Bob Moul to lead Old City’s AppRenaissance: “I want to build a major, permanent software company in Philadelphia”

The artistic headquarters of AppRenaissance, at 309 Cherry Street in Old City Philadelphia, which new CEO Bob Moul describes as representative of mobile.

Bob Moul says his 50s are going to be his best decade yet.

Today, Moul, who led Berwyn-based Boomi to a Dell exit, announces he has become chairman and CEO of AppRenaissance, a year-old Old City mobile development shop. The 48-year-old, who left Boomi after transitioning the acquisition and diving into the local entrepreneurship scene on way to volunteering to lead Philly Startup Leaders, has major plans for what is now a five-person startup.

“The goal is to IPO or otherwise make a really big technology story here,” Moul told Technically Philly on Super Bowl Sunday. “I want to build a major, permanent software company in Philadelphia.”

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First Round Capital is considering a move to Philadelphia says job post

An excerpt from the Readyforce job listing (click to enlarge).

According to a job posting on ReadyForce.com First Round Capital is openly considering a move to Philadelphia. The job post is searching for an executive assistant and notifies the applicant that “the firm is contemplating a move to the city of Philadelphia in the next year.”

The Conshohocken-based venture capital firm is one of the most respected and active early stage investors in the nation and occasionally invests in local businesses. Philly-born portfolio companies past and present include Invite Media, Solve Media, ClickEquations, Monetate and Packlate. Currently the firm also has offices in San Francisco and New York City.

Various sources have approached Technically Philly suspecting a First Round move. However, in an email to Technically Philly in October, Managing Partner Josh Kopleman would only confirm that the firm’s current lease is up in late 2012.

If First Round moves to the city, it would be a big win for the growing effort of centralizing the city’s venture capital resources. A common refrain from local entrepreneurs is that many companies are started within city limits yet most Philadelphia venture capital firms are located in suburbs like Wayne and Conshohocken.

First Round Capital portfolio company Packlate is also likely to move from Conshokocken to Center City. When we asked founder Steve Barsh about the move in December, he said that top technology talent typically wants to live in urban areas like Philadelphia. Also aligning with the trend is RJ Metrics. The company made lots of noise after its funding about doubling down on Philadelphia.

(Thanks to Tim for the tip)

Penn students launch AirTime, in-email advertising for businesses

Despite the advancements in online content delivery, e-mail has remained relatively static. E-mail newsletter designers are still constricted by ’90s era design standards and the medium has never been a prime market for advertisers. However, if two Penn students get their way, e-mail will become next great untapped ad market.

AirTime, founded by Penn students Dan Shipper and Patrick Leahy, is hoping to revolutionize the way we look at e-mail signatures by enabling companies to update company-wide email signatures on the fly.

As Leahy told Technically Philly last week, the duo is obsessed with creating small, nimble businesses that are profitable from day one and require no outside investment to start. Leahy and Shipper have been hacking and testing on the product for months between classes and during late night coding sessions.

AirTime allows companies to insert a single line of code (another obsession of Leahy’s) and then have a universally controlled advertisement as an email signature. The company-wide email signatures can be modified after emails are sent. So when a company launches a new product, every email ever sent with AirTime enables users to change to the new messaging. Users can also target email advertisements based on location or platform, so when you open the McDonalds newsletter on your mobile device, an advertisement could automatically direct you to the nearest restaurant.

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Nominate Philadelphia’s technology community in the 2012 PA Tech Awards

Organizers are now accepting nominations for the 2012 PA Tech Awards across a handful of categories that we’d like to see Philadelphia sweep.

Now’s your change to vie for the winning spot as:

• Outstanding Leadership in Technology
• Technology Educator of the Year
• Technology Provider of the Year
• Best Application of Technology
• Public Service Innovation
• Technology Product of the Year
• Growth Company of the Year
• Technology Company of the Year

Also being awarded will be the People’s Choice Award, which will go to the company or organization with the most online votes.

The awards are hosted by TechQuest, a Harrisburg-based lobbyist group that works to protect the technology industry in legislation, according to the organization’s website. Ceremonies will take place Friday, March 30, 2012 at Whitaker Center in Harrisburg.

A list of last year’s winners showcases a number of companies from Central and West Pennsylvania. Nominations close on February 1.

SOPA Strike: how local Philadelphia tech organizations are protesting the federal legislation

The message on Zivtech.com, an Old City design firm

Billed as the largest online protest in history, there is a local spin to the SOPA Strike, aimed at keeping the heat on controversial legislation aimed at curbing online piracy. Critics say the legislation is too broadly written, as to allow limitation of any social web tool that allows the sharing of intellectual property — think Youtube, Twitter and Facebook.

Today, a call for a ‘blackout’ has led to major websites like Google and Wikipedia to limit their functionality or site look to convey what could be lost if the federal legislation moves forward. Several Philadelphia companies have joined the fray, the day of a House Judiciary Committee hearing on the bill, even though President Obama has said he would veto the bill in its current form.

See other ways local companies are protesting today, including what might be the funniest strike of them all.

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DreamIt Ventures launches new incubator… in Israel

DreamIt Ventures, the Philadelphia-born accelerator and business incubator, is expanding overseas to Israel. Sort of. DreamIt will incorporate the Israeli startups in its New York (but not Philly) edition much like its partnerships with Startl in 2010 and Comcast Ventures in 2011.

From the release:

DreamIt Israel provides up to five Israeli startups access to the U.S. and other global markets as well as mentorship, guidance, a stipend of up to $25,000, and access to early stage capital.   DreamIt Israel is a 4-month accelerator program followed by 2 months of workspace. The first month will take place in Israel beginning on April 15. Participating companies will spend the next three months in New York City working alongside companies in the DreamIt NYC 2012 program, which runs from May 14 through August 17, 2012.

Companies will split time between the 67th Ward and Israel. As of now there are no plans to further expand the incubator, however we still have our eye on Austin.

Green Village Philadelphia houses six social businesses, looking for more

1650 Arch Street

Suddenly 1650 Arch Street is an anchor of the Philadelphia tech community.

The building, wedged steps away from the Comcast Center, is home to two of Philadelphia’s newest collaborative spaces: SeedPhilly and Green Village Philadelphia. SeedPhilly, the startup incubation space, is still ordering furniture and filling out its suite, but their neighbors at Green Village have been open for just over a month and a half.

The space, focused on incubating “triple bottom line” businesses, opened on December 1st and is already housing six companies with space for six more. The goal: to help Philadelphia’s thriving social entrepreneurship community finally have a space to call their own. The city already boasts organizations like Good Company Ventures, Murex Investments and B-Corp and its reputation nationally as a place of socially-minded entrepreneurship continues to grow.

Executive Director Zoe Selzer

“There are a lot of scattered resources and I’m hearing that its difficult to access them,” says Green Village Philadelphia executive director Zoe Selzer. ”Just knowing where to go for different things, you often have to go stumbling around.”

Green Village hopes to solve that problem by offering cheap office space (Each desk is $275/month) to companies as well as programs and classes to help pre-revenue companies mature with the help of a mentor. The non-profit does not take an equity stake in the companies it houses and only has a full-time staff of one with a six person board of directors.

The organization has existed for seven years and originally had ambitions for an entire “green village,” a complete city block dedicated to sustainability. Shortly after Selzer came on board two years ago the group instead decided a single space was a more practical place to start.

After the jump, see the full list of the companies housed at Green Village:

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Knight Foundation names 55 finalists to continue in 2012 Knight Arts Challenge Philadelphia

A quick scan of the 55 recently announced Knight Arts Challenge Philadelphia finalists for 2012 (listed below) reveals a rainbow of ideas aiming for the edge of arts and technology in Philadelphia.

As Technically Philly has reported previously, the Knight Arts Challenge Philadelphia is in year two of a three-year, $9 million initiative from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation. The initiative is designed “to draw the best and most innovative ideas out of local organizations and individuals seeking to transform the community through the arts.“

Grantees are expected to receive matching grants from other funders to impact the arts in Philadelphia. The contest was open to anyone with an answer to the question: “What’s your best idea for the arts in Philadelphia?”

A review panel says these 55 are the strongest from Philadelphia, due to be further slimmed down and finalized before being funded.

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SnipSnap, ElectNext, Cloudmine chosen for Philadelphia Media Network incubator

The Inquirer’s Joe DiStefano reports that the Philadelphia Media Network will welcome Cloudmine, ElectNext and SnipSnap as the three companies to be housed at the first Project Liberty incubator.

As we’ve reported, the incubator was one of the initial promises of then incoming CEO Greg Osberg in 2010. Philadelphia Network began accepting applications in October of 2011.

All three of the companies were in DreamIt’s Fall 2011 Philadelphia class will join PMN in its new Eighth and Market offices, and be offered Drexel interns. The incubator takes no equity in the companies, the only requirement is an agreement to develop products using PMN entities. For now, the incubator is slated for a 3:45pm ribbon cutting today on the fifth floor of 400 N. Broad, and there will be an open house next week there.

All three of the companies have obvious applications to the media industry:

SnipSnap – Led by former Gannett newspaper chain employee Ted Mann, SnipSnap helps users organize their coupons using an iPhone app. The newspaper industry still heavily relies on revenue from coupon placement and advertising inserts, the company says.

ElectNext – At several events this year, Founder Keya Dannenbaum said ElectNext, which we’ve covered extensively, would try and make widgets for media companies to augment election coverage. Fun Fact, ElectNext has been part of five incubators: BetaSpring, GoodCompany Ventures, DreamIt Ventures, Wharton’s VIP program and now Project Liberty.

CloudMine – The other half of Project Liberty, an Android tablet pre-loaded with the Inquirer, is a perfect testing ground for CloudMine’s mobile development platform.

RJ Metrics raises $1.2 million from power users and angels

RJ Metrics, Center City-based makers of business intelligence SaaS products, have raised $1.2 million from a mix of angel investors from all over the nation.

“The only thing between us and even faster growth was more rapidly iterating on our product and getting in front of even more people,” wrote co-founder Robert Moore in an email to press. “Raising money was the key to going after this huge opportunity as aggressively as possible.”

Founded in Camden by Moore and Jake Stein, the company has had steady rise eliciting praise from customers like Fab.com (whose CEO is an investor) while garnering attention for rap videos, speaking engagements and TechCrunch guest posts.

In 2010, Moore who used to work for a venture capital firm told Technically Philly that he opted not to take outside money.

“We made a decision not to raise any capital as [co-founder Jake Stein] and I had worked in venture capital before and we’ve seen the benefits of waiting to raise money.”

However, Moore said that the company decided that now, as the company doubles down on Philadelphia, was the time. The company opted to rely mostly on angel investors, including DuckDuckGo co-founder Gabe Weinberg for its funding.

“I wouldn’t say I’m weary of VCs,” said Moore in an email to Technically Philly. “I just think it’s common for companies to raise too much money prematurely and for the wrong reasons.  Doing this with angels allowed us to raise the right amount on most desirable timeline. And we’ve gained some amazing partners in the process.”

After the jump, see the company’s complete announcement.

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