Ron Bianchini and Michael Kazar started Spinnaker Network Solutions, which was acquired by NetApp in November 2003 for $300m. Spinnaker’s flagship product was SpinServer, a clustered file system that allowed 512 servers to provide 11,000 terabytes (11 petabytes!) to appear as a single file system. By many accounts, SpinServer “was a dead product once NetApp got a hold of it”, and many users reported a complete lack of support for the product.

In 2008, Ron and Michael started a new company, Avere Systems. Avere is still in semi-stealth mode, revealing only that they are developing “NAS solutions that would allow enterprises to scale storage network performance independently of capacity.” Rebecca Thompson, VP of Marketing, said they weren’t ready to talk, but StorageMojo did some digging which may help shed some light.

The title of their SNW talk SSD or HDD? How to Get the Benefits of Both with Dynamic Tiering offers some clues.

At the web site they have a picture of what might be a 2-3u rackmount box. So they aren’t a strict software play, although “tin-wrapped” software is something many customers find appealing.

They are also showing at SC09, the supercomputing show. That suggests a focus on bandwidth rather than IOPS as well as the less lucrative research markets.

Avere has already raised a whopping $15m in November 2008 from Norwest and Menlo Ventures, both of which had previously invested in Spinnaker. (Both of these firms list Avere in their portfolio, but this amount hasn’t been disclosed to my knowledge outside of the SEC filing).

Obviously, given their industry experience and past success, it’s not a surprise that Ron and Michael were able to raise a significant sum of money. At the same time, this is a lot of money for a Series A and certainly suggests to me that the idea has a hardware component to it (that is, something more than just off-the-rack NAS storage).

The Register believes that they have “developed a system which attempts to combine the performance of solid state drives with the low cost of hard disk drives in an architecture that dynamically tiers data onto the most appropriate media”. That said, I don’t see much evidence for this beyond what StorageMojo dug up – so that’s probably just a guess, albeit an educated one.

So, what is Avere up to?

As reported recently, ShowClix has raised an undisclosed round of funding from Pittsburgh Equity Partners.

ShowClix is an online ticketing company that provides performing arts centers, nightclubs, live music venues, and colleges and universities an affordable way to sell event tickets online, over the telephone or in-person through a point-of-sale/box office system. Live Nation Entertainment, the result of a merger between Ticketmaster and Live Nation earlier this year, is obviously the 500 lb. gorilla in the market. Even with this additional funding, ShowClix has an uphill battle to fight – but it’s not like there’s a lot of love lost for Ticketmaster. It seems like they are on the right path, focusing right now on affordable solutions for smaller, less traditional venues.

According to ShowClix co-founder Joshua Dziabiak, the round “ultimately totaled between $750k and $1.5m”, though as of last week it looks like $570k (out of $850 total) had been secured. Unfortunately, we don’t know more than this – the filing does not reveal who the other investors were, if any.

They intend on using the money to aggressively expand headcount, “hiring account managers, sales people, customer service reps and a COO” by the end of the year, as well as relocate from their Oakmont offices.

This is, to my knowledge, the first investment made by Pittsburgh Equity Partners. PEP is an early-stage venture firm that come out of a competition created by Innovation Works, Carnegie Mellon, Pitt, and the PA Dept of Community & Economic Development.

It is not clear whether Innovation Works, who has put in $400k collectively in previous rounds, has participated in this round – but given their goal of creating jobs in the region, it certainly wouldn’t surprise me.

When I was hiring a developer and a couple of interns last year, we received well over 100 resumes. Each of came in via email, and our workflow was basically to forward the resume to the rest of the team and then start a thread with our comments on each one. Needless to say, it quickly got unwieldy. 

It’s a problem that Don Charlton also recognized. As Don explained, “I have done hiring and we always used email. Resumes came to me in email, and I had to print and organize them. I hated it.” People used email to manage the process, he reasoned, only because nothing better existed. Don was determined to find that better way and set out to take the pain and paper out of resume management.

And thus, The Resumator was born.

I first came across The Resumator through TheFunded’s Founder Institute which we (Notches) are participating in. The Resumator partnered with TheFunded to offer six months free to program participants, and has since struck a similar sponsorship deal with TechStars. The Resumator was also a member of AlphaLab’s second class in the Winter/Spring 2009 class so Don appreciates the value of such incubators. “Knowing The Resumator owes much of its success to the great mentorship I received during AlphaLab, I made it my mission to reach out to other startup programs and offer our services.”

I was completely shocked to find out that Don built and designed the initial product entirely himself. Not only that, but he went live with his product on the first day of the AlphaLab program. Participating in the program, he said, was an opportunity to secure seed financing but more importantly to get advice from the best minds in the city and gain attention locally.

Don said his 10 years of experience in the design and marketing industry were invaluable in building his own business. “In that industry, you’re basically helping businesses solve business problems,” and as a result he learned the importance of interface and website copy to convert visitors to customers.

In part because of the low expenses afforded by the Pittsburgh area, The Resumator was cash flow positive after only one month, and still has a reasonable amount left from the $25,000 raised through Innovation Works. It helps, he says, that the business has a “East Coast mentality”, focusing on revenue over traffic.

Don’s goals now are to get more attention beyond the Pittsburgh area and further grow the team. To that end, he is considering raising an angel round of around $100,000. He intends to use this on a business development resource, contract with developers for enhancement to the site, and focus on marketing and awareness.

AlphaLab, the early-stage incubator created by Innovation Works, just welcomed six startups to their third class for the Summer/Fall 2009 session. AlphaLab runs a 20-week program that includes funding (up to $25,000 seed investment), free office space and business & strategy mentoring.

While Innovation Works hasn’t “officially” announced the companies, they were recently profiled on PopCity.

Fooala helps restaurants “to create their own online Web sites with applications that offer access to the menu, prices, reservations and delivery options.”  I’m personally interested in hearing more about their business model and product roadmap. In particular, while subscription revenue is great, there may be an opportunity to really tap into “affiliate marketing” in the local restaurant space.

GearHeadz is basically a market maker for idle time on digital manufacturing equipment. As founder Nick Pinkston told PopCity, someone who needs a part for a prototype can send them the specs and they will in turn find the best price. (I’m picturing an army of MakerBots…)

LeftRight Studios is an iPhone game studio. smackBOTS, their first game, is similar to that old Rock’em Sock’em game and recently broke into the top 100 on both the action and kids categories for games.

NavPrescience is developing “personalized and predictive navigation solutions to improve the experiences of drivers.” They are still in stealth mode so not too much information is available. There are navigation systems like the Dash Express that crowdsource traffic information – perhaps NavPrescience will take this a step further and predict traffic based on previous traffic patterns?

Vivo is a web-based video broadcasting service that provides users with a private, customizable environment for sharing events. They are somewhat similar to LiveStream, UStream and the like, but are focusing on private events such as weddings or conferences. Given the trouble that those other companies have found in terms of generating revenue, it seems like Vivo may have found a good niche. They were also recently covered by the Post-Gazette – on the front page of the business section and as a featured story online.

Finally, Zipano Technologies is attempting to give users more control of the personal information that we share through social networks and the like. You can define rules on who can see your location and when it it is made public – for example, you can choose to make your location public when you’re at, say, a bar or the CMU campus but when you’re meeting at a potential client’s office.

I’m hoping to get interviews and do a more detailed profile of each of the companies. If there’s anyone in particular you want me to follow up with, let me know in the comments.