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.”

Moul is proving to be a convenient poster child for a technology community seeking big name players in a city that is still shaking its post-industrial rust. At a Chamber of Commerce luncheon this afternoon, Mayor Nutter is due to speak about, among other successes in local technology, Moul and his interest in building business in Philadelphia proper.

Bob Moul

Though a suburban resident and frequent defender of regional connectivity, Moul says his whirlwind tour through the Philadelphia tech scene has made him realize the importance of building up a central hub.

“You can look at all the different industries that Philadelphia used to have and how that connected to what the region became,” said Moul. “This is a digital rebirth.”

With recent news of a possible First Round Capital move here, the on-going question continues of whether it’s truly in the cards for Philadelphia to build up a truly dense collection of technology businesses or if the broad region might continue to keep it too diffuse for a change in impact and perception.

“There’s a richer source of talent in the city [than suburbs], it’s a much more vibrant community to build a company. That is good for everyone in this region,” Moul said. “Maybe saying the reputation for technology here is blossoming is overstating it, but it’s sprouting or budding… and big stories help move that forward.”

Moul is joining AppRenaissance at an earlier stage than he joined Boomi by almost every measure. The company was already a half decade old with 18 employees when Moul joined Boomi in 2005. By contrast, AppRenaissance isn’t yet a toddler, with just five employees, though it also has a board that gives it roots in Silicon Valley and India.

Old City is an ideal location for his new venture, says Moul.

“Mobile is a hugely creative endeavor. Of all the different applications and platforms, mobile above all else is about the intersection of art and ingenuity and technology and science,” Moul said. “We want to run more of a studio than an app firm, and Old City has that artistic spirit.”

At the surface, AppRenaissance, which presented a 2011 Philadelphia Geek Award, may seem like a cookie cutter app shop that builds mobile tools and does related contract work. But, Moul says the differentiation can come in shared infrastructure, developing products for scale and, as he adds, “focusing on the hand-crafted nature that Philadelphia was once known for.”

Moul is joining Scott Wasserman, the company’s CTO and founder, and bringing a top notch growth resume. Before Boomi, Moul was president of education solutions powerhouse SCT leading to its own acquisition by SunGard in 2003. Prior to that, he spent nearly 20 years at EDS, including stints overseeing efforts in Hong Kong and Australia.

But, now, has Moul missed the window of getting in on the basement floor of the mobile scale that was among the buzz words of choice in 2011? He says it’s still the beginning of the movement.

“Even though mobile has been around for a while and we know it’s big, I think it’s early in how we’re going to see it penetrate in how we work and play,” Moul said. “There’s loads of talent around mobile here, so I feel like if we coalesce, we can build a major mobile software company that can impact the market and the region in a really big way.”

“The team at AppRenaissance wants me to take that journey.”

A screenshot from Zonoff's iPad remote control software.

Mike Harris has been down this road before.

The former CEO of AnySource Media has been laying low after his last company exited to Divx in 2009. The company helped make software to connectt TVs to the Internet, a precursor to the long-rumored Apple TV set. But now, he’s taking that idea to the next level.

“Zonoff is the next frontier of that, connecting everything else in the house to the Internet,” says Harris. And he means everything. “Thermostats, blinds, refrigerators .. you name we want to connect it.”

Zonoff CEO Mike Harris

Zonoff (named for connectivity protocols that often start with “z” combined with “on and off”) is a platform based on Drexel University technology to create a network of all of your household objects so they can interact with the Internet and each other. This means blinds that automatically adjust to the sun’s position when the TV is turned on or a security system that is smart enough to text you when someone enters your front door.

The concept of connecting our homes to the web, often called the “Internet of Things,” is a growing trend says Harris. Yet there’s not a system to make it easy on hardware makers.

Zonoff debuted its latest “Intuitive Home” product at CES that Harris calls the company’s “coming out party.” The company set up a small model home to demonstrate its iPad home remote control, among other products, the result of nine months of tinkering with the platform, designing a UI and tinkering with a business model that relies on licensing fees, web service fees and sales commissions. Eventually, we won’t need remote controls or iPads. Our home will just know what to do.

The company is now trying to raise a $5 million Series A round and is actively hiring in its Malvern offices that are down the street from the fast-growing search engine DuckDuckGo.

“The plan is to grow rapidly,” says Harris. “We need product and project management, engineers, software development, UI and web development expertise. Everything.”

Even in the company’s infancy, Harris says he feels good and hopes to bring another success story to Philadelphia.

“I think we’re building another big winner in the Philadelphia area,” he says.

Edit, 12:48 p.m.: added context, corrected Drexel note.

Now that the Super Bowl is over, we’re all counting down to pitchers and catchers, right? Before you dust off your Chase Utley there are lots of technology events happening in Philadelphia to keep your mind off of the Winter doldrums.

Also, before we get to the events, the kind folks at the Wharton Entrepreneurship Conference have extended a discount for Technically Philly members to attend the conference. The promo code “tech5off” will give you $5 off, bringing the “professional” ticket to $80. Buy your tickets here.

This week: find your co-founder in Philadelphia (not King of Prussia), learn HTML/CSS and shop our user groups.

Co-Founders Wanted – You may remember from our profile of the group last year that CFW was looking to bring the event from the ‘burbs into the city. This week marks the first time ever the entrepreneurial meetup with be held in city limits. Join the group at Quorum to talk about creating the next great company. Wednesday. 6:30 p.m. University City. RSVP.

Intro to HTML/CSS - Designer Jen Lukas of award-winning design firm Happy Cog will be on hand to give you the basics of front-end web development starting with HTML and CSS. The class, organized by Girl Develop It is a bargain at $80 and is intended for those who need  to start from square one. Monday. 7:00 p.m. University City. RSVP.

TP Groups – The user groups of user groups meets again in the Municipal Services building. Come out to sample the best of Philly’s technology scene and cross-pollinate with other meetups. To get involved, drop a line to the Google Group. Tuesday. 6:00 p.m. Center City.

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)

Saskia Thompson

So says Saskia Thompson, who later this month will celebrate one year in her role as the executive director of the newly created City of Philadelphia Office of Property Data.

Her job is to square a dozen or more efforts and uses and agencies that track and rely on city address details — think permits from L&I and billing from utilities. The problem is that through the years, different city departments created their own processes and technologies, so whenever the U.S. Census comes around or the city wants to update its property tax assessments, there is a giant headache.

Oh, and then there is the ongoing issue of how many vacant properties are in the City of Philadelphia.

That will be in the hands of Thompson, a Detroit native (where she started her city government career) and University of Michigan graduate, who is serious and measured in conversations with Technically Philly, contrasting with her relative youth, punctuated by bright blonde hair.

Thompson, 42, who spent the better part of a decade working for Charlotte, N.C.’s city manager, is the steward of a project that she says began in earnest in 2009.

“There was an ad hoc group around the city that got together to say that the flow and the accuracy of property data is not what we’d like it to be,” Thompson said during a December interview in her small office in the Municipal Services Building across the street from City Hall. In 2010, six months after the ad hoc group led some departmental interviews and best practices research, the group gave recommendations to the mayor and managing director.

“The bottom line was that there was no real ownership of property data,” said Thompson, who lives in University City. “A number of agencies create it or use it or both, but we don’t have named data stewards for each property attribute that everyone in the city relies on.”

Thompson sought out a gig with the City of Philadelphia for as much as a year before the right gig opened up, she said, adding that after Detroit and her time in Charlotte, she wanted to work on the bigger stage of a large Northeast corridor metropolis.

She’s gotten her wish.

Housed in the Finance Department, which is also charged with the boondoggle of property tax assessment, Thompson first brought on a small additional staff last October and may do more. To do this right, she says, it will be another year before implementation of a solution begins.

Below, Thompson talks to Technically Philly more about her goals and why she’s not a data geek.

Edited, as always, for length and clarity.

Let’s start by defining what success is for this project.

Success is a couple of things.

It will have named data stewards for each piece of data and a clear process for tracking and maintaining changes. We don’t have that now. We have people working very hard every day to get this right, but it’s pretty much on an ad hoc basis. We need a much more formalized process.

[Secondly,] the ultimate success is that we know our data is trustworthy, transparent, easily accessible and it’s very customer friendly. I am a huge fan that government should be transparent and our data should be public, but we need to be on the forefront of doing that. The reason we’re not is not because we don’t want to share, it’s because we want to make sure what we share is accurate and want to do so in a responsible way.

What is the strategy for bringing together a mess of different processes around city property data?

There are a couple of theories of how you do this, one is the scorched earth theory, where you just take everyone that touches  the data and consolidate that into one department in one and place and we just start over. I’m not saying we wouldn’t do that at some point, but I felt like it wasn’t the place to start.

We don’t have the luxury of starting from zero. Work has to be done every single day. People are using this information. The data, while we know it isn’t perfect, isn’t so bad that services aren’t being delivered.

So I was interested in finding a way to do this while we do our other functions. And I knew we couldn’t get it done to make the property assessment deadline of 2012, so I proposed that we need a very small team to start with to to a deep dive of business process mapping in every department that touches every attribute across the city because we can’t fix this with technology alone.

There will be a technology component but that is going to come later.

This is essentially about how we do the work, who is responsible for which component. Who owns addresses? Who maintains the streets center line? How are changes to all of those data tables transferred and where is the chain of command to make a change and implement a change? All of those things to me may seem like technology is really about how we get the work done.

A year later, where is this effort?

I proposed a really deep dive effort — we’re still a few positions short — and [in December] we started the site visits to those that touch data.

What is the timeline and the ultimate goals we can look for?

The only timeline I’m willing to talk about now is the research and design phase. I’m not sure what implementation is going to look like. People want quick wins for obvious reasons, but we need to see… for example, it is possible we may need legislative changes in order to do this in a different way. We certainly know there are policy changes. And, of course, everything I’m talking about here involves a people component and to do that, it takes time.

So I expect to spend about six months doing the research phase and then a three to six months phase to design our solution.

Now, if we find some low hanging fruit that is more easily fixable, we aren’t going to wait to do that, but I’m not going to set a timeline for implementation until we’ve really done our homework.

And the other thing is I have no idea how much it is going to cost. There will be a technology component, there will be changes to our software, so we need to see the costs. Some of this might get done as we make other upgrades.

For example, we know we have an old mainframe at property assessment that needs a real robust CAMA system. Changes that we’re talking about, we may decide it doesn’t make sense to change other systems as part of another implementation, and that’s just an example.

Just to clarify, you’re saying that a year from now, we’re going to have the research on what is involved and a rough concept of what the solution is going to be.

Yes. And we would have a timeline for implementation.

Does this include the ever-present vacant property conversation?

Definitely related, now there are multiple efforts on vacant property because people are trying to tackle different things. But, yes, this is definitely a part of that.

The real hurdle remains the definition of a vacant property — is it Water Department turn offs or something else.

Yes, and so there is a committee, more than one, and the city is trying to determine its role. The city has a role in managing vacant property, but we’re also not the only player when it’s a property we don’t own. There are multiple efforts that are probably related, but we are not leading them, though we will be part of them.

Then talk a little bit about what data are we specifically talking about.

Think of all the attributes that touch a piece of property.

There’s the address, some cases there are multiple addresses. Our addresses don’t necessarily match Postal Service addresses, and they don’t necessarily need to. We use addresses for different reasons. We need to know where services are delivered, we need to know where it’s located, like street information and block ranges.

Think of all the things that touch property history, ownership, zoning and things like we want to be able to have a history of an address and have all outstanding permits that have been assigned to that address.

Our permit database — and we have one, we know what permits are assigned to an address – - but there’s no way to easily coordinate that, like how 911 routes police and fire or medic to an address. They are coming from completely different data tables.

Consolidation is a touchy subject at the City of Philadelphia, do you see your office owning this data?

I’m not saying that OPD is going to own it. That’s probably not the best way because we’re not the closest to this, what I am saying is that we will be in the centralized coordinating role and setting some standards for how these things are done and making the transition across the board.

Property data is an important type of city information, but certainly not the only one. Do you expect to take over other roles with city data?

I don’t know what this is going to look like in the end state. This is no different than a whole host of efforts in the city that involve business processes so we can optimize our data to have an integrity and translate that across units and the public.

Our focus is on property data. I hope that our process is repeatable for anything else we work on.

Do you at least picture coming out of this finding other dependable data sources that can be shared, outside of property or other ancillary benefits?

One of the things that we don’t have is a consistent process for releasing any kind of data. I’d love to see that done. There’s a more seamless way to get information from the city.

When I say there are other efforts going on, [the city is] trying to completely revamp our web process behind the scenes and our presence to the public, so how data becomes public is a part of many goals that are important.

Do you have a personal interest in data?

I’m not involved in this because of the data. I’m involved in this because I believe in making government as efficient as we can and moving it into at least the 20th century.

This is the third city I’ve worked for, and I like how cities work, I like the operations. There ‘s no other corporation that has as many core services as the city does.

Most corporations have three or four things they are responsible for and that’s it. The city is responsible for hundreds of core functions that if we quit doing, you would hear about it.

And so I come at it from that perspective. I want the city to be more responsive because I think they’re great places to live. Every city has its own culture and its own unique vibe and that’s how I got involved in it.

I’m not a data geek, I’m a city geek. I want to make the city work better.

• Organizers tell us that the deadline for nominations for the PA Tech Awards, which we covered last month, has been extended to midnight tonight. Vote Philly!
• Spot the most defibrillators in Philly, win $10K! [SciStarter -- An interview with Penn Prof. Raina Merchant, who is behind the effort we covered
• Hedger pausing on print [New York Post] — Randy Smith, who owns nearly a third of the company that publishes Philly.com and the newspapers, is trying to sell, reports the paper. More from Poynter.
• SAP will add 500 jobs in Newtown [Delaware County Daily Times]
• AstraZeneca to cut 7,300 more jobs amid fourth-quarter profit drop [Inquirer]

• Dell Forms Software Group, Names Former CA CEO as Head [PC World] — With Berwyn’s Boomi division playing a role
• Sunoco CEO Elsenhans to step down [Philadelphia Business Journal] — Lynn Eisenhans
• Philly fuse maker chooses Bucks over North Carolina [PhillyDeals:Inquirer] — Action Manufacturing is moving 175 jobs out of North Philadelphia to a new Bucks County spot
• A Geek’s Guide to First Friday & Second Saturday: February 2012  [Geekadelphia]
• Quantum Leap’s tweet counter picks up more buzz [Delaware Online] — Newark, Del.-based analytics company
• “Jackpot Internet Cafe” will offer high-end computers and software, as well as sweepstakes games [PlanPhilly] — A Fishtown business that has concerned residents compromises and pitches itself as a more of an internet cafe.
• #visitUS: Help Curate a Philly Foursquare List, Get Philly a City Badge [Geekadelphia]
• Apostrophe just got easier [P'unk Ave newsletter] — More from the South Philly web firm’s CMS
• Drew Bacon’s Poppler: The Geekiest Guitar in Philadelphia [Geekadelphia] — Video below.

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

Quonix Networks — Quonix Networks is a leading regional datacenter and managed hosting services provider offering web and email services, virtualization and VPS, dedicated managed servers, datacenter colocation, and data backup services. Quonix operates a state-of-the-art N+1 redundant datacenter facility in the Philadelphia area.

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

Knight Foundation — 55 finalists were named Jan. 10 in the 2012 Knight Arts Challenge Philadelphia, the three-year, $9 million community-wide contest that seeks the most innovative ideas in the arts to engage and enrich Philadelphia’s communities.

Springboard Media — Springboard Media is a certified Apple Specialist and retailer with two locations in Center City, including its newest in Midtown Village. They’ve got a ton of accessories and a great trade-in program that can score you up to $1,500

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.

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.

Every Thursday morning at 8:30 a.m. EST, find all the stories you need to know about your friendly telecommunications giant in the Comcast Roundup. Get an email subscription for our weekly Comcast roundup or other news updates.

• Verizon Wireless-Comcast Deal Meets Political Resistance  [Wall Street Journal]
• Police: Man Posing As Comcast Technician Takes Cable Box [WUSA] — In Maryland
• Wall Street Reflects on Comcast-NBCUniversal Ahead of Deal’s First Anniversary [Hollywood Reporter]
• Comcast CEO looking to expand global reach [Philadelphia Inquirer]
• Comcast Signs Multiyear Extension With Amdocs [Multichannel News] – “Vendor Also Cites Strong Performance in Europe, Emerging Markets”

MIGHT INTEREST

• NBC Channels Marilyn Monroe in Super Bowl Ads to Aid Network [Bloomberg] — “Comcast Corp.’s NBC, the last-place network for seven straight years, will use this weekend’s Super Bowl broadcast to promote a prime-time lineup being remade by entertainment chief Bob Greenblatt.”
• NBC’s price for Super Bowl ads not shocking to advertisers [Philadelphia Business journal] — “NBC is charging 17 percent more for a 30-second Super Bowl ad this Sunday than Fox charged when it had the game last year, Forbes reports.”
• Verizon’s wireless, marketing deal with cable firms to be considered at Senate hearing [Post Tech: Washington Post]
• Internet Essentials Progress Report [Comcast Voices]
• Marin Telecom Agency Battles Comcast Over Fees [MillValley Patch]
• Comcast SportsNet series taps into hatred of Phila. sports fans [Philadelphia Business Journal]
• Comcast-Spectacor leader Luukko makes Billboard power rankings [Philadelphia Business Journal] — Peter Luukko
• Comcast reveals social TV strategy that rewards subscribers in patent application [FierceCable]

GIVE A GLANCE

• The Weather Channel Replaces Its Chief [Media Decoder: New York Times] — NBC Universal co-owns with Bain Capital
• In a Departure, USA Network Plans a Washington Political Drama [Media Decoder: New York Times]
• Comcast Names Amy Lynch as Area Vice President of Comcast California’s Southwest Bay Area [PR Newswire]
• Comcast’s Split-Personality Problem [Daily News]
• Comcast plans to expand eligibility for reduced-price Internet [York Dispatch]
• Comcast Takes Home Security To Mile-High City [Multichannel News] — “‘Xfinity Home’ Service Provides 24-Hour Monitoring, Home Automation Features”
• Comcast going all digital, expanding basic [KeysNet] — “Digital television will soon come to even basic-service cable subscribers of Comcast Corp. in the Florida Keys.”
• Comcast’s Xfinity Celebrates Black History Month With Special Entertainment Choices Across Screens and Devices [BlackNews]

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.

AirTime then enables companies to measure analytics such as views and conversions from the advertisement (below).

A screenshot or AitTime's dashboard

Dan Shipper

Patrick Leahy

Shipper, you may remember, was behind DomainPolish, a company he created as side project. The website feedback platform quickly gained steam, resulting in a sleepless but profitable weekend for the Penn sophomore. Leahy previously launched Penn Free Food a service that automatically scans university listservs for mentions of events with free food on campus.

The duo have been working on AirTime, originally called “EyeRedux” for months, and the company has already received buzz on Hacker News and has signed up 63 users.

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

Sink or Swim Productions, a group of Temple business school students, has launched a video series showing Philadelphia-area startups tech and not. See one of the episodes below. [h/t CityBizList]

Gamification startup Hoopla Software intends to hire at least a dozen employees as a result of its recent $2.3 million round of funding led by Safeguard Scientifics, according to Fins Technology.

According to the Business Journal, ChoozOn, which describes itself as a “deal-hunting concierge,” and not a daily deals site, raised a $1.27 million round after a $2.5 million round last summer. The company has workforce in King of Prussia, San Francisco and Jordan.

Wildbit describes the reasons for shutting down its $75,000 per year profitable email marketing service Newsberry. Despite a troubled history as a “stepchild” pet project, as the company puts it, the project was profitable but it wasn’t one the company was proud of.

GIVE A GLANCE

The 2012 Global Game Jam — a global hackathon event — took place this weekend locally at Indy Hall in Old City and at Camden County College in Jersey, the Business Journal reports.

FlyingKite covers Near-Miss Management, the risk management software suite coming out of Penn that debuted at Philly Tech Meetup last week.

Entrepreneurship will get its 15 minutes when the Kauffman Foundation airs a Super Bowl ad this weekend. The ad will support the foundation’s new Will It Be You campaign.

Ad network provider 50onRed is hiring a PHP programmer for its Cira Center offices, as well as a few other positions.

KeystoneEdge writes about Conshohocken-based vacation rental startup PackLate and its recent growth. The company will double its staff in 2012 and is looking to Center City for a possible move, before the company seeks a Series A round of funding, the publication reports.

PennLive covers Berwyn-based QR Pharma, a 15-employee life sciences startup that is working on a compound that can help Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s patients. The company recently received a $110,000 round from Ben Franklin Technology Partners.

Online medical research and news dashboard Docphin gets featured by new local healthcare industry news site MedCity News.

MIGHT BE WORTH YOUR TIME

Neat Company will launch its cloud suite to Apple platforms this spring, AppAdvice reports.

ProtonMedia has launched PhotoSphere 2.0, its virtual collaboration software, with new features like deeper integration with Lync Server 2010 and Sharepoint 2010, better multimedia integration, a world editor, better metrics and reports and more.

Daily Deal API startup Sqoot has launched new features built around branded and customer-personalized email subscriptions.

Monetate says that it nearly tripled revenue in 2011, according to a press release.

Ohanarama has integrated real-time video chat into its family-safe gaming network, according to a press release.

CityRyde, the software platform for bicycle rentals that recently packed its bags for Boston, has rebranded as Zagster and has been accepted into the TechStars Boston incubator program this winter.

Startup Roundup will post weekly on Wednesdays until there’s not a Philly startup story left to link to on the Internet. See others here, or sign-up for its email newsletter.