Section Title
Play On, Baby Blues
Play On, Baby Blues
By Mark Larson
This month, Prosper magazine unveils its third annual list of 10 area companies showing the most potential, its 2007 Baby Blue Chips.
The final list of companies displaying the most promise to grow, prosper and mature was winnowed from a compilation of 32 companies nominated in our online survey by readers, local venture-capital investors we contacted and others emerging from our independent research. After reviewing all nominations, an editorial committee of four chose the top 10 companies.
Eligible were public and privately held companies in the Sacramento economic region. That includes Amador, Butte, El Dorado, Nevada, Placer, Sacramento, San Joaquin, Solano, Sutter, Yolo and Yuba counties. The 20 companies that made the list over the past two years were not included in the balloting.
Here, in alphabetical order, are brief profiles of the Baby Blue Chips we’ll begin examining in more detail starting in next month’s Prosper:
SynapSense
This Folsom-based startup was formed in March by a former Intel exec, Peter Van Deventer, and a UC Davis computer science professor, Raju Pandey. The company is attempting to tap into a mushrooming demand for wireless-sensor technology — units that measure temperature, humidity, motion and atmospheric pressure and then relay the data to a computer.
In May, the company got $2 million in funding, primarily from American River Ventures in Roseville, with $250,000 from DFJ Frontier in West Sacramento. San Francisco-based limited partnership Nth Power added another $500,000 investment. The burgeoning wireless-sensor industry has attracted established companies as well as startups because market figures show it’s expected to produce revenue of nearly $8 billion by 2010 from an estimated $300 million this year.