Archive for the ‘Industry News’ Category

Optimizing healthcare sales revenue is the focus of new division at Altus Alliance

Tuesday, September 15th, 2009

The following is a press release announcing Tim Fitzpatrick joining Altus Alliance to lead a new healthcare I.T. practice:

Federal stimulus funding and technology reforms are causing many companies to directly target the dynamic and growing healthcare technology market.

Tim Fitzpatrick, an industry veteran with 22 years of healthcare sales and business development experience will be leading Altus’s new healthcare division and will be working closely with partner Dave Chase, the founder of Microsoft’s healthcare division and MSHUG-the Microsoft Health Users Group.

“We’re pleased to have Tim as part of the Altus Alliance” says Dave Chase. “His depth of experience, contacts and skills will help Altus expand beyond our technology focus and into the evolving Healthcare market.”

“Healthcare technology and especially healthcare information technology is in gold rush mode” says Mr. Fitzpatrick, “Our focus is to help companies develop and execute a sales strategy that will significantly increase their healthcare revenues. We are not here to provide “whiteboard consulting” but rather to bring our experience and contacts to bear and deliver an immediate impact on healthcare sales revenue and business development traction.”

Mr. Fitzpatrick feels that the current dynamics of the healthcare market is creating opportunities for new companies as well as existing firms and technologies.

“If your company is a new venture with a healthcare focus, we will help you plan, execute and scale your sales. If you are an existing firm that is somewhat horizontal but with applicable healthcare technologies, this is one market you should consider giving a significant vertical focus.”

About Altus Alliance-For ten years, the partners of Altus Alliance have refined methodologies around market assessment, business development traction and sales optimization to accelerate revenues and ensure healthy growth for new ventures. The combination of a proven track record, Fortune 100 experience and deep knowledge of the challenges faced by early stage companies enables Altus to help clients identify and execute against the best growth opportunities and optimize the sales process to maximize revenue traction.

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Delve Network’s “bailout program” another great example of guerilla marketing

Tuesday, June 30th, 2009

I blogged earlier about how Delve Networks used the Obama inaugural as a great example of one of their features to build buzz for their offering. They did another smart thing yesterday. One of their competitors, Maven Networks, had been acquired by Yahoo and was reported to be shutting down and they pounced on the story.

They must have caught wind of the impending news because as soon as news broke on Techcrunch they announced a Maven Networks shutdown bailout program. It’s clear they had their ducks in a row as when one Googles “Maven Networks” or “Maven Networks shut down“, the top results include the story on their offer to Maven Networks customers being abandoned by Yahoo.

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Optimum Energy Secures $4.5 Million to Fuel Company Growth, Accelerate Sales of HVAC Energy Efficiency Software

Wednesday, June 17th, 2009

Optimum Energy has been an Altus Alliance client for the last year or so. Bill Lawler has led a Sales Process Optimization (SPO) project adding HVAC sytems to the list of different markets sectors where SPO has worked. Other successes have ranged from SaaS, Online Advertising, Higher Ed lead generation, enterprise software and more. The press release detailing the funding round for Optimum is appended below. Congratulations to Nathan, Gary, Jim and Ben.


SEATTLE, Wash. — June 17, 2009 — Optimum Energy, LLC, provider of Ultra High Performance HVAC software solutions that set a new standard in energy efficiency, today announced it has secured a commitment of up to $4.5 million in equity financing  led by investor, LLC. Leveraging the success of OptimumHVACTM, third-generation heating, ventilating and air conditioning (HVAC) energy efficiency software introduced in October 2008, this financing will be used to respond to broad scale demand from the market. Based on current operating plans, Optimum Energy does not anticipate future funding rounds.

“Columbia Pacific invests in and operates a diversified set of businesses,” said Stan Baty, managing member, Columbia Pacific Advisors. “Optimum Energy is at the top of our portfolio on three important criteria: customer value proposition, financial model, and alignment with market trends. It offers building owners proven economic payback along with environmental credentials. Optimum Energy has succeeded in building its business efficiently and now is poised for profitable revenue growth as it rides the wave of demand-generating legislation and investment.”

Optimum Energy’s solution is based on Hartman technologies that have achieved or exceeded projected reductions in energy use in more than 60 installations across the U.S. Optimum Energy’s active pipeline of sales opportunities is currently more than $25 million, consisting of approximately 180 projects in a wide range of facilities, including: commercial high rise office towers, schools and universities, data centers, federal and state government facilities, hotels, casinos, airports and shopping centers.

“Since the company was founded in 2005, we’ve been focused on a capital efficient validation of market size and the performance of our technology,” said Nathan Rothman, CEO and founder of Optimum Energy. “Now that we’ve demonstrated the scalability and persistent results our software solution provides, we’re expanding our sales and engineering teams to respond more quickly to increasing market demand. This round of funding positions us well to serve this growing market and realize our revenue goals.”

Management Team

Today Optimum Energy announced the naming of Bert Hogue to chief financial officer, and Gary Gigot, Microsoft and Visio alumnus, to chief marketing officer. Optimum Energy’s management team also includes Nathan Rothman, B.E.P., CSDP, CEO and founder; Jim Hanna, vice president and founder; and Ben Erpelding, P.E., C.E.M., director of engineering. The company is currently recruiting a vice president of sales. 

Optimum Energy is headquartered in Seattle, Washington, with satellite offices in California, Texas and New York.

OptimumHVAC Solutions

Optimum Energy’s standard software solution is targeted at facilities equipped with centrifugal chiller plants and/or variable air volume HVAC systems.

For each project, Optimum Energy’s Engineering Services group provides a scope of work, projects savings and calculates return on investment, including applicable utility incentives. Payback typically falls into the 18 to 36 month range. Optimum Energy then delivers those projected savings with OptimumHVAC software, resulting in increased operating efficiency that lasts the life of the plant. OptimumHVAC also gives facility managers the ability to measure and validate HVAC performance anytime, anywhere, via a secure Web site.

About Optimum Energy, LLC

Based in Seattle, Washington, Optimum Energy’s reliable, demand-based Ultra High Performance HVAC optimization software applications are proven to reduce commercial building HVAC energy consumption and operating costs up to 60 percent. More information is available at www.optimumenergyHVAC.com.

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Seattle Startup Buzz blog launched

Saturday, March 28th, 2009

Altus Alliance partner, Dave Chase, was selected to be a blogger on the Seattle P-I covering the startup scene in the region. Here is how the blog is described.

Seattle Startup Buzz is for and about the startups and trends impacting new ventures in Seattle, Washington State and the Northwest. The truth is that economic growth and recovery in the Northwest will be driven one new venture at a time. Tell us about your new venture and why it will impact the Northwest.

Those posts that we believe are relevant to our constituents will be linked to from here.  If you want to add the Feed to your RSS reader, My Yahoo, Pluck, etc.  go to the Seattle Startup Buzz RSS feed page.

One of Chase’s first posts was about the Seattle P-I’s path to profitability as a pure play online site. Ten Mistakes the PI should avoid on a Path to Online Profitability. Go over there and add your thoughts on this post or if you have newsworthy information for the Seattle Startup scene, drop Chase a line at dchase (at) [altusalliance] – dot (com).

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Climate Solutions: Pioneer in seeing NW’s Clean Energy and Smart Grid opportunity

Tuesday, March 24th, 2009

The NGO Climate Solutions, based in Seattle and Olympia, is coming up on its 10 year anniversary. Since nearly its inception, Altus partner Dave Chase, has lent a hand to their efforts assisting in their strategic planning, marketing and whitepaper development. Well ahead of mainstream consciousness, Climate Solutions published their seminal papers in 2000 and 2001 outlining how the Pacific Northwest was/is positioned to lead.

Chase contributed to two of their later papers that are worth reading if you want to understand how the Smart Grid presents an opportunity for the Northwest. There is $4.3B in the stimulus package.

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Nominate the best orgs in Seattle for Seattle 2.0 event

Thursday, March 19th, 2009

This award highlights startups, VCs, service providers (hint, hint :) ), CEOs, Designers, Technologists and more Read more at Seattle 2.0. Go nominate your favorites.

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Good news for tech in FCC appointment

Tuesday, January 13th, 2009

Fred Wilson lays out the reasons including his background with Expedia, IAC and other Internet businesses along with his experience as a VC and in the FCC. More in the WSJ.

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