Not everyone is fortunate enough to be technologist or have a co-founder with a tech background. Many of our region’s entrepreneurs get stuck in a quandary – how do I find a developer, how do I manage a development project, how do I choose the best platform to develop my ideas, how do I evaluate talent, and the list goes on. PSL is working on a series of discussions lead by entrepreneurs, CIO’s and CTO’s who can answer these technology development questions. This first one, on June 14th from 6:30-8:30 at the Baiada Center on Drexel’s Campus, will be lead by Niraj Patel (see bio below). Niraj will begin tackling this issue by starting out with the simple question – What does your customer need?  The first step in any technology development project is ensuring you are building the right product.  Niraj will lead an interactive discussion that will give you insight into solving your most critical technology development issues by focusing on your customers first. Registration - http://spreadsheets.google.com/viewform?formkey=dHhna1FfOWxPRTN6MnRQcGNpdzJNMWc6MQ Niraj Patel Patel currently serves as President of ISGN, a Partner of Witmer LLC and Managing Director for the Musser Consulting Group. As a multi-national/cross border expert, he has a strong client base in India and has completed large scale projects bridging nations. Patel works closely with his diverse clients including single product firms, medium size firms targeting rapid growth and international conglomerates. It’s their potential that drives Patel to engage their leaders to conceptualize and generate innovative ideas, analyze business strategies, and develop effective solutions, processes and procedures to produce streamlined profitable operations. His approach assists organizations accelerate growth and realize their fullest potential. Previously Patel served as a founding member and Executive Vice President/CIO for GMAC Commercial Mortgage.  As a member of the Executive Committee, he was a key contributor to the organization’s international growth by consistently delivering double-digit net income growth reaching as high as $341.6 million annually, increasing loan originations from $2 to $29.9 billion, building loan servicing from $5 to $276 billion. Recognized as an award winning innovator and viewed as one of the leading technologists of his generation, Patel serves on numerous boards and panels, speaks at industry conferences and has been quoted by The Wall Street Journal and numerous commercial real estate, finance and technology publications. Patel’s community and professional memberships have included the Microsoft Executive Circle; Eastern Technology Council; the Board of Advisors of the Marketing Center at the Temple University Fox School of Business; the NPower CIO Advisory Council. and His executive board experience includes: the Mortgage Industry Standards Maintenance Organization (MISMO) Board of Directors,  EnableUS, Epitome Systems, MortgageRamp, Deskom and GTEL. He is a Wharton certified manager and has a BBA in Finance and MIS from Temple University. Patel resides in suburban Philadelphia with his family. Not everyone is fortunate enough to be technologist or have a co-founder with a tech background. Many of our region’s entrepreneurs get stuck in a quandary – how do I find a developer, how do I manage a development project, how do I choose the best platform to develop my ideas, how do I evaluate talent, and the list goes on. PSL is working on a series of discussions lead by entrepreneurs, CIO’s and CTO’s who can answer these technology development questions. This first one, on June 14th from 6:30-8:30 at the Baiada Center on Drexel’s Campus, will be lead by Niraj Patel (see bio below). Niraj will begin tackling this issue by starting out with the simple question – What does your customer need? The first step in any technology development project is ensuring you are building the right product.  Niraj will lead an interactive discussion that will give you insight into solving your most critical technology development issues by focusing on your customers first. Click Here to Register - Act Now - Space Limited! Niraj Patel Patel currently serves as President of ISGN, a Partner of Witmer LLC and Managing Director for the Musser Consulting Group. As a multi-national/cross border expert, he has a strong client base in India and has completed large scale projects bridging nations. Patel works closely with his diverse clients including single product firms, medium size firms targeting rapid growth and international conglomerates. It’s their potential that drives Patel to engage their leaders to conceptualize and generate innovative ideas, analyze business strategies, and develop effective solutions, processes and procedures to produce streamlined profitable operations. His approach assists organizations accelerate growth and realize their fullest potential. Previously Patel served as a founding member and Executive Vice President/CIO for GMAC Commercial Mortgage.  As a member of the Executive Committee, he was a key contributor to the organization’s international growth by consistently delivering double-digit net income growth reaching as high as $341.6 million annually, increasing loan originations from $2 to $29.9 billion, building loan servicing from $5 to $276 billion. Recognized as an award winning innovator and viewed as one of the leading technologists of his generation, Patel serves on numerous boards and panels, speaks at industry conferences and has been quoted by The Wall Street Journal and numerous commercial real estate, finance and technology publications. Patel’s community and professional memberships have included the Microsoft Executive Circle; Eastern Technology Council; the Board of Advisors of the Marketing Center at the Temple University Fox School of Business; the NPower CIO Advisory Council. and His executive board experience includes: the Mortgage Industry Standards Maintenance Organization (MISMO) Board of Directors,  EnableUS, Epitome Systems, MortgageRamp, Deskom and GTEL. He is a Wharton certified manager and has a BBA in Finance and MIS from Temple University. Patel resides in suburban Philadelphia with his family.

Join us for the June happy hour! Note that it's on a Tuesday this month instead of the usual Wednesday. Happy Hour June 8 6:30-9:30 PM Ladder 15 Bar & Restaurant 1528 Sansom Street Philadelphia, PA 19102 (215) 964-9755 Click here for a map and location details

We are incredibly excited for Steve Welch's Entrepreneurs Unplugged Session. Steve will be leading our group through the characteristics of a successful startup entrepreneur and instructing us in trait development as a success predictor. Register today to reserve a FREE seat for Entrepreneurs Unplugged v. VIII Entrepreneurs Unplugged Series continues on Wed, June 16th at 7 pm. Featured Entrepreneur: Steve Welch of Dreamit Ventures, "We are All Born Entrepreneurs", Philadelphia's Entrepreneur of the Year, 2008 Location: Hamilton Hall 320 South Broad Street (map – http://tr.im/hHpj ) Cosponsored by the Corzo Center for the Creative Economy at The University of the Arts. Presentation Topic: The Traits of Success and How to Develop Them. Description: Steve Welch is in a unique position. As a successful biotech/engineering entrepreneur, analytical genius, angel investor, incubator founder and author, he has made a study out of what it takes to succeed in the startup world. Steve examined the characteristics of success while interviewing and profiling over 100 hyper-achieving businessmen and women for his novel "We Are All Born Entrepreneurs". His findings are remarkable and you should know about them if you want to succeed in your venture.  Join us to learn, be inspired and challenged while putting yourself in the position to attain success. Register today to reserve your free seat! Thanks to our friends at the Corzo Center of the University of Arts for providing such an extraordinary venue to showcase our local talent. Video production by Paul Shannon of Real Arts Media. Tickets are free thanks to TicketLeap.

Video interviews with 2010 Entrepreneur Expo exhibitors are now online!

We'll have some highly experienced angel investors and others participating in a friendly competitive setting; it should be a great time to learn about the ways that a really well conceived early-stage startup can gain support in getting to next steps of success. -And three enabler-selected local startups will get a very specific look into how they can move ahead. You can register to attend at: https://philly-startup-leaders.ticketleap.com/startup-love-triangle---a-philly-startup-leaders-event-05-19-2010-19-0 The Format: 1) Four startup enablers introduce themselves and their models. 5 minutes each. 20 minutes total. 2) Three early stage startups (approved by the enablers as being of interest) present their pitches. 5 minutes each for presentation, and 5 each for questions. 30 minutes total. 3) The enablers then pitch each of the startups regarding how they are the best solution for that startup, and present their advantages over the other models in this particular scenario. 20 minutes per startup, 60 minutes total. 4) Startups each respond, choosing which pitch sounds best for their own needs. 10 minutes. -But no money is exchanged or further support promised; this event is for demonstration purposes only. Our enablers are: Ellen Weber -Executive Director, Robin Hood Ventures Gabe Weinberg - Lean Angel/Entrepreneur Steve Welch - Dreamit Ventures Gabe Zichermann - Founders Institute

Join us for the May happy hour! Happy Hour May 12 6:30-9:30 PM Ladder 15 Bar & Restaurant 1528 Sansom Street Philadelphia, PA 19102 (215) 964-9755 Click here for a map and location details

Apply for President and All Executive Roles Philly Startup Leaders is now accepting applications for every key position in the organization. This includes President, Vice President, Events Director, Technology Director, Marketing Director, Operations Director, Membership Director, Finance Director and new positions we need and don’t have. We hope you’ll apply. This not a third world coup (we’d love to be important enough for one of those). It’s exactly what a thriving movement like ours should do at this moment in its life.   Why PSL needs fresh blood PSL was created from fresh blood in a stale city. It was created by young entrepreneurs crazy enough to believe that they could build their dreams here. That Philly could become the next great startup city. As a community, we’ve crushed it. No one in Philly feels lonely anymore when they launch a startup. No one struggles to find other entrepreneurs like them. No one wonders whether it’s possible to succeed here. We have more members, events and internal entrepreneurship than ever before. Over 650 people participate in our email lists, we host over 30 yearly events, and traditions like PSL poker, Starter Stories and PSL Vice Squad were all started and run spontaneously by members. Now it’s time for more fresh blood to transform this city all over again. It’s time for each of us who has built PSL to make room for the people who will grow this community in ways we could never imagine.  

If you're an internet entrepreneur, you likely have some experience with outsourcing and, like everyone else, have probably had mixed results. We've all been there, so we decided to talk about it and share tips on how we've made outsourcing work for us. Jameson Detweiler from GreenKonnect will be moderating a pretty amazing group of people: Chris Conley who does lots of really cool things and is a Mechanical Turk ninja who knows how to get trustworthy results. Andy Guy from Basecamp Business who has perfected using Mechanical Turk for repetitive tasks to maintain everyone's favoritePhilly events calendar. Phil Ives from Philadev who must be crazy because he doesn't interview when when hiring through oDesk. Satyajeet Shahade from Raspee who I think has tried pretty much every outsourcing option out there. Please RSVP to let us know how many people will be there. If you have any questions or topics that you're interested in discussing, let us know in the comments below. If you can't make it, David Speers has volunteered to record it, and we'll make sure to let you know when we put it up. Making Outsourcing Work for You (or Getting Other People To Do Your Work) Drexel University Baiada Center (3225 Arch St.) Tuesday, April 20 at 7PM Please RS Making Outsourcing Work for You (or Getting Other People To Do Your Work) Drexel University Baiada Center (3225 Arch St.) Tuesday, April 20 at 7PM Please RSVP

Entrepreneurs Unplugged is back, with Brad Blumberg leading our group through the intricacies of selling innovative technologies to existing markets resistant to change. Register today to reserve a FREE seat for Entrepreneurs Unplugged v. VII Entrepreneurs Unplugged Series continues on Wed, April 28th at 7 pm. Featured Entrepreneur: Brad Blumberg, Founder of SmarterAgent Location: Hamilton Hall 320 South Broad Street (map - http://tr.im/hHpj ) Cosponsored by the Corzo Center for the Creative Economy at The University of the Arts. Presentation Topic: How to sell innovation to markets that don't think they're ready for it. Description: Smarter Agent faced the whole chicken or the egg, Customer/Investor/New Technology problem that so many of us are challenged with, and got through it almost a decade ago when it proposed how the trillion dollar real estate industry could go mobile. Learn how to get started, how to handle objections, and when not to quit. Today, Smarter Agent has raised millions of dollars and is a national leader in mobile application development and mobile search. Brad Blumberg, CEO/Founder will recount lessons learned and how to apply them to your business. Register today to reserve your free seat! Thanks to our friends at the Corzo Center of the University of Arts for providing such an extraordinary venue to showcase our local talent. Video production by Paul Shannon of Real Arts Media. Tickets are free thanks to TicketLeap.

April 14 is an evening not to be missed. Good Company Ventures is hosting its Philly launch event about social entrepreneurship and mission-driven investment. Then the party moves to Ladder 15 for the Philly Startup Leaders happy hour. It's going to be a heckuva night. Here are the where and when for both events... Good Company Ventures Philadelphia Launch April 14 @ 5:30pm Blank Rome Conference Center One Logan Square - 130 North 18th Street, Phila, PA 19103 Philly Startup Leaders Happy Hour April 14 @ 7:30pm Ladder 15 - 1528 Sansom Street, Philadelphia (215) 964-9755 http://www.ladder15philly.com Can't wait to see you at both events!