Technically Philly is a news site covering technology, startups and venture capital in Philadelphia.
According to PBJ, Comcast has a great workplace. Do you?
Maybe it’s because we spend too much time working from home, but Technically Philly has seen some wonderful offices as we cover this community. Unfortunately, the Philadelphia Business Journal disagrees.
Our pals at PBJ have compiled a list of the 56 best places to work in the city and unfortunately, not many technology companies made the list.
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.
DEFINITE READS
Mid-Atlantic Angel Group has raised $4.8 million for its second fund. The sneaky angel fund based in the Navy Yard said that it doesn’t have as many investors, but each individual investor has thrown in more cash this time. MAG primarily only invests alongside other companies and rarely leads a round.
The Inky’s Joe Destefano tells us what regular readers of the VC roundup probably already know: That First Round Capital averages a deal a week, ranking third-most among all VC firms. We’d give you more numbers, but we don’t want to steal Joe D’s thunder. Read his piece which includes other active Philly firms.
We’re torn, Philadelphia.
On one hand, we dread Labor Day as we are enjoying this summer way too much to see it end. On the other, the unofficial start of Fall usually means more events and this post becomes much easier to write.
This week is all meetups so take this week easy guys, you’re gonna need it come October. After the jump, Mac users don’t leave their home, Hive opens up and Linux users gather.
Forget the latest investment trends, NextStage Capital will do what it wants, thank you very much.
The firm was founded by Rob Adams and Dan McKinney -two ex-Safeguard Scientifics employees – and Terry Williams, a former recruiter during the post-dotcom boom year of 2003. Then, most investors were running away from early stage technology investment.
“There can be opportunity when people are fleeing markets,” says McKinney, a managing partner.
It firm has invested in 12 companies with four exits, mostly in the mid-atlantic region going as far west as to Pittsburgh. However, since its founding the firm has taken pride in being the contrarian, and has not made any new investments in 2010, choosing instead to reinvest its dollars in current portfolio companies.
After the jump, McKinney promises us that we will be hearing a lot from NextStage in the coming months and gives his take on the age-old debate about whether Philly needs more investment dollars.
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. Follow along with the Startup Roundup’s dedicated RSS feed. If you’ve got news to share, get in touch.
MUST READS
The Inquirer reports that MyYearbook has finally turned a profit, netting $2 million a month in revenues. The company has taken in $17 million in investment.
Inc. Magazine has named Philly one of the top 10 metro areas for company growth in the country. Thanks to @stubborndreams for pointing this one out. And hey, it didn’t take a grassroots campaign for this one. The magazine also says that NextDocs, is the area’s fastest growing company.
As any techie knows, the South by Southwest Interactive conference in Austin is like Woodstock for the tech world and getting your own panel at the event is sure sign that you’ve “made it.”
Philly has been well-represented at the trend-setting event as the city even had its own session in 2010, led by the founders of Independents Hall.
However, SXSW panels don’t just happen overnight, they are subject to a six-month long process where the selection committee sifts though thousands of proposed panels to choose the lucky few that get time at the conference. The first part of that panel section process involves a “panel picker” where the community can vote on the panels they’d most like to see, and some local Philadelphians need your help to make it to the big stage next March.
After the jump, see the panels that have been submitted by locals and throw a vote their way to help Philly continue its strong presence in Austin for SXSW 2011. Oh, and you better hurry. Voting closes on the 27th at 1 p.m.
We know you’re busy, dear reader, and can’t always find the time to visit us everyday.
So to make life easier, we’re doing away with our old vanilla Feedburner-to-email service to finally offer a fully functional HTML email newsletter that will arrive fresh in your inbox every morning around 10 a.m. To sign up, take 90 seconds and visit our newsletter subscription page and you’ll never have to worry about being out of the loop again.
As a reminder we currently offer four email newsletters:
If email ain’t your style, you can get your technology news via Twitter, RSS, mobile or by emailing us and demanding to know what going on.
Want TP in another format? Drop us a line.
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.
DEFINITE READS
Google has purchased First Round portfolio company Like.com for “upwards of $100 million.” If memory serves us correctly, that means that the Like.com, a visual search engine, is First Round’s biggest exit since Mint.com.
The Inky has a write up on the Energy Commercialization Institute, a joint effort between Ben Franklin Technology Partners and local universities. So far, the group has handed out just over $500,000 to local alternative energy companies. Peter Key over at the Business Journal also has a feature about the group.
While its not specific to local, all entrepreneurs should check out two posts from the national technology community. First, the “F@#% You Money” spreadsheet compiled by Tony Wright, who asserts that selling a startup to a large company is no guarantee of riches. Second, Mike Arrington’s assertion that the VC market is changing echoes what many VCs and entrepreneurs have told us privately and is a must-read.
If you like white space this is the week for you.
Not only are two of our highlighted events design-related, but our barren calendar features plenty of white pixels. As we near the end of Summer 2010, it looks like the event planning world is taking a break before we’re in Fall.
However, just because our calendar is bare, it doesn’t mean there aren’t quality events to attend. On Tuesday attend the first ever Force.com meetup in the city. Or, if your more of a front end person, read books with the UX book club instead and then swing on by the graphic designers meetup.
Just a public service announcement: Technically Philly will be increasing its advertising rates starting on September 1st.
Our current ad rates were established nearly a year ago and our readers and traffic look much different since then. However, we will honor the old rates on any advertising purchase made before September 1st.
Current we have spaces available for our smaller banner slot (next to the logo), in-stream post (between the first and second posts on the home page) and several sidebar ads.
If you’re interested in advertising on Technically Philly before our rates increase, browse our advertising packages and drop us an email.
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