What is a startup?: a Technically Philly definition

Turns out, despite the focus on them in technology news, there are lots of questions about what exactly a ‘startup‘ is.

Any new business might use the word as an adjective, but we at Technically Philly think we need a philosophy for what exactly constitutes a technology startup when we categorize and cover their work in the Philadelphia region.

Here’s our definition. Tell us what we’re missing.

• Broadly, a startup is a new business that is testing plans for scalable revenue.

Though not always, a technology startup typically has these common traits:

• Fewer than 20 employees
• Younger than three years
• Seeking or have secured early-stage investment, especially angel and Series A.
• Looking at scale of a product, rather than growth of a service
• Led by initial founders who describe themselves as entrepreneurs
• Focusing on disrupting existing processes through greater efficiencies
• Often involves technology solutions to create efficiencies through product over service

Loffles.com: consumer targeting and promotional giveaway site launches [VIDEO]

Loffles.com boasts that it is the best way to enter sweepstakes online. And now the company is live.

The site — the name deriving from the combination of ‘lottery’ and ‘raffles’ — offers users access to an updated catalog of prizes from familiar brands. Users watch a promotional video, answer questions — to show they watched — and gain entry to a drawing for, say, a Best Buy gift card, a Netflix membership or an Xbox 360. Each entry also earns users ‘loffles,’ which can be redeemed for other prizes or used for additional contest entry tickets.

Technically Philly first told you about Loffles, which has regional roots, in October, when the company quietly sought $500,000 in funding, and received $162,000. First listing the company in Gladwyn, where co-founder Brandon Yoshimura grew up, the startup has more formally set up its headquarters in Providence, Rhode Island, near where Yoshimura, 22, and his fellow co-founders met at Brown University.

The team has six other members, including the following: co-founder Steve Boland, 22, from Lafayette Hill, a graduate of Germantown Academy and Penn State; Chief Technical Officer Daniel Johnson, 29; Chief Marketing Officer James Kwon, 27; Director of Sales Vincent Tumbleson, 20, a junior at Brown; team developer Jake Buob, 20, a student at Johnson and Wales University and social media director Ashley Farquharson, 21, a student at UMass Amherst.

Loffles, which is actually incorporated in that tax haven of Wilmington, Del., is represented by Center City law firm Morgan Lewis and local PR agency Zer0 to 5ive and another co-founder is from Lafayette Hill and attended Penn State University. Though primarily in Providence, Loffles does have a small administrative office at 16th and Wood street where the team will “set up periodically,” said Yoshimura, an alumnus of the Haverford School.

Alexandre Scialom takes top prizes at Milken-Penn GSE Education Business Plan, NFTE sends winner to the White House

First place winner Alexandre Scialom smiled as he accepted his award plaque for his winning business plan, theCourseBook.

The following is a report done in partnership with Temple University’s Philadelphia Neighborhoods Program, the capstone class for the Temple Journalism Department.

theCourseBook, billed by its founder as “Yelp for adult education” won Thursday the two top prizes at the second annual Milken-Penn GSE Education Business Plan, netting San Francisco entrepreneur Alexandre Scialom a cool $50,000 $25,000.

Thursday’s event, held by the University of Pennsylvania Graduate School of Education, was a business plan competition that challenges young entrepreneurs to apply their innovative business ideas in educational formats.

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Scrapple TV: Marc Brodzik of Woodshop Films wants national ‘pirate TV’ network online [VIDEO]

Woodshop Films founder Marc Brodzik gives direction to Scrapple TV Sports co-anchor 'Hot Carl' during a recent shoot.

The following is a report done in partnership with Temple University’s Philadelphia Neighborhoods Program, the capstone class for the Temple Journalism Department.

A man in a suit and white beard with a deep baritone began to read the news in front of a green screen.

Suddenly, the bright ring of a cell phone broke the silence in the otherwise quiet recording studio. Marc Brodzik, who was standing behind the camera, wearing a faded Tide detergent shirt, shorts and flip-flops, reached into his pocket and with a grin pulled out his phone and shut the ringer off.

“Phones off, bitches.”

It is with that humor and laid backed demeanor that things are run at Brodzik’s Woodshop Films, a local video production company that started its own internet channel, called Scrapple TV, three years ago.

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YourMech.com: connecting car owners and mechanics for discounted repairs

The car repair business needs disruption, says a Drexel University alumnus, and he has the platform to do it.

YourMech.com, billed as ‘a car concierge service,’ connects car owners with vetted mechanics who handle minor repair jobs at up to a third cheaper than repair shops, says CEO Art Agrawal, a 2007 Drexel graduate now living in the Bay Area. The service is currently testing in Philadelphia, the first market for the early stage startup.

Users can get an instant quote and schedule an appointment online, where all the maintenance records are kept in the cloud, and a mobile mechanic can come to a person’s home or place of work for smaller jobs.

“Mechanics who work for repair shops make very little money, like $15 an hour on average. Consumers pay $60-$75 an hour to the repair shops,” says Agrawal, 28. “We are empowering these mechanics to work directly with the car owners and make twice as much money. Car owners can get an awesome and convenient service at [almost] 30 percent lower fees. Everyone wins.”

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Azavea grows, @PhilsBeerman gets beer, @geekadelphia judges and more Links

• Growth at Azavea, Stroll lands them on Inner City 100 list [Philly Inc: Inquirer]
• ComedySportz Hosting ComedyGeekz this Saturday… And We Will Judge Them Harshly [Geekadelphia]
• Beer vendor wants you to “tweet from your seat” at Phillies home games [NewsWorks] — Bill Watkins (@PhilsBeerman)
• Ditch the Litter Box, Scoop Up Sales [Wall Street Journal] — Yardley, Bucks County entrepreneur Rebecca Rescate ‘s CitiKitty company is a retailer of potty-training kits meant to teach cats to use a toiley in five weeks.
• Philadelphia To Become Second City to Host GameLoop, Local Game Developers Organize Their Own Unconference [Geekadelphia]

Penn’s new billionaires, @FakeAPStylebook from South Philly and more Links

DEFINITE READS

• Fake out: Twitter group writes the book on its grammar spoof [Inquirer] — South Philly resident RJ White is a contributor to the @FakeAPStylebook that is now publishing a book
• Study asks well-to-do Philadelphians how they’re investing [Philadelphia Business Journal]
• Penn’s new billionaires: FarmVille creator, Groupon backer [Inquirer] — Mark Pincus of Zynga and Russian investor Yuri Milner
• Philly’s Food in Jars a finalist in Saveur Magazine’s best food blog awards [Geekadelphia] Marisa McClellan

Below, see what Philly startup is moving into a church, big startup perks in Pittsburgh and more.

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Should Center City be a technology business hub?: other neighborhoods compete

Cristina Greysman from Document Depository Corporation explains some of the setbacks young entrepreneurs face in Center City.

The following is a report done in partnership with Temple University’s Philadelphia Neighborhoods Program, the capstone class for the Temple Journalism Department.

For Paul R. Levy, the president and CEO of the Center City District, the transformation that area has experienced over the last 20 years has been a huge success story amid the backdrop of serious economic troubles. But not necessarily for the reasons you might think.

It’s the outdoor cafes. All 213 of them.

“To me, that is the ultimate vote of confidence in downtown. People think it’s clean and safe,” he said.

Currently holding 214,433 jobs and paying over $12 billion in salaries annually, Center City relies primarily on the health care and education industries for the bulk of its economic drawing power, Levy said.. While not an alarming statistic on the surface, one need look no further than Detroit to determine what happens to a city that puts all of its progress behind a limited number of industries.

“We cannot rely on health care and education as the primary means of support,” Levy said.

So how about a move to the tech industry? Well, that’s a little easier said than done.

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Ohanarama: BrainRewards launches public beta of new family game network

Ohana means ‘family’ in Hawaiian. Ohanarama is the new family game network from a mother, serial entrepreneur and her team.

Ohanarama, which recently launched public beta, is the signature platform from BrainRewards, a co-educational gaming startup co-founded by Jane Hoffer (@janehoffer), the mother of three and president of the Alliance of Women Entrepreneurs.

“The old story is that, yes, adults are flocking to social networks like Facebook,” says Hoffer. “In doing our initial prototyping, we found two really interesting things: that children under 13 are very interested in playing with family online and that there are 70 million grandparents, 50 percent of whom live more than 200 miles from grand kids and there’s no real interactive way for an extended family to play from a distance, other than maybe Skype.”

“So we said, ‘Let’s bridge that.’ The family is the original social network. It’s how kids socialize,” Hoffer says. “So we are taking the best of gaming and the best of social networking and bringing it to the fore to the multi-generational family online.”

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Colin Weir: “there’s no startup culture around video” in Philly

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.

In a few weeks, Colin Weir will be gone.

The Toms River, N.J. native video producer is leaving April 19 to work for TWiT.tv in Petaluma, Calif. A Rowan University alumnus, Weir, 25, is leaving a job as a video production specialist for a Center City hospital to chase dreams westward.

Though he wants to stay in Philly, he says there just isn’t a culture around video like Philly is developing in other creative fields. Below, Weir talks about how he sees Philly on his way to the airport.

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