Connectify funded by CIA’s strategic investor In-Q-Tel, but not the team’s first state-backed project

In October, TechCrunch broke the news that In-Q-Tel, a private investment firm spearheaded by the CIA had made an undisclosed investment in a Center City-based networking software product called Connectify.

In-Q-Tel’s press release made clear that the investment was to improve the security and connection aggregation capability of Connectify, a consumer software solution that can turn any Windows 7 computer into a wireless hotspot.

What wasn’t reported is the reach of that product.

Connectify co-founder Alex Gizis told Technically Philly in September that the software has over 3 million downloads, including more than a million in China, where Internet censorship is a storied issue.

And though the company has turned its attention to commercial technology, and changed its name to reflect that shift, the investment isn’t the team’s first venture into state-backed tech development.

For nearly 10 years, the company has been known as Nomadio, Inc., based at the Marketplace Design Center, not far from 30th Street Station, where it has had transit access to U.S. military organizations outside of Philadelphia. Much of its work over the last decade was in creating technology to solve “super hard” networking problems in the defense field, Gizis says.

Read more

Startup Roundup: It’s the end of the bubble as we know it

Technically Philly’s Startup Roundup parses 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. Follow along with a weekly email newsletter by clicking here and selecting the Startup Roundup button or follow Startup Roundup’s RSS feed. If you’ve got news to share, get in touch.

MUST READS

That startup bubble we’ve all been experiencing is expected to dwindle in 2012, according to a new report from TechCrunch that comes from conversations with early-stage investors like First Round Capital‘s Josh Kopelman. He told the publication that “I think 2012 will look more like 2008 than 2011.” Investors, Kopelman included, suggest that they’re being more cautious in Series A rounds.

Duck Duck Go has been integrated as the default search engine in Linux Mint, which claims to be the 4th most widely-used home operating system beyond the usual suspects.

Read more

Clearwire: three years after $3.2 billion deal, wireless broadband company with regional footprint may miss debt payment

In late November 2008, Clearwire announced it had closed a $3.2 billion deal to build out cable infrastructure to compete against phone-based video and Internet providers like Verizon. The investors in the Washington state-based wireless Internet provider included Time Warner Cable, Intel, Google, Brighthouse Networks, wireless spectrum from now majority-stake owner Sprint Nextel and $1.05 billion from Comcast.

It was a big deal.

Three years later, Clearwire will likely skip Wednesday a $237 million debt payment, as the Wall Street Journal reported.

There’s local impact to the national story, as the more than 200 hires made in the region continue to fizzle and complications around the company’s infrastructure will persist. From Clearwire’s major local marketing blitz of 2009, many in regional leadership have moved on.

The news started breaking back in March with the company’s CEO stepping down and its stock plummeting after the news that it might delay on its debt. Investors are putting a lot into this news and the reviews are mixed, but at least some are predicting real trouble.

Coursekit education platform launches publicly after $1 million seed round

The post-secondary education platform Coursekit, which got its start at the University of Pennsylvania, raised $1 million in a round of seed funding this June and moved to New York City, has launched publicly.

The online software, which is elegantly simple, aims to replace well-known education platforms like Blackboard, which controls 57 percent of the market. The company already has marketing presence at 50 colleges across the country, the company tells us. See some of its user testimonials, which also launched this morning, here.

Read more

Ben Franklin may have funds cut [VC Roundup]

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.

Because of Thanksgiving it was a slow week for VC. The stories:

The Morning Call writes about Ben Franklin Technology Partners’ struggle to obtain funding from the state. From the story: “Pennsylvania lawmakers have slashed the economic development organization’s funding by about a third, to $6.7 million in 2011. The looming expiration of a key grant portends an even deeper cut next year.”

As we mentioned yesterday, PACT kicks of its IMPACT Conference today at the Convention Center.

Local investor Ira Lupert has been named to the search committee formed to find the next head coach of Penn State football. The program is looking for a new head coach after a former coordinator was accused of sexually assaulting children.

First Round Capital and Google Ventures have teamed up once again to invest $1 million in Pocket Change, a platform for helping app developers monetize games.

The Daily Mail has an entertaining profile of Sean O’Sullivan, an investor and multimillionaire several times over whose many exploits including spending time as a starving artist in Philadelphia.

In one of the tech world’s worst kept secrets, it looks like Facebook will be filing for an IPO in Spring of next year.

What problems can be solved during Random Hacks of Kindness 2 this weekend?

The second local version of Random Hacks of Kindness to be held at Drexel University is this weekend. It’s the fourth global RHOK, which are held in cities throughout the world.

Like last June, the weekend hackathon is being kicked off with a reception at Indy Hall in Old City where developers and non-developers alike can talk about what could be built, designed and delivered.

RSVP for the free Friday night reception here and the hackathon here. All are welcome. The hackathon is organized by Drexel PhD student Mike Brennan and, full disclosure, the reception is sponsored in part by Technically Philly.

Though participants will be able to choose from problem definitions offered by U.S. AID, Voxeo Labs, NASA, like last June, Technically Philly has collected a few other ideas:

Read more

Monetate will give $2,000 reward for referring an engineering candidate it hires, hiring 16

A press release from Monetate, the Conshohocken-based e-commerce shop:

Monetate, the leading provider of testing, targeting and personalization solutions for websites, is launching a nationwide search for ambitious and talented engineers. With 16 engineering positions currently available and aggressive growth plans throughout 2012, the company is offering a $2,000 bonus to any person who refers an engineering candidate that is hired. Additionally, Monetate is willing to help with relocation costs for candidates outside of the Philadelphia area.

MORE

IMPACT, Philly Tech Meetup and BizTech [Event Highlights]

We hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving, Philadelphia. And to all of those that got up early (or stayed up late) for Black Friday, we hope you got the gadget you were after.

Before we get to the events, we have a present for you. Use the code  5AATECHP when purchasing a ticket for the Wharton BizTech event this week and save $30 bucks off the “professional” ticket price to bring the total cost under $100. Quite a steal if you ask us.

This week: help the tots, get schooled on e-commerce and make an IMPACT.

Read more

Brigitte Daniel, Wilco Electronic Systems: executive vice president of black-owned cable operator talks about digital divide, Comcast [Q&A]

Will Daniel had two babies in 1977.

One was launching Wilco Electronic Systems, the now Fort Washington-based, black-owned cable operator that focuses on serving low income Philadelphians. The other, of course, was his daughter Brigitte Daniel.

Though Will remains president and chairman of the company, it’s been Brigitte, 34, officially the company’s executive vice president, who has taken up much of the company’s vision and regulatory affairs — heavy lifting in the regulation-crazed cable industry. Recently named to an FCC committee on digital diversity, Daniel is hungrily taking on the digital divide and couching that as a fundamental of the company’s future.

Since 2001, Wilco, which employs about 45 people, has been the primary cable and internet provider for Philadelphia Housing Authority projects, while it continues to offer mainstream offerings at more affordable costs for low income Philadelphians in other ways. Brigitte was one of the driving forces in bringing together the Freedom Rings partnership that won federal broadband stimulus funding to trial ways at increasing broadband access and awareness in poorer communities.

“Wilco helped frame the conversation,” Brigitte said. “The city put together the [new computer] centers, we did the infrastructure. It was important to have the partnership. It isn’t easy to get everyone to play together in the sandbox.”

Brigitte seems the perfect heir for her father’s business, perhaps even more so when she mentions she hadn’t planned on ever joining the company while growing up in Abington. An alumnus of Spellman College and Georgetown’s law school, she found herself gravitating to the impact telecom has on communities while in school. After graduating from Georgetown in 2002, she did policy work for USAID in Ghana, West Africa, where mobile technology conversations were already stirring. She was hooked.

Now living in Fairmount, Brigitte is currently on leave from her role in the day-to-day management of Wilco, as she serves in the prestigious Eisenhower Fellowship program. Traveling to learn about how the digital divide is being handled in south Asia, Daniel landed in New Delhi in late October, traveled elsewhere in India, including Hyderabad, then Sri Lanka, Singapore and will move on to Malaysia before returning in mid December. (See her blog on her travels here.)

In a phone call from Mumbai earlier this month, Daniel talked to Technically Philly about Wilco’s relationship with Comcast, what’s the future of Freedom Rings and more.

Read more

StaphMeal.com: ‘hate-filled’ local food blogger Joshua Scott Albert profiled by Phillymag, Daily News

Joshua Scott Albert. (Photo: David Maialetti/Daily News Staff Photographer)

The months-old saga of local restaurant scene blog turned personal attack-laden rumor mill StaphMeal.com has reached the point where Technically Philly feels compelled to acknowledge it.

In September, former restaurant worker Joshua Scott Albert outed himself as being behind the blog, as Grub Street reported, following a libel suit from noted Le Bec Fin owner Georges Perrier. Ah, how the internet can be twisted in ugly ways.

With seeming reluctance, Albert was profiled this week by the Daily News and, in the December issue, by Philadelphia magazine.