Phurnace Software – Made Java Applications Easier to Manage

Most people in town know Phurnace Software because they’ve made quite a splash in the past year. For those who don’t know, Phurnace makes software that accelerates the deployment of Java applications. Founded by Daniel Nelson while at UT, Phurnace now resides in the Austin Technology Incubator.

Larry Warnock recently took over as CEO of the startup. Larry has quite a history with startups. He developed a startup in the Bay area which was acquired by Siebel. He came to Austin to join AV Labs and then moved on to Zilliant and Vignette before landing at Phurnace.

I met with Larry recently and learned more about Phurnace’ offering. Java applications require a great deal of customization on the enterprise software environment. There are literally hundreds of parameters that must be set and adjusted for the web services layer in the network – of which there are three main standards. Phurnace builds scripts into its Java application development environment and manages these parameters for the user.

Although Larry wouldn’t divulge revenue or sales stats, he did say they are seeing traction in the marketplace. Phurnace is a great example of startups coming out of UT. In the case of Phurnace they won the UT Moot Corp competition last year.

Best regards,
Hall T.

Armida Technologies – Wireless Video Surveillance

Having worked in the wireless space for some time now, I can tell you that wireline replacement is a real motivator for customers to switch to wireless systems as soon as they are “good enough.” The cost to wire an industrial location ranges from $2/ft up to $2000/ft, which makes wireless a no-brainer if a solution is available.

Armida Technologies brings wireless to the video surveillance market. Their value-add is their software which encrypts the signal before sending it. In case of interference, they can still recover enough of the transmission to give the user a clean image.

You can see Armida and other wireless companies in the upcoming Wireless Seed Stage Forum held by the Austin Technology Incubator on October 17, 2007.

Best regards,
Hall T.