Innovation + Job News

Neil Budde is getting used to Philadelphia. As the newly appointed CEO of the Philadelphia Public Interest Information Network (PPIIN), Budde reports it has been a whirlwind two months. 

"I'm getting out and meeting as many people as possible," reports Budde (pronounced "buddy"), who's connecting with the city's journalists, civic groups and tech stars since taking the post March 5. Budde, born in Kentucky, was previously the President of DailyMe, a customizable news feed site, and also held editorial management positions at Yahoo and The Wall Street Journal.

The start-up nonprofit PPIIN, funded by the William Penn Foundation in partnership with Temple University, was "created to improve public affairs in Philadelphia by accelerating the full development of a new-media and journalism ecosystem, by forming collaborations with new and established news organizations, and by launching new ventures," according to information sent out during the job recruitment process. 

"The organization is somewhat two headed," explains Budde. "We have our brand presence and will create our own identity, and we'll also support news sites all over the city. One of the big themes is data. We plan to step up and take over Open Data Philly for both the public good and also for journalistic research."

Budde looks to mobile and multimedia rather than building a web presence. "The other big opportunity is to find ways to use information to create substantial discussion. I've never been a big fan of hanging comments on the bottom of stories. It's a very fragmented experience. Half a dozen news organizations are writing about a topic. Each fosters discussion. We are going to work to create a single community discussion."

Budde will also be in charge of fundraising. While he is now all about getting the PPIIN team in place, he says much of his attention will turn to business development, finding additional sources of money beyond the initial $2.4 million William Penn grant. The hope is that the CEO will find between $5-7 million over the next five years. Between six and eight hires are also planned.

"One of the things that appealed to me about the job in general is that it's a blank sheet of paper. There is no hard and fast mandate. I do think a key part of what we ought to be focusing on is serving younger audiences and underserved audiences. Parts of the city no longer have local news outlets." 

Budde arrives in the midst of a seismic shift both locally, with recent changes to ownership at Philadelphia Media Network, as well as globally. "The shift is not just from print to digital. There's a wide range of ways for people to pick up news and information," says Budde, who counts everything from The Daily Show, to bits and fragments that are delivered via social media, some of which link back to conventional media.

One other thing Budde will change: the name of his organization. "PPIIN is necessarily vague and broad. We're trying to come up with something shorter and more specific, and we're working on soliciting ideas from the public. Like everything else, we don't want to put a name on it until we narrow our focus."

Source: Neil Budde, Philadelphia Public Interest Information Network
Writer: Sue Spolan

With six world premieres and two U.S. premieres set for the Philadelphia Live Arts Festival, which announced the lineup for its 16th annual edition on Monday, there will be plenty of cutting-edge dance, theater, music, visual and interdisciplinary works by renowned contemporary artists. It will also feature the largest work in Live Arts Festival history with Sylvain Emard Danse's Le Grand Continental, which will feature 200-plus dancers on the Benjamin Franklin Parkway and go down as the largest presentation of its kind in the world.

The Parkway will also host interactive public art from Montreal-based new media artist Rafael Lozano-Hemmer. Montreal will also be represented by urban circus 7 Fingers. Philadelphia's leading contemporary art-makers are in the mix as well, including Pig Iron Theatre Company, Headlong Dance Theater, Brian Sanders' JUNK and Lucidity Suitacase Intercontinental.

"Our mission to present artistic voices from around the world alongside Philadelphia's best and brightest talent continues with our 2012 programming," says producing director Nick Stuccio in a news release.

Other noteworthy performances include the only American presentation of Australia-based Back to Back Theatre's FOOD COURT, a centerpiece production that confronts bullying and body image, and New York's Elevator Repair Service and Young Jean Lee Theater Company.

The Festival runs Sept. 7-22. Tickets go on sale in mid-June and are priced between $10-$30. Discounts available to those age 25 and under and for Festival Members. A full schedule with Festival events, and performance dates, times and locations will be released shortly. PNC Arts Alive is the presenting sponsor for the 2012 edition.

Source: Carolyn Huckabay, Canary Promotions
Writer: Joe Petrucci

Philadelphia's open data movement recently got stronger by a factor of 311. The city has announced that PublicStuff will produce the long-awaited 311 mobile app to allow citizens to make faster service requests without disrupting city operations.

"The product is already built," says Lily Liu, founder and CEO of PublicStuff. "It's a mobile and web app that integrates with how workers are already working. The staff does not have to change what it does every day. They will still manage work flow and work orders, but it will be a much better experience for the citizen."

Liu adds that the integration piece is essential, and the custom designed app will be fully scalable and integrate with backend solutions.

While PublicStuff is a based in New York with over coverage of over 100 cities nationwide, Liu says PublicStuff will soon be opening a satellite office in Philadelphia, where it got its start with Good Company Ventures.

"Our original goal was to create something that could be utilized in any city, not necessarily in Philly," she says. "A lot of our mentors and investors are located here."

It was an easy decision to apply for the project once PublicStuff heard about the opportunity, which was a bit of a wait-and-hurry-up situation. While the idea for a 311 mobile app has been kicked around for several years, it was only a matter of weeks from RFP to selection, says Liu, who reports that her company is still finalizing details around the local office.

PublicStuff, with an $18,000, one-year contract from the city, hopes to set up shop here in the fall, and expects to roll out the app by Labor Day 2012.

Source: Lily Liu, PublicStuff
Writer: Sue Spolan

Here's something you may not know: When you click on a website, ads you see are often the result of a real time auction. It's an outrageously fast paced auction, where bidding takes place within 300 milliseconds.

LiftDNA, based in King of Prussia, is in the business of managing online publications that derive revenue from these advertisements, and the company is growing very fast. "We manage 80 to 90 percent of their revenue," says Dan Lawton, Senior Vice President of Operations. "The goal is that we allow them to focus on publishing, and we take care of field management and the technical concerns of an advertising operations department."

A typical LiftDNA client gets over a hundred million impressions per month, says Lawton, and in total, the company serves well over 20 billion monthly impressions internationally. "Every millisecond counts when talking about scale and volume. If the ad doesn't load fast enough, that creates revenue loss."

Try this: go to Philly.com on two different browsers. First use Internet Explorer, and then go to the same site on another browser, like Google Chrome or Firefox. You will likely see entirely different ads. Your eyeballs were purchased in nanoseconds, based on cookies and other stored information. It's not something the consumer realizes or considers. "It's definitely the wizard behind the curtain kind of stuff," quips Lawton.

LiftDNA was recently acquired by Los Angeles based OpenX for an undisclosed sum comprised of stock and cash. On the heels of that acquisition, LiftDNA is planning on doubling staff in the next few months, going from over 20 to nearly 40 employees. The majority of hires will be in operations, says Lawton, plus a handful of developers and administrative support staff.

LiftDNA is going up against the giant of ad servers. "Google has taken over the entire ad ecosystem. They own Double Click Ad Exchange and AdSense, but they are advertiser focused.

We write code against Google to benefit the publisher," says Lawton. "There's nothing for free in this world. The only way the cost of free content is justified is to have effective ads on a site. Without ads, the content goes away."

The next big opportunity in online advertising will be mobile, says Lawton, who predicts we will see major changes in the coming months as real time placement jumps from desktop to handheld. "Mobile devices are outpacing PCs for the first time. There's a huge global impact. The reach is huge, and the dollars are going to follow that audience."

Source: Dan Lawton, LiftDNA
Writer: Sue Spolan

It's a three thing. "O3 stands for ozone," says Keith Scandone of the name of his e-commerce agency. "Ozone is made of three parts oxygen, and our company incorporates three aspects: marketing, design and technology." O3 World, founded by three partners, is now hiring both a front-end and a back-end web developer.

Currently located at the Piazza, O3 World is poised to move north to new headquarters in Fishtown this fall. Scandone reports that year over year growth is 45% from 2011 to 2012, which is the group's most dramatic gain since its 2005 inception.

Now with two owners and 12 full time employees, Scandone attributes the expansion to new business. He points to work with Comcast's Project Open Voice and referrals through relationships, some of which were developed through Scandone's participation in the Philly Ad Club.

"We specialize specifically in e-commerce, and it's a complicated process you can't fake," says Scandone, who will refer out any work that's out of O3's area of expertise. For example, clients with SEO and SEM needs are sent to NoLibs neighbor SEER Interactive. "We won't sell something to a client and then outsource it."

O3 is a full Magento partner, a deal they struck just a few months ago,and is positioned to provide the full package to clients, from design, through hosting, development, and integrations.

The firm's other clients include Grayhair Software, Pravda Vodka, Timberlane and Back on My Feet, a Philadelphia-based nonprofit begun that now operates in 11 cities nationwide.

Source: Keith Scandone, O3 World
Writer: Sue Spolan

Zonoff, in the business of facilitating smart homes, has just received $200,000 in funding from Ben Franklin Technology Partners of Southeastern Pennsylvania.

Zonoff is hiring three: a web and mobile UI developer, an embedded software engineer, and a contract technical writer. Cooper reports that the $200,000 from Ben Franklin will go toward ongoing product and market development.

The recipient of the largest sum in this most recent round, Zonoff launched in April 2011 to provide software that no one will ever see. Residing inside any "always on" device, like televisions, thermostats, security systems, door locks, garage door openers and refrigerators, to name just a few, Zonoff's software allows homeowners to control a variety of processes remotely.

The name of the revenue-positive company comes from the letter Z plus on and off, says Bob Cooper, Zonoff's Chief Marketing Officer and one of its co-founders. There are two smart home industry standards, he explains: the Z-Wave Alliance and the ZigBee Alliance. Zonoff works with both. "Consumers don't care if it's Z-Wave or ZigBee. They just want it to work," says Cooper.

"What's happening in the space now is the convergence of a number of factors," says Cooper, who attributes increased interest in the smart home to concurrent rises in broadband penetration and smartphones, along with a higher awareness of energy management. "Big players are entering the market." Comcast, AT&T and Verizon, for example, are beginning to take steps into facilitating the connected home.

Suppose, for example, you could turn on your hot tub, turn off your home security, and run your dishwasher from a mobile app. With Zonoff, it doesn't matter if it's a Z-Wave or ZigBee enabled device. Further, Zonoff learns from the homeowner's habits. If the thermostat is getting turned down to 62 every night, the program will ask if it should add the adjustment as a regular feature.

"We found Bulogics, another company in Philadelphia, that had developed the technology," says Cooper. "It was world class, but it was the best kept secret out there." Bulogics spun off its consumer technology portfolio and Zonoff was created, with a much more assertive go to market plan. Michael Balog, Zonoff's CTO, left Bulogics and joined Cooper and CEO Mike Harris at the Malvern HQ.

Cooper envisions all manner of disruptions. Alarm companies would be rendered obsolete by technology that automatically turns on cameras and sends a live feed to the owner's smartphone when a secure area is breached. The software can also alert the police.

Zonoff will soon be seeking an A round of funding and is forging relationships with channel partners for international distribution.

Source: Bob Cooper, Zonoff
Writer: Sue Spolan

"There's no such thing as a typical man cave," says Joe Chiaccio, founder of ManCaveKingdom. The bootstrapped startup is in the business of creating safe havens for every man, no matter what his taste.

Maybe you're the kind of guy who's just waiting for beer o'clock. Or maybe you are more of a Super Street Fighter. Whatever your particular escape, ManCaveKingdom will help make it happen.

While Chiaccio, based in South Jersey, has full time designer Amanda Burke on staff, he explains it's more of a DIY thing. "Guys are traditionally not the decorators of the house. Typically women are the primary decorators. If a guy is lucky enough to get his own space, ManCaveKingdom makes it attainable for guys who have an idea of what they want," says Chiaccio, who adds that wives are often more than happy to hand over an area of the house where a guy can get as sloppy as he wants.

The target demographic for the fledgling company is pretty wide, ranging in age from men in their early 20s up to their 60s. "Younger guys live in apartments, and then there are guys who have been married 40 years and want a little bit of space," says Chiaccio. Most commonly, men are looking for a bar and a really nice TV viewing area. Add-ons include stand up arcade games, ping pong and pool tables.

How much is this going to set you back? "How much does a diamond ring cost?" jokes the recently married Chiaccio, citing a budget range from a few hundred dollars all the way up to the tens of thousands. In fact, it was Chiaccio's own experiences building out his man space that gave him the idea for the business.

Chiaccio reports that Philly Tech Week was great for business, and now counts among his clients a recently divorced local entrepreneur who does web analytics by day, but wants to get loose at night. We're not naming names, or even initials. What happens in the man cave stays in the man cave.

Source: Joseph Chiaccio, ManCaveKingdom
Writer: Sue Spolan

ReadySetWork has served tens of thousands. While it all began with a sandwich franchise, co-founders Joel Frisch and Jacob Dreyfuss are in the business of serving those who serve. The company is hiring ASP.NET MVC developers, mobile developers and business development experts, on the heels of an acquisition for an undisclosed amount by national payroll solutions provider PrimePay.

ReadySetWork was created to schedule shift workers, first in the restaurant industry, and now branching out to any vertical that employs hourly, on-demand labor. Frisch and Dreyfuss first got the idea for the company when they owned several Pita Pit franchises, and developed the technology to fix a major pain point that had previously been a pencil and paper solution. "The whole pitch of our product is taking the schedule off the back wall and bringing it to life," says Frisch.

The RSW suite is a set of web and mobile tools that allow managers to schedule workers online, but also allow employees to tell bosses when they are available. "When employees have more access with ReadySetWork, they feel more a part of the process. Accountability and morale are higher," says Frisch.

The acquisition does not affect the management team or the location of company, which remains in Malvern. Frisch says the company's national client base has been built up through distribution channels, not one-by-one sales, and PrimePay is now offering a co-branded version of ReadySetWork.

Frisch reports that the company now schedules hospitality, healthcare, and recreation staff, and is moving into the rapidly growing on demand workforce that includes home health care, catering and security. "A tool like ReadySetWork is situated perfectly for that change." Look for a new RSW mobile app, to be launched this summer. By the way, RSW has lots of branded merchandise for sale, including a clock.

Source: Joel Frisch, ReadySetWork
Writer: Sue Spolan

Michael Raber was not taken completely by surprise when AppRenaissance made an acquisition offer on his startup UXFlip. While Raber will not disclose the specifics of the deal, he is now employed full time as a Senior Product Director at the Old City HQ of the mobile app developer, which is part art gallery and part workspace. The street level suite at 309 Cherry was previously home to lighting craftsman Warren Mueller, and it retains a creative sensibility absent in most tech shops.

The Fall 2011 DreamIt grad already had a relationship with AppRen CEO Bob Moul. "Bob was my mentor during DreamIt, from the early days," says Raber, who entered the incubator with the plan to develop a company called Feedback Trail.

But halfway through DreamIt, while attempting to validate the idea, a method for developers to get enhanced feedback on mobile apps, Raber realized there was a problem. "It was a product people liked, but there was no revenue model." Eight weeks into the 12-week program, Raber and his wife/partner Jessica pivoted and created UXFlip. "I decided to focus on things I'd heard all along, that mobile app development is really hard, and UXFlip makes native mobile app development a much richer and easier experience," says Raber, who recently won top prize for UXFlip at Phorum 2012.

Rather than an assembly line approach, where a designer creates static representations of what screens will look like, then passes it to a programmer who carves everything up, UXFlip offers a round table approach in which team members can work together building the app, collapsing the process to be far more collaborative. Raber says Moul recognized the value of such a disruption early on, and not long after joining AppRenaissance in February 2012, Moul inquired as to whether Raber was interested in joining forces, combining AppRen's proprietary Unifeed middleware with UXFlip technology. Living on savings, having bootstrapped since September 2011 after leaving his job at NAVTEQ, Raber couldn't be happier. "It's been very good for both sides."

Incidentally, Raber and teammate John Romanski also won last month's Lean Startup Machine competition for their HeartMe mobile app, which allows married couples to track favors, keeping relationships on even footing. The HeartMe team is planning a Kickstarter campaign to raise funds.

Source: Michael Raber, UXFlip/AppRenaissance
Writer: Sue Spolan

The multi-partner organization GPICHub is now EEB Hub, which stands for Energy Efficient Buildings Hub. Same players, but a redesigned website, logo and tagline to reflect a change of focus. "From early on the name was made to speak to the Department of Energy, and be region focused," says Christine Knapp, Manager of Public and Client Relations for the EEB Hub, who feels that the shorter name says more in fewer words.

EEB Hub is more market focused as well, according to Knapp, with pages that break down content into four sections she calls "point-of-view" pages: Owners/Operators/Occupants, Architects/Engineers/Suppliers, Policy and Finance, and Education and Workforce. An even more granular approach is in the works, says Knapp, with some of the categories broken out further to address specific needs, say, of building owners.

The multi-stakeholder organization, which began life last February with temporary headquarters at the Navy Yard, is now in the process of constructing Building 661, a showplace for green building innovation. In what Knapp terms an entrepreneur's dream come true, even the current headquarters has become a lab.

"The temporary building we are in now is one of the most highly instrumented buildings in the country. It collects 1500 data points every minute," says Knapp, who looks forward to the ability to dashboard all that data, which will include energy, weather and occupancy data, to name just a few.

"ICon, our immersive construction lab, is up and running," reports Knapp. "It's a virtual 3D environment which allows design teams to put schematics into the system, put goggles on and walk around a building together." EEB Hub's Building 661 design team is using the technology now, and EEB Hub will soon make it available to regional architecture and design firms. "They can bring all their architects and engineers into the room together," says Knapp.

EEB Hub is seeking a full time manager for demonstration projects. Currently there are two, but up to five more are in the works, and will soon grow beyond the confines of the Navy Yard and into the larger region. Also available are ten paid summer internship positions for both undergrad and graduate students.

EEB Hub seeks to reduce energy use in the area's commercial building sector by 20 percent by 2020.

Source: Christine Knapp, EEB Hub
Writer: Sue Spolan

"There's no question," says Ryan Feit, founder of SeedInvest, "entrepreneurs are a job creation engine." SeedInvest, which won third place at Philly Startup Weekend 3.0, is perfectly timed to rise from newly enacted legislation that changes 80 year old securities laws. Feit graduates from Wharton with an MBA in just a few weeks, but is already on a fast track to becoming a major player in finance.

SeedInvest was born when President Obama signed the JOBS Act into law on April 5, allowing individuals to make equity investments in startups. Taking crowdfunding a step further than Kickstarter, the JOBS act allows anyone to gain an equity stake in an entrepreneurial effort. "It opens up investment to the 99%," says Feit, who sees SeedInvest as an evolution from microfinancing and investing clubs.

Feit, who worked on Wall Street before entering Wharton, caught wind of the JOBS Act movement around nine months ago, and began working closely with Startup Exemption founder Sherwood Neiss, who garnered bipartisan support in congress.

SeedInvest puts a cap on individual efforts, so that those with under $100,000 net worth, or who make under $100,000 salary can invest 5% or $2,000, whichever is lesser. Over $100,000, a 10% annual investment, up to $100,000 per year, is the max.

Since Startup Weekend, Feit has been very busy. "I've had a lot of people who reached out from the Philadelphia community who are interested in investing." Feit is now in the process of seeking a seed round of funding in an undisclosed amount. The business is still in pre-launch, and interested investors can sign up for more information at the website.

"I am hoping to have a leadership role to help think through issues with later stage financing," says Feit. "This new business model of crowdfunding has not happened before. If you are a later stage investor, this is something you will find challenging to invest in. There are creative ways for companies to raise seed funding that will not preclude fundraising down the line. There is a solution."

Source: Ryan Feit, SeedInvest
Writer: Sue Spolan