Fresh Startups

5:15 PM -- The Byte and Switch Top 10 Private Companies list has been a staple of this Website for years, and a bellwether of the evolving storage industry.

As the network storage industry matured, however, so did the private companies on our list. In fact, some got pretty long in the tooth. The latest Top 10 we published in March 2006 features few if any companies we can really call startups anymore. (See Top Ten Private Companies: Spring 2006.) Instead, most of the companies listed are established vendors who compete with pubic storage companies on a daily basis. By next March, there's a good chance at least half the vendors on the list will have gone public or filed to do so.

So we have a cunning plan.

We're starting a new list, one focused on true startups, including some so brand-spankin' new that they have nothing but good ideas, a solid management team, and enough funding to guarantee they'll get the chance to bring products to market.

Why the new list? Because while our Top 10 Private Companies hope to become Wall Street darlings of the future, the Top 10 Startups will drive the next generation of storage technologies and products.This has certainly been the trend driving the spate of mergers and acquisitions in the storage industry. While private storage firms with good business plans wait for market conditions to become more IPO-friendly, younger companies -- some with no customers or even shipping products -- gain early gratification because established storage vendors will pay for their technology. (See EMC Coughs Up for Kashya, Emulex Buys Aarohi, ADIC Buys Rocksoft, NetApp Annexes Alacritus, QLogic Picks Up Troika, and Overland Overtakes Zetta .)

Want to help us out? We're looking for companies that meet these simple criteria:

While the first is a requirement for the list, it's the second characteristic we're really after. We want startups with the ideas, brainpower, and financing to become the enabling technology of the next generation of storage products. If you know anybody who fits the bill, drop us a line at [email protected].

Dave Raffo, News Editor, Byte and Switch