Venturef0rth: new Callowhill accelerator opens membership applications for startups, students

Venturef0rth, a new Callowhill-based coworking space introduced in January, is now accepting applications from early-stage start-ups. The space, co-owned by Elliot Menschik, Jesse Kramer and Jay Shah, is open in what they call “public beta,” as they take on new members starting March 1, 2012 and continue to adjust the space.

To apply for membership at Venturef0rth click here.

In many ways, Venturef0rth is a coworking space, but in some ways — like its semi-isolated orange pod-like work areas for whole startup teams or groups of individuals, range of consulting services and shared bike service, Venturefleet — it is something else entirely. They also have white-board topped tables — an innovation the Venturef0rth crew claims credit for.

“We like to think we’re somewhere between a garage or living room and your first office space,” said Kramer, who is also VP of Marketing at AWE Tuning.

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University City Science Center incubation program receives NBIA Soft Landings international incubator designation [VIDEO]

The the National Business Incubation Association awarded its Soft Landings international incubator designation to the University City Science Center‘s new bullpen incubation program  last week for successful acceleration of life sciences and technology businesses in Philadelphia, as Technically Philly partner Philadelphia Neighborhoods reported.

The Science Center shares the NBIA designation with only 22 other incubators across the globe.

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Seed Philly: Center City nonprofit startup accelerator collecting business data, hosting first event

Chatter about the need for a post-incubation home for technology startups outside of the life sciences realm in Philadelphia has been a topic of conversation among investors and entrepreneurs since at least the late 1990s.

In the past year, the seriousness of those conversations has grown, with a handful of new initiatives launching in recent months focused on the concept of offering support to build largely fledgling consumer-facing efforts seeking investment.

The long-rumored startup accelerator Seed Philly is aiming to differentiate itself by placing mission over profit and featuring a heavy reliance on data, Technically Philly has learned.

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Venturef0rth: new near-Center City incubation space from three serial entrepreneurs seeks applications [VIDEO]

Updated, 1/12/12, 1:08 p.m.: The base price for Venturef0rth’s rental fees is $395, not $345 as previously reported. A 12-month commitment brings the fee down to $345.

A new early stage incubation space opened its doors for the first time last night in what could have been a familiar setting for some in the creative realm of Philadelphia.

Venturef0rth — with a zero, not an ‘o’ — offers cheap, collaborative space for a curated group of small entrepreneurial teams and access to the initiative’s three founders, all of whom have experience in building and exiting technology businesses in Philadelphia.

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Greg Osberg: one year since takeover, Philadelphia newspapers are stronger, technology initiatives succeeding

Thirteen months since being named publisher and CEO of the Philadelphia Media Network, Greg Osberg addressed the local Online News Association chapter Wednesday, updating the industry on the company’s direction.

The first half of that year was focused on stabilizing the core print products — the Inquirer and the Daily News — and the second half featured a flurry of technology-infused initiatives meant to begin reshaping the legacy news operation. Those latter initiatives largely fit under the Project Liberty umbrella, which include the much hyped Android tablet project and the incubation program.

The event, which was part of the local ONA’s monthly meetups and was held at the Inquirer building, featured a short speech and Q&A session with Osberg. [Full disclosure: This reporter is involved in the local ONA group.]

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Temple University receives $700k to support “urban apps and maps studio” and urban wireless network

Temple University has received two major grants totaling $700,000 to support a tech startup studio and an urban wireless network, as a press release announced this week.

The $500,000 grant from the Economic Development Administration will build an Urban Apps and Maps Studio meant to serve as a hub for creating software applications, maps and data sets and launching technology-based companies and jobs, says Fox School of Business spokesman Brandon Lausch. Temple also received nearly $200,000 from the National Science Foundation to serve as a test for campus and urban wireless networks as part of NSF’s Global Environment for Network Innovations, Lausch added.

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DreamIt Ventures NYC accelerator: the inside story by the Next Web

As Next Web shared the inside story of the New York City expansion of University City incubator DreamIt Ventures, after DreamIt graduated its first 15 startups from the New York accelerator this week:

[Kerry] Rupp says DreamIt was already planning an expansion to New York City after noting that 12 of DreamIt’s 36 alumni companies were based there. “Our alumni came to us and said New York needs you. You could provide a lot of value here. But the clincher was that they said, ‘And we’ll help you,’” explains Rupp.

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David Lifson: “I would definitely consider Philadelphia over San Francisco”

This is Exit Interview, a weekly interview series with someone who has left Philadelphia, perhaps for another country or region or even just out of city limits and often taking talent, business and jobs with them. If you or someone you know left Philly for whatever reason, we want to hear from you. Contact us.

When deciding on the headquarters for Postling, co-founder David Lifson said he had only crossed one city off of his list of possible locations: San Fransisco.

“The West Coast is so much of a tech bubble, it’s really easy to forget who your customers are,” says Lifson.

When Postling, a web application that allows small business owners to streamline social media campaigns, graduated from DreamIt Ventures, the company took some time to decide where to move next. After some thought, the company chose to leave Philadelphia for North Jersey and New York City.

We ask Lifson, why he decided to leave Philadelphia and why the state government impresses him.

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DreamIt Demo Day: more photos and videos

The crowd disperses after the conclusion of Demo Day.

Sitting in the front row, Technically Philly took lots of photos and video that didn’t quit make it into our post yesterday.

After the jump, see over 40 more photos and seven presentation videos.

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DreamIt Ventures Demo Day preview (part one)

Edit: added beta code for Adapt.ly

This year, it’s different.

For the past three summers Dreamit Ventures has incubated early-stage startups at the University City Science Center, giving each startup a small bit of seed capital while providing advice from some of the brightest entrepreneurial minds in the city.

Startups like SCVNGR, Seatgeek and Notehall all have roots in the incubator.

This year, DreamIt upped the ante by partnering with Brooklyn-based Startl to incubate more companies than ever and DreamIt is starting to receive national attention as one of the best early stage technology incubators in the country.

“One barometer [for the city] is DreamIt,” says Gil Beyda, founder of an early stage technology-focused venture capital firm Genacast Ventures. “Year after year, I’ve seen better companies and better entrepreneurs coming out of there.”

The first two DreamIt seasons culminated in Demo Day, an all-day event where companies show off their wares in the hopes of attracting attention and investment — see last year’s coverage — and that much will stay the same this year when the companies gather on August 11th.

Technically Philly stopped by the incubator last week to get a sneak peak of what some of the companies are working on, and five of 14 were ready to offer a small preview of what they will be presenting.

In the first of three parts, we look at Yunno, Adapt.ly and Give Loop. Tomorrow we will preview two additional companies and on Friday we’ll round up those who didn’t demo their product for us.

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