Latest news with #RealLIST
Technical.ly
06-05-2025
- Business
- Technical.ly
Startups, brands and artists all have the same problem. Here's how we solve it together.
Remember the nursery rhyme, the more we get together, the happier we'll be? Unpopular opinion, but what if preparing for 2026 could be that simple? Now, before you think I'm asking you to add any more work to your already overflowing plate (I would never), I'm simply asking that we start speaking up and learn how to work together. After gathering data and asking my favorite question, 'what do you need?', to over 50 revenue-generating teams, I found two common problems: money and market. It's imperative we start preparing and practicing in 2025 for all the events, people and prosperity coming for us in 2026 — and now's the time to do it. It's blooming season here in Philadelphia and we've got that builder energy — you can feel it in the local tech meetups, the empowering events like Comcast Lift Labs Ceilings to Skies last month, and even in the rumbling of construction here in Fishtown. As a Philly builder, artist entrepreneur, 2024 RealLIST Connector and place-based investor, I was honored to be a part of the team that helped Philadelphia become an EDA Tech Hub and move up two spots to No. 25 best place in the world to build your startup. I've seen it all, from traditional business models to the hungry artist ventures and in the end, I love our city. I love our people, and I'm even starting to love our problems. Now, I'm sharing what I've learned so far about bringing artists, businesses, and brands together. Artists and startup founders aren't so different Artists and early-stage tech founders are both trying to translate ideas into income. Whether you're an artist launching an independent album, a startup building the next great connection platform, or a family-owned shop with a limited runway, you might be wrestling with the same exact problems: Access to funding Finding your market Staying inspired and avoiding burnout But instead of sharing strategies, we're often working in silos. I'm starting to believe we're not meant to solve these problems alone. Maybe our biggest breakthroughs could come from collaboration between creative and tech ecosystems. There are social and financial returns in these creative collaborations. They draw attention, bring new customers, humanize tech and help artists tap into sustainable funding. Here are some dreamy collabs I'm witnessing of startups, communities and businesses already working together. M Scooot's temporary installation at Indy Hall: The recent colorful addition by M Scooot to the lobby of our nation's oldest co-working space, Indy Hall in Northern Liberties, has returned joy and hopefully some new annual memberships. RYLA for Philly Tech Week: The community platform for connections, RYLA (a 2025 RealLIST honorable mention), hosted a design competition that invited creative locals to help them with their street team design, merch and giveaways for PTW 2025. It was a great reminder that visual art and tech just makes sense. Doing A Little Better podcast: Creative accelerator and startup, A Little Better Co., helping purpose-driven businesses. I'm now co-host of ALBC's new podcast, where we share ways to get creative (without the capital), providing a fresh perspective for brands to get unstuck. FSH Technologies and Tori Serazi: I happily attended the new HQ open house of community-rooted startup FSH. They worked with interior designer and artist Tori on their new, well-designed location in Chinatown. PamPam and Debora Charmelus: Map-maker PamPam, makes emerging tech feel human, helping people reconnect with their neighborhoods in new, thoughtful ways. The friend and favorite creator of mine, led a West Philly walk with PamPam. It was a perfect collaboration of exercise, people and technology. Identifying collaborators for your creative revolution I get it, you don't necessarily travel in packs of artists, creators and innovators like I do, but once you start, you'll see something special happening here in Philadelphia. When looking for creators, start by exploring the social platform where your brand is most comfortable. If that's on Instagram, check out someone local to you that feels authentic, if TikTok or Substack, head there. Note: The best artists are often hidden in plain sight, driving Lyft or working in your favorite local brewery/coffee shop. Keep your ears and eyes open for local talent. At StarCity, we're building a network of artists & businesses so matchmaking isn't so difficult. In the meantime, here are a few of my favorite, culture-bringing creatives in Philadelphia: The Between Us Girlies podcast for brand awareness and sponsorship: This podcast is truly the voice of the younger generation. I love these friends and admire them for making a more fun, safe and conscious Philadelphia. @Bran_Flakezz for fun content: One of the stars of the Between Us Girlies podcast, Brandon Edelman, just reached 1 million TikTok followers (go Brandon!), and was recently featured in the Inquirer. I love love love the safe space and joy he brings, also his love for Philadelphia runs deep (just like mine). <3URMOM for music mentions and art collectors: Temple alum and international music artist with over 30M streams, <3URMOM, is the next Basquiat/Picasso. Ask him to mention your brand name in one of his songs or invest in his affordable art for your home. Jai Monee for styling, festivals and charcuterie: Jai is one of those geniuses who can do anything and everything. You bring her in when you need set design, a photoshoot to look cooler, and/or to create a to-die-for charcuterie at your next gathering Tynecia Wilson for fitness and wellness content: Beautiful inside and out #healthywealthygirl and Ms. Philadelphia 2024 is a local news, wellness and lifestyle creator. From leading Zumba classes to meal prep, when you need a partner in amplifying your company's good choices in wellness, she's the one. Lydia Conner for video storytelling: Lydia is the founder, filmmaker, and award-winning narrative storyteller of Two Acre Films. Hire them to tell your brand story through video. Debora Charmelus for the Philly creatives: Calling aligned partners, Debora is one of the leaders, curating art spaces, telling us where the art is and designing new collaborative partnerships as a cultural consultant. Calan the Artist for speaking about good capital: Hi, me again, feel free to invite me in as a creator consult or speaker on building a more connected creator economy in Philly. Conrad Benner for the Streets: Philly was named No. 1 (again) in USA Today for street art and I'll attribute that to the works of Conrad and Mural Arts. Collaboration starts with trust The truth is, we may not need another report or summit. We need each other. The more we get together, the happier — and more successful — we'll be. Artists and founders help each other grow. This kind of collaboration might just be Philadelphia's next big advantage. Thanks to the artist founders in our season one accelerator, we've been learning how to solve our problems big and small, together. Here are our takeaways for good teamwork: Know who you are. Clarify your identity and values as an individual. It builds trust and makes you easier to work with. Simplify what you do. Say it in one sentence. If people understand you in ten seconds or less, they can connect the dots faster. Say what you need. Whether it's visibility, money or tech support, say it clearly and tell at least eight people. Find a shared outcome. Aim for a win you all can claim, like new clients or customers, exposure or shared storytelling. Start small, build trust. A repost. A referral. A conversation. The most powerful networks start with tiny acts of care. One of our podcast guests, Dr. Kimberly McGlonn, entrepreneur and author of Build It Boldly, recalled what her friend said, 'Progress moves at the speed of trust.' It's imperative, above all, that we trust each other as we build our future together.
Technical.ly
05-05-2025
- Business
- Technical.ly
RealLIST Connectors 2025: These 20 people keep the Philly tech community thriving
Who you know matters when you're building a company or organization — and building that network can start with a single connection. Each year, we select a slate of informative, connective Philadelphians who are engaged with the tech community as our RealLIST Connectors. Last year's feature highlighted 20 standouts, building on our lists from 2023, 2022, 2021 and 2020. We curate the candidates by asking our community for nominations and combing through the past year of reporting. We sent those nominees a survey to gather more information about each person's involvement in the Philly tech scene and to hear their personal philosophies on collaboration. New this year, we included people from Delaware, since the region is part of the Greater Philadelphia ecosystem. The final list includes 20 people from a range of sectors, including education, venture capital, city government and workforce development. These people are working to create a more inclusive and collaborative environment, with the shared goal of seeing Philadelphia thrive. Scroll down to meet the 2025 cohort of RealLIST Connectors, listed in alphabetical order. Can't see the info above? View it in a new tab. Methodology: To build RealLIST Connectors, editorial team assesses factors including current role, volunteer experience, participation in community programming, lasting impact on the region and more. We ask each connector candidate to complete a survey to help us understand and verify these factors, and we only include people that have responded. Sarah Huffman is a 2022-2024 corps member for Report for America, an initiative of The Groundtruth Project that pairs young journalists with local newsrooms. This position is supported by the Lenfest Institute for Journalism.
Technical.ly
27-03-2025
- Business
- Technical.ly
This founder used agricultural experience from his native country to innovate in the US
This is How I Got Here, a series where we chart the career journeys of technologists. Want to tell your story? Get in touch. Many companies are started because founders recognize a need and want to create change. Tom Zhang, CEO of robotics startup Daxo Industries, recognized early in his career that he wanted to do work that mattered and that a startup would allow him the opportunity. Zhang grew up in rural China and had an interest in building from an early age. He moved to Singapore for high school, where he joined the robotics team and got his first taste of engineering, which brought him to the US in 2014 to study mechanical engineering and computer science at Cornell University. During his time in college, Zhang, 30, also found unique ways to explore his interest in robotics. Zhang took a gap year his junior year of college and did three internships at iRobot, Uber and Rapyuta Robotics. Through those experiences, he learned that he wanted to pursue a career that had purpose and that he could have ownership of, he said. The epiphany brought him to Philadelphia, where he still lives today. He pursued a Ph.D. program in computer and information science at the University of Pennsylvania, specifically studying machine learning for robotics, publishing papers about the topic. However, he still didn't see the full picture of the impact of his work, so he decided to build a startup. After doing extensive market research, Zhang landed on agtech and launched the robotics startup Daxo Industries. The two-year-old company, which landed third on this year's RealLIST Startups list, has now raised $1.35 million dollars, has six employees and customers all over the world. For Zhang, though, it's all about the impact. In this edition of How I Got Here series, Zhang discusses his experience as an immigrant entrepreneur and why he sees it as the best way to make a difference in his chosen industry. This Q&A has been edited for length and clarity. What is your approach to entrepreneurship? I have been constantly thinking about who is most suited to be an entrepreneur, I think there are only two types of people. The first is, you are born an entrepreneur. Maybe your family are all entrepreneurs, and you grew up just listening to them, learning how to build a company. You are naturally just in a position to build something. The other type is when you have no choice. You can't find a job, there is no place to go. You have to build a company. I'm not the first type. My parents are not entrepreneurs. So the way I've been doing this is I just gave myself no other options. I applied to nothing. I'm not going anywhere, so I try to force myself into the corner and adopt the mentality of you either build this or you're stuck. That's the only way to squeeze the last bit out of myself to make something impactful. What kind of impact are you hoping to have with Daxo Industries? The problem that we're trying to solve is the labor shortage and quality issues of apples in the industry, and more broadly in the specialty crop or the tree fruit industry, but our initial focus is on apples. Specifically, what we're trying to solve is called the stem clipping problem. If you don't cut the stem off, the apples are going to puncture each other when they're being transferred or dumped. If they cut the stem off, it slows their picking process down by 30% to 40%. We came up with the concept of a hands-free stem clipper. Instead of holding a small scissor in your hand, you mount this on the apple picking bag and you can pick with both hands free. When you pick, all you have to do is to press the apple onto our device, and the stem will be clipped. The vision of the company is just one line: we want to make labor a choice. There are people who want to do the work. We don't want to take their jobs away, but if people don't want to work on this, they should have the option. How has being an immigrant impacted your journey as a founder? Obviously, there's a lot of red tape. There is an initial fear of, is this land even accepting of immigrant entrepreneurs? But then looking at a lot of companies, I realized their founders are also from all over the world. There are a lot more positives than negatives. It's a self selective process, so the fact that we came from all over the world to this country, that means there's a certain aspect, maybe courage or just tolerance for ambiguity and uncertainty, in us. When we're building a startup, nothing is certain, everything is ambiguous. You have to make decisions when information is very little. Moving here was the same experience. It really lends to our ability to do something approximately right. When I talk to my customers, or when I was trying to find my business partner, when I share my experience of the fruit industry in China, they get super excited. That has helped me to build great customer relations. What advice do you have for fellow immigrant founders? My biggest advice is to seek help. Before you build any company, you really have no idea how. For example, when we got the venture capital deal, I didn't understand the terms. Should I take the money, or should I not? I called 10 people, a VC, friends, entrepreneurs, CEOs of public companies, my mentors from Penn, and asked, 'what is your perspective on this?' I'm listening to their perspectives so I can better synthesize my own solution. That helped me make my decision and I learned along the process. If you don't seek help, you can't learn throughout the process. Sarah Huffman is a 2022-2024 corps member for Report for America, an initiative of The Groundtruth Project that pairs young journalists with local newsrooms. This position is supported by the Lenfest Institute for Journalism.
Technical.ly
26-03-2025
- Business
- Technical.ly
Philly's Venture Cafe, the once-popular University City meetup, shuts down after 6 years
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 philly@ Local startups are making strategic moves through accelerators, partnerships and executive leadership changes — but one major opportunity just shuttered. The University City Science Center ended its Venture Cafe program, a biweekly meetup for founders and other stakeholders. At the same time, the startup resource organization announced the next cohort of its Capital Readiness Program, including three Philly-based startups. Plus, transportation tech startup Jawnt is partnering with parking platform SpotHero and adtech data analytics platform announced a new CEO. Check out all the details and more power moves below the chart, where we look at the top 10 desirable skills for jobs right now and how many job postings request each skill. Innovation meetup group Venture Cafe shuts down The University City Science Center is ending its biweekly Venture Cafe programming. The program was launched in 2018 and facilitated networking, panels and discussions among founders in the Science Center's community. This decision aligns with the Science Center's goal to continually evaluate and upgrade its programming, Kristen Fitch, senior director of marketing, told March 20 was the last Thursday gathering at the Science Center. The global Venture Cafe network will continue to operate in other cities. Venture Cafe Philadelphia launched around the same time that the Science Center's 3675 Market Street office opened, providing a way to engage with the community and strengthen partnerships with other orgs in uCity Square, Tiffany Wilson, president and CEO of the Science Center, said. 'By all accounts, we reflect on Venture Cafe as a major success for the Science Center,' Wilson said. 'We're eager to continue building upon that foundation to meet the changing needs of this dynamic ecosystem.' Jawnt partners with SpotHero to book parking via commuter cards Local transportation technology company Jawnt is partnering with parking reservation platform SpotHero. The partnership will allow Jawnt members to book and pay for parking on SpotHero using the money on their Jawnt commuter cards. The new feature is already available. 'While we champion public transit for its sustainability, we know that it's not always accessible to commuters due to proximity, scheduling or other factors,' said Jeff Stade, CEO of Jawnt. 'By enabling drivers to reserve their parking through the SpotHero app, they are given the power to make their car commutes more sustainable while also saving time and money.' The 2024 RealLIST Startup honoree works with companies and organizations to offer commuter benefits to its members and employees. The company's platform integrates with existing payroll systems to make it easier to manage benefits programs. appoints new CEO Adtech company appointed Ken Kennedy as its new CEO. Kennedy brings 30 years of experience working at software companies, most recently as COO and president of revenue management and digital monetization at business support software company CSG. West Chester-based platform works with organizations to better understand data about its audience. 'The company has a strong foundation, a talented team, and incredible potential for growth,' Kennedy said. 'Together, we will build on our successes, drive innovation, and unlock new opportunities to deliver value for our customers every day.' 3 Philly companies selected for Science Center's funding accelerator The University City Science Center announced the seventh cohort of its Capital Readiness Program, an accelerator for healthtech startups preparing to raise funding. Ten companies from the United States and Canada were selected to come to the Science Center the first week of April. This round, the center selected three companies local to Philly. Cerespectus is a medical device company that developed a catheter to deliver gene therapy to the central nervous system. UprightVR is developing VR rehabilitation tests and exercises to help people regain balance and prevent falls. Liife's platform uses cryptography and blockchain technology to ensure identity security. 'This program will enhance our funding readiness and connect us with inspiring entrepreneurs and industry leaders on our journey,' said Jamie Moses, cofounder and co-CEO of Liife. Since launching in 2023, the Capital Readiness Program has worked with 60 companies, which have collectively raised over $35 million. More power moves: Colby Maldini joined the Wistar Institute as a new faculty member in the HIV Cure and Viral Diseases Center. Madini joins as part of the Caspar Wistar Fellowship program, which supports younger researchers. Healthtech company Liife appointed former Amazon Web Services leader Elizabeth Boudreau to its advisory board. Boudreau currently runs a startup consulting firm, Practical Acceleration. Philly-based Kidas, an anti-bullying software for online games, partnered to provide its software on esports software company GgCircuit's platform. The Chamber of Commerce for Greater Philadelphia awarded banking executive Daniel K. Fitzpatrick the 2024 William Penn Award, which recognizes the accomplishments of businesspeople in the region. Sarah Huffman is a 2022-2024 corps member for Report for America, an initiative of The Groundtruth Project that pairs young journalists with local newsrooms. This position is supported by the Lenfest Institute for Journalism.
Technical.ly
12-03-2025
- Business
- Technical.ly
The year's top trends for early-stage startups in the mid-Atlantic, by the numbers
Early-stage startups are coming in strong in 2025, with AI, social and the environment in focus. We've gathered data on 74 early stage startups in the mid-Atlantic region, via our annual RealLIST Startups in Philadelphia, DC, Baltimore and Pittsburgh. Data includes employee counts, funds raised, workplace setup and university affiliation. The startups fell into eight categories: Software, healthtech, greentech, biotech, cybersecurity, robotics, fintech and services. No matter what category the startups represent, many of them have incorporated AI, such as DC-based PerVista AI's gun-detecting technology, Philly-based Sahay AI's railroad inspection robotics or Pittsburgh-based Moss's agriculture analyzer. More of this year's startups use AI in one capacity or another than don't. Another trend that is obscured by the limited number of categories are three social app startups — Spinnr, InPress and RYLA — that offer alternatives to big social media platforms like X and Facebook. RealLIST Startups continue to lean into the greentech and healthtech sectors, but the overall variety is diverse, including startups that offer everything from vinyl record manufacturing to laundry service. Right now, though, we're looking at the bigger picture. Read on for some of this year's top regional startup trends, by the numbers. Hybrid work reigns supreme It's been a couple of solid years now of industries declaring that remote and hybrid work are out and 100% in-person is in. While there are of course industries where employees have to be in person, whether it's a wet lab or a consumer-facing brick-and-mortar business, tech jobs generally allow for a lot of flexibility. That flexibility is reflected in the 74 early-stage companies named on the 2025 RealLIST. Less than 10% — just seven — work entirely in person. Those seven startups are spread across industry categories, with four in the largest category, software, and one each in healthtech, greentech and service. Software, by far, has the most remote-only jobs in the sample, with 17 startups that are remote-only. The two cybersecurity startups are both remote-only as are a few in healthcare, greentech, fintech and service. 47% of the startups are hybrid — the most of any workforce type. Hybrid dominated in healthtech, greentech, biotech, robotics and fintech. Starting not-so-small The startups in our dataset have all been founded within the past three years. It's expected that most don't yet have a large number of employees, and that is reflected in the data, where 29 of the 74 startups have 0-2 employees and 51, or about 70% of the startups, have 5 employees or fewer. But there are some surprises. Gemma Biotherapeutics, at less than a year old, is an outlier, with 80 employees, five times more than the startups with the next highest number of employees, Clean Plate Innovations and RoboLoop, both Pittsburgh startups founded in 2024 with 15 employees each. Counter to what we might expect, some of the youngest startups have the most employees, though it's worth noting that Gemma, Clean Plate and RoboLoop are all university-affiliated. Overall, about one-third of the 2025 RealLIST Startups have between 5 and 15 employees. Accelerators have impact, but some startups succeed without them More than twice as many of the startups have participated in accelerators or incubators, with 19 startups responding that they have not. 29 of the accelerator-attending startups have raised between $100,000 and $999,999, compared to five of the no-accelerator startups. Where it gets interesting is when you look at startups that have raised $1 million or more. Eight startups in total have surpassed the million-dollar mark — and six of them did not participate in accelerators, incubators or pitch competitions. One startup, Philadelphia's Gemma Biotherapeutics, affiliated with the University of Pennsylvania, is an outlier in several areas, including raises. The biotech company, founded in 2024, has raised $34 million. That's nearly three times more than the next highest raise on $12 million by DC's HyperSpectral Corp. At the same time many of the startups are pre-seed and have yet to raise any funding. 12 of the accelerator-attending startups reported $0 in funding, as did six of the no-accelerator startups. University affiliations are more common on the coast With so much innovation, not to mention entrepreneurship programming, coming out of the region's universities, it's not a surprise that almost one-third of the startups are affiliated with a university. Philadelphia has the most university-affiliated startups in our dataset, with ten, but Baltimore is right up there with nine; Pittsburgh has the fewest, with four, and DC is right in the middle with five. As noted with the data about the number of employees, university-affiliated startups may get bigger earlier and have opportunities to raise funds through networking and other university resources.
