It's been tough for small cap IPOs. Yet Convio (CNVO) was able to pull off an offering today. The company priced its deal at $9 per share, which was below the $10-$12 price range. And while the shares are up 12% in today's trading, investors should be cautious.

Convio develops on-demand software for nonprofit organizations, such as helping with raising funds and building relationships with donors, volunteers, alumni and so on. In all, the company serves 1,300 organizations and even handles 29 of the 50 largest charities.

Last year, Riverbed Technology (RVBD) wound-up as the number two company on the Forbes America's Fastest-Growing Tech Companies list. Based on its latest earnings report, it looks like the company will maintain it top ranking.

Riverbed develops sophisticated networking technology -- called wide area network (WAN) optimization -- that helps with collaboration within companies. The solution is affordable and often has a quick payback.

In 2003, Richard Degner started his company -- Global Geophysical Services (GGS) -- by mortgaging his family farm. He saw a big opportunity to provide seismic technologies for energy companies.

It was spot-on. In fact, the company raised $90 million in a public offering this week.

Although, there was some push-back as the company priced its deal at $12, which was below the range of $15 to $17. But this may be an opportunity to pick-up a fast-growing company at a reasonable valuation.

Since 1999, IntraLinks has tried to go public twice, with the last time being 2005. But since then, the company's market -- on-demand software -- has surged in popularity.

So is time for another try at an IPO? Definitely. This week, IntraLinks filed the necessary papers with the Securities and Exchange Commision. The company plans to raise as much as $150 million.

This summer, Apple Inc. (AAPL)'s iPhone and iPad are going to have a feature that iPhone users have been dying to see since the phone hit the market in 2007... the ability to multitask.

The iPhone took the world by storm when it was released, and each time Apple releases a new model of the popular smart phone consumers line up and wait for hours, and in some cases days, to get their hands on the new Apple iPhone. While the phone is one of the most popular phones on the market today, there are a couple of issues with them, and the inability to multitask ranks up at the top of list of features that iPhone users have wanted.

In the energy sector, George Sakellaris has a sterling track record. He founded Noresco in 1989, which was sold to Equitable Resources in 1997. Then in 2000, he started Ameresco to provide energy efficiency solutions throughout North America.

Now, the company has filed to go public and plans to raise as much as $125 million.

The announcement came at the 2010 New York auto show that Ford Motor Co. (F) and Microsoft (MSFT) are creating a partnership to exploit the blossoming new world of plug-in electric automobiles. The team is undertaking an effort to assist power utility companies and consumers in dampening the anticipated power demand surges on the electric grid by consumers plugging in their cars for charging.

Consumer Reports indicates that the new partnership plans to employ Microsoft's Hohm software to assist in the efficient charging of plug-in automobiles. This software will use data, including the consumer's driving schedule, the affected power utility's demand cycle and the automobile's charging needs, to calculate and then enable the optimum charging times for a particular vehicle.

It's not easy to make money from the small business market. But Vistaprint (VPRT) has found an efficient platform to do so. The company helps with the design of such things as business cards, brochures, calendars and even websites.

In Vistaprint's latest quarterly report, revenues grew 40% to $194.6 million and the company acquired 1.8 million new customers. In all, there are roughly eight million customers.

There are roughly 7,000 thousand colleges and universities in the US. And a big problem is handling the complex financial transactions, such as school aid and loans.

But this has been a big opportunity for Higher One Holdings, which provides disbursement technologies for higher education. The company has also filed for an IPO. The amount is for $100 million.

There may soon be a chilling breeze blowing through the halls of Facebook, MySpace, and Twitter. The reason for this coming chill is a just released application intended for monitoring employee communications on social networks. The new application, called Social Sentry, is being fielded by information technology powerhouse, Teneros, which has raised $92.5 million in venture capital over five rounds of funding.

Social Sentry differs from it's counterparts in that when employees leave their employer's computer network, this new communications monitoring software can follow those employees home, or to the library, or to an Internet cafe, or just about anywhere. Under the auspices of protecting proprietary business information, Social Sentry steps across the Fourth Amendment and goes where even law enforcement treads lightly.

Microsoft (MSFT) founder Bill Gates loves to solve extremely tough problems. For example, he is backing a startup company, TerraPower, which is trying to develop small-scale nuclear reactors. To pull this off, Gates is prepared to shell out several billion dollars.

However, he will also need a strategic partner. And according to a report from the Wall Street Journal, there are preliminary discussions with Toshiba. While the company is best known for its computer business, it also has a strong footprint in nuclear, especially with its U.S.-based Westinghouse division.

Over the years, I've received various gift cards. Some of them I have not used and some I have lost.

And I'm not alone. Keep in mind that there is an estimated $30 billion in unredeemed gift cards.

But a startup company, Plastic Jungle, wants to help out. The company operates an online marketplace for gift cards.

The past couple years have been brutal for some retail chains because of disruptive changes in technology. For example, this week Blockbuster (BBI) said it may file for bankruptcy. With huge debts and lagging sales, the company continues to lose marketshare to online alternatives like Netflix (NFLX).

There's also the case with H&R Block (HRB). The company is feeling the pressure against rivals like Intuit's (INTU) TurboTax, which continues to grow its online business.

Back in August 2003, Chris DeWolfe helped to create a new site, called MySpace (funny enough, it was almost named "YoPeeps"). With little resources, the company grew tremendously and made social-networking a cultural phenomenon.

Well, DeWolfe left MySpace a year ago and of course, Facebook is now the new power. But the fact remains that DeWolfe is a pioneer of social networking.

It was only a matter of time before Intuitive Surgical (ISRG) surpassed it's previous all time high of $359.59 set on December 14, 2007. I have blogged many times about ISRG in my Chasing Value column. Today, I'm delighted that the stock is rising, but I think it is getting a bit rich and the value proposition has changed -- intra-day it hit $366.50.

Intuitive has a trailing P/E ratio of 61 and a projected P/E of 46. I commonly average the two for such volatile stocks which translates to 53.5. There are certain times when that might be alright, but with a PEG ratio (price-to-earnings-to-growth) of 2.05, this is not one of them. If you own it I am not suggesting selling it, but if you do not it might be wiser to put it on your watch list and wait for the market to calm down.