myDunkTank.com makes a cowboy out of Blake Jennelle

Blake Jennelle, receiving the oath of his 'urban cowboy' office from City Councilman Bill Green in front of a City Hall that is, by our best estimation, entirely unrelated to Philadelphia. Screenshot via a video from Revzilla

No one can be sure about the accuracy of Blake Jennelle‘s stereotype of a cowboy. Or how authentically the Philly Startup Leaders co-founder says ‘howdy.’

But what Jennelle has done is made a pledge, donned a Western hat and begun a month of wandering Philadelphia as an urban cowboy, the pledge he made as part of myDunkTank, the new experimental fundraising website launched last month by Jennelle and partner Chap Ambrose.

Read more

Philly Geeks: the scene that gives back

In February, venture capitalists, entrepreneurs and non-profit employees gathered at a coworking space in New York’s Tribecca neighborhood to chat ”Social Entrepreneurship:” businesses that focus as much on social good as the bottom line.

Halfway through the event, organized by Philadelphia’s Good Company Ventures, an audience member asked what city should serve as the center of this social entrepreneurship movement. A surprising number people immediately responded, “Philadelphia.”

It’s no secret that most large America cities are vying to be “The next Silicon Valley.” This typically means a focus on early stage technology and Internet startups, some of which—hopefully—become large employers drawing lots of young, highly educated taxpayers.

While Philly has no shortage of people clamoring for an effort to remake the city into a “Philicon Valley,” recent trends indicate that the city’s entrepreneurial community is busy carving out a different niche in the nation’s technology environment: startups focused on social good, not just the bottom line.

This isn’t an uphill battle, the city is home to some of the leaders in the field of Social Entrepreneurship. Here are some of the local players working to use technology and business to make Philadelphia—and the world—a better place:

Read more at Philly Post.

myDunkTank.com dares you to be charitable

If you see myDunkTank co-founder Blake Jennelle walking around Center City with a cowboy hat, cowboy boots and a fake beard, rest assured he hasn’t gone completely crazy.

Jennelle along with co-founder Chap Ambrose are subjecting themselves to public humiliation in order to raise money for their favorite charities using DunkTank, an expiramental new fundraising website launching this week that the two coded over a weekend.

The idea is to make fundraising fun by having users offer to perform dares in return from donations from strangers. Users will be able to post a profile, the charity they hope to raise money for and what that money will be used for. Visitors can then donate money to see the dare carried out, hopefully though a posted video or photos and comment why they donated.

“We don’t have a master plan,” says Jennelle, “we hope people find it to be a really fun way to raise money with almost no work.”

Read more

GoodCompany Ventures launches with ten, asks DreamIt to play kickball

Edit: Removed information from an old press release.

GoodCompany Ventures, the Center City-based incubator focusing on companies that are not only profitable but also fulfill societal needs, kicked off its 2010 Social Impact Incubator class this week. According to a press release, Mayor Nutter was on hand to begin the summer for ten new companies.

GoodCompany operates much like University City-based DreamIT Ventures (which it challenged to a kickball game): after a summer of incubation, the companies are presented at a “funding day.”

The incubator, co-founded by Garret Melby, Jacob Gray and Christopher Bentley, adds an an ever-growing group socially-conscience entrepreneurial organizations in the region which already include Bcorp, Murex Investments and Missioneurs.

Follow us after the jump to see the complete list of companies:

Read more

Event Highlights for April 5th – 11th, 2010

Update: Edited Hive76 event.

I hope you left next weekend open, Philadelphia, because our event calendar should give you plenty to do this Saturday.

First, you can head to the hometown of our very Brian James Kirk for BarCamp Harrisburg 2. It’s Technically not Philadelphia, but the attendee list tell us that several people are making the trip.

Though if you don’t feel like spending a lot of time on the turnpike, stay local and help Hive76 make a video game in three hours. But if your weekend is already stacked, head to Center City to discuss the city’s burgeoning social entrepreneurship community.

Read more

Friday Q&A: Garrett Melby, CEO of Good Company Ventures

Good Company Ventures' panel in NYC. From left to right: Scott Edward Anderson, aka “The Green Skeptic,” Fred Wilson of Union Square Ventures, Jacob Gray of Murex Investments, Roger Ehrenberg of IA Venture Strategies and Jacqueline Novogratz of the Acumen Fund.

Edit: added audience questions attribution

Last month, at a co-working space in New York City’s Tribecca neighborhood, Philly took over.

There, Good Company Ventures CEO Garrett Melby and COO Christopher Bentley kicked off the incubator’s 2010 class in New York City with a star-studded (for the VC world, anyway) panel about social entrepreneurship that included Union Square Ventures co-founder Fred Wilson and Acumen co-founder Jacqueline Novogratz.

The event marked the start of broad campaign by Good Company Ventures to promote their incubator for social entrepreneurs and helped Philly make its case as the country-wide hub of the social entrepreneurs movement.

We sat down with Melby, who spoke at this month’s Ignite Philly,  to talk about invading the 67th Ward, the incubator’s future plans and why he only has 70 Twitter followers.

Read more