NIR Diagnostic wins Wharton Business Plan Competition

Chris Schaeffer of Realistic Eye gives his elevator pitch. The company ended up placing third.

Edit: added RIMS video.

The main event was over already, but the eight hopefuls gunning for the Wharton Business Plan Competition had a chance to bag an extra $3,000 by convincing the dinner audience that they were deserving of the People’s Choice Award.

Each company sent a representative to the steps in the basement of Wharton’s Huntsman Hall to plead their case to roughly 100 attendees who may or may not have been taking advantage of the free food. Approaches ranged from the youthful, energetic charisma of StealthRowing’s Daniel Harbuck (covered earlier this week by TP) to the frank nature of Cuddlebot’s owner, who told the crowd, “we’d love your cash.” After the pitches were finished, the judges huddled to decide the grand prize winner as the audience members dropped ballots in a silver box carried around by the organizers sporting yellow ribbons.

Hours later, NIR Diagnostic came out of the four-round competition $23,000 richer, bagging the $20,000 grand prize as well as the $3,000 people’s choice award. The company is developing a wound diagnostic device that would bump accuracy up to an estimated 85 percent from 50 percent.

After the jump we summarize and comment on each company’s elevator pitch and tell you which one is most likely to lead to a Terminator-like future.
Read more

Comcast reports 5.4 percent increase, subscriber growth drops

Today, Philly’s cable giant is surely feeling Comcastic.

Despite poor economic conditions, Center City-based Comcast reported a 5.4 percent increase in net income in the first quarter of 2009 to $778 million, or 27 cents per share, according to financial results released today.

Cable network revenue has been well-off this quarter. Time Warner, Walt Disney and Viacom all reported stronger than expected quarterly profit, Reuters reported yesterday. Comcast beat analyst expectations by 4 cents per share.

Still, Comcast declined to provide a forecast for the upcoming year; Chief Financial Officer Michael Angelakis cautioned that the company is “conservative” about the use of its cash as the year progresses.

Read more

Comcast Roundup: Comcast and NetFlix could battle, Buying good coverage and More

One particular company in our region garners more news coverage than any other by far: Comcast, of course.

This is the Comcast Roundup, what may or may not become a regular department of ours.

• The Business Insider reports that as online video streaming develops, companies like NetFlix ought to pay less attention to user generated services like YouTube and more attention to diverse, robust cable and telecommunications giants like, oh, say Comcast. ‘The coming war,’ they call it, and not just to goad you into reading their story, although that worked on us.

Read more

Shop Talk: StarCite’s web-based event planning software is all about SaaS

The Chief Financial Officer of purchasing at any large company can easily pull up a budget and see how much money is being spent on telephones, computers and office furniture.

But meetings and conferences are a hidden expense category: their budgets are often hidden away within departments and divisions with no way to see spending at an executive level.

That’s foolish. At least, it seems so after a chat with Center City-based StarCite Inc. Vice President Kevin Young.

“Instead of spending $10 million at different hotels, corporate event planners could go to Marriot directly and say ‘Let’s talk about better rates. What can you do for us?,’” he says.

If planners had a way to see spending, that is.

Read more

The Neat Company releases NeatDesk for Mac document scanning tools

It’s great to be an Apple user in Philadelphia.

There’s IndyHall Labs‘ selection of Mac apps, iSepta‘s iPhone offering, and of course, independent Apple specialists Bundy Computer and Springboard Media based in Center City and Center City West, respectively.

University City-based software development firm The Neat Company is increasing its presence on that list.

On Monday, the company announced NeatDesk For Mac, its automatic document feed (ADF) scanner with an Apple version of its popular NeatWorks scanning software, according to a press release. Now Apple-heads, too, can scan receipts, business cards and documents using Neat’s faster, yet more expensive, software and scanning system.

“Basically, it can scan any type of document, receipts, business cards, and other documents into a digital format using OCR and patented parsing technology that identifies different types of data on different documents,” Director of Marketing Jeff Vogel said.

Read more

Comcast Cares Day brings out 50,000 across country

We like the good stories, too.

Comcast held its 8th annual Comcast Cares Day on Saturday — sending more than 50,000 employees out for more than 500 service projects to log more than 300,000 volunteer hours in what they bill as perhaps the largest single day of corporate service  in the world, according to a company press release.

The company’s blog puts that total at *poof* more than 60,000, which may or may not be nonsense, but it does a fine job of chronicling some of the good works Comcast has involved itself in this year, like servicing public green space, helping at food pantries and other wholesome goodness that doesn’t cost too much but is sweet.

For all of those who like the redeemable parts of corporate USA, check after the jump.

Read more

Ignite Philly 3 speakers announced

With the event only four days away, Ignite has published a list of the 16 speakers scheduled to present.

Included are several people who should be familiar to Technically Philly readers, including Andrew Rosenthal of Happier, Ben Kessler of Unbreaded, and Johnny Bilotta & David Martorana of Two Guys on Beer. All of the speakers have five minutes to present their topic of choice, and each presentation will have 20 slides that rotate every 15 seconds. The idea is to get a sampling of all of the great things happening in our fair city.

TP’s Brian James Kirk talked with organizer Geoff DiMasi, earlier this last month.

Ignite Philly starts at 7 p.m. this Saturday at Johnny Brendas. Admission is free.

City Council cell phone ban attacked elsewhere in state, could cost city $90M

All of that ended quickly.

Last week, we reported City Council created quite a buzz by unanimously passing legislation that would have made illegal the use of mobile devices while driving — unless using hands-free technology. That has some fuming.

PennDOT has called the bill  a violation of the state Motor Vehicle Code, saying cell-phone use legality cannot vary county to county, according to the Daily News.

On Monday, the state House approved legislation which included a provision that would withhold state funds from municipalities that were not in compliance with that vehicle code, according to a press release from the office of Rep. Dick Geist of Altoona, who introduced the provision.

Read more

Technically Not Tech: StealthRowing indoor rowing training

Twenty-four year old Daniel Harbuck agrees that necessity is the mother of invention.

Almost a decade ago, as a young high school rower, the University of Penn Wharton undergrad tried to convince friends to trudge through 10 feet of snow to help him train on Salt Lake in Utah, where he grew up. They wouldn’t.

Instead, he had a friend—”a football player, a big guy”—hold a boat in place in an indoor community pool.

“We were right next to 65-year-old ladies doing water aerobics,” Harbuck says. “It was a nice idea that clearly needed a lot of work.”

It was the first iteration of StealthRowing—a device the business student is developing that enables rowing athletes to experience on-the-water training while indoors.

Essentially, a row boat cockpit is anchored to the edge of a pool, enabling rowers to practice balance and teamwork. The stationary design allows them to be tied down in a pool—but not locked in—to train in any weather.

The technology is the first to offer rowing synchronization and balance training in an indoor setting. During interviews with 1,050 clubs affiliated with USRowing, 82 percent expressed interest in the project and purchase intent, he says.

“Those who know rowing understand the need for this,” he says.

Last week, Harbuck won $5,000 from University of Pennsylvania’s Weiss Tech House for the idea. That’s in addition to $10,000 won with a Wharton Venture Award last year. On Wednesday, he hopes to win $20,000 more in Wharton’s Business Plan Competition.

Read more

Events highlights for the week of April 27 – May 3, 2009

What’s going on this week?

Oh not much. Just that huge, silly Mashable mixer that brings the popular blog to Philly for the first time. Rumor has it they even catered the event specially to Philadelphia.

After you recover from talking social media until 2 a.m., you can shake off the grogginess by attending the third Ignite Philly presented by P’unk Ave‘s Geoff DiMasi and company. But, please, get there early. Last year’s was so packed that Johnny Brenda’s stopped letting people in.

If you can’t be around this weekend, then at least make it out to the SEO Grail April Meetup on Tuesday where Pay Per Click strategies and tips will be discussed.

All events listed on the event calendar are free to attend. Be sure to check our complete calendar for more information, or follow us past the jump.
Read more