In The News

'Broad City' comes to Philadelphia

Comedy Central Tuesday, April 05, 2016

Well, the suburbs of Philadelphia. On the Comedy Central show, dynamic duo Abbi and Ilana take the train to 30th Street Station and then head to Abbi's (Jacobson's real life) hometown of Wayne. Tony Danza played her pop. Check out the episode here.

Original source: Comedy Central

Eastern U. nursing leader takes on statewide challenge

Nurse.com Monday, November 05, 2012

Mary Anne Peters, who chairs the school of nursing at Eastern University in St. Davids, has spent the last few months settling into her new role as president of the Pennsylvania Higher Education Nursing Schools Association.

She will serve a two-year term in the top spot of the statewide organization, which helps baccalaureate and higher degree nursing education programs in Pennsylvania plan and implement programs for growth, development and advancement. PHENSA provides a forum and meeting place for those who lead schools of nursing to assemble, learn about the current healthcare issues, discuss ideas and strategies and plan for nursing’s future.

"There are issues that affect us all as nurses," Peters said. "But there are also issues facing nurses here that are completely different than what’s facing nurses in other parts of the country and in different parts of the commonwealth."

Original source: Nurse.com

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Quadruple bottom line? How BLab's ratings help investors

Barron's Monday, September 17, 2012

Barron's writes about Berwyn-based B-Lab's impact on investing.

The process has cred. Yale School of Management now forgives student loans of M.B.A.s who work for a B Corp after graduation. Working with corporate-law firms, B Lab has also drafted legislation that would establish a "Benefit Corporation," a legal entity in which directors are held accountable for their treatment of people and the planet alongside their responsibilities to maximize shareholder profits.

Source: Barron's
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Philly VC funds investing heavily in water technologies

Environmental Leader Tuesday, June 05, 2012

Philadelphia-based Meidlinger Partners and Conshohocken's Enertech Capital are among those who have invested heavily in water management products, which have raised more than $400 million in equity and debt over the past five years, reports Environmental Leader.

Altela, a US company that uses a highly efficient thermal distillation technology to desalinate and decontaminate wastewater, has raised $10 million to date. Enertech has invested in the company, and it is backed by Yates Petroleum and Merrion Oil and Gas. Altela is focused on fracking operations and has projects underway in the Marcellus Shale. Its technology meets new regulations for clean water discharge and has been validated by the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection and the US Department of Energy.

Original source: Environmental Leader

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DuckDuckGo's radical moves vaults it into search engine stratosphere

Time Friday, March 23, 2012

Time magazine's Techland digs into Paoli-based search engine challenger DuckDuckGo, its commitment to user privacy and minimal aesthetic.

On Valentine’s Day, DuckDuckGo started to record more than a million searches a day. Sure, Google averages a billion, but that’s not bad for a company that previously consisted of a single employee (Weinberg recently upped that number to the full-time equivalent of six or seven staffers).

Original source: Time
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Chester Springs-based Y + B provides a new kind of boxed wine for N.C. store

Cary Citizen Tuesday, March 20, 2012

The Sip...A Wine Store in Cary, N.C. sells organic, sustainably produced wines and recently did a testing with Chester Springs-based Y + B Wines, which gives new life to boxed varieties.

The organic wine business, although only 3% of all wine sold, is the fastest growing segment, experiencing 35% growth last year. Y+B ‘s business has quadrupled since opening in their base town of Philadelphia.

Original source: Cary Citizen
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Locally designed overhaul of library's second floor promotes collaboration at Villanova

Campus Technology Tuesday, February 21, 2012

Campus Technology checks in on Villanova University's transformation of the second floor of its Falvey Memorial Library into a state-of-the-art learning and student support center.

Philadelphia-based BLT Architects designed Villanova's new Learning Commons. The layout of the physical space follows a shared "street" concept to enable library users to easily access academic support resources. The space also features high ceilings, improved lighting, multi-purpose rooms with flexible furniture, an open lounge area for informal group study, and smaller spaces for individual study. The Commons' large conference rooms have been outfitted with display systems and digital whiteboards for presentations, meetings, and informal classes.

Original source: Campus Technology
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Berwyn's B Lab leading Benefit Corporation legislation in Oregon

Sustainable Business Oregon Tuesday, February 07, 2012

Berwyn-based B Lab is leading the push for Benefit Corporation legislation in Oregon, reports Sustainable Business Oregon.

The legislation would provide a legal framework for companies to register as a company dedicated to providing a public benefit. The designation would be available as an option alongside C Corporation or S Corporation.

Similar legislation has been passed in California, Vermont, Hawaii, New York, Maryland and New Jersey and is pending in North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Michigan and the District of Columbia.

Original source: Sustainable Business Oregon
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Getting to know Dell Boomi's Rick Nucci and Philly's 'Internet Mojo'

Wired Tuesday, January 17, 2012

Philadelphia-based internet company Boomi, founded by Rick Nucci, was scooped up by Dell in 2010, and Wired examines the union's strengths.

When Rick Nucci says he runs an internet company based in Philadelphia, people in Silicon Valley look at him funny. “We would come out here to meet with VCs,” he remembers, with a bit of a smile. "They would say: ‘Philly? Do you guys have internet there? Are you working in some sort of Amish commune?'" He ended up partnering with a venture capital firm in New York.

But Nucci’s real surprise is that he runs an internet company that was bought by Dell.

Original source: Wired
Read the full story here.

Collegeville synfuels company aims to spawn fleets of robotic farms

MSNBC Tuesday, January 10, 2012

BEAR Oceanics, a Collegeville-based technology and research company, hopes to make inexpensive, algae-based biodiesel fuel for transportation by harnessing ocean winds and sunshine, reports MSNBC.

The robotic farms would turn algae sludge into 5 gallons of biofuel per day with a sped-up version of the geological process that created Earth's fossil fuels -- all without the risks of drilling for oil or fracking for natural gas.

"At this point, you've turned biomass into a biofuel, and you haven't used any chemicals, so that you don't have a toxic waste stream," said Rudy Behrens, an engineer at BEAR Oceanics. "We can do this on a large scale without disrupting the food chain or creating a hazard."

Original source: MSNBC
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DuckDuckGo partners with fourth most popular operating system

Linux Mint Tuesday, November 29, 2011

Philadelphia search startup DuckDuckGo has signed a partnership to become the default search engine for the five year-old, free and open source Linux Mint operating system, the fourth-most used OS in the world. From Linux Mint's blog post:

In other search engines, search results are personalized based on your Web history and personal profile. In other words, if two people search for exactly the same thing, they won’t necessarily see the same results. Based on the personal information the search engines have on them, different customized results will be shown.

DuckDuckGo does not gather such personal information and does not customize search results. So if two people search for the same thing, they’ll get the same results.

It’s interesting for Linux Mint and DuckDuckGo to join forces and do something together. Both projects are extremely successful but relatively small in their respective markets. If you compare DuckDuckGo to Google and Linux Mint to Windows, you can see a lot of similarities. Both projects have a small market share but they’re growing rapidly, both projects are run by very small teams who are easy to contact and eager to get things done, innovation and pragmatism are high on both sides, and the list of similarities goes on.

Original source: Linux Mint
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Malvern pharma startup among stars of BioTech 2011's innovation corridor

MedCity News Tuesday, November 01, 2011

Recro Pharma of Malvern was one of several companies from the region who were showcased at BioTech 2011 last week at the Pennsylvania Convention Center, and MedCity News has a write-up and video on its new drug that targets postoperative and diabetes pain.

This year’s innovation corridor included about 24 scientists and early stage startups from universities and incubators who exhibited posters that highlighted their work and demonstrated the commercial applications, something that regional associations are trying to do more. Now in its sixth year, a decision was made to put the younger scientists alongside the more mature startups so potential investors could see them at the same time and encourage mentoring and partnership opportunities.

Recro Pharma, a Malvern, Pennsylvania-based company, is seeking $20 million for a new drug application for a drug that targets postoperative and diabetes pain relief.

Original source: MedCity News
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Sales, offerings up for West Chester electric bicycle retailer

Daily Local Tuesday, October 18, 2011

The owner of Hybrid Cycles on East Gay St., West Chester, has added another line of electric bicycles and reports that sales are up 80 percent, reports the Daily Local.

At Hybrid Cycles, President Gary DiVincenzo said sales of electric bikes -- he sells four lines altogether -- are up 80 percent so far this year. Even so, electric bikes are in their infancy in the U.S. compared to the rest of the world, and the East Coast is about two years behind the trend compared to the West Coast, DiVincenzo said.

"There were 20 million (electric bikes) sold in China last year, 1 million in Europe and 125,000 in the U.S.," said DiVincenzo, a former pharmaceutical industry worker who spent 10 years doing custom woodworking before starting Hybrid Cycles.

Original source: Daily Local
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Georgia biofuel company moving to King of Prussia, hiring 150 in three years

BusinessWeek Tuesday, October 04, 2011

Renmatix, a company that creates biofuel from sugar, is setting up shop in King of Prussia, according to BusinessWeek.

Gov. Tom Corbett traveled to suburban Philadelphia on Tuesday to welcome a biomass energy company that plans to move its headquarters from Georgia and create 150 jobs over the next three years as it tries to develop ways to turn products such as wood and waste into fuel.

Venture capitalist John Doerr moderated a discussion of alternative energy inside the warehouse building that Renmatix -- which has another facility in Kennesaw, Ga. -- will be calling home.

The company is developing ways to access the fermentable sugars that are the foundation of biofuels. The effort, along with other alternative energy efforts, are all part of helping the country become less dependent on foreign oil, Doerr said.

Source: BusinessWeek
Read the full story here.

SAP still sitting on top of the enterprise software world

The Globe and Mail (Canada) Tuesday, September 13, 2011

Despite challenges in court and changes in management, enterprise software giant SAP remains at the top of its game, according to The Globe and Mail.

It’s been a tumultuous two years for German technology giant SAP AG. Its CEO was dismissed in the face of poor numbers, and two new co-CEOS were appointed. It was ordered to pay $1.3-billion (U.S.) in penalties after an SAP unit stole trade secrets from rival Oracle Inc. But now things are breaking SAP’s way. A U.S. judge last week rejected the damages as ‘grossly excessive’ and recommended Oracle get $272-million – or seek a fresh trial. And 39-year old SAP – with annual revenue more than €12-billion ($16.8-billion) – is still on top of the enterprise-software world. At the centre of the whirlwind is co-CEO Bill McDermott, a rangy hoops-shooting U.S. marketer who operates out of suburban Philadelphia. He was interviewed the day before the judge’s decision.

Source: The Globe and Mail (Canada)
Read the full story here.

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