DreamIt Incubator Holds Funding Day To Commemorate First Graduating Class
techcrunch.com
techcrunch.com
I am very familiar with many of these companies. I use Dropcard about a few times a week. These guys have made it extraordinarily easy to send a digital business card that you can easily add to any address book. Just try it. It will take you less than 15 minutes to get set up. I’ll certainly be using it at TC50 next week.
Vuzit is a great idea backed by great technology. Some people really are looking for a white label solution for viewing documents and don’t want their documents hosted at Scribd or Docstoc which have more of a YouTube model. They’ve also got some features you won’t find elsewhere.
Anthilllz also has some great potential. LinkedIn lets you recommend others, but this entire site is built upon your recommendations and others’ opinions of you. Imagine you’re looking for a new web designer. What is more important, a LinkedIn profile (essentially a resume) or a place that has truly honest reviews? If Anthillz is successful at building out its network through its “Trusted Colleagues” feature (which is a great viral feature), then you’ll find it quickly become a place where people’s reputations live and die.
I can’t really speak to the other companies as I’m not too familiar, and I think that maybe some of the ideas for some of those companies might be a little flaky from these summaries, but there are some very promising companies in the bunch. They may not ever be huge, but they can certainly be successful.
Philadelphia has a long history of being at the forefront of the technology curve. It was the birthplace of the first commercial computer in the US. It was home to Commodore Business Machines. If you owned a PC in the 90s there was a great chance it had an ENSONIQ sound card in it. If you take out your iPhone and make a phone call its powered by Interdigital technology. Odds are your digital TV is using a set top box made by Motorola. And like it or not your broadband and cable are powered by Comcast.
If you are really interested in seeing what other companies are in the Philadelphia area check out http://www.phillytechhq.com.
The high tech community is alive and well in Philadelphia
See this video here ... http://www.vimeo.com/1629637
An alarm clock that tells you to go back to sleep, saves lives, reminds you, motivates you, provides greetings/well wishes on special days, allows you to remain close to those who are far away, provides personal information.... that is http://Sleep.FM!
Philly is one of the largest startup hubs in the world for bio-tech and life sciences. Philly might not be known for its tech scene as much, or very early stage investing, so DreamIt has been a big step for the ecosystem here. Philosophy on investing seems different than what I see in Silicon Valley and NYC.
There is money here: Entrepreneur Magazine's VC 100 in August 2008 listed Ben Franklin Technology Partners of Southeastern PA as tied for 3rd in the country as far as #deals done. Josh Kopelman and Chris Fralic from First Round Capital are here too.
There is community here: Phillystartupleaders.org is a group of 250+ mostly tech entrepreneurs and VCs that meet monthly for a happy hour event. Indyhall.org is one of the most successful coworking spaces out there. IgnitePhilly was a huge success, with another one planned in the next couple of weeks. phillytechhq.com is a blog aggregator of all the tech companies here (big + small). The "user group" community is pretty huge too: http://phillygroups.org/community/GroupDirectory
There are alot of universities that provide access to talent: Drexel, Penn/Wharton, Temple/Fox, etc.
Philly also has an awesome combination of art and American history that make it a wonderful place to live. I hope this clears up some perceptions about Philly!