Philly Tech News' Top 2013 Stories

Tom Paine

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This is a collection of the most interesting, not necessarily most read, stories I covered on Philly Tech News during 2013.

Since I am generally only one person,I can't cover everything in-depth and I am sure there
are important things not included here. My focus has been on:

• Following the developing contest between Comcast, Charter and other cable operators to consolidate the cable industry. Watching the challenges from over the top (OTT) delivery methods to the traditional cable model, as well as the continued growth of fiber-to-the-home (FTTH). Also important in 2013 was Comcast buying out the remainder of NBCU.  
• Covering the enterprise software market, both large & small, as SaaS and the Cloud continue to gain share, Amazon Web Services soars, and everyone attempts to adjust to the new technology. Also, the continuing evolution of SAP's HANA in-memory platform.
• Reporting on trends in the eCommerce industry, which I find to be perhaps the most active and dynamic area for innovation in the Philly Tech ecosystem. 
• Covering dramatic changes occurring in healthcare IT and clinical trials technology.
• Continuing to track the best young startups in the area via Philly Tech News Young Companies to Watch, which has been expanded to 50
  companies (although a few of those have recently been acquired).
  
  

I also want to thank Esther Surden, Editor & Publisher of NJTechWeekly, for working with me and sharing excellent content with me again this year.



12/30: Pre-New Year's Surprise: PTC acquiring Exton-based ThingWorx for $112 million + potential earnout

12/17: All in the (Insight) family: Unitrends buys PHD Virtual to compete against Veeam

12/12: Epicor moves Americas ERP headquarters from Yardley to Bensalem & planning for growth

12/7: Campbell Soup's Pearl Harbor Day SpaghettiOs tweet draws attention, mixed reaction (Update: tweet removed with apology)

12/1: US 1 reports on Rosetta founder Chris Kuenne's new PE firm, Rosemark Capital Group

11/22: Report: Comcast considering Time Warner Cable bid? Update: Could be joint bid with Charter

11/18: Deloitte releases Fast 500: MeetMe #3?; Here are Philly area representatives

11/17: Wrapup: Philly at Dreamforce 13 (with more company news)

11/15: CIA CTO Gus Hunt joins LLR Partners

11/13: Begin the IPO watch for Monetate

11/9: Looking Back on Hurricane Sandy and the Tech Community, One Year Later

10/21: IMPACT 2013 Venture Summit in Philly, starting today, features 50 presenting ventures

10/18: On heels of Veeva Systems' mega IPO, a look at its Philly ties and vision for life sciences IT

10/11: The big deal: Alibaba leads $206 million round in ShopRunner

10/10: Philly to get a giant new ecommerce/retail tech stock, of sorts: QVC Group

10/2: Three big deals: SAP Ventures; Heartland Payment Systems; LLR Partners

9/17: Rick Nucci's new gig: Venture partner at FirstMark Capital

8/29: King of Prussia-based Greenphire builds alliances to reach large global clinical trial payments market, as Sunshine Act takes effect Ranked #191 on Inc. 500

8/24: Comcast highlights for week: Roberts spends time with Obama on Vineyard; WSJ on Steve Burke

8/2: Reported Charter-Cox talks, Cablevision comments raise cable M&A speculation; Comcast's view

7/31: Conshohocken's eMoney Advisor an important (but quiet) Philly software firm

7/22: SAP: McDermott to become sole CEO in 2014

7/19: Quintiq: The largest Philly-area software firm most people have never heard of

7/9: Delco insurance software firm InsPro Technologies sees continued rapid growth

7/2: Will Comcast respond to Malone's cable acquisition ambitions?

6/27: SaaS Life Sciences vendor Veeva Systems, with significant Radnor (& now Ft Washington) presence, annnounces IPO plans

6/24: Seeking growth, SunGard Availability looks to Managed Services, expands Cloud strategy

6/20: GSI Commerce renamed eBay Enterprise

6/19: MentorTech Ventures joins MissionOG in CloudMine round

5/28: Updated, revised and expanded: Philly Tech News Young Companies to Watch

5/18: Tableau's market value soars past that of competitor QlikTech on first day of trading

5/3: Philly's Connexus Technology focuses in on emerging areas of Healthcare IT

4/3: Monetate's new CFO David Stetson

3/29: Phorum Philly '13 Highlights: PeopleLinx wins "Best in Show"; Philly Enterprise Hackathon 2013 announced

3/22: More on out of home digital advertising startup Vistar Media

3/18: Phorum Philly 2013, to be held this Thursday (the 21st), has a different focus, but same quality as last year's program

3/14: New Hope-based MeetMe names COO, myYearbook co-founder Geoff Cook CEO; focuses on monetizing growing mobile traffic

3/11: California-based Cloud Pharma CRM & CMS vendor Veeva Systems, with sales & marketing based in Radnor, may seek IPO

2/25: Artisan Mobile (formerly appRenaissance) launches mobile development platform, Artisan Optimize

2/22: 451 Group research note on Dell Boomi has some interesting info

2/12: Comcast to buy rest of NBCU from GE for $18.1 billion

2/5: SAP HANA consultant John Appleby, UK-based Bluefin Solutions set up shop in Philadelphia

1/15: Bain Capital invests $150 million in Wilmington-based SevOne

1/6: Johnson & Johnson among area enterprises implementing Workday HCM

Updated, revised and expanded: Philly Tech News Young Companies to Watch

Tom Paine

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Young

Companies

To Watch


After considerable delay (it took me longer to put this together than I anticipated) here is my updated, revised and expanded (to 41 companies, actually, from 30 previously) Philly Tech News "Young Companies to Watch".

Rankings reflect a general, though by no means precise, estimate of relative market values based on revenue or profits when reported, growth, invested capital and reported valuation points, and a scattering of any other data points and inferences that I could gather. Also I look at non-quantitative indicators such as a startup's intellectual property, the track record of its leadership, and evidence of market acceptance.

The depth and quality of these Philly-area startups, I believe, is much stronger than in the past, and there many other excellent startups not on this list but are included on the bench (see others to watch). And then there is a entirely different tier of earlier-stage startups that others in Philly area have compiled information on.

This is not a revenue-driven list; relative market values may vary greatly from revenue comparisons according to the quality of a company's intellectual capital, its market acceptance, and its long-term potential for growth and profitability. There are many other excellent consulting firms and agencies, but for this purpose I focus on product-driven businesses.

Each company is privately held (though publicly traded corporations may hold a minority interest in some, and InsPro Technologies has a small public float but most of its value is in its non-listed preferred shares) and has an official headquarters or co-headquarters in the broader Philadelphia region. All of these companies' strategies are largely driven by proprietary information technology.

At the least, the top five companies (SevOne, iPipeline, InstaMed, Quintiq & Monetate) may have the potential to become IPO candidates if they do not have some other exit first. Another notable trend is the strength in the insurance software space, which appears to be booming. iPipeline, InstaMed, InsPro Technologies, Unirisx and Adaptik are all represented, and there is also Adminovate which is not included here now but may be soon.

I update these rankings on a regular basis as new information becomes available, and welcome input or insights that that might enhance their accuracy.

Congratulations to Philly Tech News' Young Companies to Watch.


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Updating & expanding Philly Tech News "Young Companies to Watch"; Seeking input

Tom Paine

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Subscribe to Philadelphia Tech News by Email

Young

Companies

To Watch


On an ongoing basis, I track promising, privately owned information technology oriented startups in the Philly area, and using a combination of subjective judgement and whatever bits of objective data I can dig up, I maintain a list of the top thirty ("Philly Tech News Young Companies To Watch") in terms of their estimated market value. Unlike other rankings, "Young Companies To Watch" is not driven primarily by revenue, since the quality and value of revenue streams vary greatly from one company to another. These rankings are only intended as rough indicators, since as I said the data on most privately held companies is sparse and perceptions of value can differ widely. Generally, though, I've found the top thirty to be a fairly good indicator, based on what some companies are eventually acquired for or valued at in a financing transaction (or in a few cases what they are valued at in a public offering although there haven't been many tech IPOS out of the Philly area lately.)

But given what appears to be a deepening talent pool in the Philadelphia area, I plan to expand "Young Companies to Watch" to at least 35 and probably to 40 companies. And I'm looking for input from the Philly Tech community.

The general qualifications are:

• The company must be officially headquartered or co-headquartered in the Philly area (including surrounding PA, NJ, and Delaware suburbs), and privately owned or not majority owned by a publicly traded coporation. 
• Information technology must be the driving force behind its offerings. It doesn't have to be a software company, but proprietary information technology must be essential to how the product is delivered.
• Companies offering products are generally favored for inclusion over consulting firms or agencies (but not absolutely)
• I'm usually looking for firms started within the last decade, although that's also not an absolute rule. For example, some companies may have been around for some time in one form but reconstitute themselves in another higher-growth  form.

You can submit the name of your startup or someone elses' and any supporting metrics you might be willing to share to phillytechnews@gmail.com (confidentially is assured). I may get back to you if I have any more questions. No metrics are required and obviously whatever you share is up to you, but information on customers, headcount, invested capital, revenue, profitability and growth are useful, as well as any major partnerships/joint ventures, or examples of industry recognition. I'll include your company on a published list of all companies that are nominated, even if it doesn't make the "Young Companies To Watch" primary rankings. By nominating your company, you'll also get it on my radar for possible future coverage if I'm not already familiar with it.

If your company is already on "Young Companies To Watch", feel free to provide more information indicating why it could be ranked higher.

I'll leave the submission process open for three weeks, or until February 2.

Thanks for your help.




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