Monday, May 21, 2007

Purchase prods m-Qube execs back into startups

By Efrain Viscarolasaga

The name m-Qube Inc. may be gone from the local technology community, but it is not forgotten.

Slightly more than a year after the Boston-based mobile marketing channel developer was acquired by California's VeriSign Inc. for $250 million, m-Qube's inspiration lingers. For instance, executives that once made the company the fastest growing startup in New England are busy planting new seeds across the region with the hope of duplicating m-Qube's success.

Waltham's Mobicious Inc. and Quattro Wireless Inc. are two examples that have emerged over the past few weeks. This week, Mobicious, co-founded by former m-Qube director of marketing David Chang, landed $4 million in its first rounding of funding from North Bridge Venture Partners and Carmel Ventures. Quattro Wireless, on the other hand, was launched publicly last week, driven by a $6 million round of funding from Highland Capital Partners, and led by former m-Qube general manager and CTO Andrew Miller and Eswar Priyadarshan, respectively.

In fact, of the 13-member management team in place at the time of m-Qube's acquisition in March 2006, 10 have moved into positions within the local high-tech startup community.

"Some say we don't have the kind of 'seedling' entrepreneur community on the East Coast the way they do out West," said former m-Qube CEO Jeff Glass, who is now a venture partner at Bain Capital in Boston. "This is proof that we do."

Chang and Miller both credited the quick pace of m-Qube's growth with their drive to stay in a startup atmosphere.

"I think a lot of people, myself included, really bought into that startup vibe," said Chang.

Other executives left VeriSign not to start smaller companies, but join them. Mike Troiano, general manager of m-Qube's interactive group, left to become CEO of Matchmine Inc., a media analytics company in Needham partially funded by New England Patriots owner Bob Kraft and his son, Patriots president Jonathan Kraft. Troiano also brought former m-Qube CFO David Chapman with him.

Robert Orgel, former senior VP of business development landed at Aylus Networks Inc. in Westford, while Dan Gill, former VP of sales, is now serving Gotuit Media Corp. in Woburn as VP of business development.

Former m-Qube VP of engineering Robert DeMillo finds himself in a familiar situation. After joining Third Screen Media in Boston as CTO several months ago, that company was bought by AOL last week.

Like Glass, former COO Jim Crowley has moved to the venture capital world, as an entrepreneur in residence at Highland Capital Partners in Waltham.

Some former m-Qube executives, however, embraced the chance to work with VeriSign.

"The acquisition was beneficial for me personally, as it gave me opportunities I would not have had in a startup environment, such as the management of international programs," said Joe Patore, former senior VP of operations at m-Qube and now VP of operations for digital content messaging services at Verisign's Watertown facilities, formerly the m-Qube offices.

Quattro's Miller said the general migration from VeriSign back to the startup environment has to do with the mentality of the m-Qube team.

"The m-Qube experience was so frenetic and so crazy that it was either something you hated or something you became addicted to," he said. "Obviously, a lot of us (became addicted)."