Jeff Dachis, one of the original Internet cowboys while running Web consultancy Razorfish, is again offering advice to corporate America.
Venture capital firm Austin Ventures is putting up $50 million to back Dachis' new venture, a consultancy that plans to help companies use social networks as well as sell them the software tools they need.
Razorfish was one of those "Web services" companies that skyrocketed to riches during the bubble years only to end up in a heap after the bubble burst.
Noted for his swagger, Dachis was humbled when Razorfish--which had seen $250 million in revenues and a $50 million public offering--evaporate into a torrent of layoffs, executive departures (including his own), and share prices that tumbled from $57 to $1.
Razorfish eventually made a comeback of sorts and was acquired by aQuantive and renamed Avenue A/Razorfish.
So what does Dachis know about social networking? It's hard to tell from his bio.
He was a senior partner at Bond Art and Science, a firm "specializing in information architecture and user experience design," according to a press release from Austin Ventures.
Back in 2001, with Razorfish, the company he cofounded 1995, in full nosedive, pundits asked whether the company's meteoric rise was due to Dachis' skill or luck.
I guess we'll see.
Not that Austin needs any help in the tech cred department, but Google's decision to open an office in the city can't hurt.
The search giant has leased 25,000 square feet in the heart of hip downtown Austin, Sixth Street and Congress Avenue, according to an article Thursday in the Austin American-Statesman.
So if and when the new Googlers ever leave the office, they can walk right onto Sixth Street--Austin's famed drag of music venues. In their more sober moods, they can peer up Congress Avenue and view the state's austere capitol building.
The new office space is set to become an engineering center, the Statesman said, and Google expects to hire about 100 engineers. There is apparently room for another 50 or so employees as well.
One issue that Googlers will face will be the crawling commute traffic, though Austin keeps threatening to finally launch light-rail trains.
The only real question left: Will Google's new office open before South by Southwest?
Three college students were rescued Sunday after spending two days in a narrow limestone cave under the streets of Austin, Texas.
What stands out to me about the rescue effort is that high-tech gear was of little or no use to the emergency workers.
Cell phones and even radios were useless in the underground complex. Rescue workers resorted--successfully--to a Vietnam-era phone system, thousands of feet of telephone cable, and glow sticks, according to an article in the Austin-American Statesman. And, oh yeah, just as important were the skinny rescue workers who were willing to subject themselves to the claustrophobia-inducing cave.
Central Texas is chock full of caves. Until Sunday, I had never heard of Airman's Cave, where the cavers got lost, even though it lies directly under a couple of popular shopping centers in south Austin that I frequent.
This 2-mile-long cave isn't like the caverns of renown. For most of the way through Airman's Cave, you end up on your hands and knees or on your belly. There are areas where the cave is only about 18 inches wide.
Airman's Cave, which is not gated or blocked off, is considered one of the most difficult caves in the region to navigate, according to a member of a local caving group quoted in the Statesman. It takes an expert caver about 12 hours to navigate, the caver said, and only 40 to 50 people have ever made it through.
The three University of Texas students--two women and one man--entered the cave on Saturday morning. They'd been smart enough to tell a friend to call for help if they weren't back by midnight. That friend surely agonized much of, if not the entire night, before calling 911 at 5 a.m. Sunday.
After 11 hours of searching, the three cavers were found. They were not injured, though they had run out of water. Altogether, the trio was underground for about 35 hours before emerging late Sunday night.
The only disappointment--other than the fact that high-tech gear was pretty much useless--was the students' response after they emerged from the cave. Dirty and dehydrated, they profusely thanked the rescue workers. However, all three said they would "absolutely" try it again.
"Really, nothing went wrong except us getting lost," one of the students told reporters.
Don't get me started about the cost of their adventure to taxpayers.
It looks like Austin is about to get a bit hipper--as if the city needed any help in that department.
Apple is apparently expanding its Austin presence, with plans to construct an 80,000-square-foot building in the Texas capital, according to an article in Wednesday's Austin American-Statesman that cited real estate sources. Groundbreaking is likely to take place this summer.
The company has also renewed its lease on 275,000 square feet that it now has in three buildings in the same area where the new building will rise, the newspaper said.
According to the Statesman, Apple currently leases an additional 40,000 square feet for support service workers in a nearby corporate park. Apple apparently plans to shift those operations to the yet-to-be-constructed building.
Apple wouldn't comment on the real estate venture. But, the Statesman noted, Apple did advertise this year for iPhone technical support jobs in Austin.
A longtime executive in Austin's chip industry has been hired as CEO and chairman of California chipmaker Conexant.
According to an article in Tuesday's Austin American-Statesman, Daniel Artusi spent 24 years as an exec at Motorola's Austin chip sites before becoming CEO of Silicon Laboratories. He's been CEO for the past two years at ColdWatt, a start-up in Austin that creates energy-saving systems for the chip and communications industries.
Artusi, who was born and raised in Argentina, isn't exactly walking into a garden party at Conexant. The broadband chipmaker, which is based in Newport Beach, has faced a sharp sales drop and lost $840 million in the past three years, the Statesman said.
On Tuesday, the stock was trading at around $1.40. Ouch.
Apparently, Artusi must believe he can make a difference. "We face near-term challenges," he said in a statement, "but I am confident that we possess the talent and market positions required to build significant shareholder value."
Artusi, who is 52, will succeed retiring CEO Dwight Decker.
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