Sneak Peek: An early look at some new ventures popping up around Philly (Yorn, Vita Poducts, Storably)

Tom Paine

Yorn is a West Conshohocken-based startup which provides a feedback loop from mobile devices that people can use to rate the experience they've had with whatever it is you want feedback on, resulting in a "Yorn Score". Yorn received an investment of $150,000 from Ben Franklin Technology Partners SE in the 2nd quarter. Its CEO is Rick Rasansky, who founded early Philly SaaS startup eCal and was one of individuals behind Network Acquisition Corp, which acquired the Philly Wi-Fi network from Earthlink and later sold it to the city.

Vita Products, a Philadelphia-based company about which I've written previously, has raised $687,000 of a $937,000 offering, according to an SEC filing. Its VITAband product, originally designed with joggers in mind, is a bracelet providing medical professionals with your identification, relevant medical history and emergency contacts, and also includes contactless payment technology you can use with a Visa Prepaid Card.

Storably is a new Philly startup that will help people make use of idle space they might have, such as empty basements and parking spaces, by creating an online marketplace where others can rent that space for their storage needs. Its website goes live tomorrow, the company says, and Storably will be doing a demo at tomorrow night's Philly Tech Meetup. Josh Kowitt and Apu Gupta are co-founders and Wharton graduates. Community Manager Brendan Lowry wrote in an email: "We are a team of Philadelphians who love tech and all things Philly". Its office is located at 2038 Locust Street, between 20th and 21st.

University of Pennsylvania School of Veterinary Medicine student Dr. Jonathan L. Lustgarten (he had previously earned a PHD in Biomedical Informatics at Pitt) is working to develop a state-of-the-art, easily deployed, electronic veterinary health record system to help veterinarians and staff in caring for animals during disaster relief efforts. As the winner of the Penn Vet 2011 Student Inspiration Award, Dr. Lustgarten will receive a $100,000 unrestricted grant to continue work on his project, named the Rehabilitation and Emergency COmputerized VEterinary Records, or RECOVER.


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Sneak Peek: An early look at some new ventures popping up around Philly

Tom Paine

I had reported that Ecount (sold to Citi in 2007, now Citi Prepaid Services) co-founders Matt Gillin and Paul Raden have started Radnor-based Relay Network with backing from First Round Capital, ICG and NewSpring Capital. Now two other Ecount vets, Drew Kese and Kevin O'Nell, are getting back into the startup game with a venture called Orocast. Still very much in a stealth mode, Orocast won't say much about what its doing, though it did have a public coming out of sorts by cosponsoring Philly Scalathon in July. O'Nell said in a phone conversation to expect more news in the 4th quarter; just my guess that some clues about the venture's general direction might be found in its name and the founders' backgrounds.

Terry Williams' new venture, Cross X Platform, announced recently that it had launched and on Friday said that it had launched its website. Cross X (CXP) provides a shared platform of technology and support services for IT consulting and services firms. It may take equity stakes in some of these firms, and conversely the IT firms may participate in CXP's equity. CXP is located in Audubon. Terry founded and later sold the TWC Group, and is co-founder and managing partner of Next Stage Capital.

Zooyan is a Philly-based local shopping/deals site which annnounced its launch in March. Zooyan is operating in Philly only now, though it has plans to expand elsewhere. Its offers goods and services from local merchants broken down by neighborhood.

DoughMain (yes, thats its name) announced it has raised $5 million in Angel funding and launched its site August 1. The Princeton-based venture says that it will "offer a suite of features designed to help families coordinate their lives while empowering them to become better educated about money".

Phiiladelphia-based VITA Products has launched its new product, the VITAband, originally designed with runners in mind. It offers customers a small bracelet on which they can store personal health information, and it can also be used for contactless payment transactions.

CloudMine, a venture with local roots that provides tools for mobile app developers, was one of the first to be accepted into this year's Philly DreamIt Ventures class, according to Technically Philly.

MDconnectMe, a Philadelphia-based company, provides
a mobile app that connects patients with physicians and other healthcare providers in what it says is a HIPAA-compliant way. (The issue of direct electronics communications between physicians and patients has always been contentious.) It reported raising $50,000 in an SEC filing in May.



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Daily Links 7/27/2011: paidContent profiles Philadelphia newspaper owner Randall Smith

Safeguard Scientifics Announces Second Quarter 2011 Financial Results (Business Wire)


Jim Snabe, co-CEO SAP explains current business drivers (ZDNet Blogs)

SAP Co-CEO McDermott Talks up HANA, Mobility and SaaS (PC World)

Google and SAP Team-Up to Help You Visualize Big Data (ReadWriteWeb)

InterDigital Announces Second Quarter 2011 Financial Results (Business Wire)

Huawei 'puzzled' at InterDigital patent complaint (CNET News)

Who Is Randall Smith And Why Is He Buying Up Newspaper Companies? (paidContent)
About the mysterious character whose company controls Philadelphia Media Network and Journal Register (a Wharton MBA by the way); will Journal Register CEO John Paton have a new job soon?

Founder Office Hours With Chris Dixon And Josh Kopelman: Schedit (TechCrunch)

Gamma Basics Launches grayCAD, Groundbreaking New Medical Radiation Safety Software (PR Web)
Backed by Bentley family interests.

VITA Products Launches Innovative Contactless Payment Program (Business Wire)

The Pros and Cons of Moving Your Business Into the Cloud (Mashable)
Interviews Chris Cera, CTO for Philly-based Vuzit.

Comcast, Level 3 Still At Impasse Over Internet Connection Fees
Level 3 CEO Crowe: 'Huge Battle' With MSO Over Terms of Traffic Exchange (Multichannel News)

Quality Systems Leverages Fed Stimulus In Health IT (Investor's Business Daily)
Quality Systems' primary business, NextGen Healthcare, is based in Horsham.

Beige Book: Third District-Philadelphia, July 27, 2011 (Federal Reserve Board)



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