Friday Q&A: Steve Barsh, CEO of Packlate.com

Update: Minor copy edits. Changed logo.

As reported in this week’s Venture Capital Roundup, Steve Barsh has had a busy week.

The DreamIt Ventures managing partner got his tons of national press for his latest startup, Packlate.com, from TechCrunch, the Wall Street Journal and the Washington Post. The company, based in University City (though with plans to move to West Conshohocken) aims to be a last-minute vacation booking service and has received funding from ETF Ventures and First Round Capital.

“It’s not a rocket ship yet, but it is kind of jiggling on the launchpad,” says Barsh.

Barsh says the idea has been brewing for years as he mentored young entrepreneurs at DreamIt while maintaining vacation properties in Utah.

“You know the saying ‘Those who do, do. And those who don’t, teach? I like to do both,” he says.

Currently he says he is still dedicating ten percent of his time to DreamIt but says he wants to focus most of his efforts on his new startup. We spoke with Barsh about Packlate’s future, how DreamIt can survive with preoccupied management and when we’ll be able to book a Jersey Shore vacation with Packlate.

Read more

Startup roundup: P’unk Ave launching Apostrophe 1.0 CMS, Clio possible “household name” backing, Proton saves BP $3.7m

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. If you’ve got news to share, get in touch.

DEFINITE READS

P’unk Ave will launch the first version of its open-source Apostrophe content management system on Wednesday. The developer says that the CMS has been used for several of its clients, including Duke University, Kiberton Waldorf School and the Environmental Management Assistance Program. We’ve wrote about the CMS in this roundup before, and after talks with co-founder Geoff DiMasi, we think the team is playing its release pretty low-key for the quality of the product. It might be DiMasi’s punk rock roots—ask him about seeing Fugazi back in the day.

Orpheus Media Research, developer of music analysis tool Clio, says in an to Technically Philly that after reaching out to investors with its full business plan, the new company has been “aggressive in reaching out to major industry players,” and is in partnership talks with two large content partners and three “household name” corporations for technology and funding. Additionally, after reducing its funding requirements, it is now seeking private equity partnerships with angel firms as opposed to venture capital. Get on that, investors.

Read more

Next Fab Studio launches, opens Science Center to the community

Next Fab's NextEngine 3D scanner can import a real, three-dimensional object into CAD and 3D-design tools. You can see the scanned object on the screen behind it.

In December, the University City Science Center announced a seven-month revitalization of Market Street between 34th and 41st streets, working with the University City District, and with a $2 million grant from the City of Philadelphia.

The goal? Create a notable and noticeable tech corridor in University City.

This week, the center will open up a piece of that aesthetic when it launches its anticipated Next Fab Studio, a high-tech, street-level, membership-based prototyping studio. Next Fab is like a big boy’s Hive 76 or Hacktory—where commercial prototypes can be developed using high-tech, presumably expensive machinery.

Next Fab founder Evan Malone has been negotiating for more than a year on the collaboration, after members of the Science Center’s arts and technology program—most notably represented by the center’s Klein Art Gallery, and recently renamed to and marketed as Breadboard—helped him pitch the idea to UCSC executives.

Read more

Event Highlights for January 18-24, 2010

You’ve spent the last two weeks getting back in the swing of things, and you’re hoping to close out January as a strong first month. Jump on a couple events this week as the year continues to open up.

On Monday, stretch those learning muscles at Life Sciences 2010, a mid-day event focused on taking a look at how global collaboration is good for the quickly-changing field. It’s something different, but we know there are a lot of smart noggins in this community that can do some great innovation in that sector.

Wednesday, TVBGone creator Mitch Altman heads to Hive76 to help folks build the infomercially-sold TV-ridding kit. We were way into keeping our sets off with a product like this… until HD got cheap. D’oh!

Finally on Friday, join the University City Science Center as it unveils Next Fab Studio, its high-tech, membership-based prototyping lab. We talked to Next Fab founder Evan Malone last week, and the assortment of equipment at the shop seems drool-worthy. UCSC President Steve Tang let us know about his excitement for the lab, too. We’ll be stopping by the new shop later this afternoon, so stay tuned for our preview. If it’s not posted by 6:00 p.m., your dinner is on us!

Read more

Ten Philadelphia Web sites then and now

Web designer in 1999

As the first decade of the 21st century closes, the Internet continues to change everything it touches.

Ten years ago, the Web was still working its way into everyday life of everyday people in Philadelphia. Now, it’s finding even more crevices of existence to transform. So, using the Internet Archive, we thought it might be a hoot to look back at the Web sites from ten Philadelphia technology institutions from the end of 1999.

It’s another in our completely irregular Top Ten Tuesday department.

Read more

Links: Innovation Philadelphia reflects on GCECS, Hugh Douglas speaks science and More

Updated 11/9/09 @ 10:22 a.m.: Added Innovation Philadelphia link

DEFINITE READS

• Venture Beat reports that New Hope-based teen social network myYearbook is pushing its virtual currency hard toward growth in its fresh profitability.
• Innovation Philadelphia gives its own review of their Global Creative Economy Convergence Summit held early last month. See our interview with Innovation’s chief Kelly Lee here. Read their additional blog post here.
• Keystone Edge has a Q&A with University City Science Center President Steven Tang.

After the jump, Lockheed in space again, Hugh Douglas chats about science and six other tech stories, including our best read piece of the week.

Read more

Links: Pittsburgh top 10 city to launch business, Best Places to Work and More

• CNN Money ranks Pittsburgh as the second best city in the country to launch a small business, behind Oklahoma City. Houston, the 67th ward and Baltimore were listed among the top 10, but, no, Philadelphia wasn’t.
• Clickz reports that myYearbook has seen a marked 40 percent decline in its less than 2 percent share of U.S. social network traffic. H/T Philly Tech News

MIGHT BE WORTH YOUR TIME

• The Philadelphia Business Journal’s Peter Key reports that four companies from the 2009 DreamIt Ventures class were part of a NYC Demo Day, organized by two of those business.
• The Business Journal released its 2009 Best Places to Work list.

After the jump, recognition for the Neat Company, a big investment firm for a Princeton music software startup and more.

Read more

Links: University City Science Center pulls $9B, Philadelpians love gadgets and More

In which we link out to the tech news from Philly and elsewhere (when it matters) that slips through the cracks and make it way fun. See others here.

DEFINITE READS

• The University City Science Center rocks, or so a new study from the Economy League of Greater Philadelphia is saying. The largest urban research park in the country has a $9 billion impact on our region, the Business Journal reports. WHYY reports that more tech startups stick around in our region after being incubated by UCSC than other regional research parks see. The Inquirer’s Mike Armstrong reports that most of those firms that stuck around did so within Philadelphia, followed by Montgomery County as the second most popular end-all destination for companies incubated in University City.
• Armstrong also reports a series of nonprofits and task forces telling the city government what the heck they should be doing to foster a better business climate in the Phila-del-phia.

After the jump, a Conshohocken smart energy firm wants to boss the feds around, Philadelphians spend a lot on gadgets and four other tech tales, including our best read story of the week.

Read more

SeatGeek can’t be Philly’s lone connection to TechCrunch 50. Can it?

Jack Groetzinger, formally of Scribnia, presents SeatGeek at TechCrunch 50. See the video at the end of the post.

Update: A reader points out that WizHive, started by DreamIt founder Mike Levinson, has Philly connections. Read about the company’s time at TechCrunch here.

If TechCrunch 50 can be a startup’s launching pad to millions (just ask Mint.com), why aren’t more local companies making the journey to the Valley?

One of the marque events of the Web 2.0 world, TechCrunch 50 (formally the TechCrunch 40) is essentially a business plan contest on steroids. For this year’s version, more than a thousand startups applied to be one of the 50 companies that present to judges for a chance to win $50,000 in startup funding and a whole lot of attention.

This year’s winner, RedBeacon, has already been announced, but that got us thinking: did any local companies make the trip West?

Among the 50 companies selected to present to judges, Technically Philly could only find one company with any sort of connection to our fair city: SeatGeek.

Read more

TNT: David Clayton of the Klein Art Gallery, “at the intersection of art and technology”

"Stadium" by Lee Arnold is an example of the optically-related artwork that is part of The Vitreous, an exhibit at University City's Klein Art Gallery until Sept. 5.

An eager-looking gentleman in his late twenties with a toothy grin and a generic blue dress button-up was hanging around the Klein Art Gallery with what seemed like a few questions on his mind.

Though he remained polite, if he did get too friendly, it’d be tougher to dispatch him from Klein than most art installations. There aren’t steps worthy of an epic movie trilogy or foreboding 19th-century Gothic columns guarding its entrance. The nearly 35-year-old University City art venue, which recently opened its first nationally juried exhibition, is in the lobby of a Market Street office building.

“We don’t have a problem with foot traffic,” says David Clayton, Klein’s soft-faced, self-proclaimed “geek” curator. “You’ll get bike couriers and research scientists wandering through the exhibits. I think it’s a real success when we can just disrupt their day.”

So there’s no telling where that gentleman visitor came from or to where he disappeared after Clayton, 30, finished showing Technically Philly around the small and neat 22-artist exhibit called The Vitreous: Eyes and Optics, which explores themes of eyesight, visual perception and optical phenomena through contemporary art practices.

Read more