During a time when so many new businesses fail, Tech in Motion: Philadelphia members had the privilege of hearing the secrets of those who did not on Tuesday, October 22th. A crowd of techies gathered at a co-working space, Benjamin’s Desk, for drinks, networking and the second edition of “From Startup to Success”, a series highlighting local tech companies’ rise to triumph.
As usual, the night kicked off with an hour of mixing and mingling with CTOs, founders and other technology enthusiasts. Guests arrived to a full spread of food and libations, with beer supplied by Shawnee Craft Brewing. The amazing smorgasbord of sandwiches from local restaurant, Jake’s Sandwich Board, was a hit with the guests, though the soft Philly pretzels disappeared just as quickly.
Once the attendees had a chance to meet and chat with the speakers, the educational portion of the evening began. The presenters of the evening were quite a successful lineup:
- Ted Mann, Founder and CEO of Snip Snap
- Ross Shanken, Founder and CEO of LeadiD
- Manny Wald, CTO of LeadiD
- Ryan Findley, Founder of Neomind Labs
- Tim Raybould, President of TicketLeap
Ted Mann of Snip Snap kicked it off with the story of how real life circumstances inspired him to build his coupon aggregating mobile app. He urged everyone to “download it so guys like me don’t get benched on the couch.”
Ross Shanken and Manny Wald presented for LeadiD, giving the audience both the story behind the company and the technology that makes it tick. For Ross, the startup fantasy was a reality; however it wasn’t immediate – it took eleven months to get their first client. “You can change the world,” he said, “but it’s a lot of hard work.”
Manny followed the inspirational tale with a breakdown of the coding that LeadiD uses to run. He touched on the challenges of building scalable, highly-available systems for real-time transactions. The techies in the audience were on the edge of their seats as Manny broke down the technical difficulty of being blind to the context in which his code is executed, when authoring third-party JavaScript.
Ryan Findley focused on telling the audience about the beginnings of his IT company, while encouraging entrepreneurs of any skill level to “just go for it”. Tim Raybould of TicketLeap also recounted the story of his business, from the perspective of someone who took over a startup after it had reached success. Tim talked tech and his guiding principles for Ticketleap: “Be likable, be innovative, hustle!”
The night wrapped up with a Q & A session directed at the speakers. Secrets were shared and private details were unveiled. (Who was TicketLeap’s first employee after the founder? His mom.) To become a part of this interactive evening next month, please visit Tech in Motion Philadelphia to join for free.
A big thank you to our speakers for their participation, and to our sponsors for the night: Shawnee Craft Brewing, Benjamin’s Desk, Jobspring Partners and Workbridge Associates.