Jeff Engel

Jeff joins Xconomy from The Milwaukee Business Journal, where he covered manufacturing and technology and wrote about companies including Johnson Controls, Harley-Davidson and MillerCoors. He previously worked as the business and healthcare reporter for the Marshfield News-Herald in central Wisconsin.

He graduated from Marquette University with a bachelor degree in journalism and Spanish. At Marquette he was an award-winning reporter and editor with The Marquette Tribune, the student newspaper. During college he also was a reporter intern for the Muskegon Chronicle and Grand Rapids Press in west Michigan.

Recent posts

Harvard Startup HourlyNerd Taps $22M as World of Work Evolves

The global workforce is in the early stages of a shift away from traditional 9-to-5 office jobs and toward more flexible freelance work, thanks to new technologies and preferences among younger... Read more »
Boston Tech Watch: HourlyNerd, Uber, Noncompetes, Akamai, & More

We hope everyone enjoyed the long holiday weekend. After all the fireworks last night, it’s time to catch up on some of the hot news in Boston-area tech from the past... Read more »
Google Capital Backs Public Firm Care.com as Investment Lines Blur

[Corrected 6/30/16, 2:49 p.m. See below.] Google Capital’s $46.35 million investment in publicly traded Care.com, announced Wednesday, marked a departure from the firm’s usual bets on late-stage private companies... Read more »
Scott Dorsey Reflects on ExactTarget & the Rise of Indianapolis Tech

The expertise and guidance of a savvy mentor can change the fortunes of a startup.

Bob Compton was that person for ExactTarget, says co-founder and former CEO Scott Dorsey. Compton—an IBM... Read more »
Boston Tech News: Funding, Fantasy Sports, Co-working Spaces & More

[Updated 6/27/16, 2:13 p.m., to include Hack/secure news.] It’s time to catch up on a few recent developments in the Boston tech world. We’ve got funding news, the latest... Read more »
Google Fiber Buys Webpass in Wireless Internet Land Grab

Google Fiber plans to acquire Webpass in a deal that trims the ranks of independent Internet service providers—an industry already maligned for its lack of competition—but ultimately could boost consumer access... Read more »
Downplaying Bitcoin, Circle Downloads $60M For China, Europe Push

Circle Internet Financial aims to make transferring money to a friend across town or on the other side of the world as easy as sending a text message. That plan got... Read more »
Boston Cybersecurity Firms Grab Cash, Protect Turf, Push Community

A few recent moves by Boston-area cybersecurity firms illustrate the various ways the sector’s members (and related companies) are trying to build their businesses and bolster measures to counter cyber threats:

—Raising... Read more »
Veering Off Topic With Accion Systems CEO Natalya Brikner

Next up in my ongoing series of unusual interviews with local tech leaders is Natalya Brikner—space technology researcher, entrepreneur, aspiring pilot, ruthless scheduler, and lover of camping.

Those are just a... Read more »
Boston Tech Watch: DraftKings, Demandware, Startup Shutdown & More

This week in Boston tech, we’re tracking DraftKings merger rumors, the aftermath of the Salesforce-Demandware deal, a startup closure, new venture funding, money for cybersecurity education, and an expanding accelerator located... Read more »
Deathtech Startup Mylestoned Snaps Up Heirloom’s Photo-Capturing App

Mylestoned, a young Boston startup aiming to develop a more interactive and meaningful way of digitally memorializing the dead, has acquired the photo-scanning technology of Heirloom, a small San Francisco firm.... Read more »
With $8M Zaius Deal, Underscore.VC Makes Another Marketing Tech Bet

Underscore.VC, one of the new Boston investment firms trying to put a fresh spin on the typical venture capital model, is starting to make more noise with its debut $75 million... Read more »
OceanGate Leads Underwater Expedition to “Mount Everest” of Shipwrecks

The first manned submersible mission in two decades to the Andrea Doria shipwreck located off the New England coast—a treacherous dive considered the underwater equivalent of climbing Mount Everest—has produced the... Read more »
Microsoft Buys LinkedIn for $26.2B in Mega Social-Business Deal

Microsoft will acquire LinkedIn in a $26.2 billion cash deal that bolsters the tech giant’s offerings for professionals and shrinks the ranks of the major independent social networks.

Over the past... Read more »
Perkins School for the Blind Pushes Into Apps, Driverless Cars

Perkins School for the Blind has a long history of breaking new ground, from becoming America’s first school for blind people in 1829, to creating a more effective and durable braille-writing... Read more »
Cheers, Groans, & Tunes: Boston Tech’s Week of Mixed Emotions

This week in Boston tech, we saw investors back software plays in eSports, real estate, and furniture for urban millennials; layoffs at a “sharing economy” pioneer; the return of a startup... Read more »
Techstars Alum Netra Nabs Funding, Customers After Strategy Shift

Computer vision might one day enable things like completely autonomous cars, but for now, companies are more frequently applying such technology to more tractable (and lucrative) problems in sectors like... Read more »
Ginkgo Gulps $100M to Build Synthetic Food, Fragrance Business

Ginkgo Bioworks sits at the intersection of synthetic biology, software, robotics, and advanced manufacturing, making it one of the more intriguing startups in Boston. Now, a fresh round of $100 million... Read more »
Boston-Israel Connection Rising: 200-Plus Firms, 9K Jobs, $9B Sales

Anyone paying attention to high-tech businesses in Massachusetts knows there’s a strong connection between the Bay State and Israel. Over the years, dozens of Israeli entrepreneurs have started companies in the... Read more »
BitSight Follows FICO Model as Cybersecurity Ratings Industry Grows

As cyber threats grow more complex and damaging, an independent rating that assesses the strength of a company’s defenses could become a new kind of currency in the business world—akin to... Read more »