Innovation + Job News

With a rapidly growing senior population, increasingly varied insurance offerings and new regulations, the health insurance business has gotten pretty complicated. To address this, Eddystone-based Inspro Technologies offers administrative enterprise software that helps navigate those muddy waters.

"Some of these carriers could be paying 30,000 claims in a day, or more," explains Bob Oakes, CEO of Inspro. "They need to be able to handle those efficiently and quickly so that they’re not using human resources."

A new policy option for nursing care, for example, has to have a built-in structure for paying additional potential claims. The Inspro platform reduces the timeline for integrating these variations from months to weeks. Additionally, they manage applications, coordinate billing and agent commissions, and pay over 99 percent of claims. 

Inspro is currently launching a feature for managing annuities -- a situation where the insured leverages one policy, like life insurance, to pay into another, like long-term care. 

The company recently earned $2.5 million from private investors, including Blue Cross and Blue Shield, and was included in Deloitte’s "Fast 500" list for 2012. They’ve grown from 75 employees to 115 in the past year and expect to hire 40 more workers in 2013, including project managers, business analysts and Java development experts.

The company's rapid growth has attracted the attention of the Pennsylvania Department of Community and Economic Development, who recently visited their offices to study the organizational and management structure that enables the company to grow so quickly.

Source: Bob Oakes, Inspro Technologies
Writer: Dana Henry

One of the hidden advantages of going to college in Philadelphia is accessibility to the local startup community. Practically every other week there’s a startup weekend, hackathon or Philly Startup Leaders (PSL) event.  
 
When Dias Gotama, an International Information Systems major at Drexel, started attending these events he was surprised to find there weren’t many other students. 

"An entrepreneurship ecosystem is growing really fast in Philadelphia," says Gotma. "A lot of events that happen aren’t well targeted to students -- they’re either really expensive or organizations don’t know how to reach students on a granular level."

Nvigor -- a student organization he cofounded with fellow Drexel student Abhiroop Das and Pulak Mittal, a Penn student -- hopes to change that.

Students who sign up with Nvigor receive a list of events culled from the PSL listserv and Philly Startup Digest. Nvigor also helps organize student scholarships for pricey events such as Lean Startup Machine and Startup Weekend Health.
 
The group is working with the City's Office of New Urban Mechanics on a curriculum for students interested in civic-minded startups. In addition, they’re planning a Student Startup Conference for the upcoming Philly Tech Week.
 
Nvigor recently received sponsorship from Smart IMS -- they will pay for the group's membership at Culture Works, an organization that provides management resources and operational support. Eventually, Nvigor hopes to help students get part-time jobs or apprenticeships at emerging companies. They also plan to expand their services to suburban schools.
 
"If students come to these events, and they like them, word will spread about Philadelphia’s startup community," says Gotama. 

Source: Dias Gotama, Abhiroop Das and Pulak Mittal, Nvigor
Writer: Dana Henry

With the recent success of companies like Flyclops, Final Form and Cipher Prime, mobile game-making is carving a niche in the city's creative economy. Now the community needs a home-base -- enter Nathan Solomon, founder of Philadelphia Game Lab, a combination co-working space and incubator.
 
"Over the past ten years, with alternative distribution channels, the industry as a whole is much more interested in actual creative stuff," says Solomon. "Philadelphia's not in a really great position to pull together teams of over a hundred people, but we are in a really good position to pull together people who have technical expertise and creative drive, and want to make their own games."

The Lab will open its doors at 22nd and Walnut Streets in late March. It will admit small "teams" (usually two to six people) and skilled individuals seeking teams. In addition to benefiting from the networking and support that comes with a game-centric community, teams can better access capital via partnering funders. Opportunities for mentoring and a Quality Assurance (QA) Lab for beta testing are also in the works.
 
While shrinking startup costs have made the game app industry more accessible, the market is highly competitive. "You don’t need to find that special backer or special publisher anymore," says Solomon. "At the same time, it's really, really hard to make a good game."
 
The Lab will open with four teams and hopes to serve 12 teams total. Solomon says he’s also planning programs with local universities designed to expose students to game making as a vocation.
 
Source: Nathan Solmon, Philadelphia Game Lab
Writer: Dana Henry

Thanks to the limitless growth of open data, online organizing and open source software, civic participation has never been easier. Of course, while many Philadelphians engage with those virtual channels, few know how to build them.
 
Fortunately, South Philly's P'unk Avenue has launched an apprenticeship program to put purpose-driven urbanites on the fast track to technical competency. The web development shop -- whose recent clients include the Philadelphia School Partnership, PlanPhilly, The Food Trust, the Delaware River Waterfront Plan, the Conservation Center for Arts and Historical Artifacts and the Economy League of Greater Philadelphia -- is offering six months of real-world experience to nascent techies. They are currently considering applicants for May; a stipend is included.
 
"From the beginning [P'unk Ave] has always had that mindset of this being a place where people learn and grow," says founder Geoff DiMasi, a former multimedia professor at University of the Arts. "We’ve always been good at teaching people -- why not formalize that?"
 
P'unk Ave's "prototype" apprentice Joel Smith was teaching high school in South Jersey and seeking a career change before joining the company. He considered graduate school but wasn’t convinced it was the most efficient path.
 
"Literally, from the first day [of apprenticeship] I was building websites with a fair deal of autonomy," says Smith. "I was in an environment with professionals who were invested in my growth, but actually doing meaningful projects."
 
In addition to sharpening his code-writing skills, Smith has helped P'unk Ave compile a "cannon" of texts related to industry standards. DiMasi says he sees the apprenticeship becoming a signature of P'unk Ave while offering a gateway for passionate Philadelphians -- particularly minorities and women -- to join companies like his.
 
"You can teach people how to build a website, but you can’t teach them how to care about changing the world," he says.
 
Source: Geoff DiMasi, Joel Smith, P’unk Ave
Writer: Dana Henry

Nationally, computer science programs award more masters degrees to men than bachelors degrees to women.

This statistic helped inspire "Visualizing the Gender Gap," a graphic representation of educational and professional outcomes for men and women. The project was one of several activist platforms created during Philadelphia’s first LadyHacks, a mostly-female hackathon held last weekend at WHYY in Center City.

"A lot of the Hackathons you see are competitive," says Tristin Hightower, co-organizer of LadyHacks. "We wanted to remove that element. We were trying to address stuff that impacts [women] as an under-represented group in tech."

Other projects included Miss Conceptions, a click-through info graph addressing female stereotypes; Power Solvers, a game aimed at increasing tech appeal to 11- to 15-year-old girls; Hacking the Gender Gap, a program that tracks positive and negative tech experiences by gender; STEM everywhere, a regional resource for Science Technology Engineering and Math (STEM) youth education programs; and SheTechPHL, a comprehensive guide for women looking to engage in the local tech scene.

The event had 64 female and one male participants. Most came from non-technical backgrounds (SheTech, for example, was produced by four English majors) and the teams received mentorship from local female leaders including Yasmine Mustafa of Girl Develop IT Philly, Gloria Bell of Philly Startup Leaders and Tracy Levesque of Yikes. Sponsors included Chariot Solutions, Azavea, Skout Media, Monetate, Yikes and Philly Tech Meetup.

Hightower and fellow Girl Geek Dinner member Sondra Willhite developed the concept as a solution for lackluster female participation in Philly’s hackathons. Eighty percent of attendees admitted that they had never contributed at a tech event before. By the end of the hackathon, most said they planned to participate again in the near future.

Hightower and Willhite will follow up with surveys to see if these newbies do, in fact, continue their pursuit, particularly with regards to the upcoming Philly Tech Week. Additionally, they're re-evaluating the event -- with help of attendee feedback -- in hopes of creating an annual LadyHacks.

"Hackathons have this stereotype that it's all the coders getting together and just coding," says Hightower. "But that's not all they can be. All these other people need to be involved—and can be involved."

Source: Tristin Hightower, Sondra Willhite, Lady Hacks
Writer: Dana Henry

Two years after selling to the Dachis Group, Gunter Pfau has reacquired Stuzo, the company he founded in 2005 as a Temple senior. Considered one of Facebook's first Preferred Marketing Developers, Stuzo is countering industry trends: While competitors have been acquired by Google, Adobe, Salesforce and Oracle, Stuzo is going independent.
 
Located in Chinatown, the company creates specialized customer engagement solutions and has worked for a slew of corporate brands, including Proctor and Gamble, Coca-Cola, DreamWorks, Intel and Samsung. They have 40 employees (split between Philadelphia and a European office) and plan to hire for positions in customer engagement, accounting, creativity and product delivery.
 
Pfau says he was one of Facebook’s earliest adopters. Shortly after the social network launched in 2007, Stuzo pivoted from servicing student-to-student textbook sales to brand engagement strategy. 

"With the transformation and democratization of social technologies, you have companies and brands engaged in two way conversations," says Pfau. "If my trusted friends on Facebook tell me how well Swiffer picks up dog hairs off hardwood floors, it's much more impactful."

To date, the company has built over 600 custom social media campaigns that integrate social platforms including Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Instagram. For example, Stuzo doubled the votes cast in the People's Choice Awards (PCA) with an API (Application Programming Interface, software that shares information with multiple websites or applications) that republished the voting activity of PCA's Facebook page to Twitter.

Shortly after iPad was released, Stuzo began focusing their energies on cross-platform mobile solutions, increasing their revenue by 70 percent in 2012. According to a 2012 report by Strategy Analytics, Machine to Machine (M2M) products--where activity is shared across consumer devices without human input -- will increase by over a third this year. Pfau believes that Stuzo's cross platform communications, enabled by APIs, is positioned to meet the demands of the M2M world.

"Mobile is now the key screen that we need to optimize for from a user experience perspective," he says. "Our core technology platform is built to be flexible so that we can integrate new [social] platforms and consumer [devices] with ease. 
 
Source: Gunter Pfau, Stuzo
Writer: Dana Henry

Dating as far back as instant messenger, social tools -- email, Facebook, Twitter -- have a common trajectory: first college campuses, then the public, and then finally the business world. In keeping with this trend, Fort Washington-based Chariot Solutions is launching Haydle, a private Q&A board intended for corporate departments. It’s Yahoo Answers for the office.

"There’s a movement that takes the best of the social web and brings it internally," says Joel Confino, senior consultant at Chariot Solutions. "Just like there’s a whole slew of social products, there’s a whole slew of enterprise products."

Chariot Solutions, a service provider of custom software since 2002, is forming a not-yet-named product subsidiary; Haydle will be its flagship product. Although Confino says it’s too early say how many new jobs will be created, the company is seeking software architects.

Currently, most large companies use discussion boards or wiki pages, in addition to email, for internal communication. Someone seeking a quick solution will invariably sift through pages of tangents, commentary and bad jokes. What’s unearthed, moreover, might not be credible.

Haydle employs a "question and answer pair" model which assumes that every question has only one answer. The product invites co-workers to rate submissions. Finally, the asker selects the best match.  

"This product is actually not discussion focused," says Confino. "[Askers have] tried those answers and they’re telling you which ones worked, so it’s almost like a personal recommendation."

The company will first approach current clientele -- mostly large IT departments -- who can use Haydle to catalogue programming solutions. They’ve also received interest from customer service and human resources departments, deluged with repeat questions. According to Confino, the most unexpected inquiry came from a pharmaceutical scientist seeking safeguards for drug manufacturing.

Haydle is currently launching with an eight-week beta pilot at a Fortune 500 client.
 
Source: Joel Confino and Tracy Welson-Rossman, Chariot Solutions
Writer: Dana Henry

WordPress launched in 1998, creating a world in which even your grandma’s cookie business could maintain a web presence. On February 21, Apprenaissance -- mobile app creators located in Old City -- relaunched as Artisan. Their flagship product is Artisan Optimize, an app builder at the forefront of a WordPress-style revolution in the mobile sphere. 
 
"In the '90s, everyone had to have a website, but they weren't exactly sure why," says Bob Moul, CEO of Artisan. "To some extent we’re seeing that on apps. People are starting to go to the next level and say, 'Hey, this is actually a really cool way I can engage my customers in ways that I couldn’t do with a website.'"
 
Accessibility, however, is still an issue for app writers. Once an app goes to App Store, Apple controls it. A simple change in wording, color or image goes through the builder's IT department, and is then resubmitted to Apple. At least a week goes by before Apple releases the update. The process can often take a month or longer.
 
Artisan Optimize shifts the power dynamic with Mobile Experience Management, a platform that enables point-click style revisions for mobile apps. Artisan’s patent-pending technology allows their cloud to update Apple's system, creating an uninterrupted pathway from app author to the App Store.
 
By eliminating the need for code, Artisan allows non-developers to make changes. A marketing department using Artisan can also observe resulting traffic -- down to the specific actions of individual users -- with Optimize’s Experimental Analytics.
 
The relaunch closed its seed round of fundraising with $3 million from First Mark Capital and angel investors. They are hiring developer, sales and technical writing postions.

Moul said Artisan expected their product to be a hit with mid-level retail corporations but was surprised to find that conglomerates the size of Disney (which owns 600 mobile apps) are expressing interest. Artisan is demonstrating the new product this week at Etail West 2013, a national e-retailers trade show in Palm Springs, California.

Source: Bob Moul, Artisan
Writer: Dana Henry

In his old job, Frank Coates worked with corporate sales, marketing and accounts teams. He was struck by the outdated use of pencil and paper for recording employee and client meetings.

West Chester-based Wheelhouse Analytics, cofounded by Coates and Todd Buck, looks to solve that problem, capturing the critical data that happens off-line. Admiral, the company’s flagship product, is a tablet app that allows firms to translate meetings and events into stored data points. 

"There’s tons of information out there about how we communicate digitally, whether it’s on LinkedIn, use of websites or even cell phones," says Coates. "Companies have tremendous detail about who’s doing what and what people are interested in. But if you ask the sales force, 'How many minutes did you talk in that meeting about a particular product?,' they can’t do it."

Wheelhouse was formed in 2010, three years after Coates and Buck sold their former company, Coates Analytics, to PNC Bank. They have a full-time staff of nine and are looking to hire PHP and web service developers. 
 
Admiral enables users to upload presentation materials, including slides and videos. During a meeting, the app tracks time spent on each presented subject and allows users to record the audience’s immediate response. The platform also creates a record of the meeting’s outcomes. All data links directly to the company’s Customer Relationship Management (CRM) software and is backed up in "The Bridge," Wheelhouse's cloud-based hub.
 
Although Admiral has only been on the market since November, the product is already gaining Fortune 100 financial service clients with sales teams as large as 500 associates. The company plans to launch a customizable phone-based app for task management in the next few months. 
 
"Ultimately it’s about what works and what doesn't," says Coates. "Our hope is to get rid of paper." 

Source: Frank Coates, Wheelhouse Analytics
Writer: Dana Henry

After receiving a final contribution from the University of Pennsylvania, the University City Science Center closed its Open the Doors Campaign. The first fundraiser in the local institution's fifty year history raised over $1 million for Quorum. This "clubhouse for entrepreneurs" has a two-pronged mission: to provide a place where entrepreneurs can meet and present a programming series designed to help those entrepreneurs move forward.
 
Quorum -- equipped with meeting rooms, a lounge and a small auditorium -- is distinguished from traditional coworking spaces through open accessibility. Local entrepreneurs are encouraged to use the space to host meetings or to just drop by to work among their peers. No membership required.
 
"We really want to give people the chance to make informal connections," says Jeanne Mell, VP of marketing and  communications for the Science Center.
 
The roster of investment and advising opportunities includes Coffee and Capital, an educational meeting between an investor and 20 entrepreneurs; Office Hours, where local business experts -- including Jeff Libson from Pepper Hamilton, Jeff Bodle from Morgan Lewis and Allison Deflorio from Exude -- meet individual entrepreneurs to answer pre-submitted questions; Angel Education, which hosts a panel of entrepreneurs to educate angel investors about opportunities in emerging industries;  and How to Talk to Money, a new series by BizClarity's Steve Bowman on approaching investors.  
 
The concept emerged from recommendations made by Select Greater Philadelphia's CEO Council for Growth. Since opening in 2011, the facility has serviced 12,000 individuals and hosted 250 events. The Science Center has also partnered with the Navy Yard's EEB Hub on Satellite Quorum, to offer programing on energy-related ventures.
 
Open the Doors received support from 34 private companies and institutions, including Morgan Lewis, Children's Hospital of Philadelphia and Energy Plus. Moving forward, the Science Center expects to provide opportunities for ongoing sponsorship.
 
"As the money has rolled in, it's been used to support Quorum's programing," says Mell. "This is really the first step in our fundraising journey."
 
Source: Jeanne Mell, University City Science Center
Writer: Dana Henry

Our partner for the "Inventing the Future" series is the University City Science Center.

In a 911 emergency, paramedics make life-or-death decisions in seconds. They do this without even knowing the patient's name.

This issue inspired Team My In Case of Emergency (mICE), winners of this year’s Startup Weekend Health (SWH). Their app accesses a patient's medical history, including vital information like medications and allergies, and is intended for first responders.

The grueling 54-hour hackathon, held last weekend at VentureF0rth, was largely attended by doctors, nurses and other practitioners. Sponsors included DreamIt Ventures, Safeguard and Drexel’s iSchool.

"[Clinicians] are coming up with ideas based on some of the problems they encounter every day," says Arif Virani, a SWH organizer. "It's great to get a bunch of smart people to think about these big, audacious problems and take on a tiny sliver."

mICE team leader David Bendell, a Penn nursing student and U.K. native, worked with six others, including several Penn students with backgrounds in IT or healthcare. Their winning project provides the patient's photo, identity and self-description by scanning a QR-code stored on the patient's phone. Medical records mined from insurance transactions would appear once the responder was verified by the insurance company's call center.

A total of 90 people participated in SWH, providing 36 pitches. There were 20 front-runners and 13 made it to the final demo round. In second place was Jose Morey, a radiologist at Penn, and his team USmedics, who created a platform that enables remote patients -- particularly those outside the United States -- to have test results read by doctors at top hospitals. Finishing third was KnowMe, an app conceptualized by Penn nursing student, Kerry McLaughlin, that helps nursing home staff maintain daily records of residents' moods, symptoms and habits.

Lon Hect, the winner of last year’s SWH, went on to win the Independence Blue Cross Game Changers Challenge and was awarded $50,000 in seed money. He is currently working on his startup full-time.

Source: Arif Virani, David Bendell, Startup Weekend Health
Writer: Dana Henry

If #WhyILovePhilly taught us anything, it’s that the city's young activists don’t lack enthusiasm. Young Involved Philadelphia (YIP) is aiming to channel that energy by expanding their Board Prep Program, a tool for training and developing the next generation of nonprofit leaders. Applications went live this week.
 
The program provides six weekly classes on topics including strategic planning, legal and ethical issues, fundraising, and financial management. Thanks to a recent $40,000 grant from the Knight Foundation, YIP added Lea Kleinman, a teacher at Harrity Elementary as director. They also plan to offer a second session of the program each year.

"More and more foundations are looking to fund organizations that are diverse," says Sophie Hwang, Vice-Chair for Outreach at YIP. "Philadelphia is at a point where it's really hungry for younger board members."

YIP acquired the Board Prep Program from Philadelphia's Young Nonprofit Leaders in 2010. The applicant pool has grown steadily since then, and last fall over 100 people applied for 30 spots. Hwang says successful candidates are often nonprofit employees or those with a strong interest in civic leadership.
 
"We’re framing the program so you can apply it in a board context," says Hwang, "but it definitely can help in your day to day operations."
 
At the end of the program, YIP holds a matching event where recent grads are paired with interested organizations. According to Hwang, those who complete the program almost always go on to serve on local boards.

Source: Sophie Hwang, Young Involved Philadelphia
Writer: Dana Henry

Drexel University has been making headlines as a leading innovator in higher education. In addition to launching the Center for Visual and Decision Informatics, the school spearheaded the ExCITe Center (featured in the December 4 issue of Flying Kite). Now they’re taking it a step further, announcing the foundation of the Charles D. Close School of Entrepreneurship, slated to open in fall 2013. 

The curriculum has not been officially announced, but founding dean Dr. Donna DeCarolis says Close will put less emphasis on traditional business programing. Instead, the new school will stress actionable skills such as teamwork and inter-disciplinary collaboration. Students will develop expertise in a particular discipline -- whether it's engineering, science or the arts -- while building business know-how.

"It’s important in a very broad way that we teach our students how to be entrepreneurial in their personal and professional lives," says DeCarolis.

The Close School was founded with a $12.5 million endowment from the Charles and Barbara Close Foundation. It is one of the first freestanding schools devoted to entrepreneurship in the country. Close will offer incoming freshman a "living and learning community" where students dorm together and engage in venture-related activities. Sophomores and juniors can opt for an "entrepreneurship co-op," and receive funding and mentorship to work exclusively on their new enterprise.

Entrepreneurship, explains DeCarolis, is not just about starting a business. The ability to develop an idea and follow it through is increasingly valuable. Even within the corporate structure, today’s executives look to their employees for new ideas and a demonstrated ability to innovate.

It's also about flexibility. "Students that graduate today, by the time they're in their forties, will have had ten or so jobs," says DeCarolis. "Many of those jobs will be self-employment."

Source: Donna DeCarolis, Drexel's Close School of Entrepreneurship
Writer: Dana Henry

Most everyday objects, particularly mobile devices, could benefit from an added solar panel. That was the original hypothesis of "Team Spore," winners of this weekend’s Lean Startup Machine Philly 3.0, held at Drexel University's Baiada Institute for Entrepreneurship.

The team of Drexel undergrads -- Mark Brandon, Dylan Kenny and Jason Browne -- walked away with an AWeber account, a month-long membership at Seed Philly and web development through the Venturepact X incubator .

Lean Startup Machine (often incorrectly lumped in with Startup Weekend) focuses on building the concept rather than a working product. Participants spent three days testing their assumptions and interviewing potential customers.
 
Half of the 55 participants were students. To lure those students, organizer Kert Heinecke moved the event from VentureF0rth to University City. The Baiada Institute, the Corzo Center for the Creative Economy at University of the Arts and AWebber provided several student scholarships. Dan Shipper, a Penn junior who cofounded Airtime for Email and Firefly, was a guest speaker.
  
Browne -- who met Brandon and Kenny at the event -- admits his concept was simple, but says the team benefited from rigorous testing. "Usually, if I have an idea, I jump right in," he says. "Taking a step back and thinking about [our concept] from a market -- not a marketing -- perspective was helpful."

Session mentors included Chris Cera from Arcweb, Ted Mann from SnipSnap, Brad Denenberg from Seed Philly, Jake Stein from RJ Metrics and Yasmine Mustafa, cofounder of 123Links and Girl Develop IT Philly.
 
Twelve teams made it to the finals. Second place was awarded to Paper Wool, a home goods design company and graduate of the Corzo Incubator and Good Company Ventures. Washington, D.C. team Busted, which helps customers find shop for bras online, finished third.
 
Source: Kert Heinecke, Lean Startup Machine Philly; Jason Browne, Team Spore
Writer: Dana Henry

Buying a new suit can be an ordeal: After hours of debating material, style and brand, you settle on something that still needs custom alterations. South Jersey-based 7 Regent Lane cuts down on the complexity -- and the cost -- by acting as virtual liaison between a customer and their tailor. Just one year after the site went live, the company has fostered an international client base and is launching their first signature collection.
 
Back in 2010, cofounder Karen Chung, a Wharton MBA, was on a trip to Shanghai when her husband decided to have a suit custom made. The experience made an impression.
 
"My husband actually pitched me the idea," says Chung. "He said, 'I really enjoyed that custom experience. Do you think there’s an opportunity there?'"
 
7 Regent Lane -- cofounded with Ramesh Subramanian and Dave Reynolds -- helps remote clients determine the style, fit and fabrics for a suit that matches their body type. Because they work directly with tailors, the company purchases high-end fabrics at wholesale prices and doesn't need inventory or a storefront. That innovation reduces their price point from thousands to hundreds. They’ve developed a "measurement verification calculator" tool, a database of body dimensions that catches inaccuracies in a client's self-reported dimensions.
 
"Trying to fix [a suit] after the fact can be difficult and takes a lot of time," explains Chung. "We do a lot of work upfront."
 
With their newly launched winter collection, 7 Regent Lane has branched out from suits into fully customizable formal wear and men's accessories.
 
Source: Karen Chung, 7 Regent Lane
Writer: Dana Henry