An Audible Celebration in Nochilita

While putting Nochilita (North of Chinatown/Little Italy) on the map, Audium is also making its mark on the Silicon Alley and dot-com landscape. With a name change (formerly Phone2Networks), a $4.5 million investment led by Fonix (and supported by Chelsea Capital and Blue Hill Capital), and new office space (they were on 18th between 5th - 6th Avenues), the company has a lot to celebrate. And celebrate Audium employees did on Thursday, April 5th in their new offices on Lafayette and Grand Streets. The name change was prompted by a few elements - the obvious confusion with Net2Phone and the fact that they were really moving away from wireless development and into voice applications. In fact, partnering with Mobilocity and Aether Systems allows Audium to focus on developing an application server and core infrastructure using voice XML. The good news doesn't stop there. Audium President and CEO Michael Bergelson told me that they'll be announcing major new clients in the coming weeks. Their spin-off, Flashspot, sells ads for voice-prompted services like MovieFone and Dialpad. As Michael explained all this interesting information, Redwood Partners' Marcelo Wainberg and Kailah Rovin stopped over to share in the celebration. We admired the decorating mix of Chinese lanterns with Italian fare on red-checkered picnic tablecloths, ala "The Sopranos." The company even brought in some Port-O-Potties so guests didn't have a long wait for the restroom! Nate Brochin, formerly of RareMedium, came over to say hello. As of three-weeks ago, Nate is at Savos, which was just sold to Giant Bear. Audium's BizDev VP Mark Matyas introduced me around to COO Cory Wright and Akamai's Phillip Stalnaker. I chatted with marketing consultant Jason Gardner for a bit, while Audium employees had fun Xeroxing their faces, looking at vacation pics on a Web site and noshing on the good, hearty Italian fare.