The support we have received over the past few weeks has been overwhelming, and most of the core volunteers have been completely swamped.  We sincerely appreciate all of the support we have received, and we are very excited to have so many new people involved in PSL.

On behalf of the core volunteers in PSL, we want to sincerely thank you for your participation and encouragement at the PSL Fishbowl event.   It was collaborative and colloquial where people made candid statements about PSL and where the startup scene in Philly should be headed.

In this Fishbowl presentation from the Founder Factory 2010 Conference in Philadelphia, the focus is on Alternative Funding: What if traditional funding outlets are exhausted? What other avenues are worth investigating? Presenting companies are AchieveNext and Bashpole.

From the 2010 Founder Factory Conference in Philadelphia, Fishbowl #2 focuses on Scalability: Rapid growth brings with it its own set of challenges, intelligently scaling the business is crucial. Presenting companies: Greenphire and Urban Escapes.

Fishbowl presentation session #1 from the 2010 Founder Factory Conference. Fishbowl focus on Adopt-ability: EqualApp, Healthy Humans and XipWire. What do a player in the increasingly competitive and rapidly maturing mobile payment space and a an online health solution focused on helping patients improve outcomes and lower costs have in common? The not so unique challenge of user adoption. Presenting companies: EqualApp, Healthy Humans, XIPWIRE

We have a special Fishbowl event coming up on March 17th, with Allan Frank, CTO of The City of Philadelphia. He'll be presenting a vision for digital Philadelphia and an economic development model for the tech ecosystem. He's leading on some initiatives that will certainly be of interest to the tech startup community. The event is free, but requires registration. UArts Terra Building (211 S. Broad) Connelly Auditorium, Room 806, at 7:00 PM.

January 20th, 7pm Host: Frank Koehl - Fwd:Vault Location: Terra Building, Room 1107 Address: 211 South Broad St. Contact: Nicolas Warren Get Tickets Get Business tickets To welcome everyone to a new year with Philly Startup Leaders, come out and put on your marketing-caps for Frank Koehl and the newest and slickest company of 2010. Frank's new company, Fwd:Vault, allows users to backup and recover their files using their email and web browser. Without any software to install or hardware to configure, Fwd:Vault aims to make data backups available to everyone regardless of skill or situation.  Come learn from the brilliant Philadelphia marketers or assert yourself as the go-to-market genius you are. Frank Koehl is your all around go-to geek, with over 15 years of experience across the IT and web development sectors. He became a full-time entrepreneur in November 2008, when his employer went belly-up. In development for the past year and open beta for the past 5 months, Fwd:Vault will launch around the new year, at which time Frank is refocusing to marketing and advertising. “And that’s an area with which I have little direct experience,” he admits. His goal at the PSL Fishbowl is to present his initial marketing game plan, and solicit the community for feedback. Frank has thus far built Fwd:Vault without employees or outside capital, making this Fishbowl particularly useful to other “solo-preneurs.”  The University of the Arts gives us an outstanding location in which to hold the Fishbowls and there is always valuable networking with each event.  Grab your tickets before the room fills up You can read more about Frank’s background on his blog here: (http://frankkoehl.com/about-me) and you can check out Fwd:Vault by visiting his site (http://fwdvault.com). Get Tickets Get Business tickets

Date: Sept. 16th, 7pm Host: Ryan Alexander - igotaguy.com Location:  Terra Building, Room 1107 Address:   211 South Broad St. Contact:    Nicolas Warren Online event registration The next Fishbowl will be hosted by Ryan Alexander, Founder of igotaguy.com.  The concept is based on the age-old expression “I got a guy…” used to make a recommendation whenever someone is needed. Igotaguy.com aims to be the most recognizable brand of online local business advertising. The site provides profile info/photos, recommendations, and hyper-local results which build consumer confidence. Ryan is a very energetic individual with a background in sales/marketing and customer service.  Igotaguy.com has a pretty straight forward business model and a solid concept. He’s put together a rock star team that has built a winning website that continues to create BUZZ across the country because of the name alone.  Like most marketplaces online, igotaguy.com is struck with a similar chicken vs. egg problem.  Ryan needs to tap the community to discuss marketing his particular product/service locally and discuss the growth strategy he’s employing. If you're a resourceful serial entrepreneur or a social marketing guru, this is your time to shine.  Come and contribute to you community and show your brilliance at this Fishbowl. Online event registration FISHBOWL: What is this all about? Fishbowls are workshops for business owners to call upon their entrepreneurial peers in the Philadelphia community to work out a problem or situation with their business.  The focus can range from improving business practices, to marketing, strategy, or kick around a legitimate and innovative idea.  The goal is to facilitate a round table discussion and produce results that make a difference. Fishbowl hosts have the floor to themselves with limited moderation from the Fishbowl rep’, just to keep things orderly.  The fishbowl is all about you and your business.  The fishbowl is not about getting a cheering section or a pat on the back.  Fishbowls gather the brightest local minds to cultivate and propel you ahead. Fishbowls take place every other month on the third Wednesday of the month. The location is subject to change, so check back for confirmation. For more information on hosting a Fishbowl for your company, contact Nicolas Warren – fishbowl@phillystartupleaders.org

Recap Prepared By: Nicolas Warren, Tapinko Last month’s Fishbowl stirred up wonderful ideas for our host and will potentially make a great impact on the Philadelphia community.  Please read Karen’s recap of her Fishbowl as she highlights what she took from the roundtable. Fishbowls have accelerated business development and sparked innovative new ideas for company after company over the past 18 months. If your startup company would like to call upon the brilliance of Philly entrepreneurs and host a fishbowl with PSL, don’t hesitate to contact Nicolas Warren for details at fishbowl@phillystartupleaders.org. From: Karen Davis, CEO of Philadelphia Arts and Business Council. Final Comments: “I’m so impressed with the generosity of the group to spend so much of their personal time with me brainstorming ideas and solutions. I felt tremendously energized after our session and very encouraged by the possibilities. Thank you, thank you everyone for sharing your knowledge, your time and your tremendous enthusiasm with me.” Philly Startup Leaders Fishbowl Presentation Karen Davis, President & CEO, Arts & Business Council of Greater Philadelphia May 20, 2009 Issue:  Currently, the Council’s Technology Connectors® program places technology professionals as volunteers with arts managers to help solve a variety of technology issues within their organizations such as database implementation, developing websites, infrastructure and connectivity issues etc. The program has proved problematic in achieving a high rate of success with arts organizations because of the lack of dedicated staff to IT issues, prioritization of technology among other management issues, inadequate financial resources and/or knowledge of how to obtain services and, an inability to think beyond the immediate technology problem to be fixed, so in constant need of support. The Council would like to re-design how we provide technology assistance to the region’s nonprofit arts and cultural organizations to help them operate more effectively and efficiently. Salient Points from Participants: Consider getting out of the volunteer recruitment and project matching/management business. Do what we do best which is to be a conduit for arts groups to partner with technology businesses whose expertise is delivering technology services and solutions. Consider providing a directory of regional resources that the Council recommends or has established a relationship with to provide discounted services to arts organizations. Focus on strategic technology planning, technology education and awareness; not solving specific problems or providing tactical implementation of technology solutions. Consider a hybrid approach- providing some services such as planning and referral to regional service providers for other issues.

Recap Prepared By: Nicolas Warren, Tapinko Last month’s Fishbowl stirred up wonderful ideas for our host and will potentially make a great impact on the Philadelphia community.  Please read Karen’s recap of her Fishbowl as she highlights what she took from the roundtable. Fishbowls have accelerated business development and sparked innovative new ideas for company after company over the past 18 months. If your startup company would like to call upon the brilliance of Philly entrepreneurs and host a fishbowl with PSL, don’t hesitate to contact Nicolas Warren for details at fishbowl@phillystartupleaders.org. From: Karen Davis, CEO of Philadelphia Arts and Business Council. Final Comments: “I’m so impressed with the generosity of the group to spend so much of their personal time with me brainstorming ideas and solutions. I felt tremendously energized after our session and very encouraged by the possibilities. Thank you, thank you everyone for sharing your knowledge, your time and your tremendous enthusiasm with me.” Philly Startup Leaders Fishbowl Presentation Karen Davis, President & CEO, Arts & Business Council of Greater Philadelphia May 20, 2009 Issue:  Currently, the Council’s Technology Connectors® program places technology professionals as volunteers with arts managers to help solve a variety of technology issues within their organizations such as database implementation, developing websites, infrastructure and connectivity issues etc. The program has proved problematic in achieving a high rate of success with arts organizations because of the lack of dedicated staff to IT issues, prioritization of technology among other management issues, inadequate financial resources and/or knowledge of how to obtain services and, an inability to think beyond the immediate technology problem to be fixed, so in constant need of support. The Council would like to re-design how we provide technology assistance to the region’s nonprofit arts and cultural organizations to help them operate more effectively and efficiently. Salient Points from Participants: Consider getting out of the volunteer recruitment and project matching/management business. Do what we do best which is to be a conduit for arts groups to partner with technology businesses whose expertise is delivering technology services and solutions. Consider providing a directory of regional resources that the Council recommends or has established a relationship with to provide discounted services to arts organizations. Focus on strategic technology planning, technology education and awareness; not solving specific problems or providing tactical implementation of technology solutions. Consider a hybrid approach- providing some services such as planning and referral to regional service providers for other issues.