A View on View :: Attensa Raises $9M

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Attensa Raises $9M

by Mark Evans on Mon 05 Dec 2005 11:45 AM EST | Permanent Link

Riddle of the day: can you justify investing in a company that sells an RSS reader/aggregator given the market is so competitive and the business model (a.ka. how you make enough money to build a business) is still unclear? This isn't a problem for RSS Investors and SmartForest Investors, which just injected another $9 million into Attensa Inc. Attensa seems to be developing some fairly interesting technology - see TechCrunch's review - but does it have enough sizzle to justify $9 million of venture capital into a company whose key point of differentiation seems to be that it works with Outlook - an area where Microsoft will likely enter as it gets more serious about RSS and the blogosphere. Unless someone can explain otherwise, the Attensa deal looks like another example of Bubble 2.0.
Update: Here's how RSSI's Jim Moore explains his firm's $5 million investment in Attensa, while Randy Charles Morin has an interview he did with Attensa CEO Craig Barnes last week.

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Re: Attensa Raises $9M

by Anonymous on Tue 06 Dec 2005 12:16 AM EST | Permanent Link

When it came back to me thru the PR people there was no specific name attached. And of course, I never check anything until 5 minutes before I post. And I really wanted to post ASAP. Later, I found out, it was Craig Barnes, the CEO.
-Randy

Re: Re: Attensa Raises $9M

by Mark Evans on Tue 06 Dec 2005 07:24 AM EST | Profile | Permanent Link

thanks, randy. haven't heard from you in awhile. hope all's well.

mark

Re: Re: Re: Attensa Raises $9M

by Anonymous on Tue 06 Dec 2005 09:54 AM EST | Permanent Link

At one point, you turned off anonymous comments and I stopped posting comments. I just noticed that anonymous comments were back on. So, iM back!

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