Volume 8, Number 7, February 20, 2003



This Week's Contents:

1) NEWS ABOUT NETPRENEUR
    1.1 The Soft Sell On Our Sales Panel
2) REGIONAL NETPRENEURS
    2.1 Megisto Pushes To Wireless Devices
    2.2 Bethesda Softworks' Games Go Wireless
    2.3 GalleryWatch Watches The US Budget
3) FUNDING & FINANCE NEWS
    3.1 Dough Raise Me
    ......$14M for 2 local entrepreneurs
    3.2 Life In The Food Chain
    ......Zhone Acquires Eluminant
    ......TruSecure Acquires Vigilinx
4) WHO'SWARE
    ......news about people at Doceus, Nextel, Aronson, Panacya, and ManTech

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

1.1 THE SOFT SELL ON OUR SALES PANEL
Our panelists for next week's Coffee & DoughNets on "Building A Sales Organization" have closed more than a few deals in their time. Before becoming SVP of Worldwide Sales & Marketing at Ser Solutions, Carolyn Hyde held senior sales and management positions at Data General, Oracle and EMC. Robert Skinner is EVP of Worldwide Sales at Icode, and has been President and CEO of High Branch Software and EVP of Sales and Professional Services at Best Software. Before becoming Managing Partner at Walker Ventures, Gina Dubbé held key sales and engineering management positions with RJO Enterprises, Oracle, PRC, Interleaf, and Trusted Information Systems. Next Tuesday, February 25, is your chance to pick their brains on generating revenue and building a successful team of salespeople. It's at the Shady Grove Conference Center in Rockville, MD. 

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

2.1 MEGISTO PUSHES TO WIRELESS DEVICES
(Germantown, MD) Megisto Systems unveiled what it says is the first mobile data push capability that allows operators to personalize and distribute any application to subscribers without dependence on device type or operating system. The company's Mobile Services Delivery System (MSDS) makes presence information available to mobile applications using its Simple Dynamic Push Protocol (SDPP). Megisto developed SDPP and is making it available at no cost to applications developers through a partnership development program. With it, applications can detect subscriber presence and send information immediately, including long text and graphics, whenever there is data to send. Megisto says the capability is especially useful for enterprise applications that are typically not developed to use WAP Gateway infrastructures and support systems and that have little knowledge of mobile infrastructure services. Separately, Megisto also released a new real-time, prepaid charging solution that delivers home control to mobile operators for management of roaming prepaid subscribers.
http://www.megisto.com
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

2.2 BETHESDA SOFTWORKS' GAMES GO WIRELESS
(Rockville, MD) Computer games developed by Bethesda Softworks will be made available to wireless devices through a new partnership with Vir2L Studios and Mforma Group. The first two games to be delivered will be The Elder Scrolls Travels, a game featuring dungeons and monsters based on Bethesda Softwork's RPG series, and International Hot Rod Association Drag Racing. Both will be available to wireless users in April. Rockville, MD-based Vir2L will make the games ready for wireless and Kirkland, WA-based Mforma will distribute them to its network of more than 40 wireless operators around the world.
http://www.bethsoft.com
http://www.vir2l.com
http://www.mforma.com
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

2.3 GALLERYWATCH WATCHES THE US BUDGET
(Washington, DC) GalleryWatch.com, a provider of tools and applications for monitoring the federal and Texas legislative, regulatory, and appropriations processes, released USBudget News, a daily electronic bulletin available via email or the Web. Published daily when Congress is in session, USBudget News gives subscribers original articles and analysis concerning budget and appropriations developments based on interviews with official sources including members of Congress and their staffs. Also included with the service are Tax Trot, a daily collection of tax bills introduced in Congress, and Federal Register Watch, an advance notice of grant opportunities provided prior to their publication in the Federal Register.
http://www.gallerywatch.com

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

3.1 DOUGH RAISE ME

$3 million for Vienna, VA-based Emerging Technologies Group (ETG) from Edison Venture Fund. ETG develops cost management and decision support software for telecommunications companies, including its iXTools product that allows telecom companies and content service providers to manage costs and drive profitability on their interconnect traffic. Joining ETG's board are Gary Golding of Edison and John Bennett, President of Sentori, a Laurel, MD-based telecom software company funded by Edison.
http://www.etgcorp.com

$11 million in a Series B round for Columbia, MD-based Sourcefire, a provider of network security solutions for enterprises and government organizations. The round was led by New Enterprise Associates, with participation by first-round investors Sierra Ventures, Inflection Point Ventures, and Core Capital Partners. Sourcefire was founded in 2001 by Martin Roesch, creator and principal author of Snort, an open source product for detecting network intrusions. Sourcefire extends Snort with proprietary solutions, including its Intrusion Management System (IMS), an intrusion detection solution that incorporates a management console with an integrated database for event correlation and data management capabilities.
http://www.sourcefire.com
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3.2 LIFE IN THE FOOD CHAIN

-- Zhone Acquires Eluminant
(Chantilly, VA) NEC Eluminant Technologies, a provider of network access products, has been acquired by Oakland, CA-based Zhone Technologies. Eluminant was a subsidiary of NEC USA offering solutions including multiplexers, digital loop carriers, SONET, and broadband access products. Zhone offers a family of next-generation network products supporting an array of voice, data, video, and entertainment services. Zhone was founded by the senior management team that grew telecommunications giant Ascend Communications from startup to a multi-billion-dollar corporation.
http://www.eluminant.com
http://www.zhone.com

-- TruSecure Acquires Vigilinx
(Herndon, VA) TruSecure, a provider of security intelligence and services, announced that it has acquired Parsippany, NJ-based Vigilinx, a security services provider. Vigilinx's flagship product, IntelliShield, will be used to provide the technology platform for TruSecure to integrate and automate delivery of its managed security services by mapping intelligence against the enterprise and application assets of each customer.
http://www.trusecure.com

|||||||||||||||||| 4. Who'sWare ||||||||||||||||||

(Washington, DC) Doceus, a provider of professional software and website solutions, promoted Andrew Pagley to President.
http://www.doceus.com

(Reston, VA) Wireless phone company Nextel Communications promoted Thomas Kelly Jr. from Chief Marketing Officer to COO.
http://www.nextel.com

(Rockville, MD) Aronson Capital Partners, a merger and acquisition advisor to mid-market companies, named John Saunders as Managing Director. He previously held positions at DynCorp and Visual Networks.
http://www.aronsoncapitalpartners.com

(Columbia, MD) Panacya, a provider of eBusiness management software, named Steve Friedman to its Board of Directors. Formerly with BEA Systems and other tech companies, he is an advisor to early-stage companies.
http://www.panacya.com

(Fairfax, VA) ManTech International, a provider of IT and technical services to the Department of Defense and intelligence community, named Stephen Harlan to its Board of Directors. He was formerly Vice Chairman of KPMG Peat Marwick.
http://www.mantech.com

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