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.

MIGHT BE WORTH YOUR TIME

We grew the hell up on Garbage Pail Kids trading cards, so sue us for being psyched about LTL Prints launching an exclusive collection of the disgusting rugrats printed on LTL’s removable-adhesive wall prints. When we talked to co-founder Kendall Schoenrock two weeks ago, he had just lined up a deal with Topps for its Wacky Packages collection. Somehow we missed the writing on the wall. Err, well, the vinyl sticker on the wall. “It’s a stamp of approval for our product and our technology that a large product like Topps is willing to license content to us,” Schoenrock says.

The 67th Ward is getting a DreamIt Ventures-like summer incubation for startups, Jason Calacanis-backed NYC Seed, the Times reports. More importantly, DreamIt is now accepting apps for startup companies looking for some help and a modest investment this summer, due March 22, as we reported yesterday in our weekly Venture Capital Roundup. [h/t PhillyTechNews]

RedLasso announced last week that the video-sharing software is now hosting Wendy Williams content, sharing a highlight each day. We’re having a chuckle imagining RedLasso CEO Al McGowan sitting down to watch Williams’ show. He’s built like a linebacker and hopefully—we’re praying—won’t pummel us for a joke at his expense.

GIVE A GLANCE

Robert J. Moore of RJMetrics got some love on TechCrunch last October for his Twitter API data analysis, and followed-up on his continuing study Tuesday. Highlights: Twitter ended 2009 with just over 75 million user accounts, of which 40 percent never sent out a single tweet, and 80 percent tweeted less than 10 times. Ouch.

As spotted on the Philadelphia Flex User Group experienced Flex developer, an under-wraps, funded startup based in Downingtown is looking for a Flex developer to do some sexy design work. The job lead was posted by Rick Bullotta, co-founder of Burning Sky Software, an under-wraps Web site. We’re looking out for this one.

Startup Roundup will post weekly on Wednesdays until there’s not a Philly startup story left to link to on the Internet.

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.

MIGHT BE WORTH YOUR TIME

• The Philadelphia Area Computer Society announces that hacker scenester Far McKon will speak at their meeting tomorrow.
• On his personal blog, Duck Duck Go founder Gabe Weinberg talks about a trend away from sole founders, like himself.
• Start Philly has a piece on Play Say and founder Ryan Meinzer a language learning system company launched in the region.
• The Trenton Times  reports on Princeton scientists looking into the future of laser technology. H/T Philly Tech News

GIVE A GLANCE

• Daring Fireball Jon Gruber reports that there’s no camera on the looming Apple Tablet.
• The Philly Business Journal also reports that Frazer-based Cephalon has been scolded by the Food and Drug Administration for promotional materials related to its cancer drug Treanda.
• The Inquirer reports that Pfizer will cut 680 employees in two Pa. sites, including, as PTN suggests, Wyeth’s IT department.
• NJ.com reports that the Mutter Museum has added Webisodes, as seen below.

• Our most trafficked story of the week: Our City of Philadelphia logo design contest winner: Sara DeMarco

Every Friday morning, we make sure you didn’t miss anything with Friday Tech Links.

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.

Founder Factory co-chair Doug Bellenger

Most stayed quiet for presentation, breaking occasionally to network and meet other interested individuals. Chances were better than last year, Founder Factory Co-Chair Doug Bellenger said, that community members ran into someone they recognized.

“Last year was like, you just found this new community and you say ‘what am I doing here, this seems amazing, I want to be a part of it’,” said Bellenger, dressed in a dark suit and red shirt.

“This year is, ‘I’ve been part of it for a year, this is my home.’ It’s got more of a feel of people already engaged that know each other and they’re all kind of moving in one direction.”

Hear Bellenger.

Established business leaders, like David Brussin of Monetate and Geoff Cook of myYearbook offered their startup stories and “secret weapons” that helped them along the way. Young startups like PlaySay and RevZilla, both of whom we’ve covered in the past, were offered chops from panelists and audience members in interactive fishbowl sessions.

“I thought I was going to get a lot of great feedback, which I definitely did. [I knew] there was going to be one solid piece of advice I got the entire night. And I did receive something like that,” PlaySay founder Ryan Meinzer said.

A search for the event’s Twitter hashtag shows support and appreciation from attendees. But opinions were mixed. In conversations with a dozen individuals attending the event, some said that last year’s was stronger – that speakers were more inspirational, like Josh Kopelman of First Round Capital.

An angel investor standing casually near the event’s bar, hands in pocket, told Technically Philly that he was hoping to see some more startup activity at the event. Others, like Meinzer, voiced concern about a feeling of disconnect between established businesses and startups that were attending.

“[I was] looking forward to some more presentations more geared towards startups, rather than just an industry analysis,” he said.

“I really want to hear from guys like [MyYearbook.com CEO Geoff Cook], speaking of how he started his business, and how he bootstrapped.”

After the event concluded in the early evening, members networked throughout the venue.

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.

Today, PlaySay lets users purchase ‘word credits’ that can be invested in up to three different languages—Japanese, Chinese and Spanish—in a format that can be played on any portable music player. The company has more than 20,000 words in its library. In the last year, Meinzer has sold 3,000 packages in its portfolio of products.

“Our method is the fastest way to increase your vocabulary. There’s a ton of comprehensive learning language offerings. The thing is that people buy that stuff and never touch it again.” If you only have a few moments of free time, PlaySay lets you learn at your own pace, he says.

Sales of PlaySay have afforded him the opportunity to go full-time with his product. Meinzer, who is in the process of moving to Philadelphia to run the company after spending two years overseas, says he was financially backed by an executive of PayPal Japan in August of 2008. The investment went to a new Web site and to the scalability of the product.

“I can cut and chop a new language in a matter of a few days,” he says. “That took me a year to do originally.”

The company also has an iPhone application coming out within a week that lets users do everything they can do on PlaySay’s Web site. Users can even purchase lesson packages directly from the app.

Meinzer hopes to expand the library with more languages, and potentially add grammatical instruction in addition to its vocab-focused offering. The company will seek additional rounds of funding when he heads to Silicon Valley over the next few months, he says.

Back in Philadelphia, Meinzer hopes to focus on marketing. He says they are launching a campaign to advertise in student newspapers to appeal to college students, the product’s core demographic.

But why Philadelphia?

“[Philadelphia] is booming with tech startups and I love the entrepreneurship in the city. There’s no startup world over in Tokyo and I didn’t want to be in California because that’s not home for me.”

He won’t need any flash cards to speak the language here, either.