SalesGene, the Robinson sales software startup launched last year, has secured its first "Series A" venture capital investment, led by Downtown private equity firm Draper Triangle Ventures.

Tech startup veterans, the husband and wife team of Razi Imam and Saman Haqqi, and Draper were mum about how much money SalesGene had raised to tackle its target market: small- and medium-size software and hardware firms.

So far, SalesGene has "dozens" of customers, including some local firms, for its Web-based software that Draper managing partner Tom Jones has said is "absolutely dynamite." He added that it's what's been missing in sales -- helping people capture and reuse the methods that work in landing a new customer.

It helps too that SalesGene's 19-member staff has FORE Systems founder Eric Cooper, and former executive Michael Green, advising them.

Draper reportedly also is in talks to fund Oakland-based computer security startup Bit Armor, although Mr. Jones would not comment on that news.

With Carnegie Mellon University roboticist William "Red" Whittaker set to settle his fleet of "Red Team" racing robots into what he hopes to become "Robot City" on the old LTV Steel coke works site in Hazelwood, the guessing game around what else could happen to the 178-acre spread continues.

Dr. Whittaker will occupy only part of the space -- 9,000 square feet in the old locomotive Roundhouse -- which is being renovated with $440,000 in funds from CMU. The Heinz Endowments are expected to provide a yet-to-be-disclosed amount this spring to aid with redevelopment of the site, according to its economic development director and former CMU technology provost Christina Gabriel. But Dr. Gabriel declined to say if and when "Robot City" would appear. "There's been a lot of stuff going back and forth -- I don't think anything's really decided," she said.

One of the ideas being batted about for the LTV site is a one-stop shop or co-location for the region's most well-known, tech-focused economic development organizations and the tech startups they assist. These include Innovation Works, the Oakland Keystone Innovation Zone, Idea Foundry, the Technology Collaborative and the Pittsburgh Life Sciences Greenhouse.

The location is meant to serve as a magnet for out-of-town tech firms considering setting up outposts near the university. But there are numerous transportation challenges to be worked out before site owner Almono LLP, a partnership among RIDC and the McCune and Benedum and Richard King Mellon foundations and the Heinz Endowments, make any final decisions.

"This is the last significant parcel in the city available for development that's in proximity to Oakland," said Don Smith, vice president of economic development for the University of Pittsburgh and CMU. "It's a natural development site for things that are spawned in Oakland and for companies who want to work with the universities."

In the meantime, the Greater Oakland Keystone Innovation Zone is said to be planning a program that would partner tech startups in the product development stage with local companies to serve as customers or "alpha" and "beta" partners charged with trying out and helping fine-tune the products. The KIZ would fund the project with marketing help from the Pittsburgh Technology Council, although neither would comment.

The state is expected to release guidelines next week for the $25 million pool of tax credits available for young tech firms located within Keystone Innovation Zones around Pennsylvania.

The local zone, which includes parts of Lawrenceville, the area around Baum Boulevard, the South Side and Oakland, will be eligible for tax credits based on year-by-year revenue growth and, like the research and development tax credit, they will be tradeable.

To be eligible, a firm must be less than 8-years-old, tech-focused and apply for a Keystone Innovation Zone designation, according to a spokesman at the Department of Community and Economic Development.

Pittsburgh native Koleman Karleski, who now calls Louisville, Ky., home, has just been promoted to managing director for private equity firm Chrysalis Ventures. Mr. Karleski grew up in Whitehall, attended Baldwin High School and after college at Princeton, married Miss Pennsylvania-USA 1996 Cara Bernosky.

Mr. Karleski said he was frequently in Pittsburgh eyeing possible investment deals, although he wouldn't say which firms had piqued his interest. "We invest in four or five new companies a year," Mr. Karkeski said, adding that two or three firms that he encountered at the Pittsburgh Venture Capital Fair last year had been on his radar.

Chrysalis, which is trying to raise $150 million for its fourth venture capital fund, focuses on young ventures with a focus on health-care services and technology, media, communications and business services.