth or has active youth involvement.

    The Akshaya Patra Foundation (USA) that combines good management, innovative technology and smart engineering to deliver school lunches to millions of children in India at a fraction of the cost of similar programs in other parts of the world, won the Seva Award in the Innovation category.

    icc-gala6The Local Community award that recognizes an organization for serving the local Bay Area community was won by Narika, which works to prevent and eradicate domestic violence and exploitation in South Asian communities in the San Francisco Bay area

    http://www.indiawest.com/news/6910-icc-gala-raises-over-700k-presents-seva-awards.html

  • Fri
    12
    Oct
    2012

    Kidaptive Raises Large Seed Round From Menlo, CrunchFund & Others To Bring Children’s Educational Apps To iPad
    Friday, October 12th, 2012

    leospad_g_card_04

    The iPad is the first computer a generation of children will have access to – a shift in computing which has birthed an industry of kid-focused startups. While some companies build apps purely for entertainment, others are attempting to leverage the technology for educational purposes. And some believe they can do both. A new entrant in this “edu-tainment” space is Kidaptive, a media and technology company building educational kids’ apps for the iPad. The company has raised an over-subscribed, but undisclosed, seed round, and is now soft-launching its first iPad app, “Leo’s Pad,” in Australia, the U.K. and Canada, ahead of its U.S. debut.

    The funding round was led by Menlo Ventures, and includes participation from CrunchFund, Veddis Ventures, S-Cubed Capital, Krantz Holdings, VKRM Ventures, iCamp, and Prana Holdings, which is also Kidaptive’s animation partner. As a part of the funding, Menlo’s Dubose Montgomery joined Kidaptive’s board of directors.

    Kidaptive’s founder and CEO P.J. Gunsagar also co-founded and served as president of Prana Studios, a 3D visual effects studio with 1,000 employees in L.A. and Mumbai, India. (Parents will know the company best as the studio behind the Tinker Bell films.) Gunsagar is joined at Kidaptive by co-founder and “Chief Learning Officer” Dylan Arena, whose background is in cognitive science, philosophy and statistics, with multiple degrees in all three from Stanford.

    Also at Kidaptive, is Creative Director Dan Danko, who has written for a number of children’s TV shows including “Rugrats,” “Fresh Beat Band,” and PBS’ “Word World.” Incidentally, other former “Word World” creators have been developing a similarly focused edu-tainment iPad app known as PlaySquare.TV.

    “Edu-Tainment”

    leo-sky-3

    It’s not a coincidence that there are a number of educational apps on the iPad emerging from those with a background in children’s television, not to mention from top kids’ brands like Sesame St., Disney, Nickelodeon, and others. This industry has long sought to break down the barrier of the fourth wall, and communicate directly with the children on the receiving end of their efforts to entertain and teach. In today’s TV shows, those efforts feel inauthentic and forced, such as when Dora asks “what was your favorite part?” and then blinks while waiting the child’s response. Kids quickly learn that they don’t have to answer, and the show will continue without their involvement. On the iPad, that’s no longer true. Their actions or inactions not only help progress the story, they can also be measured, monitored and personalized to the child’s own level.

    This is the future of children’s entertainment.

    leo-sky

    Introducing “Leo’s Pad”

    Gunsagar, whose background is in animation, was inspired to create Leo’s Pad because of something he felt was lacking in the industry. “I became disillusioned with the fact that content was so sugary,” he says. “I wanted to determine if there was an opportunity to combine animation with real learning.”

    That’s the big idea at Kidaptive, whose first product is an iPad app called Leo’s Pad. Like a TV show, Leo’s Pad engages children with a storyline that introduces a young Leonardo da Vinci, his pet dragon, and friend Galileo. But it’s also infused with educational activities which are masked as games. For example, kids drag shapes on the iPad’s screen in a puzzle game which has them building a telescope – Leo’s birthday present to Galileo. They also look for letters in the stars, fly their dragon into puffs of smoke, and perform other tasks which will focus on things like shapes, colors, number sense, drawing, letter identification, and more.

    kidaptive2

    What’s Unique? Parental Involvement

    But Leo’s Pad will do something else, too, which makes it unique to the space – it will offer parents a “Kidashboard” that displays their child’s progress. This alone is not a novel idea – other kids’ app makers like Fingerprint Digital and Duck Duck Moose, to name a couple, are developing tools that let parents track progress, among other things. (Fingerprint even offers theirs as an SDK). But the dashboard developed by Kidaptive is the most comprehensive we’ve seen so far. It goes beyond simply telling parents what their child did or did not do within the app to identify the child’s individual strengths and weaknesses, their overall personality type, their progress on each skill set (fine motor skills, shape recognition, etc.), and it will even inform parents how they can help continue the child’s education in the offline world with specific tasks.

    “Under the hood, we’re building a high-dimensional learner profile, and that profile is going to guide all the subsequent actions,” explains Arena. “As your learner plays though the title, we will have approximately 150 gameplay experiences that will help us build out this longitudinal development profile of the learner across some 25 or 30 learning dimensions.”

    Or in other words, the app has a really, really smart backend.

    kidapt-dashboard-v2-new-logo-quick

    [kidapt-dashboard-v2-new-logo-quick]

    In addition, Leo’s Pad is the first kid-focused app which encourages parent-and-child co-play, meaning some puzzles and activities are designed for parent and child to do together. If parents don’t help, it doesn’t prevent the story from progressing, but offers parents concerned about the iPad’s role as “digital babysitter” a way to participate. And having parents participate keeps the child motivated to learn.

    Leo’s Pad will offer three “appisodes” by December, and should have half a dozen by the end of Q1 2013. Once in full production, new appisodes will arrive every two or three weeks, likely priced as in-app purchases for 99 cents or $1.99 apiece. Further down the road, Kidaptive will release a second title aimed at five through six year olds, a step up from Leo’s Pad age demographic of 3 to 5. Future titles aiming at even older children may follow.

    Kidaptive has soft-launched in the U.K., Canada, and Australia iTunes App Stores, and its U.S. launch will soon follow.

    Company:Kidaptive
    Website:kidaptive.com

    Kidaptive is a media and technology company dedicated to smart storytelling on iPads and a curriculum developed in collaboration with Stanford University researchers to create entertaining and adaptive content that helps children learn. Our first product, Leo’s Pad, will engage preschool-aged children with games, puzzles, and projects woven into an immersive story arc. Our technology will use embedded assessments to customize learning, support metacognitive development, and provide parents with actionable intelligence and useful tips about how to further support...

    215353v1-max-150x150

    http://techcrunch.com/

  • Sun
    14
    Oct
    2012

    halo-report-infographic-2012-q1

    © 2012 SVB Financial Group. All rights reserved. SVB>, SVB>Find a way, SVB Financial Group, and Silicon Valley Bank are registered trademarks.

    Angel Resource Institute and CB Insights are independent third parties and are not affiliated with SVB Financial Group.

    This material, including without limitation to the statistical information herein, is provided for informational purposes only. The material is based in part on information

    from third-party sources that we believe to be reliable, but which have not been independently verified by us and for this reason we do not represent that the information

    is accurate or complete. The information should not be viewed as tax, investment, legal or other advice nor is it to be relied on in making an investment or other decision.

    You should obtain relevant and specific professional advice before making any investment decision. Nothing relating to the material should be construed as a solicitation,

    offer or recommendation to acquire or dispose of any investment or to engage in any other transaction.

    http://www.svb.com/halo-report-2012-q1-infographic/

  • Thu
    25
    Oct
    2012

    October 2012

    Happy to suport Foundation For Excellence.

    To date, the FFE has provided 30,000 annual scholarships in engineering and medicine to almost 12,000 students and has helped transform families and communities across 25 states in India.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sGov4MuyRdY

  • Mon
    29
    Oct
    2012

    2012_10$largeimg226_Oct_2012_135530677

    PALO ALTO, Calif., United States

    Sold out within the first two weeks of its announcement, the annual fundraising gala for the Foundation for Excellence attracted a crowd Oct. 6 of more than 300 of the top entrepreneurs and business minds in the Bay Area to the Albert and Janet Schultz Cultural Arts Hall at the JCC here.

    ffe-gala2

    In past years, the FFE has raised approximately $150,000 at the annual event. However, with the growing tuition and the Indian economy’s increasing demands of the students, the FFE board decided to open the event up to a much larger assembly and seek much higher levels of funding.

    The decision surpassed all expectations when the Oct. 6 event broke all of its historical fundraising records by raising $425,000 in one night

    The FFE is a non-profit scholarship program founded in 1994 by Dr. Prabhu Goel and his wife Poonam. Its mission is to help exceptionally talented but underprivileged students in India to follow career paths to becoming doctors, engineers, and computer scientists.

    To date, the FFE has provided 30,000 annual scholarships in engineering and medicine to almost 12,000 students and has helped transform families and communities across 25 states in India.

    As the evening began, the banquet hall rang with laughter as Jeff Applebaum’s standup comedy routine kicked off the FFE fundraising event. Then Venktesh Shukla, the president of FFE, explained that all FFE scholarship recipients sign a pledge to support two scholars when they are in a position to do so.

    The Indian American entrepreneur further noted that 670 FFE alumni are already seriously involved in the donation process and in this year alone the alumni themselves have supported over 100 new FFE students.

    After 17 years of being at the helm of FFE, Shukla was honored by the organization for not only building the FFE organization here in the United States but for also shepherding the FFE India Trust and playing a substantial role in bringing FFE to its present stature. Board member Dr. Kailash Joshi, a founding member of TiE, was then named the next FFE president.

    Among those present that evening were Indian Consul General N. Parthasarathi, well-known philanthropist and leading private-equity investor Romesh Wadhwani of the Symphony Group, and Dr. Kumar Malavalli, co-founder of Brocade Communications and InMage, all of whom gave speeches in praise of the efforts of the FFE.

    Among the highlights of the evening were speeches by five alumni scholars who spoke of their struggles through life and their extreme challenges in attaining a higher education. They expressed their gratitude to FFE, noting that had it not been for the organization, they would still be struggling to support themselves and their families.

    In addition to a dinner catered by Amber, the evening’s entertainment featured songs by “SaReGaMaPa” finalists Zaheer and Ishmeet, and a dance performance.

    http://www.indiawest.com/news/7289-foundation-for-excellence-gala-raises-record-425-000.html

  • Tue
    30
    Oct
    2012

    InMage & Hitachi Data Systems Partner to Enable Local Channel Partners to Deliver Next Generation Server Replication and Recovery Cloud Services in Hong Kong

    SAN JOSE, Calif. – October 30, 2012 – InMage® announced today that its ScoutCloud platform has been selected by Hitachi Data Systems® to help the company’s channel partners bring next-generation server replication and recovery cloud services to customers in Hong Kong.

    Using ScoutCloud’s built-in technologies such as continuous data protection (CDP), application awareness and consistency, asynchronous replication and WAN optimization, together with storage technology from Hitachi Data Systems, enables local channel partners to provide increased benefits to their end users, such as the ability to recover their physical and virtual servers as virtual machines in the secure cloud.

    “Featuring lower costs, reduced complexity, and limited risks, InMage’s ScoutCloud takes us to the next level in terms of the support we can provide to our channel partners,” said Andrew Sampson, General Manager, Hong Kong and Macau, Hitachi Data Systems. “With exponential data growth and increasing complexity, every second counts in the process of recovering applications in order to minimize data loss and maintain business continuity. It is therefore our priority to provide instant response during disasters with InMage’s ScoutCloud platform. It offers not only excellent recovery ability, but also achieves service levels that exceed expectations.”

    ScoutCloud combines best in class data protection, a comprehensive physical-to-virtual and virtual-to-virtual recovery engine that supports failover/failback for all applications, and automated provisioning of recovery virtual machines and their associated storage. This enables MSPs and Cloud providers to offer Recovery as a Service (RaaS) that is capable of near-zero RPO and RTO. ScoutCloud protects any customer server (virtual or physical) and can recover it nearly instantaneously as a virtual machine in the cloud.

    “We’re pleased to partner with Hitachi Data Systems and bring ScoutCloud to their service providers in that region,” said Ramesh Mandava, Vice President, Sales and Operations, APAC and EMEA, InMage. “Their customers will be able to leverage their existing IT assets while adopting feature-rich cloud-based server replication and recovery services to expedite their disaster recovery (DR) implementations. This leads to substantial savings in time and money for them.”

    ###

    Media Contacts: Jennifer Sparks Bocchino

    Sparks & Associates

    Tel: (949) 388-9322

    jenn@sparks-associates.com

  • Wed
    07
    Nov
    2012

    SnapVolumes Secures $2.3 Million Seed Financing to Redefine Application

    Deployment and Management of Virtual Desktops, Servers and Cloud Computing

    Founded by technologists with deep expertise in solving complex virtualization
    and Windows challenges; well-known industry executives participate in angel
    round

    Business Wire

    LOS ALTOS, Calif. -- November 07, 2012

    SnapVolumes, Inc., a new company focused on application lifecycle management
    in virtual, cloud and physical environments, has emerged from stealth mode
    today with an angel investment of $2.3 million from well-known industry
    executives. Founded by virtualization, Windows kernel and security experts,
    Matthew Conover, Shaun Coleman and Matthieu Suiche, SnapVolumes focuses on the
    issues of supporting a mixed environment of virtual desktops, servers and
    cloud computing while fully leveraging the virtual infrastructure.

    As more companies move to the cloud, IT departments are struggling to adapt
    their enterprise applications to the dynamic and elastic nature of cloud
    computing. Traditional tools that managed applications in the world of
    physical servers and desktops are ill-suited for virtual environments. This
    leads to substantial overhead and costs associated with application
    deployment, support, management, storage and infrastructure. A recent analyst
    report predicts a virtualization management gap in excess of $100 billion and
    growing at an unprecedented rate, increasing pressure on IT and the need for
    automating application deployment and management. To address market needs,
    SnapVolumes has developed an entirely new approach to enterprise application
    life-cycle management that takes full advantage of virtualization and modern
    storage technologies such as SSD. SnapVolumes supports all server, desktop and
    custom/legacy applications without requiring streaming, packaging, or
    sequencing and is far more robust than current layering solutions.

    SnapVolumes is led by CEO Raj Parekh, former CEO of Virident and CTO/VP,
    Engineering at Sun Microsystems. SnapVolumes has already attracted top
    engineering talent from VMware, Citrix, EMC, Symantec, Microsoft and Trend
    Micro. The SnapVolumes Board of Directors is drawn from business leaders and
    technologists with extensive experience in virtualization and cloud computing,
    and include Henrik Rosendahl, successful serial entrepreneur and CEO of
    Thinstall (acquired by VMware in 2008); Klaus Oestermann, Group VP, GM of
    Cloud Networking at Citrix Systems; and, Prashant Shah, former Managing
    Director at Hummer Winblad Venture Partners. Participants in the angel round
    include TiE Angels of Silicon Valley and industry executives and visionaries
    such as the founder and former CTO of Brocade Kumar Malavalli, SVP of
    Technology at SAP Labs Sanjog Gad, and the CEO of Infoblox Robert Thomas.
    Executives from Symantec, EMC, Citrix, and TIBCO also participated in the
    round.

    “SnapVolumes has the potential to fundamentally change the way that enterprise
    desktops, server and cloud platforms are managed,” said Simon Bramfitt,
    founder and principal analyst with Entelechy Associates. “The ability for IT
    to easily adapt their enterprise applications to the dynamic and elastic
    nature of cloud computing is a remarkable benefit. SnapVolumes technology is
    the closest thing to magic I’ve ever seen.”

    “The opportunities for SnapVolumes from both a technology and partnership
    perspective are exciting, and I look forward to being involved with such a
    distinguished team and group of advisors,” said Rosendahl, Chairman of the
    Board, SnapVolumes. “My experience at Thinstall and VMware in application
    delivery and virtualization provided me with unique insight into the issues
    that can arise in a converged infrastructure environment. I believe
    SnapVolumes is in a strong position to help solve these new-world data center
    challenges.”

    SnapVolumes’ executive team brings extensive experience in virtualization and
    software development:

    * Chief Executive Officer Raj Parekh – co-founded Virident Systems in 2006
    and served as CEO and Chairman. A well-respected technologist, Raj has
    been a member of the senior business and technology executive teams of
    high technology companies including Sun Microsystems as CTO and Vice
    President of Engineering of all system products, and as Vice President and
    General Manager of Java products for Sun Microsystems. Before joining Sun,
    Raj was Vice President and General Manager at Silicon Graphics managing
    all chip development including “Geometry Engine” and several system
    products. Raj also co-founded Redwood Ventures served as Executive
    Managing Partner and Chairman. Raj has served as board member and/or
    Chairman of the board at more than 15 high tech companies, including
    Magma, Niksun, Pranalytica, eGtran, Virident, TiE Angels, PubNub and
    Aspex. He holds 11 issued patents.

    * Chief Technology Officer and Founder Matthew Conover – former Technical
    Director for Symantec Research Labs, where he was a major contributor to
    the company’s virtualization strategy. Prior to his eight years at
    Symantec, Conover held various research and engineering roles at Network
    Associates and BindView. As an early pioneer in the field of Windows
    security his research has been cited in numerous publications such as
    “Writing Secure Code” by Microsoft Press. He holds 16 issued patents.

    * Vice President of Products/Marketing and Founder Shaun Coleman – formerly
    Director of Product Management for Citrix XenDesktop, Coleman has also
    worked at VMware where he was the first hire in the desktop virtualization
    group where he managed the first releases of VDI/VMware View. He founded
    the security startup company Reconnex (acquired in 2008 by McAfee) and has
    held various senior management positions at Proofpoint, RSA Data Security,
    Lawrence Livermore National Labs, and Sandia National Labs. Coleman holds
    4 issued patents.

    * Chief Scientist and Founder Matthieu Suiche – As one of the youngest
    Microsoft MVPs, he is a well-respected Windows OS and security expert. He
    also worked as a researcher at the Netherlands Forensic Institute (Dutch
    Nederlands Forensisch Instituut) as part of the Dutch Ministry of Security
    and Justice, has worked for the European Aeronautic Defense and Space
    Company, and contributed to the Samba open source project.

    “Running many virtual machines on a single server has greatly reduced the
    number of physical servers needed, giving an enormous CAPEX savings. However,
    OPEX continues to increase proportional to total number of VMs,” said Parekh.
    “The problem of application management is obviously in need of a new solution.
    Without that, the ever expanding virtualization management gap will simply
    stall cloud momentum. Such a solution must be fully automated, fit seamlessly
    with all clouds, hypervisors, operating systems and apps. It must be secure,
    easy to use and fit with existing tools from major players like VMware,
    Citrix, Dell and Microsoft. There exists no such product in the market today
    with these attributes. At SnapVolumes, we are developing a patent-pending
    solution to address critical issues, reduce CIO headaches and save millions of
    dollars in operational expenses ‘in a snap.’ Due to the size of the
    opportunity and urgent need from customers, we plan to form key partnerships
    with industry leaders as we complement their solutions.”

    For more information about SnapVolumes and their new beta program, contact
    or call 888-369-5597 or go to www.snapvolumes.com.

    Follow SnapVolumes on the web at:

    * Beta sign up

    * Twitter

    * LinkedIn

    About SnapVolumes

    SnapVolumes was founded in early 2011 to provide IT with a new approach to
    enterprise application life-cycle management that takes full advantage of
    virtualization, supports legacy applications, eliminates the need for
    re-architecting or rewriting existing software, and works with existing
    management solutions. The company is headquartered in Los Altos, California.
    For more information, visit http://www.snapvolumes.com.

    Contact:

    Mindshare
    Heather Fitzsimmons, 650-279-4360
    heather@mindsharepr.com

  • Tue
    27
    Nov
    2012

    With all of the migration to cloud-based services in the enterprise, it’s worth noticing that server spending has been flat at about $50 billion a year. But managing and administering to the cloud and all of the virtualized apps that it spawns has become a huge expense and the cost is growing at an alarming rate.

    That’s the problem that SnapVolumes hopes to address with a clever tool for keeping track of everything. The Los Altos, Calif.-based company recently raised $2.3 million from industry executives to attack the problem of managing their apps. It does so by enabling enterprises to run a single copy of a major app, said Rj Parekh (pictured), chief executive of SnapVolumes, in an interview with VentureBeat.

    SnapVolumes was founded by experts on virtualization, Windows kernel, and security: Matthew Conover, Shaun Coleman and Matthieu Suiche. The cloud — or web-connected data centers powered by racks of computers known as servers — allows users and companies to log into their virtual environments, which are supported with dynamic cloud data centers. A single server can be more fully utilized by virtually dividing it up into parts that can handle different tasks. That results in huge capital spending savings, as it reduces the total number of servers an enterprise needs.

    raj-parekh

    But tracking all of those divisions between apps and companies (that is, the number of virtual servers) isn’t something that today’s enterprise information technology tools were designed to do. The result is substantial overhead and costs associated with application deployment, support, management, security, and infrastructure. IDC recently reported that the “virtualization management gap” is costing enterprises $100 billion a year and it is growing at an unprecedented rate.

    “The expense is related to the number of virtual machines out there,” Parekh said.

    The problem is that for every 1,000 employees, companies have to run about 1,000 copies of apps such as Microsoft Office.

    To address the problem, SnapVolumes has developed an entirely new approach, running one app per thousands of virtual machines.When an app has to be updated, the changes are made to one copy.

    “No one can do that today,” Parekh said. “There is still no good solution.”

    What you need to accomplish this, Parekh said, is talented engineers who understand the nature of physical memory in the infrastructure, and the security associated with each copy being used.

    “We build a bridge of the logical (virtual server) and the physical, and our software operates on both sides at the same time,” Parekh said. “We set up a control network that can scale to tens of thousands of virtual machines.”

    SnapVolumes inserts a small piece of its software in every virtual machine, with another piece in the physical world handling control procedures. It’s almost like a watermark for virtual servers in the cloud. The company supports all server, desktop and other apps without requiring too much effort. It costs $600 per year to manage each virtual machine today. Parekh hopes to cut $200 a year out of that cost.

    SnapVolumes is led by CEO Raj Parekh, former CEO of Virident and a former chief technology officer and vice president of engineering at Sun Microsystems. He has recruited engineers who worked at VMware, Citrix, EMC, Symantec, Microsoft and Trend Micro. Suiche, a former Microsoft MVP (most valuable programmer) and Conover, a security expert and former technical director at Symantec Research Labs, have focused on a creating a system that is secure. The company was founded in early 2011.

    “The ever-expanding virtualization management gap will simply stall cloud momentum,” Parekh said. “A solution must be fully automated, fit seamlessly with all clouds, hypervisors, operating systems and apps. It must be secure, easy to use and fit with existing tools from major players like VMware, Citrix, Dell and Microsoft. There exists no such product in the market today with these attributes. At SnapVolumes, we are developing a patent-pending solution to address critical issues, reduce CIO headaches and save millions of dollars in operational expenses ‘in a snap.’ Due to the size of the opportunity and urgent need from customers, we plan to form key partnerships with industry leaders as we complement their solutions.”

    Board members at SnapVolumes include Henrik Rosendahl, former CEO of Thinstall (acquired by VMware in 2008); Klaus Oestermann, an executive at Citrix Systems; and Prashant Shah, former managing director at Hummer Winblad Venture Partners. Investors include TiE Angels of Silicon Valley and former industry executives who worked at Brocade, SAP Labs, Infoblox, Symantec, EMC, Citrix, and Tibco also participated in the round.

    “SnapVolumes has the potential to fundamentally change the way that enterprise desktops, server and cloud platforms are managed,” said Simon Bramfitt, founder and principal analyst with Entelechy Associates. “The ability for IT to easily adapt their enterprise applications to the dynamic and elastic nature of cloud computing is a remarkable benefit. SnapVolumes technology is the closest thing to magic I’ve ever seen.”

    Read more at http://venturebeat.com/

  • Tue
    11
    Dec
    2012

    BY CAROL HAZARD Richmond Times-DispatchRichmond Times-Dispatch

    If it weren’t for lost luggage, T.K. Somanath might not have stopped in Richmond.

    Nor would he, as the first and only president and chief executive officer of the Better Housing Coalition, help transform neighborhoods and change lives with high-quality affordable housing.

    Somanath arrived here in late 1971. He was traveling by Greyhound bus from New York to Florida searching for a job that fit his skills as a civil engineer.

    He and his bride, Mukthalata, fascinated by the speeches and legacies of John F. Kennedy, Robert F. Kennedy and the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., set out that year from India to explore and see the world.

    The U.S. was coming out of the Vietnam War, and the country was in a recession. It wouldn’t be easy to find work, especially as winter approached.

    The couple had $400, and they spent a chunk on a winter coat and jacket when they arrived in New York. She stayed with friends there while he hopped on a bus and scouted for a job.

    His luggage got lost somewhere between Washington and Richmond, so Somanath ended his trip here and paid $3 to sleep that night at the YMCA. “I didn’t care about my clothes, but my college credentials were very important to me.”

    Somanath stayed at the Y for a few months, finding work first at Standard Drug store on East Broad Street, cleaning up after the store closed, and then as a survey crew member for Timmons engineering firm at its Main Street office.

    “Greyhound located my baggage in about a week, and, in the meantime, I was actively looking for jobs and registered at the Virginia Employment Commission,” he recalled.

    “I didn’t have Richmond as my destination, but it didn’t take too long to fall in love with the place and its people.”

    His career path in affordable housing began when he took a job in early 1972 with the Richmond Redevelopment & Housing Authority.

    His introduction to housing here was an eye-opener. “I couldn’t believe the big divide between the poor and the rich,” he said.

    Coming from India and learning about the U.S. through reading The Saturday Evening Post and Time and Life magazines, Somanath was under the impression that most everyone in this country was rich.

    His wife, a medical doctor, joined him in Richmond, and they reared their family here. “We made this as our home because Richmond is so beautiful,” he said.

    The couple settled 35 years ago in Brandermill near the Swift Creek Reservoir in Chesterfield County.

    When they arrived, only a dozen or so people from India lived in the Richmond area. The area is home now to thousands of Indian immigrants.

    Somanath is a co-founder of the Hindu Center of Virginia.

    “In the early days, we met at rented community centers in the West End and South Side until the center acquired a large parcel at Spring Hill Road in western Henrico,” Somanath said.

    “Today, we have a beautiful temple for worship and classrooms to teach dance music, yoga and studies in Hindu and Jain religions.”

    Four decades goes quickly, Somanath said. His wife retired about five years ago.

    Somanath, 66, plans to retire in April. “I have been busy the last 40 years,” he said.

    “It has been a great privilege to serve thousands of low-income families with decent, beautiful, affordable housing in our region.”

    For the past 22 years, Somanath has set the foundation for the Better Housing Coalition, leading efforts to revitalize, preserve and develop about 1,600 housing units in 13 communities in the Richmond area.

    “T.K. has a big heart and cares about people,” said James E. Ukrop, former chairman of the Virginia Local Initiatives Support Corp., a partner housing organization to the Better Housing Coalition. His wife, Bobbie, served on the coalition’s board, and their son, Scott, is a committee chairman.

    “He has a very creative financial mind, and he is a good deal-maker,” said Ukrop, former chairman of Ukrop’s Super Markets Inc. and First Market Bank.

    The Better Housing Coalition was formed in 1988 by community leaders, including the late social advocate Mary Tyler McClenahan, to find private, locally initiated solutions to build high-quality affordable housing.

    A nationwide search was conducted for someone to lead the organization.

    The doors to the nonprofit opened in 1990 in a one-room office in the United Way building with Somanath, former development director at the housing authority, as executive director. He recruited an office manager, a part-time planner and several volunteers.

    The group now employs 80 people. It owns 1,459 apartments. A property-management subsidiary handles leasing and maintenance.

    “T.K. has built a remarkable organization with strong support from the staff and board,” said Carter McDowell, the coalition’s co-founder.

    “He is an engineer by training, so he is results-oriented, but in addition, he is truly a visionary, and he has the ability to create multiple options,” she said.

    “He has a very positive view of the world, and he expects things to happen around him and they do.”

    The board is conducting a search for his replacement.

    “We play an important role at the BHC by being a catalyst to bring change,” Somanath said.

    Once a critical mass of houses is built or revitalized, private development follows and neighborhoods are transformed.

    Challenges included transforming Park Lee — 35 barracks-style buildings with 420 apartments in Chesterfield — into Winchester Greens, a mixed-use, mixed-income planned community with 240 town homes.

    The coalition bought the run-down complex in 1997 from the Department of Housing and Urban Development. About 20 percent of residents at Park Lee worked, and the average household income was $6,500 a year.

    Most residents at Winchester Greens work, and the average household income is $35,000, said Andrea Butler, the coalition’s spokeswoman.

    Social transformation through support services provided by the coalition has resulted in reduced crime, children succeeding in school and going to college and zero teen pregnancies, she said.

    “It is absolutely true that when you can take a family or a senior out of poor housing in an unsafe neighborhood and put them in high-quality housing, whether rental or for sale, in a neighborhood on an upswing that you change their lives,” said John P. McCann, chairman of the coalition’s board and founder of McCann Realty Partners.

    “Suddenly, they have pride in their home, their outlook improves. … In addition, you give them support with needed social services, such as employment counseling, financial literacy, nutrition direction and medical guidance,” McCann said.

    “This is the model that T.K. has built that has changed more than a thousand households in central Virginia.”

    To develop high-quality affordable housing, the amount of debt on projects must be minimized so purchase or rental prices can be kept low, McCann said.

    “T.K. is an expert in creating the capital stack. If a high-quality rental property costs $100,000 a home, to keep it affordable, maybe it can only service $40,000 of debt.”

    For the project to work, it needs tax credits, energy grants, municipal subsidies, other grants and subsidies that make up the remaining $60,000 of the cost.

    “T.K. finds this other capital better than anyone else probably in Virginia,” McCann said.

    “Changing lives and starting the transformation of a difficult neighborhood is what motivates him.”

    Mary White Thompson, 75, who lives in the Fairmount area in Church Hill and served on the coalition’s board, said the nonprofit group has changed her life.

    She recalled how the community thrived in the 1960s, ’70s and ’80s. But it fell into disrepair as residents aged and houses were abandoned.

    Somanath came to talk to residents in 1993. He asked what they wanted and developed trust with the residents from the beginning, Thompson said.

    “The neighborhood is beautiful now with the new and rehabbed homes,” Thompson said. “New families have moved in. We have mixed incomes. For me, it is a dream. I love to see people talking and children playing again.”

    The people at the Better Housing Coalition are team players, she said. “T.K. is the head of the team. He is a wonderful friend and a wonderful humanitarian.”

    Active in Church Hill since 1994, the coalition launched a capital campaign in early 2010 to add 150 affordable homes in a 10-block area north of East Broad Street in north Church Hill by the end of 2016.

    To date, the coalition has built and/or renovated 25 single-family homes and opened the 22-unit Beckstoffer’s Mill Loft apartments. Beckstoffer’s Seniors, a 39-unit apartment building, is under construction.

    There is a right way to build affordable housing and a wrong way.

    Somanath is all too familiar with the “not-in-my-backyard” mentality.

    “It should surprise no one that many communities no longer accept affordable housing with open arms,” he said.

    “When anyone proposes developing affordable housing or multifamily rental communities, ambivalence against affordable housing often shifts to hostility,” he said.

    People use myths to convince decision makers that the development and its residents don’t belong there, Somanath said.

    They claim traffic will add to congested roads, schools will become overcrowded, new buildings will clash with existing neighborhoods, people won’t fit in and they might bring a criminal element.

    “It is essential to counter these myths with facts to win them over to support development of affordable housing to accommodate housing needs of our workforce and to bring economic stability and prosperity to our region,” he said.

    Somanath’s first opportunity to change the face of public housing, while working at the housing authority, was in Randolph, a 76-acre urban neighborhood plagued by substandard housing and decay but with deep roots as a community.

    Dilapidated houses were cleared during the urban renewal of the late 1960s. The Downtown Expressway cut through low-income, working-class neighborhoods of Randolph, the lower Fan District and Oregon Hill.

    Initial plans for Randolph’s redevelopment called for construction of typical subsidized public-housing apartments organized around courtyards surrounded by parking lots and 40-foot-wide single-family ranchers.

    Somanath stepped in to dramatically change the direction of redevelopment. “I was successful in pressing the concerns expressed by the residents with the city and decision-makers at RRHA (the housing authority).”

    “He called a timeout on projects that were approved and ready to go,” recalled Rob Robinson, an urban designer in Pittsburgh who worked with Somanath at the time.

    He took an incremental, organic approach that stirred criticism and anger. “But it was the right thing to do.”

    “T.K. is broad and visionary in his thinking and an ardent supporter and advocate of how best to assist neighborhoods,” Robinson said. “He is genuine, honest and optimistic. With him, it is never ‘you can’t,’ but ‘find what you can do.’ ”

    Randolph residents wanted to return to a community reflecting neighborhood traditions, said Somanath, who involved the residents in planning their new community.

    New homes were designed with porches and yards along streets and sidewalks, alleys and trees. The bold plan featured a park close to the expressway, pocket parks, gazebos and a mix of housing types and materials.

    “Today, the overriding impression of Randolph is one of stability with a steady rhythm of porches along its tree-lined streets, with a mix of affordable rental apartments and single-family homes occupied by a mix of income homeowners,” he said.

    www.timesdispatch.com