Center City : Innovation + Job News

Thanks in part to $200 million in funding from the Corporation for National and Community Service (CNCS), the agency that funds AmeriCorps, Philadelphia is home to an innovative new initiative. PowerCorpsPHL is helping to improve local parklands and watersheds while also acting as a violence prevention strategy for young adults aged 18 to 26.
 
The program got its start when Philadelphia was awarded a $636,000 grant -- one of just six nationwide -- from the CNCS program known as the Governor & Mayor Initiative. Matching funds brought the program's annual budget to $2.1 million.
 
PowerCorpsPHL's goal is multipronged, but at its core is an effort to engage young people. According to Julia Hillengas of the Mayor's Office of Civic Engagement and Volunteer Service, the program was developed as way to integrate low-income and underserved young people back into the community, while also providing them with the sort of technical training and job experiences that could lead to skilled employment at the end of each the program's six-month run.
 
Two city agencies are currently partnering with the program; one PowerCorps crew is managing stormwater with the Philadelphia Water Department (PWD), while the remaining four crews plant trees and revitalize public land with Philadelphia Parks & Recreation (PPR).

After serving for six months, the approximately 50 AmeriCorps crew members -- who are funneled into the program from agencies that assist youths who've had legal trouble, or who've recently come out of the city's foster system as adults -- receive three months of job placement support.
 
According to the PWD's Christine Knapp, the program could provide a recruiting funnel for the large number of skilled positions the city will soon need to fill as baby boomers retire en masse. 

Writer: Dan Eldridge
Source: Julia Hillengas, Mayor's Office of Civic Engagement and Volunteer Service 

No insurance required: Direct primary care provider R-Health recently hung its shingle at 15th and Walnut Streets in Center City.

In some ways, direct primary care is simply a revived version of the old-school family doctor. It's a practice that provides basic, affordable primary care directly to consumers without the bureaucratic red-tape or expense of health insurance companies. In fact, DPC providers don't accept insurance at all. Instead customers either pay a monthly membership fee or pay cash for each visit. 

"Employers and individuals are really looking for innovative solutions when it comes to health care right now," says R-Health founder Mason Reiner. "The costs continue to rise. Quality and convenience is sort of suspect, at best. I think it's really a ripe time for health care innovation."  

R-Health offers a $79 monthly membership plan for individuals; there's no co-pay or deductible to speak of. (Participants often pair this coverage with a health savings account or high-deductible insurance plan, in case of emergency or major complications.) By doing away with the time-intensive paperwork required by insurance companies, doctors are able to spend as much as 30 to 60 minutes with each patient. R-Health physicians also make themselves available by phone, email and teleconference. 

The company currently has just seven employees -- four on the clinical team and three at the corporate level -- but R-Health's goal is to become the leading provider of direct primary care in the Mid-Atlantic region.

"We really believe that the key to improving health-care quality while also reducing costs is to put the physician-patient relationship back at the forefront of primary care," says Reiner.

Writer: Dan Eldridge
Source: Mason Reiner, R-Health

When Flying Kite last covered Center City software analysis firm RJMetrics in May 2013, the company had launched a new product and almost doubled its staff. Since then, not much has changed — the company is still growing and innovating.

One of RJMetric’s most buzzed-about discoveries occurred when the company turned its analysis on itself. CEO Robert J. Moore wrote a candid blog post about internationalization after Tweets alerted him to the fact that the company’s new logo was could be misconstrued as, um, underwear (Y-fronts to be exact). Moore interpreted the reactions, parsed the data and made tweaks to the design.

"The Y-fronts post is a great example of opportunism in marketing," says Moore. "We could have quietly changed the logo and the total universe of people who noticed anything would be small enough to count on one hand. Instead, we publicized the story and were able to drive a month's worth of traffic to our website in a day."

This astute handling of online data is precisely what as fueled RJMetrics’ exponential growth. Launched in Camden in 2009, the company moved to Center City in 2012 in order to expand. Since May, the staff has grown from from 26 to 42 employees.

Moore calls the move to Philadelphia an "exciting and rewarding experience," and credits local leaders for their commitment to promoting entrepreneurship, including Philly Startup Leaders, their landlord at the Philadelphia Building, and Mayor Nutter's administration. 

Now, the company is looking to expand again. According to Moore, the ideal RJ Metrics employee is ambitious and intrinsically motivated, which ensures the company's success while creating an honest and impactful work environment. 

"We are here to win, and we look for people who are looking for the same in their lives," he adds.

RJ Metrics is now seeking a data analyst, account manager, operations engineer, senior software engineer, UX designer and junior developer. To learn more about open positions, visit: http://rjmetrics.com/jobs.

Writer: Nicole Woods
Source: Matt Monihan, RJ Metrics

Predictive policing, an emerging statistical science, incorporates multiple streams of data to help law enforcement determine where and when crime will happen. The methodology has been gaining interest from police departments throughout the country. Azavea, GIS experts based in Callowhill, are at the forefront of this movement with their platform HunchLab.

Previously, many police departments used crime statistic to pinpoint "hotspots" that need to be patrolled more frequently. HunchLab improves that practice by layering in other influencing factors such as weather and time of day, week or year, and mapping the likely outcome.

"All these different data types go into changing the probability of an event happening," says Jeremy Heffner, project manager and business development associate for HunchLab. "The system automatically figures out the best location to put resources based on all that knowledge."

Azavea developed HunchLab after helping research teams at Temple and Rutgers Universities develop statistical modeling solutions for crime forecasting. HunchLab 2.0 also allows police chiefs to prioritize crimes of high social impact, such as violent crimes.

As many departments continue to face budget cuts, HunchLab -- currently in use in Philly, Ohio and Washington State -- helps generate economically effective policing strategies. One department, for example, used the system to track an uptick in auto break-ins. Then they used HunchLab to determine when and where to effectively place a "bate" car.

"This helps police departments take the limited resources that they have and use them more effectively," says Heffner. "If you put resources in the right place at the right time you are more likely to interrupt crime as well as prevent future incidents."

Source: Jeremy Heffner, Azavea
Writer: Dana Henry

Narcissistic. Apathetic. Cynical. State of Young Philly (SOYP), the annual, week-long activist celebration from Young Involved Philadelphia (YIP), rails against the unfortunate descriptors often associated with generation Y. This year, events run from Friday, October 25 through Saturday, November 2.
 
"There are a lot of articles out there stereotyping young people as the 'me' generation," says Mike Kaiser, Events Chair for YIP. “When you come out to YIP events, it's a totally different picture. We're trying to challenge that [perception]."
 
The week focuses on civic skill-building. Highlights include an opening night reception and civic engagement fair featuring Campus Philly, Groundswell, Public Interest Law Center of Philadelphia, Need in Deed, Impact HUB Philly, the People's Emergency Center, and many others; Navigate Philly, a series of short presentations by local leaders on topics such as politics, media and education; Sustainability Night, an instructional event on recycling, composting and waste disposal; Get a Job, featuring advice from human resource professionals; and a "Welcome to Philly" happy hour featuring a "minimalist" Halloween costume contest.
 
Then, on November 2, YIP will host their first civic engagement un-conference. Participants will be encouraged to share ideas and best-practices.
 
"We know there are people out there making progress and positive change in Philly," says Kaiser. "This is a chance to bring everyone together to share that knowledge. We're trying to accelerate ideas and connections."
 
Last January, YIP's new board launched a quarterly "Learn, Grow, Do" series. It introduces Philly activists to fundamentals such as first-time home buying, networking and park cleaning. SOYP will give existing members the chance to reflect on their progress and engage new potential members.
 
"It really reaffirms that what we're doing matters," says Kaiser. "For new people it’s, 'Here’s something simple you can do to join this movement.'"
 
Source: Mike Kaiser, Young Involved Philadelphia
Writer: Dana Henry

Chances are the Flyers will sell out their upcoming 82-game season by simply offering up seats through Comcast Tix. Meanwhile, smaller homegrown events and festivals such as the Philly Beer Week, The Fringe Festival or the Morris Arboretum's Salsa Dance Night might have a harder time. For those niche event planners, there's Center City-based TicketLeap.

Instead of choosing between specific event marketplaces (theatre, sports, concerts), TicketLeap serves businesses and organizations that use events to drive business or raise awareness. That focus has helped grow the 10-year-old company's gross ticket sales from $34 million in 2011 to $52 million in 2012.

"It's not the traditional way of dividing the events market," says Tim Raybould, President and COO. "But it's a pretty large portion of the existing events market base."

TicketLeap's platform is decidedly DIY. Users build their own events page, which can be shared across the web and on mobile devices. They can also use the tool to build their social media presence, create email blasts and track customer analytics.

In August 2013, the company released the Mobile Box Office for iOS. The app is designed for flexible ticket-taking -- it allows the taker to scan-in attendees using mobile barcodes, look up specific attendees, or adjust the attendee list.  

"You don't have to have a full box office with ticket takers at the window," says Raybould. "You can just take your phone out of your pocket."

TicketLeap's existing customers --- which hail from across the country, Canada and part of Europe -- have been quick to add the new app. In the past year, the company has grown from 21 to 27 employees and expects to add software developers in the near future.
 
Source: Tim Raybould, TicketLeap
Writer: Dana Henry

In the next five years, the market for cloud computing -- the virtual network that maintains web activity -- will reach $40 billion.
 
Cloudamize, a Center City-based company currently partnered with MissionOG, is poised take advantage of that growth. They offer a management tool that helps clients maximize their web performance while minimizing associated costs. The company recently closed its seed round of fundraising with $1.2 million in investment; they are seeking developers and sales associates. 
 
Think of the cloud as a utility with various servers -- or information centers -- communicating to one another. In general, the more complex a web application (and the more traffic it gets), the more it taxes the cloud. That burden can cost companies a lot of money. Most cloud servers are virtual. They exist through specialized software that connects to a larger physical server. This means they can be scaled to fit the required load. Yet, understanding which servers need to be scaled and how can be complicated and costly.
 
"Getting on the cloud is very easy," says Khushboo Shah, founder and CEO of Cloudamize. "But once we get there, we realize we are not getting all the benefits."
 
Cloudamize acts as a smart meter for the cloud. They evaluate how the activity of a web application gets distributed between servers and how that distribution can be improved. The platform then recommends direct actions to increase efficiency. If a client anticipates modifications to their site or changes in web traffic, they can also use Cloudamaize to plan the best possible distribution strategy.
 
"The cloud is supposed to be elastic," explains Shah. "Increase infrastructure when you have peak traffic and dial it down when you don't need it. It's essentially marrying the cost and performance together."
 
Source: Khushboo Shah, Cloudamize
Writer: Dana Henry

LinkedIn might have been created for talent-matching, but Center City-based PeopleLinx is turning the networking site into a marketing goldmine. Their flagship software, Social Business Optimization (SBO), helps companies build bigger brands through employee profiles.

PeopleLinx realized that a company's personel -- and their social media presence -- can function as free advertising. Marketing departments use their product to help employees curate a LinkedIn profile that represents the brand and connects effectively with clients, ultimately generating more sales leads. SBO software is just over a year old, but it's already luring big name brands such as Prudential, Audi and Experian.

"Everything an employee does online is a reflection of that employee's professional life and ultimately the company they work for," says Micheal Idinopulos, chief marketing officer for PeopleLinx. "We're giving companies and marketing departments the tools to enable employees to do good for the company while doing good for themselves."

PeopleLinx, which was founded by former LinkedIn employees Nathan Egan and Patrick Baynes, recently closed their first round of funding with $3.2 million in investment capital from Osage Venture Partners, Greycroft Partners and MissionOG. Their monthly revenues tripled in May, and then again in June. The team has grown to 30 employees and is hiring for positions in sales and marketing, product development and software engineering.

On the heels of this impressive growth, PeopleLinx has also been getting more involved with the local tech scene. They hold regular "fireside chats," inviting startup leaders from throughout the region to share their wisdom with the staff. They are also organizing an upcoming hackathon, tentatively scheduled for September.

Source: Micheal Idinopulos, PeopleLinx
Writer: Dana Henry

For Greenstreet Coffee Roasters, the ascent has been rapid. Two and a half years ago, the local company set up their first roaster in a commercial kitchen on Temple's Campus. Now their product is sold at Metropolitan Bakery, Whole Foods and Mariposa Food Co-op, and served at dozens of local coffee shops including Rocket Cat Café. Last month, Greenstreet opened their first café in Center City.
 
"After doing wholesale, we started to look at what's next," says Chris Molieri, who cofounded Greenstreet with his brother Tom. "It's great to have the final consumer get a cup of coffee directly from our hands."
 
Instead of purchasing from a distributor or middle man, Greenstreet researches and selects small independent farms in South America, Africa and other parts of the world. Customers can learn more about these growers through the company's blog.
 
"We want to highlight the impact of buying from a specific farm in Colombia, for example, and then celebrate it as local coffee roasted here in Philadelphia," explains Molieri.
 
Those relationships allow Greenstreet to assess flavor and seasonality with the source, which is particularly useful when a farmer experiments with new plants or processing. The brothers have even purchased a micro-plot on a farm in Southern Colombia.
 
"We're trying to work directly with farmers to focus on quality," says Molieri. "We're trying to develop direct relationships, to channel our energy towards sourcing coffee that we think tastes awesome."
 
Source: Chris Molieri, Green Street Coffee
Writer: Dana Henry

For Philly's burgeoning community of indie game makers and enthusiasts, GameLoop is a chance to swap ideas, learn techniques and make new contacts in a growing industry. Philly's second incarnation of this event takes place at University of the Arts' Terra Hall on Saturday, May 18.

Dubbed an "unconference," GameLoop has no set agenda. Participants propose and decide on talks and roundtables at the beginning of the day during an open floor discussion.

"[The local gaming community] has brought together programmers, artists, musicians, designers, modelers -- you name it," says organizer Ray Merkler. "A rapidly growing indie game scene needs events like this to share ideas and create new relationships."

GameLoop originated in Boston in 2008. Merkler brought the concept to Philly in 2011, after meeting founder Scott Macmillan at the PAX East gaming show in Boston. Philly's first GameLoop drew 80 people, including leaders from Boston, New York and Baltimore. Topics covered included 2-D and 3-D design, prototyping, and business models, but Merkler says GameLoop isn't just about development or the industry. For example, someone looking to build a new narrative into a classic game, such as Dungeons and Dragons, is welcome to share.

"You can attract new talent into your city, or you can take the talent you already have and let it interact in new ways," says Merkler. "GameLoop tries to do the latter."

Source: Ray Merkler, GameLoop Philly
Writer: Dana Henry

Thanks to the power of Google Analytics and online databases, businesses now have volumes of precious data about their customers. The hard part is figuring out what all those numbers mean. 

Enter RJMetrics, a company that creates custom business intelligence software for large e-commerce sites, translating obtuse numbers into real-time metrics. Now, with the beta launch of their "dashboard," RJMetrics is going a step further, handing the metrics back to the clients so they can use the generated charts and tables to inform timely marketing agendas.
 
Typically, if an e-commerce site wants to know the value of a customer over time or how much revenue their Facebook campaign is generating, the answers require complex calculations.

"The kind of analysis that people want to do or have been doing takes a painstakingly long amount of time," says Matt Monihan, UX designer for RJMetrics. "We take that workflow away -- you have a chart that's constantly updated with new data that you don't have to manage."
  
Founders Bob Moore and Jake Stein developed RJMetrics while working for the VC firm Insight Venture Partners where their jobs included gathering metrics on potential investments. After creating countless Powerpoint decks, they realized their process could be automated and that the findings would be invaluable to businesses.
 
Their signature offering, cohort analysis, identifies consumer behavior among groups. Customers who purchase on a certain date, for example, might have a projected lifetime value. Illustrating and responding to these patterns is increasingly critical as online businesses focus on longterm customer relationships.
 
"People care more about customer lifetime value because that data is now available," says Monihan. "There's been a ton of data for as long as e-commerce companies have existed and it's been dormant. Now people can unlock the data."

The company launched in Camden in 2009, but moved to Center City last year to make room for new growth -- their workforce grew from 15 to 26, and their client base has doubled to 130. They are currently hiring for positions in software engineering, programing, marketing and sales, and product management.
 
Source: Matt Monihan, RJMetrics
Writer: Dana Henry

Working with clients can be a challenge. For example, every time DMi Partners, a Center City-based internet marketing firm, launched a new campaign, they had to rely on the client to provide a decent landing page -- the final juncture in converting a surfer into a customer. Prism, the company's new content management system, lets DMi handle that critical component internally.

DMi mainly serves large corporations in consumer packaged goods, insurance and continuing education who are looking to add thousands to tens of thousands of new customers per month. With Prism, they can seamlessly integrate preconfigured forms into any of their webpages, turning a static advertisement into customer engagement.

"When we configure a new offer or a new campaign in our system, it's very easy for us to turn that campaign into a landing page," says James Delaney, COO of DMi Partners.

DMi is ten years old and has 80 employees. They are currently hiring marketing specialists, junior developers and business development reps. As the company expanded, they moved from a 8,000-square-foot space on South Broad Street to 16,000 square feet closer to City Hall.

Ultimately, Prism is expected to get more customers onto landing pages, which translates into greater likelihood for success. "It helps the speed that the end consumer perceives when they arrive at one of the sites," says Delaney. "The faster you can serve those pages to the consumer, the more likely you are to get a conversion, because they’re not waiting around."

Source: James Delaney, DMi Partners
Writer: Dana Henry

Cramming the development of a smart, thoughtful minimum viable product into a grueling 52-hour session requires the passion and stamina often associated with athletic competition. Fittingly, the team behind Slopes, a performance app for snowboarders and skiers, took a come-from-behind victory in the fifth Philly Startup Weekend, held April 26-28 at Workbridge Associates in Center City.
 
Curtis Herbert, developer and founder of Consumed by Code, had been discussing the concept with fellow snowboarders since January. "When you're on the slopes, you want to track your stats," he explains. "How fast were you going? Were you going faster than your friend?"
 
Yet Slopes faced an uphill battle at the competition. During Friday's round -- when 50 presented and 110 participated – the concept did not receive enough votes to make it to the next round. After the setback, Herbert joined Tim Li, Jiate Zhang and Liwen Mao in a different team. The new collaboration eventually dropped their original pitch and chose to design Slopes instead. Their winning product is akin to Nike+, using GPS-capacity to track individual stats including speed, distance and calories burned.

During Startup Weekend, the team established user needs, the back-end GPS-processing, and identified runs and ski lifts that affected the data. Their user interface garnered an impromptu award for "best design."
 
In second place was Adventures of Bob, a game that encourages kids to eat well by featuring a super hero who grows stronger through smart dietary decisions. DesignSync, the third place winner, helps graphic and user interface designers transfer work created with proprietary software (Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign) to clients and teammates who don’t have those programs using Dropbox.
 
Organizers Chris Baglieri and Melissa Morris Ivone -- who have been with Philly Startup Weekend since the beginning -- said this event was marked by a growing comradery. When they needed to reconfigure the wifi, a sponsor picked up the tab; when they ran out of beer, an organizer made an emergency trip. In the final hours, when most participants were operating on red bull, beer and sheer will, teams tweeted messages of support for one another.
 
"You see some of the turmoil a team goes through," says Baglieri. "Then you see them present, and you’re like, ‘Oh, you guys are all over this,’ but 12 hours ago, they were freaking out."
 
Source: Curtis Herbert, Team Slopes; Chris Baglieri and Melissa Morris Ivone, Philly Startup Weekend
Writer: Dana Henry

In July 2010, Rassa Vella, founder of DeTours, returned from a trip to Paris with a new idea for exploring Philadelphia. Vella decided that a Segway -- a two-wheeled standing vehicle common in Europe -- could give tourists a more intimate view of the city compared to a traditional bus or carriage outing. DeTours open its fourth season this month and runs tours through October.

Since launching with just one guide, the company has grown to 13 employees and a full-time operations manager. DeTours has doubled their fleet to 15 vehicles and offer up to five tours per day. Trips cover Philly's murals, South Philly cheesesteak tasting and Center City sights. Stops include the Betsy Ross House, the Liberty Bell, Elfreth's Alley, Franklin Court and the Avenue of the Arts.They also cover contemporary Philly, including the Comcast Center, the Cira Center and urban parks. Longer trips go off-road on the Schuylkill River Trail.

"It's not just Betsy Ross," says Vella. "We integrate the present and the future along with the past. It's who Philadelphia is -- it's immersion."

Vella says the tours have grown increasingly popular for family gatherings and corporate outings. DeTours also serves larger private events and offers on-campus Segway demos at Temple student events. In the coming years, she hopes to open two other offices in the Greater Philadelphia region. 

"You can cover as much ground as you would on a bus, but you're experiencing it from the view of a pedestrian," says Vella. "You’re in the neighborhoods -- you're hearing, seeing and smelling them."

Source: Rassa Vella, DeTours
Writer: Dana Henry

DreamIt Ventures -- the Philly-based accelerator that helped launch SnipSnap and CloudMine – is tackling a particularly challenging industry: Healthcare. DreamIt Health, which launched April 8, focuses solely on companies in healthcare IT.
 
The accelerator’s first class features ten companies including AirCare, a company developed by VenturePact that helps minimize re-admissions through mobile nursing; Osmosis, a tool that helps clinicians retain vast amounts of knowledge during medical training; and Medilo, a mobile healthcare card that details benefits and eliminates the need for forms.
 
Accelerator programs like DreamIt help validate business assumptions, minimize startup risk and guide businesses to market. With healthcare startups, that process is more complex. Aside from needing to comply with changing regulations, these companies deal with a market that's behind heavy hospital doors -- data is often difficult, if not impossible, to access. DreamIt has addressed these challenges through collaborative partnerships with Penn Medicine, the region's largest provider, and Blue Cross Blue Shield, the largest insurer.

Mentoring for the nascent companies will include time with industry experts who can explain the behind-the-scenes aspects of medical operations. Each company will also receive a a stipend of up to $50,000.
 
"It's about understanding the operational systems and getting access -- potentially to the systems themselves, but also to the experts,” says Karen Griffith Gryga, managing partner at DreamIt. "We provide the payer-provider element as well as access to the operational systems, the data and other resources that are often difficult for these companies to access."
 
Companies also need to navigate conflicting interests between payers and providers. Fortunately, those parties do agree on the need for improved quality of care and tools that enable patient self-management. An app regulating daily nutritional habits, for example, could help individuals treat their diabetes or obesity. The payer and provider also share an interest in big data management systems that can help hospitals treat more people.
 
"Now, more than ever, there is this desire among the different constituents of the healthcare ecosystem to find a way to work together in a much more collaborative fashion," says Griffith Gryga. "Hopefully that will continue."
 
Source: Karen Griffith Gryga, DreamIt Ventures
Writer: Dana Henry