VC Roundup: The first Philly.com incubator company?

Welcome to the VC Roundup, 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.

MUST READS

As we reported yesterday, DreamIt Ventures kicked off a new class with a happy hour. Read more about the 15 companies selected here.

First Round Capital is among the investors listed in Mightybell’s latest $2.1 million round. The Palo Alto-based company promises to be the “obvious next step in social media.” TechCrunch and the Wall Street Journal have more on Mightbell’s founder, a co-founder of Ning.

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License to Inspect: two years later, City of Philadelphia L&I API will drive PlanPhilly transparency app

A screenshot of a draft of the License to Inspect tool, built by Azavea for PlanPhilly using the new L&I app. Click to enlarge.

If the deadlines of today are worth more than the deadlines of the past, the City of Philadelphia is due to release before the end of the year the first, most comprehensive agency data API framework in its history. It will power an online tool billed as a giant leap forward in city transparency.

Nearly two years in the making, an online application that allows unheard of data access to the city’s Licenses and Inspections Department — with as much as a year of deep digitized and categorized records to start — will be unveiled by built environment news site PlanPhilly, having been developed by GIS specialty shop Azavea with support from the city’s newly renamed Office of Innovation and Technology and with funding from the William Penn Foundation.

If fast tracked, the project, dubbed ‘License to Inspect,’ could be a signature good government initiative in Mayor Nutter’s reelection bid come November.

More likely, it will land around the new year and the process for the data release — sharing an in-house API to be built upon by a third party — could likely serve as a landmark example for municipal government transparency, a thoughtful, progressive move from a city government trying to raise its standing in the technology community. The trouble, of course, say numerous sources close to the matter, is how long and how much trouble the project took — and what will happen to the API once the app goes live.

Will the L&I data release be a treasure trove of lessons learned to continue the march toward all-agency buy in around data or will it be characterized as enough of a boondoggle as to keep other city department heads wary of the headache?

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DreamIt Ventures kicks off its 2011 class with happy hour

The Fall 2011 class of DreamIt poses for a picture.

As we reported last week, DreamIt Ventures has accepted 15 companies into its Fall class. On Friday, they all finally got to meet each other and the technology community.

At an informal get together at University City Science Center’s Quorum space, DreamIt Ventures managing partner Kerry Rupp kicked off the Fall class of the incubator which will be housed at 3401 Market Street for the first time.

Other speakers included Comcast Ventures managing partner Louis Toth, Comcast Minority Entrepreneur Accelerator Program managing partner William Crowder of Comcast Ventures and Science Center CEO Steve Tang.

This is the first year of DreamIt’s partnership with Comcast Ventures’ MEAP program, which will be responsible for five minority-led startups at the incubator.

See a portion of Rupp’s presentation below:

Code for America will be in Philadelphia in 2012; current fellows launch Change by Us

Code for America, the startup nonprofit aiming to offer city governments small teams of top tier technologists in year-long fellowships, will again work with the City of Philadelphia in 2012, the city announced last week.

Philadelphia was short-listed back in June for being the only city in the country to have fellows in each of the first two years of the group’s existence. In 2012, Code for America will also deploy fellows in Macon, Georgia, Detroit and Chicago.

Well-timed with the news of next year comes an update on the work being done by the current set of Philadelphia fellows, who first landed in Center City in February.

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TEDxPhilly 2011 tickets for Nov. 8 go on sale for $100

We told you TEDxPhilly was back, and now we can say tickets are on sale:

Join us TEDxPhilly 2011 –  a unique, one-day multi-disciplinary conference, which examines the vast interpretations of the theme: The City. Engaging speakers, impassioned performers, all star participants and awe-inspiring exhibitors will converge to deconstruct, decipher and explore some of the greatest challenges, innovations, concepts and realities that shape and are shaped by the city and its inhabitants.

Register here. The event will be held at Temple University. The $100 ticket includes lunch, refreshments and more.

In related news, TEDxPhoenixville will take place later this month, on September 24, 2011 at 10 a.m., at the Colonial Theatre. Tickets are $30.

This week: Philly Startup Leaders’ meta-fishbowl and Penn Apps

You’re in luck Philadelphia.

Fall is upon us, the Eagles are undefeated and our event calendar is as packed as we’ve seen in months. Aside from the usual meetups and user groups, several events this week will have a lasting impact on our local tech community.

This week, PSL fishbowls itself, PennApps hacks and Temple shows off its student companies.

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Friday Q&A: Alteva’s David Cuthbert on being acquired

David Cuthbert

David Cuthbert has had three job titles in less than three years.

In 2010, he was promoted from director of operations to CEO of Old City-based Alteva before the company was purchased by New York-based Warwick Valley Telephone for $17 million in July. Now he’s COO and President of Alteva while former CEO and co-founder William Bumbernick has stepped down from the company.

With companies like GSI Commerce selling to eBay and MyYearBook selling to Quepasa, Philadelphia-area technology companies have been prime targets for some of tech’s largest acquisitions in the past year.

We sat down with the former Alteva CEO to see what it’s like to be acquired. We also ask if the $17 million price tag was too cheap and if the company is staying in Philadelphia.

Read more

City Council new legislative boundary maps don’t much resemble FixPhillyDistricts contest winners

Philadelphia City Council draft plan for new legislative boundaries.

A map of City Council legislative boundaries that looks a lot like what is currently in place has been drawn by an ad-hoc committee of five council members.

That map, depicted above, looks rather different from the winning submission to the Fix Philly Districts redistricting contest from Azavea, WHYY and the Daily News. Get the latest redistricting news from the Inquirer.

Find the two draft proposals from Council here, which have little to do with the user-generated contest versions. Also, Doron Taussig suggests that, while not ideal, the two new proposals are better than what’s exists now.

City Council has an otherwise busy fall schedule, as the sessions kicks off.

New Pa. Turnpike traffic app, Rutgers web pioneer and other Links

• New app offers Pa. Turnpike drivers real-time traffic updates [NewsWorks] — TRIP Talk
• How 9/11 changed Philadelphia businesses [Philadelphia Business Journal]
• Rutgers law librarian a Web pioneer [Inquirer] — John Joergensen’s New Jersey Court Web project (www.lawlibrary.rutgers.edu) has posted state appellate rulings since 1997
• Exit Interview: Britt Miller, Beloved Philly Artist [Geekadelphia] — The Geek site says goodbye to the devoted Philly artist and social media star, and steals our Exit Interview model, er, sorta.
• New Side Arts Partnerships and Discounts [SideArts] — “Side Arts is a creative management service for artists that offers online tools to manage the business side of creating art.  It is the largest online network of artists in Philadelphia and offers the most local, current, and comprehensive listing of artist opportunities in the region.”
• Iroko Pharmaceuticals to add jobs, space at Philadelphia Navy Yard [Philadelphia Business Journal]
• Philly SteakOut: Website Helps People Decide Where to Grab a Cheesesteak [Geekadelphia] — Mikey il adds to our item on the Neiman Group web app
• Hive 76 Cleans up [Hive 76] — The Hacker space led a community clean up around its near-Spring Garden Street facility.
• Web portal idea loses momentum with CHCA [NewsWorks] The Chestnut HIll Civic Association says consultant Mel Taylor is losing interest. [Full Disclosure: Technically Philly discussed working with Taylor but that project, too, faded.]

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:

Morgan Lewis — Morgan Lewis provides comprehensive transactional, litigation, labor and employment, regulatory, and intellectual property legal services to clients of all sizes—from global Fortune 100 companies to just-conceived startups—across all major industries.

Alteva — Reduce your total cost of telecom ownership and improve employee efficiency and customer satisfaction with Alteva’s cloud-based Voice over IP phone systems and services.

Colin M. Lenton Photography – Philadelphia Photographer Colin Lenton specializes in portraits of interesting people in interesting places. His work takes him around the country for clients that include Deloitte, Kiplinger’s and Technically Media. He also owns a rental photo studio that is available for multiple purposes.

Reed Technology — Reed Technology’s Web Archiving Service is a litigation protection, web compliance and e-discovery solution for all your online assets.

The University City Science Center — The Science Center has officially opened Quorum, a central gathering space to enable the entrepreneurship and innovation communities to meet, share and learn.

Splat Productions — Splat Productions provides smart, brand-centric website design and internet marketing services to privileged clients in the Philadelphia region and beyond.

Your Local Security — Providing affordable home security systems in Philadelphia. Top of the line equipment and monitoring services from ADT keep your home and family safe.

Caffeine Fish — Caffeine Fish develops iOS apps including Trainboard and PhillySubway and offers consulting in the Philadelphia area.

MOGO Media — MOGO Media provides best-of-class training for designers and developers through world-wide conferences and seminars. The organization will host a Dreamweaver seminar on December 15 in Philadelphia.

Newsworks — NewsWorks is the online home of WHYY News and its growing network of journalism partners. This public media service covers the Philadelphia region, Delaware and South Jersey, with a focus on regional issues, neighborhoods, health and science, and arts.

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