Startup Roundup: Venmo public and proud at Mobile Monday, LTL gets Garbage Pail Kids, RedLasso will beat us up

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. Several of the tips in this week’s roundups resulted from a quick email to TP. Without further ado….

DEFINITE READS

Venmo, a young mobile payment startup based in University City received top honors at Mobile Monday Demo Night, after attendees used the service during a five-minute presentation to donate to a Haiti relief organization. Six-hundred dollars were donated in three minutes, adding to the $15,000 that Venmo says it has already raised for the disaster. It will be interesting to watch how Venmo continues to grow, considering XIPWIRE’s competitive platform and business model, also based in the region.

PlaySay, a mobile language-learning flash-card platform was awarded third place at Demo Night. In an email to Technically Philly, founder Ryan Meinzer says the organization has grown to more than 4,000 users. We’re not sure at the moment how that compares to our report that the company had sold 3,000 products by July of last year.

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Links: Skip tax breaks for high-tech companies, Princeton laser research and More

DEFINITE READS

• The AP reports on a study that suggests Pennsylvania should skip tax breaks for high-tech companies.
• The Silicon Alley Insider has an essay on the Boston tech  startup scene.

After the jump, the region’s 30-year-old computer society hosts Far McKon, Prince lasers and local Tablet news.

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Startup Leaders hosts second annual Founder Factory to mixed reaction

Founder Factory audience members were given a chance to offer advice, along with panelists, to startups like language-learning tool PlaySay.

More than 250 gathered throughout the day for the second annual Founder Factory, a sold-out gathering of entrepreneurs, investors and students organized by Philly Startup Leaders at World Cafe Live in University City Thursday.

The event was a chance for business-minded folks to gather, discuss, dissect and learn about the work they are doing throughout the spheres of startups, education and investing.

Presenters from Ben Franklin Technology Partners, Wharton Business School, Internet Capital Group, myYearbook and Monetate were rotated with fishbowl sessions— where young startups pitch their idea to experienced business people for advice—each ushered onto the stage to red and blue stage lighting and dramatic rock and jazz music.

During the afternoon, 150 attendees listened to entrepreneurial conversations while seated at long dining tables in front of the stage, standing at the bar, or gazing down from the mezzanine level, while a handful mingled in a nondescript lobby.
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Technically Not Tech: PlaySay digital language learning flash cards

PlaySay founder Ryan Meinzer had always wanted to work in Japan.

So, the 26-year-old Temple University business grad packed his bags and headed for the island with a degree in international business and entrepreneurship and minors in Japanese and Asian business.

After landing a marketing gig, his 14-hour work days left little time to grasp the language to the degree that he wanted; he couldn’t enroll in classes or sign-up for comprehensive language learning software.

“I was so so busy and I never had time to study. I needed to learn fast,” Meinzer says.

So, he decided to put together his own lesson plans. He eschewed text book and flash cards for their bulk and created virtual audio flashcards for his iPod using podcast-esque technologies. MP3 files are backed with digital ‘flash cards’—audio files with images of the word being spoken.

And without knowing it, he embarked on a business.
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