Philly Startup Leaders picks new leaders

For the first time since its creation in 2007, Philly Startup Leaders is getting new leadership.

Announced on Monday, all but one of the startup community group’s seven executives will be replaced in a move that PSL has been orchestrating for months.

“These leaders will join the current team for a transition period of three to six months. Then some of the Philly Startup Leaders founders will ‘retire’ to the Board of Directors,” wrote former president and PSL co-founder Blake Jennelle. “Growing ‘startup old’ isn’t all it’s cracked up to be.”

After the jump, we take a closer look at the new executive board.

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Techgirlz hopes to bridge gender gap in Philly

If you have ever been to one of the dozen weekly technology events around Philadelphia, you likely have quickly noticed that the room is often largely filled with men.

“I’ve been in tech for 15 years and I’ve never been in a room full of women,” says Techgirlz co-founder Anita Garimella.

To help bridge the gap, a handful of local women have created Techgirlz, a new organization that hopes to solve the gender gap in Philadelphia’s technology community. According to Techgirlz, most girls begin to dial back the pursuit of subjects like math and science in middle school. Technology jobs are often viewed as only involving computers or programming, something the group says turns off many young women.

Read the rest at Philly Post.

Disclosure: Welson-Rossman works for Chariot Solutions, a former Technically Philly advertiser.

Philly Startup Leaders to throw BBQ

Update: Corrected the date Jennelle moved to the city.

Philly Startup Leaders has come a long way from eight guys talking shop over beers in September 2007.

“I knew right away it was not going to be a one-time thing,” co-founder Blake Jennelle says.

Jennelle had been living in the city for two years before deciding to start his own company in 2007. As he attended various events, he met those in similar situations, each thinking they were alone. After speaking with one entrepreneur after another, he encouraged them to all come out and talk business.

Since that fateful first meeting, PSL has blossomed into the largest and most active community of startup entrepreneurs in the region.

“You wouldn’t have recognized the city two years ago,” says Jennelle pointing to explosion of technology and startup organizations in 2007, including his own.

Since 2007, PSL has added roughly 400 members and is preparing for what they consider their third major event — a BBQ offering a chance for startup companies to mingle and network with one another.

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