Philly founder proves the maxim ‘Your net worth is your network'
Simone Ammons built software startup QuneUp with about $140,000 from a side gig. Now, she's growing it through the power of community.
Ammons launched her company with funds she made from working as a technical writer. Still bootstrapped, Ammons mostly relies on her strong network to keep it growing. That goes hand in hand with her dedication to uplifting others along the way, she told reporter Sarah Huffman on Technical.ly Speaking, our monthly segment on WURD Radio's 'Reality Check' hosted by Tonya Pendleton.
'Everything about QuneUp … was partnered with somebody else in the community that looked like me,' Ammons said, referencing how she connected with the 'fraction of a percent' of other Black women in the business community.
Philly-based QuneUp, started in 2022, began with Ammon's personal frustration at work. As an engineer, every time equipment broke down, she got the call to fix it. The equipment often lacked vital information, like the vendor or when it was installed.
In response, she developed a QR code sticker that takes the technician to the equipment landing page with all the information needed for repairs.
Featured as an honorable mention in Technical.ly's 2025 RealLIST Startups, QuneUp has also been recognized with valuable support from other respected institutions, including at two pitch competitions supported by the Philadelphia Department of Commerce.
In 2024, QuneUp came in third place, taking home a $2,000 prize and the year prior, it was a finalist in Philly's Most Diverse Tech Hub Pitch Competition. It was also a member of the December 2023 Capital Readiness Program session run by the University City Science Center and, most recently, selected for the inaugural cohort of biotech accelerator HiveBio.
Those connections also gave her the platform to find new customers, Ammons said, crediting the Department of Commerce for helping her land two pilots.
Plus, it acted as a 'mini MBA' to learn how to run a business beyond just building the software, Ammons said.
'What I realized in business is that your net worth is your network,' Ammons said. Being a part of the community means she's just '10 conversations away from somebody who is interested in investing in a company like mine.'
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Technical.ly
3 days ago
- Technical.ly
After high-profile derailments, this founder turned his engineering skills toward improving rail safety
After two deadly train crashes made headlines in 2023, Tejas Agarwal was inspired to create rail infrastructure technology, but was unsure how to turn the idea into a startup. While Agarwal always had an interest in starting his own company, he faced unique challenges as an immigrant in the United States. But the East Palestine, Ohio, and Odisha, India, train accidents spurred his idea into action. In 2023, Agarwal founded Sahay AI, a robotics company that uses an AI-based system to inspect railroad infrastructure. Then, last October, Agarwal's advisor sent him an application for Unshackled Ventures, a VC firm that specializes in supporting immigrant entrepreneurs. He applied and got $150,000 in funding, pushing him to pursue Sahay AI full-time, and a few months later, it landed on 2025 RealLIST Startups list. Originally from India, Agarwal completed his undergraduate degree in electrical and electronics engineering. However, his main interest at the time was in aerial design and engineering, which he pursued as an extracurricular. As he continued his work in robotics, his specific interest in drones emerged. He used to watch online lectures from Vijay Kumar, the current dean of Penn Engineering, and decided he wanted to go to the University of Pennsylvania to study drones. He moved to Philly in 2021 to complete his master's degree, where one of his professors sparked his interest in self-driving cars. He got involved with the Autoware Foundation based out of Pennovation and started working there after graduating in 2023, eventually building up the skills to branch out on his own. In this edition of How I Got Here series, Agarwal discusses the current events that led to founding Sahay AI, why robotics seemed cooler than software and how his immigrant experience helped him found a company. This Q&A has been edited for length and clarity. How did you become interested in robotics? In undergrad, I got the opportunity to work with this club at my university called Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAVs), where we started designing reconnaissance UAVs and inspection drones. That's basically where my first interest in robotics started. We won global competitions all around the world, even in the US. That made it clear to me that I wanted to do something in the technology space on the robotics side. I felt like software was great, but through robotics, I could actually change something in the world. It feels more gratifying — and it looked cool, honestly. 'Software was great, but through robotics, I could actually change something in the world.' Sahay AI founder Tejas Agarwal What led you to start your company? I knew I wanted to start a company because I felt like I couldn't do anything else. I wanted to do everything, the tech, the sales, the team building. I wanted to use all of my skills that I learned over the years. There were a couple of things that happened that pushed me into the idea for Sahay AI. The first one was a rail accident that happened in February 2023 in East Palestine, Ohio. Norfolk Southern, a freight train, got derailed due to faulty equipment on their side. In June of 2023, there was another train accident in India where three trains collided and 300 people ended up dying. I was curious about what's going on. I found out that the rail industry was very archaic. People were still walking on the track to do inspections. Now, this would be okay if the trains were not in operation, but because the trains are continuously in operation, and there are only specific intervals where these guys can actually go. I realized there might be a problem of just data abstraction, or people are not getting to see what they're supposed to see. How has being an immigrant impacted your entrepreneurship experience? The pros are that you come from the perspective of two different countries. You have those cultural learnings from when you were growing up, and now you have to adjust to a completely different cultural setting. You have to learn a bit of the lingo. In terms of cons, the visa issues are a thing. I think that's a common stress that immigrants have to face. Even if you're on a job here, it's a big issue. It's good to just keep on working and concentrate on what you're here to do. Unshackled Ventures has really been awesome on that front. They've taken care of all of the responsibility for the visas so that I can focus on the business. What lessons have you learned from starting Sahay AI? There's a big learning curve, especially coming from an engineering background; there's so much to learn. There is sales, there is business development, there is hiring, there's team management. It's not just tech. The biggest one is to keep learning. One thing I've felt is that the more I learn, the more I know about my own sector, the better I am in conversations and the better knowledge I can give to my teammates to grow the company better. Learn everything that you can about running a company. If you want somebody to do something for you, you need to have that bit of knowledge to actually hold a conversation, ask good questions and make sure they're doing everything right. What advice would you give to someone who wants to start a company? Research, learn and do not hold back. In school, I felt that web development was not my cup of tea, and I would never need to do it. Actually, I've designed five websites since then. Play around with stuff, talk to as many people as you can, because people are the biggest sources of knowledge, and there's no better way you grow in life than talking to people. One thing that I tell myself every day is, nobody knows what they're doing, so don't put yourself down. You can do it.
Technical.ly
4 days ago
- Technical.ly
Baltimore will keep CIAA tournament through 2029, officials announce
An annual basketball tournament held during Black History Month and bringing a wide economic footprint will stay in Baltimore through the end of the decade, local officials announced. Public and private sector leaders on Wednesday gathered at the Baltimore Visitor Center in the Inner Harbor to announce the city won the bid to host the Central Intercollegiate Athletic Association (CIAA) competition from 2027 to 2029. Baltimore has hosted the popular HBCU tournament since 2022, a start date that was delayed a year by the pandemic. Competition is intense to host the event, which features games between historically Black colleges and universities throughout the mid-Atlantic and Southern United States. With this latest win, Baltimore notably beat out Charlotte, North Carolina, which hosted the CIAA between 2006 and 2020. At the announcement, many speakers — including leaders from CIAA members Bowie State University and Lincoln University, Baltimore-based sports apparel giant Under Armour, Maryland's Department of Commerce, tourism arm Visit Baltimore and insurance company CareFirst — highlighted the tournament's impact and significance beyond the court. 'My favorite part of this relationship is the deep investment into community,' said Mayor Brandon Scott. 'The CIAA goes all out: financial literacy, health summits, skills camps … so that we're growing the generation of CIAA graduates to come back to Baltimore and go into communities to help make us the best version of ourselves.' This impact extends to the city's business and startup communities, which each earned a major spotlight during prior tournaments. In 2024, the city saw a total economic impact of $32.5 million, including $23.6 million in direct spending, according to Visit Baltimore. Al Hutchinson, the tourism agency's outgoing CEO (whom Mayor Scott recognized at the end of the Wednesday press conference), previously said that the tournament generated $81.7 million in total economic impact and funded an average of 1,326 jobs each year between 2022 and 2024. The 2025 financial figures dropped a little, with this year's tournament boasting $19.8 million in direct spending and $27.4 million in total economic impact. That said, the number of jobs created, by Visit Baltimore's tally, grew to 1,487. For the innovation community, the tournament offered the chance to showcase Baltimore's Black technologists, entrepreneurs and other sector players during the annual Tech Summit House program. The series of talks and pitch contests revolving around topics like AI, Africa's startup world and how to navigate an industry filled with racist disparities dovetailed with local boosters' broader goal of highlighting this predominantly Black city's unique assets. 'The tournament particularly uplifts Black-owned businesses, highlights our HBCU legacy,' Hutchinson previously told 'and adds to the vibrant mix of music, arts and culture that define Baltimore's Black community.' Although he didn't speak during Wednesday's presser, Mark Anthony Thomas, CEO and president of the Greater Baltimore Committee (GBC), said he took part in a pitch to host the tournament last week. He and others only found out about the acceptance this week. For Thomas, the fact that none of Baltimore's HBCUs are in the CIAA (the closest being Bowie State in Prince George's County, near DC) was actually an asset. 'The most successful ends are when you don't have the natural advantages of other markets,' Thomas told before the press conference. 'We don't have any of the CIAA schools, we're not central to where they're located. And it means that Baltimore overperforms on charm, our ability to be collaborative and a great partner with the CIAA — and we actually put on a good show.' Just a day earlier, Thomas held a fireside chat at the GBC's Inner Harbor offices with Jonathan Bowles, executive director of the New York City-based Center for an Urban Future. For nearly an hour, the pair spoke before GBC members about topics including the growth of New York's tech economy, the Great Recession's lessons in economic diversification and what Baltimore can learn from the country's biggest city. One theme Bowles hit on was the importance of the cultural sector to a city's development. Thomas connected this to the current bid, and the way Baltimore's economy can build upon the prior tournaments. 'In our 10-year plan, creative and culture is one of the three opportunity areas, so this is central to that type of potential we see for the region,' he said. 'Obviously, it's a risk. Visit Baltimore initially pursued this, and so you think about the risk they took — to even believe that Baltimore had a chance at competing for this — and for it to have been successful, now twice, is a huge endorsement of the infrastructure they built.' community Slack and visiting the #baltimore channel.
Technical.ly
5 days ago
- Technical.ly
ARM Institute welcomes a longtime Pittsburgh entrepreneur as its new CEO
Power Moves is a recurring series where we chart the comings and goings of talent across the region. Got a new hire, gig or promotion? Email us at pittsburgh@ Every year, Pittsburgh's universities train a new wave of talent, and while some stay to build locally, others take their ideas elsewhere. A longtime robotics entrepreneur with decades of experience shaping Pittsburgh's tech scene is sticking with the city as he assumes a new leadership role at the ARM Institute. Meanwhile, two early-stage founders from the University of Pittsburgh are heading to Philadelphia to grow their startups, and the cofounder of a well-known autonomous trucking company has taken on a new leadership role at General Motors to support its push into self-driving vehicles. Read on below the chart for more on these power moves and other professional changes in the region. ARM Institute appoints robotics entrepreneur as new CEO A new chapter begins at the Advanced Robotics for Manufacturing (ARM) Institute today, as its newly appointed CEO officially steps into the role. Jorgen Pedersen, a local robotics entrepreneur, has contributed to the growth of the Pittsburgh robotics scene for more than 25 years. He was one of the founders of Carnegie Mellon University's National Robotics Engineering Center and later founded RE2 Robotics, a leading developer of human-like robotic arms for unstructured environments. Pedersen succeeds Ira Moskowitz, who recently retired from the position after being appointed to the role in 2020. When RE2 was acquired by Sarcos Robotics in 2022, Pedersen worked as Sarcos' COO for a year during the transition. He then joined the board of directors for the Pittsburgh-based manufacturing consultancy Catalyst Connection and the Pittsburgh Robotics Network, where he was eventually appointed president. After that, he became the Robotics Entrepreneur in Residence at Innovation Works ' Robotics Factory, where he mentored early-stage robotics founders. 'We're at a pivotal moment where robotics and AI are no longer future technologies — they're ready to transform US manufacturing today,' Pedersen said in a prepared statement. 'I'm honored to join the ARM Institute in its mission to drive innovation, strengthen our industrial base and prepare a workforce ready to thrive alongside advanced technologies.' The ARM Institute is structured as a public-private partnership of over 450 member organizations. Pedersen will continue the ARM Institute's work of fostering collaboration between government, industry and academia to make robotics, automation and AI more accessible to manufacturers. Pittsburgh loses two founders to Philly-based fellowship program Two researchers at the University of Pittsburgh are leaving the city to develop their innovations across the state. Molecular pharmacology graduate student Olayemi Grace Akinyele and AI health researcher Thomas Tam have been selected for the University City Science Center 's year-long Founders Fellowship program in Philadelphia. The life sciences builders will receive hands-on experience on tackling challenges related to aging populations. Akinyele will work on developing her bioengineered platform that would preserve mitochondria, the parts of the cell that produce energy, even after they've been removed from the body. Since mitochondria have emerged as a biomarker for early detection of Alzheimer's, the new technology could make it easier to research the disease in the future. Tam will also leave Pittsburgh to continue working on his AI-powered medication guardrails, which aim to fix the current error-prone process of tracking medications across different care settings. Tam's venture was previously supported by Carnegie Mellon's Project Olympus Incubator Program and the Pittsburgh-based Patient Safety Fellowship. Cofounder of Aurora leaves for General Motors Aurora cofounder Sterling Anderson announced his resignation as the autonomous trucking company's chief product officer in May, following the launch of Aurora's self-driving trucks in Texas. The news was made public in a regulatory filing, where the company said Anderson's departure 'did not result from any disagreement with the company concerning any matter relating to its operations, policies or practices.' During the company's first-quarter earnings call, Anderson said Aurora's recent launch gave him the confidence to leave the company at this time. 'Aurora has reached a critical inflection point; product strategy is firmly established,' he said. 'The technology is on the road, the team is in place to scale it, and the momentum we've created in the industry is palpable.' A few days later, General Motors announced Anderson as the company's new executive vice president of global product and chief product officer. Anderson joins the team as General Motors works to incorporate autonomous technology into its vehicles. Later that month, Aurora made the call to put 'observers' back in the front seat of its autonomous trucks, per a request made by Paccar Inc., the company that manufactures the trucks. More power moves: North Shore-based aluminum producer Alcoa named Thomas J. Gorman as its non-executive chairman of the board in May. About 105 Leviathan Energy employees will lose their jobs as the company closes its Monroeville and Canonsburg offices following the $1.8 billion acquisition of Olympus Energy. Innovation Works eliminated its portfolio executive role, cutting three team members. Based on founder feedback, Innovation Works says it updated its service model to give portfolio companies direct access to managing directors, a mentor network and a new service desk to route, track and manage requests. California-based defense tech company Anduril is hiring for several software roles in Pittsburgh, despite not currently having a physical presence in the city. The company develops autonomous weapons used by Ukraine. Point Park University appointed Shari Payne as the permanent provost and senior vice president for academic affairs. Payne had served as interim provost since January. Kristen Martin, a former professor of IT and technology ethics, will serve as the next dean of Carnegie Mellon University's Heinz College starting in July. After the local software firm Smith Micro had a 50% drop in revenue last year, it brought back Tim Huffmyer to resume his former role as CFO and take on the COO position as well.
