A123 Systems The dawn of the hybrid car—not to mention $4-per-gallon gasoline—shows the importance of fuel-saving batteries. At the head of the class is A123. This Watertown, Massachusetts, start-up has a $148 million venture capital war chest that fueled a nanotech breakthrough: a battery that charges faster, holds more power, and is safer than anything […]
Likes Taking Risks, Profitable Returns: The New York Times, September 2008
EVAN SHEFTEL of New York knew he could grow his business of buying and refining old jewelry. All he needed was capital, and quickly. But he had exhausted his credit with conventional lenders. Across the country, in Los Angeles, Jay Turo and his company, Growthink, were looking for profitable investments.
Ozone Technology May Keep Foods Fresher, Longer: Plenty, August 2008
Each year, $7.5 trillion worth of food is moved around the planet, and 30 percent of it spoils before it ever gets to market. But more than edibles is wasted along the way—all the water and energy used to grow and transport the food also goes down the drain. If goods could be kept fresh […]
SXSW 2008: Revenge of the nerds
Everyone kept asking for a take on the Sarah Lacy-Mark Zuckerberg keynote interview run awry at South by Southwest in Austin last week. Having weighed in on the subject in Fortune.com, I might as well offer my thoughts. My main thought was: I felt sorry for Sarah Lacy. Sure, I thought she could have done things […]
I can get Satisfaction
I come across a lot of startups in my work as a technology journalist, and quite often I can’t tell if they have any shot of making it. I admire the passion, but I know that they face many hurdles, and many will fail. I don’t know if Get Satisfaction, the startup that I profiled […]
Feel better, Om Malik
I’d like to join the chorus wishing for Om Malik‘s speedy recovery. In today’s New York Times, I have a story about how Om suffered a heart attack just after Christmas — and how other A-list bloggers like Paul Kedrosky and Michael Arrington warn how stressful it is to have to constantly update a site. Om was […]
Shed a tear for Dow Jones
I wrote a story in today’s New York Times about how Dow Jones has lost its spot in the Standard & Poor’s 500, getting replaced by GameStop, a shopping mall seller of new and used video games. For Dow Jones, the demotion is but one more sign of the painful move into Rupert Murdoch’s fold. For […]
Fortune, if not fame
A story I wrote about what Rupert Murdoch might do with the San Francisco Web site MarketWatch.com is up today on Fortune.com. Fortune has revamped its Web site, and it looks great. Now, instead of stories appearing to come from CNNMoney, you can tell that they’re by Fortune writers. I hope to contribute more in […]
The virtues, and sins, of editing
As a writer, length has always been important. As a newspaper reporter, I tended to write long stories, trying to cram in every detail I had gathered. As a freelance writer, I’m frequently paid by the word. I love long-form journalism, and am enjoying writing for magazines and dreaming up book projects. Yet I struggle with […]
USA Today: Cash, charge or cell phone?
I’ve got a story in this morning’s USA Today about how cell phones will soon have credit card information stored in a chip, so that you’ll only have to wave it over a scanner in order to pay for something. While all the experts I spoke to said this is a very secure technology, there […]