10 Twitter users every Philadelphian should follow

Some people count how many friends they have, and some people count the value of their friendships. On social media — and the web generally — we have the same kind of experience.

We can count just about everything online, and so it should surprise no one that as social media has boomed, so too have the comparisons between Facebook friend counts and Twitter followers.

But there’s so often a nuance that raw numbers can’t show.

It’s easy enough to track who are the most followed Twitter users in Philadelphia, but everyone is trying to figure out how those figures measure in influence — or ‘resonance.’ Suppose we want to see who are the biggest Philadelphia voices in the Twitter conversation — not spam accounts with big follower numbers, but those people who you should be following, whose opinions matter and are being heard.

Simply, what Philadelphia Twitter users matter most?

Find the rest on the Philly Post of Philadelphia magazine.

Friday Q&A: Josh Kopelman of First Round Capital

Josh Kopelman is angry.

When Technically Philly pops into his office, the normally cheery venture capitalist is busy trying to figure out why First Round Capital’s email service is down.

“They say six minutes of downtime,” he says. “but they’re way over that.”

After a brief phone conversation (he would later blog about the downtime) he immediately returns to his normal upbeat demeanor and for good reason: Kopelman is one of four founding partners of one of the most active early-stage investment companies in the country. The firm has become as much of a brand as the companies it invests in, boasting the most-visited VC site on the web.

Located in a small, nondescript office building in West Conshohocken, the firm has expanded to San Francisco and will open its New York City offices next week, giving it a headquarters in two of the largest technology communities. The firm is setting a new standard in investment by making a high number of smaller, early stage investments while nurturing companies from the ground up.

First Round, however, is just the latest chapter in the Wharton grad’s career. Kopelman, a New York native, started Internet information company Infonautics while still in college and almost didn’t stay in Philadelphia.

“Once you have 17 people in the company with mortgages and me without, that pressured me to stay,” he says, “Then I grew attached to the area, built networks and planted some roots here and started Half.com.”

Since then, Philly has treated him well: Kopelman and his partners sold Half.com to eBay for $350 million in 2000, giving Philadelphia one its biggest tech “wins” in the Web 1.0 times. After starting and selling Turntide to Symantec in less than a year, Kopelman switched from entrepreneur to investor, making Philadelphia home to one of the most influential Internet investment firms in the world.

We sat down with Kopelman to talk about his take on Philadelphia, what kinds of companies he looks for and why Philly (and every other city) has no comparison.

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Philly goes to TED … kinda.

In case you have sworn off Twitter and the national tech media, the esteemed TED conference took place in Long Beach, California last week. The event features 18-minute speeches from former presidents, CEOs, academics and other hand-selected thought-leaders. The attendees are also cherry picked requiring an invitation and a $6,000 ticket.

Normally, the guest list of the yearly conference remains secret, however the fellas over at Valleywag have gotten their hands on the entire guest list. After some extensive searching and find a replace magic, we found everyone from Philly who was deemed worthy enough to attend the event.

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Josh Kopelman called ‘richest man in town,’ among most networked venture capitalist

Josh Kopelman is apparently not entirely comfortable with being a big shot.

The entrepreneur turned venture capitalist, who made his name on the back of the $355 million sale of his creation Half.com to eBay in 2000, has been a bit of a big fish in an underdeveloped Philadelphia pond for some time now. But he doesn’t always take adulation so warmly.

Kopelman was reportedly put off by the label of the wealthiest self-made person in Philadelphia, author W. Randall Jones told the Inquirer. For his new book, the Richest Man in Town, Jones traveled to 100 U.S. cities to collect business wisdom from those atop the income brackets in their towns and found Kopelman to be our pick of the litter.

“He was very upset with me,” Jones told the Inqy.

While Kopelman may have disliked the thought of being placed above a host of the city’s billionaire’s boys club, it’s not the only big call he’s gotten this week.

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Business Week profiles First Round Capital

Remember that time we assessed Philadelphia’s venture capital market and told you local early stage investors were doing well?

Well, BusinessWeek magazine surmised just as much in a well-produced profile of local venture capital firm First Round Capitol. According the the profile, First Round, located in San Francisco and West Conshohocken, has continued to invest in startups as other VC firms lay low in this recession. Because of the general pullback in investing, First Round has found itself the most active seed-stage investor. The firm has even received investments from the endowments of Yale and Princeton.

The profile details the new math behind venture capital, which is shifting from IPO and big buy-out strategies to small investments as technology costs fall. Writer Spencer E. Ante gives Philadelphia a serious nod by using Wharton grad and First Round Managing Partner Josh Kopelman as the story’s primary source.

Even if you have only a passing interest in startups and investing, the profile is worth a read over lunch for an inside look at one of the region’s heavy hitters.

Symantec purchases company in First Round portfolio

Symantec Corp, maker of Norton anti-virus software, has acquired Mi5 Networks, provider of super-fast Web security products. While Mi5 is based on that other, less awesome coast, their largest financier, First Round Capital, has offices in West Conshohocken. In a phone interview, Lead Partner Josh Kopelman confirmed the deal but said the details of the transaction are remaining private at this time. CNET is reporting that it was an all-cash exchange. Symantec will integrate the company’s technology that protects users from Web-based threats into its existing software platform by later this year.