higher education : 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

"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

Life sciences ruled at this year's Wharton Business Plan Competition, held April 25. RightCare Solutions won first place and will receive the $30,000 grand prize. Competing against seven other finalists, RightCare created D2S2, a discharge planning and readmission decision support system. The evidence-based tool was developed by Dr. Kathy Bowles, Professor of Nursing at the University of Pennsylvania, and the business plan was written by Eric Heil, who graduates from the Executive Wharton MBA program this year.

"It was the topic of my senior thesis as an undergrad at Penn engineering in 2005. Kathy and I worked on it then, and she continued her research in the field and perfected the algorithms," says Heil. "We stayed in touch over the years, and given some of the changes in the reimbursement and regulatory landscape, we decided to create the tool to commercialize her research."

RightCare addresses a $30 billion problem in the United States: preventing readmission. Working with hospitals, insurers, and homecare agencies to identify patients at high risk for readmission, the tool was developed from a study led by Dr. Bowles using referral decisions made by discharge planning experts for 355 hospitalized older adults.

Used at the beginning of a hospital stay, D2S2 can help care coordinators identify high-risk patients quickly, and provide them enough time to coordinate the right care for high-need patients post-discharge to facilities such as home-care, skilled nursing, rehab, or a nursing home. Beta testing is now underway at three hospital systems, according to Heil, and D2S2 is scheduled for national implementation this summer.

Second prize at the Business Plan Competition went to 1DocWay, an online doctor’s office connecting hospitals with underserved patient populations, including the rural, elderly and disabled, via a secure video chat platform. Samir Malik, who graduates from Wharton next year, was the lead on the business plan development team.

In third place was Calcula which is developing urological medical devices for the removal of kidney stones without anesthesia.  The People's Choice Award winner was ChondroPro, which is developing therapeutic technology to treat osteoarthritis. By the way, Heil says the health care focus of the finalists and winners was happenstance.

Previous winners of the Wharton Business Plan Competition include Warby-Parker and Stylitics.

Source: Eric Heil, RightCare
Writer: Sue Spolan

While Philadelphia Startup Weekend prepares for the sold out 3.0 edition, organizers have just announced Startup Weekend Health Philadelphia.

The first of its kind in the world, the June 1 event will take place at Venturef0rth and is co-organized by Elliot Menschik, who already possesses a background that blends entrepreneurship and medicine.

Menschik gets an increasing number of calls from healthcare colleagues seeking tech solutions. He says, "Healthcare so lags behind the pace of change in mobile and analytics. As soon as you step into the healthcare domain all that efficiency and convenience goes out the window. Both practitioners and consumers experience this on a daily basis."

Menschik, who founded and sold the startup HxTechnologies, says this lag is the reason he got into healthcare IT in the first place. "There's so much opportunity and it's why it deserves its own weekend."

Philadelphia is just the place for the specialty startup weekend due to its position in both the medical past and present. He writes in the event blog, "From the biopharma corridor to world-class hospitals, medical schools, research institutions, health plans, associations and non-profits, you’d be hard pressed to find another city so immersed in all things medical.  So it’s only fitting that Startup Weekend hold its first-ever Healthcare-only Startup Weekend in the same place as the nation’s first hospital (1751), first medical school (1765), and many other firsts."

Also, Menschik is hoping that potential sponsors, which would include providers, hospitals, insurance providers, and CROs, would not just kick in money, but would send a rep to present a problem. "Ultimately we would like to have sponsors who will alpha or beta test products. The hardest thing is getting a place to test in a field where customers are so conservative," says Menschik.

Meanwhile, the already sold out Philly Startup Weekend 3.0, the general all purpose edition, will take place April 20-22 at The University of the Arts. Says co-organizer Brad Oyler of this year's improvements, "We are switching from mentors to coaches as an experiment to get coaches more involved with Startup Weekend teams, and we are going for a more social version this time, with a nightly team bonding event outside of the venue." Oyler thinks PHLSW 3.0 will be orders of magnitude better than 2.0 in October, 2011.

Source: Elliot Menschik, Brad Oyler, Philadelphia Startup Weekend
Writer: Sue Spolan

When you are talking sustenance, the combination of education and a hot meal is just about ideal. Philasoup, along with Springboard Collaborative, won top prize at Philly SEED, a new crowdfunded gathering specifically for educational entrepreneurs in the style of PhillyStake.

Philasoup's top spot in the Emerging Entrepreneurs category garnered $5,000. Springboard Collaborative, won the Expanding/Established Entrepreneurs category, receiving a bundle of pro-bono services. Funds were collected via ticket sales, as well as from a Knight Foundation grant.

The two winners were chosen from an original 41 applicants and 12 finalists, which included ApprenNet, The School Collective, Lessonsmith, Yes! for Schools Philly, and Investing in Ourselves. Educational entrepreneurs are hot right now; last month's Philly Tech Meetup focused on the same topic.

The awards ceremony took place at WHYY on Wednesday, March 28 to a packed house of nearly 200 people, a number of whom were also members of Young Involved Philly, which has a great track record of getting people out to events. Councilman Bill Green was on hand as co-host, as were several Philadelphia philanthropists.

Rachel Meadows, who works for Councilman Bill Green event organizer for Philly SEED, a member of PhillyCORE Leaders, says she hopes the event will be take place at least annually, if not more frequently.  "There's an audience for these type of events. I think people have realized that bureaucratic change is difficult, so perhaps bottom-up entrepreneurial efforts are more effective."

Kristen Forbriger, the Communications Manager for the Philadelphia School Partnership, looked around at the young, engaged crowd and remarked, "This represents a lot of energy in the city. There are a lot of tough problems to solve and a lot of people wanting to solve those problems."

The winner, Philasoup, will use its award to host a monthly microgrant dinner where educators connect and fund projects to benefit Philadelphia students, regardless of institution.

Source: Rachel Meadows, Kristen Forbinger, Philly SEED
Writer: Sue Spolan

Sure Old City is ground zero for the Philly tech scene, but Philly Tech Week 2012 organizer Christopher Wink has his eye on advancing technology citywide. Kicking off April 20 with Philly Startup Weekend, PTW 2012 is designed to reach a bigger audience with curated events organized by track. With over 60 items now on the calendar, and more to come, Wink says he wants PTW to reflect a broad, inclusive and impactful tech community.

"I have always been interested in digital access issues," says Wink, who is working with State Representative Rosita Youngblood on an event aimed at increasing computer literacy for seniors, as well as widening the circle to include neighborhood groups outside the city ring. Wink, who is also the co-founder of Technically Philly, is looking forward to the robotics expo, which aims to show middle and high school kids that technology can be both cool and practical.

The avalanche of events of last year's inaugural PTW, says Wink, was meant to rapidly raise awareness of the tech community. Feedback from 2011 led to curation of 2012 participants and creation of tracks for Entrepreneurship/Investment, Media/Transparency, Arts/Creative, Access/Policy and Design/Development. "Sixty to 70 events are too much to comprehend," says Wink. "The grouping of events makes it easier for Joe Entrepreneur." A close relative, by the way, to Joe Sixpack, organizer of Philly Beer Week and the inspiration for PTW.

That first weekend, beginning April 20, already packs a punch. In addition to Startup Weekend, which will take place at University of the Arts, the Women in Tech Summit meets all day Saturday, April 21, and on Sunday, April 22, Indy Hall sponsors a block party on North 3rd Street from 1 to 8 pm. You can also get a peek into how the Philadelphia Eagles choose draft picks, find out if your IP is leaking, and mingle with Switch Philly judges Josh Kopelman, Ellen Weber and Mayor Michael Nutter, who will choose one entrepreneur in the competition for a major prize package. The complete schedule can be found here.

Source: Christopher Wink, Philly Tech Week
Writer: Sue Spolan

You are in a foreign country. You don't speak the language. Something awful happens. "I was in China," says Ryan Frankel, co-founder of PalmLing, a startup out of University City aimed at providing real time concierge level translation assistance to travelers at a modest daily cost. "I thought I could eat anything on the menu, but the next morning I was in a world of pain. It was a serious situation. I don't speak Mandarin. I staggered to the pharmacy. At that point, I would have given anything to have someone there capable of communicating on my behalf."

That was the lightbulb moment for Frankel, who connected with business partner Kunal Sarda back at Wharton, where both were pursuing MBA degrees. "We are helping international travelers navigate the complexities of a language barrier," says Frankel. A PalmLing subscriber calls an access number 24 hours a day and gets connected real time with a live translator who can do the talking on the traveler's behalf to a pharmacist or taxi driver, for example.

PalmLing has just launched a Kickstarter campaign to raise $25,000, which will be used to create a PalmLing mobile app. Right now, all it takes to get connected to a translator is a standard mobile phone and an access code.

The human capital intensive business requires live translators to sign up. Travelers can book PalmLing for periods of 10, 20 or 60 days, at a variable cost of $1.50 to 4.00 per day, depending on the length of the package.

"We went from zero to 1,300 translators in the last month without any advertising," remarks Frankel, who counts stay at home moms, retirees and ex-military among the legion of live assistants who get paid anywhere from $15 to 25 an hour. "We offer PalmLing for Hindi, Mandarin, and all Spanish speaking countries," says Frankel, who estimates coverage of about 200 million trips annually with those three languages alone. Frankel adds that those 1,300 employees were acquired at nearly zero cost.

Frankel and Sarda are also seeking partnerships with businesses to acquire customers in three core stages of travel: before the trip on sites like Orbitz and TripAdvisor, en route at the airport or in the airline magazine, and at the destination, working with hotels, transportation providers and local mobile phone companies.

Source: Ryan Frankel, PalmLing
Writer: Sue Spolan

Who would think that a 33-minute online promotional video could be so effective? Stroll, the sole licensee for consumer sales of the audio language learning Pimsleur Approach and producer of the animated pitch, is growing at a phenomenal clip. "We grow in one month the way most companies grow in a year," says Dan Roitman, founder and CEO of Stroll. "We have over 150 employees and so far this year are hiring four to five a week. It's like mushrooms sprouting everywhere."

Roitman says he started the company while in college at the University of Maryland, going $70,000 in credit card debt. "I discovered the Pimsleur Approach in 2001 and thought it was such a great product, but so undermarketed," says Roitman. "I saw the opportunity with the product line to take it to another level."

Since 2002, Stroll has expanded at a compounded annual growth rate of 73%. Last year alone Stroll grew 135%.
Competing with Rosetta Stone, which holds the number one slot in the language learning vertical with the benefit of an $80 million dollar investment, Roitman saw that the path to success was all in the metrics. "At this point, we represent the majority of sales in the marketplace," says Roitman, whose sophisticated marketing analytics verge on fanatical. "When we spend $5,000 to place an ad, it's critical that we measure the return on every single ad dollar." Now in its 12th year of business, that 33 minute long landing page video is the result of a decade of rigorous testing.

Roitman had to fight for placement of his first online ad, which broke even. He improved and tweaked until one Pimsleur ad resulted in a 1,500% lift in the conversion rate. "We focused on one channel at a time, and then diversified within that channel."

Roitman says the company's marketing efforts have turned language learning into an impulse purchase. Most people who buy the Pimsleur Approach do not have a pressing need to know Spanish or Chinese, but rather have a latent desire to improve themselves, says Roitman. "We help them take steps to achieve a lifelong dream of learning that language. They open themselves up to a whole new world."

Source: Dan Roitman, Stroll
Writer: Sue Spolan

Students graduating from law school may be well versed in the doctrine, but have no idea how to put together an angel funding package or negotiate a divorce. Drexel University law professor Karl Okamoto is changing the way law is taught through his startup ApprenNet.

Okamoto, a Professor of Law and Director of the Program in Business & Entrepreneurship Law at the Earle Mack School of Law at Drexel, has already rolled out his engaging and gamified instructional program to about 20 law schools nationwide, thanks to initial grants from the National Science Foundation totaling $180,000 so far, with a potential million-dollar grant on its way this summer. Okamoto is assisted by recent Drexel law grad Emily Foote and developer Paul Tzen.

ApprenNet, currently in beta, is an interactive website that augments and expands on the classroom experience by redefining legal education as an apprenticeship. A student watches a client pose a question on a legal topic, then posts a video answer, finally getting to see an expert answering the same question. Others can view student answers, and the budding attorney gets a portfolio of video responses which can be shared with potential employers.

By the end of this semester, Okamoto estimates that a quarter of U.S. law schools will be using ApprenNet. "Professors struggle over how to insert practical training," says Okamoto. ApprenNet is hands off. All the instructor has to do is send a student to the website. The startup grew out of Okamoto's LawMeets program.

"The whole system relies on practitioners' participation," says Okamoto, who has been most heartened by the discovery of a huge pent up demand to provide teaching and feedback among practitioners the world over. Usually, in a guest lecture, students are surfing or sleeping, and are not engaged. The way ApprenNet works, says Okamoto, it takes only 10 minutes to record an expert video, and students are eager to get feedback from the experts.

So far, Okamoto has not sought revenue outside of sponsors who are excited to be in front of law students, like Practical Law Company and Bloomberg. "We have not yet charged any user for the exercise, but have been collecting data on what people are willing to pay," says Okamoto, who is building in the ability to charge users a small monthly subscription fee.

There is also potential to create ApprenNet for many other disciplines, like training food service workers, teachers, or even musical training. "We'll take care of law first, says Okamoto, "and then use it in lots of different places. Why can't we crowdsource violin?"

Source: Karl Okamoto, ApprenNet
Writer: Sue Spolan