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The developers formerly known as Slash7 are happier than ever. So happy that they are rebranding, and will soon be known as Cheerful Software, complete with a new address in Old City.

While husband and wife team Amy Hoy and Thomas Fuchs have been at Indy Hall, they will be moving around the corner to 113 Arch Street between Front and 2nd.

"We'd love to be in Indy Hall, but there's no room for us," says Hoy of her four-employee team, which also includes Kara LaFleur and Jess Victor. Nonetheless, Slash7/Cheerful maintains close ties with Indy Hall, and our meeting takes place in one of the coworking space's conference rooms.

Slash7's two big products are Freckle, a time management software program with a total of 12,000 users, of which about 20 percent are premium subscribers, and the brand new customer support program known as Charm, the biggest focus of their business, according to Hoy.

"I am a developer. I have some theories about the way software should treat people who use it," says Hoy.

LaFleur adds, "Good software is cheerful software. It should serve you."

While it may seem that software development is primarily a men's club, Hoy will not go there.

"It's not a gender thing," she says. Hoy does admit to influencing at least one aspect of the Slash7/Cheerful suite of offerings. "We teach programming in a very different way. It's more people centric and personal," says Hoy. Next on offer is a JavaScript Master Class on Oct. 24-25, and possible to join no matter where you are as it's held online. The company also creates eBooks and downloadable workshops.

Hoy maintains a non-gender specific sense of humor about the world of software development. Check out her blog, UnicornFree, where you can read her thoughts on product launch and marketing. And check out her narwhal.

Source: Amy Hoy, Kara LaFleur, Slash7/Cheerful Software
Writer: Sue Spolan

Want to blow your voting mind? Head over to ElectNext, a new website that matches citizens with candidates. "If you change the context from Republican vs. Democrat, it changes the world," says ElectNext Communications Director Dave Speers, who recently joined founders Keya Dannenbaum and Paul Jungwirth to fundamentally change the way you think about your vote.

Speers describes ElectNext as eHarmony for voters. When you sign up, you answer a series of questions about your political philosophy. The results can shake people up. A lifelong democrat may find that her take on the issues most closely aligns with a moderate republican like presidential candidate Jon Huntsman. "I'm a Republican," says Speers. "What could separate you and me is one issue. In reality, we're 99 percent in agreement."

Speers reports that some voters go ballistic upon seeing their results, which may not align with their perception of the candidates or themselves. "When you walk into a voting booth, like millions of people, you see one or two names you recognize. As far as the rest of the candidates, you might skip the vote, or vote dogmatically down party lines, or it could be arbitrary, like picking someone by the ethnicity of their last name."

Dannenbaum met Jungwirth at a Philly Tech Meetup. Jungwirth, who's working on a PhD in Classics from Penn and has a professional background in computer programming, was looking for an opportunity to use both sides of his brain, and Dannenbaum terms the partnership a perfect fit.

The startup is funded by DreamIt Ventures and is part of the Comcast Minority Entrepreneur Accelerator Program (MEAP) within DreamIt. Dannenbaum, who is on leave from MBA studies at The Wharton School, says that getting the $25,000 DreamIt grant was possible after participating in the Good Company incubator program, which provided office space at University of the Arts.

"The training and the curriculum at Good Company is what prepared us to be able to talk to the DreamIt folks at the end of the summer," says Dannenbaum.

DreamIt also receives a 6 percent equity stake in the for-profit company with five employees. Dannenbaum credits the Wharton Venture Initiation Program as well, which offers ElectNext on-campus meeting space and mentors.

Dannenbaum says her leave from Wharton is open ended, and the team hopes to take ElectNext national in time for the 2012 presidential election.

Source: Keya Dannenbaum, Dave Speers, ElectNext
Writer: Sue Spolan

First, MilkBoy the cafe took Center City. And now MilkBoy Recording is following suit. While the lease has not yet been signed, Jamie Lokoff reports that MilkBoy Recording has a signed letter of intent and will be moving from Ardmore to Philadelphia, taking over The Studio, Larry Gold's state of the art recording facility above the Electric Factory at 7th and Callowhill.

"It's the best studio north of Atlanta and south of New York," says Lokoff.

With the upcoming expansion, MilkBoy will breathe new life into a recording studio just blocks away from its live music venue at its new location at 11th and Chestnut. The Studio --a  20,000 square foot converted factory space with walls covered in gold and platinum records -- is legendary in the music business, having hosted luminaries like The Roots, Tori Amos, Al Green, Patti LaBelle and many other award-winning acts.

Gold, who is also a virtuoso musician and is still arranging for Jay-Z, John Legend and Jennifer Lopez, will be handing over the reins to MilkBoy, itself an established talent factory, working with Usher, Dave Matthews and the Dixie Hummingbirds. For a brief time last year, The Studio was run by Solomon Silber, who is no longer associated with the organization.

At this point, Lokoff does not have plans for MilkBoy's current multitrack digital and analog Ardmore recording studio, and until the impending move, continues with a full schedule that includes film and TV work as well as album recording.

Source: Jamie Lokoff, MilkBoy
Writer: Sue Spolan

There's a major problem with the building industry. With 800,000 construction or architecture and engineering firms in the United States, each with an average of 10 employees, there is no critical mass to forward research and development, according to Christine Knapp of the Greater Philadelphia Innovation Cluster (GPIC).

Knapp sees GPIC, a recipient of $129 million in federal funding to be a hub for energy efficiency, as a way to centralize the scattered practice, and there are a lot of initiatives underway at the multidisciplinary organization based at the Navy Yard, including the construction of a combination demonstration project and headquarters.

"We've selected our architectural design team. Kieran Timberlake is a Philadelphia based firm. It happened to work out that the team that won is local," says Knapp. "We're really trying to change the way buildings are designed. We want to be a case study and show people the hiccups and process. A big part of our work is showing the value of integrative construction, design and retrofit."

GPIC workshops are one way to accomplish increased cooperation and vertical integration, and a bunch are lined up this fall, including one that dovetails with DesignPhiladelphia. In November, a series of innovation seminars will begin.

Another goal is data collection, which is a huge job, and Knapp says GPIC is actively seeking a Building Energy Data Manager. "We met with the EPA and the Department of Energy. We plan to sync up with them, and share what data we are getting access to," says Knapp, in an effort to establish a baseline and cobble together a snapshot of the current state of construction.

GPIC is also home to The Sustainability Workshop, an academy for high school seniors that grew out of the West Philly Hybrid X team, which beat out MIT in a national hybrid car building competition. "If they could accomplish this much with an after school program," says Knapp, "what can they do with a full time school? Instead of automobiles, the focus could be energy efficiency of buildings, and they'd contribute to GPIC," says Knapp, who adds that her organization will be assisting with funding for the first year, and in return, students will be contributing to GPIC's work. Right now the program has 30 high school seniors and two full time educators.

In the near future, look for GPIC announcements about the disbursement of $10 million to up to seven applicants for the Opportunity Research Fund. Also, says Knapp, look for an upcoming announcement from GPIC about the choice of teams to assist with strategic planning as well as marketing and communications.

Source: Christine Knapp, GPIC
Writer: Sue Spolan

Cliq takes social data and makes it social knowledge, according to Alex Khorram. The new website, now in beta stage, aggregates all your Facebook, Foursquare, LinkedIn and Twitter friends' and friends of friends' recommendations to deliver a whole new kind of information about local business, products and brands.

"I bought a house in January. It became important for me to have a trusted source to touch base with prior to making a decision about a contractor," says Khorram, CEO of Cliq. After looking at Angie's List and ServiceMagic, Khorram sat down to build a product to create a reliable system for peer recommendations. "Facebook is a great white pages, but they've done a subpar job in terms of the yellow pages," says Khorram.

Cliq, already written up in Mashable, is based in Center City with seven employees, and is now seeking at least three engineers to join the team. At the moment, Cliq is public with restaurants only. A search for, say, Tony's Baltimore Grill in Atlantic City, NJ tells me that six friends have liked or commented on the old time establishment, that there are over 6,000 check-ins and likes across social networks, and Cliq also displays buzz on the joint culled from Facebook, Foursquare and Twitter comments.

In Cliq world, each listing is customized to each human. Cliq scans millions of social network pages and delivers results directly from direct and secondary contacts. Any further out and results are too diluted, according to Khorram.

Why not Google search results? "They're a web engine with crawlers. Now, if you type in plumber in Philadelphia, you'll get a certain result, and most of it is anonymous stuff. We've already built a database of several million businesses. Our goal is to index every business in the world that has a social presence."

Khorram, who reports that Cliq is funded by angel investors for an undisclosed sum, expects to go global, with pages in Mandarin, Farsi and Hindu. As far as monetization, "We see Cliq as the last place you'll check prior to making a purchase decision. That gives us great leeway and we can work with partners like Expedia or Hotels.com. Finally, the internet meets word of mouth."

Source: Alex Khorram, Cliq
Writer: Sue Spolan

Sometimes putting the cart before the horse works just fine. Danny's Guitar Shop began life as a media entity, morphed into a brick and mortar store on the Main Line, and now Danny's Guitar Shop is also the title of a new television show.

"It came to me in an epiphany six years ago," says Danny Gold, proprietor and host of the 30 minute series. "In the wasteland of cable TV, where there are whole stations about food, golf, and cars, there was nothing of substance about guitars." Sure, says Gold, there are plenty of performance videos and interviews with rock stars, but there's been no nutritional value about the instrument itself.

At that time, Gold was a rep for Fender, and saw a marketing opportunity in a media product. With the help of Bruce Warren, Gold created the radio series Danny's Guitar Shop for WXPN more than two years ago. While the budget starved series came to an end after four episodes, in its ashes rose the actual guitar shop in downtown Narberth, a bustling location that offers personal service, lots of lessons, and corny jokes to the Main Line and beyond. It's the only store of its kind for miles.

That quirky personality has been translated to the boob tube, thanks to the creative production team of videographer Ron Stanford and sound recording engineer Larry Friedman. "Danny is a natural," says Stanford. "He's able to speak in complete sentences in front of a camera."

Rather than make sizzle reels until the end of time, says Stanford, the team opted to create a complete 30-minute show, starting with a VIP tour of nearby Nazareth, Pa.'s Martin Guitar factory. "It gives the viewer a real insider's glimpse," says Gold. "It's a privileged look inside the world of music that's appealing to music geeks as well as a general audience." Stanford and Gold's proudest accomplishment is the new episode featuring a talk with Wilmington, Del.'s David Bromberg, whom Gold calls the popular kid on the block.

The series now airs on the web and on the Lenfest owned WMCN, also known as Get It On TV. It's got four sponsors: Old City Publishing, Union Transfer, Onion Flats and Yards Brewing. "We're responsible for filling the whole 28:30," says Stanford. It's like old time TV."

As it is, the team, which donates labor, goes so far as to create ads for those sponsors. "Our goal is to become an economically viable TV series," says Stanford. "It's a chicken and egg thing. No one will believe it until they see it on the air."

With three already in the can, eleven more shows are slated for this first season. You can catch Danny's Guitar Shop on Saturdays at 6:30 p.m. beginning Oct.1 on WMCN, which is carried on cable stations from the Jersey shore to Reading. 

Source: Danny Gold, Ron Stanford, Danny's Guitar Shop
Writer: Sue Spolan
 

My mom called. "What's this LevelUp? I got an email on my BlackBerry that I have two dollars off at Miel." When a brand new tech company already has the attention of the 70-somethings, it's got to be good.

LevelUp, which has a rapidly growing presence in the Philadelphia area, is a new kind of customer loyalty program for local business. Rather than carry around a walletful of punch cards, says launcher John Valentine, who has just been promoted to VP of LevelUp for the east coast. The company is hiring here in Philly, with two positions open in implementation and sales. Each city is slated to have a total of six employees.

Currently, says Valentine, there are 129 businesses in the LevelUp community, with 10 new merchants signing up each week. Here's how it works: Customers sign up online with a credit card. Participating businesses have a device, which is really a smartphone on a lucite platform, which reads a QR code on your phone screen (Valentine says the next generation of readers will be smaller and more streamlined). LevelUp then charges your card, bypassing the shop's cash register, and every 24 to 48 hours, says Valentine, LevelUp sends payment to merchants. As the customer, you receive several dollars off each purchase, and LevelUp tracks your activity, rewarding you for repeat business.

LevelUp evolved out of SCVNGR, a DreamIt Ventures funded startup. The location based scavenger hunt game led to a desire to solve the loyalty piece of the puzzle. "How do we get someone to frequent a place?" asks Valentine.

LevelUp is growing concurrently in Philadelphia and Boston, with plans to take over the world. New York is next, then Atlanta, Washington DC and Miami. "There's been enough validation for what we're doing in Boston and Philadelphia that we need to scale up fast." Valentine, who calls it sticky, says those who start using the program come back for more. "Within the next two weeks, 49% use LevelUp again."

Aside from the novelty factor, says Valentine, LevelUp gives businesses several advantages: the loyalty program brings people back more, brings in new customers, and has the added effect of incentivizing people to spend more money. Because shoppers are getting 5 to 15% back, they're actually spending more, according to Valentine. If you'd like to try LevelUp, Valentine is offering $10 in global credit to Flying Kite readers. Just use the code TECH when you sign up.

Source: John Valentine, LevelUp
Writer: Sue Spolan