Shop Talk: Bradley Ericson and 3SecondReceipts

Bradley Ericson

Like a lot of Drexel undergrads, Bradley Ericson likes to take trips for the South Street Special.

“You wrap a piece of Lorenzo’s pizza around a Jim’s steak and see which one of your friends can finish first,” the Drexel sophomore says. “It’s the simple things that keep you young.”

Of course, what has made Ericson one of the better known teenagers in University City was his being named College Entrepreneur of the Year by Entrepreneur’s magazine. So, though Ericson “never in a million years” imagined himself attending Drexel, you’d be right to guess he now approves of the path he’s taken.

Ericson is the CEO and co-founder of 3SecondReceipts, a startup incubated at Drexel, a startup that is testing a point-of-sale system for digital receipts to save vendors on paper and ink.

The company’s beginnings started October 2008 back at Drexel and, like the South Street Special, involves pizza. As a freshman, Ericson and his college buddies would head out to a university dining hall for pizza, using their student ID cards in the closed system.

Everyone waited for a receipt, and then everyone immediately threw them out.

“I just wanted my pizza faster, but I also realized all this paper was being thrown out for these small transactions that are pretty immaterial to us,” Ericson says now. “There had to be a better way.”

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Startup Roundup: Lifehacker has trust issues with Lose It Or Lose It, myYearbook donates to Haiti

Introducing Technically Philly’s Startup Roundup. Here, we’ll parse out the small pieces that make our greater Startup ecosystem thrive. We want to keep you in touch with the innovations that we can’t quite get to covering, but that deserve highlight. If you’ve got news to share, get in touch. Several of the tips in this week’s roundups resulted from a quick email to TP. Without further ado….

DEFINITE READS

Lose It Or Lose It founder Randy Schmidt offers insight into the how, why and how much of launching a startup Web product, and it doesn’t sound so daunting: Twenty-one grand and some serious, uhm, sweat equity.

Lifestyle-meets-technology aggregator LifeHacker ragged on Schmidt’s project, practically begging readers not to give money to the product. LifeHacker likely picked up the story when CBS3′s Nicole Brewer interviewed a contributor for her piece highlighting Lose It as a tech-savvy way to lose weight.

In light of the recent magnitude-7.0 earthquake in Haiti, New Hope’s myYearbook has pledged to donate at least $15,000 and up to $25,000 through its Causes social networking application this month. The company donated more than $250,000, contributed by members, to charities in 2009.

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Feds announce second round of broadband stimulus funding

By now, the city’s Division of Technology must think the federal government is playing games.

The National Telecommunications and Information Administration and the U.S. Rural Utilities Service announced Friday a second round of federal broadband stimulus funding, PCWorld reports. The agencies, which have split the funding into two pots, will dole out $4.8 billion for broadband projects, to be awarded by September.

It’s never a bad time to try to get a piece of $4.8 billion, but the NTIA announced last week that Pennsylvania received funding for broadband research, data that could have helped local applicants strengthen their pitches, Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Office of Administration spokesperson Luc Miron told Technically Philly last week.

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VC Roundup: National numbers on the rebound, BioLeap raises $5 mil

Welcome to the VC Round-up, where we’ll parse through venture capital news related to Philadelphia-based private equity firms and the companies they fund. Subscribe to the roundup as an email newsletter. If you have any VC-related news to pass along to us, please drop us a line.

DEFINITE READS

Get out your calculators because all kinds of Q4 data is coming out of the woodwork.

Like your best friend who just got dumped, ChubbyBrain reports that VC is in full rebound mound. Q4 saw the highest number of deals in five quarters. There was a slight downtick in the total dollar amount invested, something ChubbyBrain attributes to a handful of large green tech deals in Q3.

A new study on WSJ.com reveals that the number of new startups is largely unaffected by economic cycles. Anaylizing data from 1977 to 2005, the study found that the number of new startups only fluctuated three to six percent a year.

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NextFab Studio launches, opens Science Center to the community

Next Fab's NextEngine 3D scanner can import a real, three-dimensional object into CAD and 3D-design tools. You can see the scanned object on the screen behind it.

In December, the University City Science Center announced a seven-month revitalization of Market Street between 34th and 41st streets, working with the University City District, and with a $2 million grant from the City of Philadelphia.

The goal? Create a notable and noticeable tech corridor in University City.

This week, the center will open up a piece of that aesthetic when it launches its anticipated Next Fab Studio, a high-tech, street-level, membership-based prototyping studio. Next Fab is like a big boy’s Hive 76 or Hacktory where commercial prototypes can be developed using high-tech, presumably expensive machinery.

Next Fab founder Evan Malone has been negotiating for more than a year on the collaboration, after members of the Science Center’s arts and technology program most notably represented by the center’s Klein Art Gallery, and recently renamed to and marketed as Breadboard helped him pitch the idea to UCSC executives.

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Event Highlights for January 18-24, 2010

You’ve spent the last two weeks getting back in the swing of things, and you’re hoping to close out January as a strong first month. Jump on a couple events this week as the year continues to open up.

On Monday, stretch those learning muscles at Life Sciences 2010, a mid-day event focused on taking a look at how global collaboration is good for the quickly-changing field. It’s something different, but we know there are a lot of smart noggins in this community that can do some great innovation in that sector.

Wednesday, TVBGone creator Mitch Altman heads to Hive76 to help folks build the infomercially-sold TV-ridding kit. We were way into keeping our sets off with a product like this… until HD got cheap. D’oh!

Finally on Friday, join the University City Science Center as it unveils Next Fab Studio, its high-tech, membership-based prototyping lab. We talked to Next Fab founder Evan Malone last week, and the assortment of equipment at the shop seems drool-worthy. UCSC President Steve Tang let us know about his excitement for the lab, too. We’ll be stopping by the new shop later this afternoon, so stay tuned for our preview. If it’s not posted by 6:00 p.m., your dinner is on us!

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Thanks to our weekly sponsors

Technically Philly is made possible by advertisers and sponsors that are important to Philadelphia’s technology community. This week we’d like to thank:

Nonprofit Technology Resources – Fairmount-based NTR refurbishes used computers and peripherals for families and individuals in Philadelphia who may not otherwise be able to afford to buy a computer. We urge you to donate to this great local cause.

Chariot Solutions – Long-time Technically Philly advertiser Chariot Solutions is host of the annual Emerging Technology for the Enterprise conference. This month, the developer and training partner is promoting its SpringSource Core Spring 2.5 training course, January 27-29.

Springboard Media – Springboard Media is a certified Apple Specialist and retailer based in Center City and now, in Exton. They’ve got a ton of accessories and a great trade-in program that can score you up to $1,500 when you’re ready to upgrade.

Alex Hillman – IndyHall‘s Alex Hillman has signed on as Technically Philly’s first “Philanthropist” sponsor. Be sure to check out his blog, where he’s recently continued writing his Cluetrain-a-day business series.

Interested in joining these organizations and individuals in supporting Technically Philly? Check out our ad packages and contact Ad Sales Manager Tara Levin. Can’t find something that fits? We’ll customize a package for you.

Links: Skip tax breaks for high-tech companies, Princeton laser research and More

DEFINITE READS

• The AP reports on a study that suggests Pennsylvania should skip tax breaks for high-tech companies.
• The Silicon Alley Insider has an essay on the Boston tech startup scene.

After the jump, the region’s 30-year-old computer society hosts Far McKon, Prince lasers and local Tablet news.

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State makes moves after NTIA awards $2.2 million for broadband maps, plans

Rendell was quite prepared for $2.2 million in federal broadband research and planning funds that we reported Thursday.

A spokesperson for the Pennsylvania Department of Community and Economic Development tells Technically Philly that the state is already in negotiations with a yet undisclosed vendor to handle the job.

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Inquirer online editor Chris Krewson to leave for Variety.com

Chris Krewson is going to Hollywood.

The executive online editor of the Inquirer, with 10 years in daily newspapers and a lifetime in Pennsylvania, is shipping off next month to become the editor of entertainment industry publication Variety.com in Los Angeles, as he tweeted last week.

“I love The Inquirer, and wish everyone there nothing but the best,” he told Technically Philly in an e-mail.

Krewson, 33, noted his enthusiasm for working alongside Leo Wolinsky, the former top editor for the Los Angeles Times who last month was picked to run the L.A. print product Daily Variety. Both Wolinsky and Krewson will report to Variety group editor Tim Gray.

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