Chad Wingrave is Shooting for #AppStoreDisruption

instrapption.com @Instrapption What’s wrong with the appstore’s current model/tech? I used to Love finding new Apps. I’ve been talking to people, and we’re all in the same boat. We just aren’t looking anymore. Apple’s App Store is an amazing creation, but – it’s been around so long it’s become a mess. Organization does not exist that supports the volume and breadth of its Apps. Currently, App Store search is only based on the App’s title (leading to very long titles) and most people download based upon the look of the icon. This is not ideal. I believe Apple is waiting for someone to fix this. And to their credit, they are buying and incorporating any company that offers solutions.

What are you doing to solve it? I’m fixing it. It’s not about Apps, it’s about YOU and what brings YOU Joy in life. InstrApption listens to your interests and finds you Apps that support them. That’s it. If you like weather Apps and need one that provides radar maps and low/high tide information, InstrApption guides you to those Apps. When better Apps come along, it let’s you know. InstrApption also finds Apps to help in ways you didn’t realize. That’s really valuable because great Apps keep being made and changing how you experience life. InstrApption is also about community. The community submits Apps, identifies their features and comments on how appealing and valuable an App is. This information is processed by a back-end recommendation engine that is constantly rehashing new data from multiple sources. A radically different communication interface serves the community. You’ll have to see it for yourself. I didn’t like anything that existed so I merged the best of chat, blogs and forums.

What helpful insight did you gain from you demo night?
The Walnut St Labs audience was insightful – They sliced and diced ideas that I have held and made me rethink and justify each one. I have several new ideas to improve InstrApption, as well as ideas on how to push InstrApption forward as a company.

CardConnect Joins Walnut St. Labs to Build a Stronger Software Development Ecosystem

cardconnectCardConnect, a leading provider of payment processing and technology services based in King of Prussia, has partnered with Walnut St. Labs, an innovation lab located in West Chester, to grow and support the software development community through short, hands-on classes held in West Chester. “It’s essentially developers teaching developers or trying-to-become developers,” said Chris Dima, founder and CEO of Walnut St. Labs. “Our concept, iSchool, is based on the idea that the best people to inspire and effectively teach cutting-edge technologies are those who are using those technologies.” iSchool began in earnest over the summer, said Dima, a graduate of West Chester University and resident of the Borough of West Chester.

“We realized that a lot of the regulars who were novice programmers were getting really good—quickly—by hanging out with the senior folks. So we decided to test a more formal version of it.” CardConnect, who relocated their new headquarters to this area in 2012, has been growing rapidly over the last few years — particularly in technology related to facilitating and securing electronic payments. Angelo Greco, Executive Vice President of Sales for CardConnect, said the area has the right talent but they’re always looking for more. “Our success is directly linked to the support and growth of our technology platform, so being part of the local tech community is important to us. We like what Walnut St. Labs is doing to give developers and technology innovators a place to hang out, do projects, and learn.” said Grecco.

“With a new home base here and low unemployment across the region, it’s key to take the longer-term perspective and support organic learning in places like Walnut St. Labs.” So far, iSchool at Walnut St. Labs has held classes on Boxfuse, Shippable, Meteor.js, ReactiveX, and Flask (a Python Framework). iSchool—purposefully not ‘Code School’ is planning on having 3D Printing- and IoT-related classes, too. “If we can get people excited about new technology and provide hands-on experience, they’ll be the self-driven folks who everyone will be looking to employ next month, next year and beyond,” said Dima. “We think this is efficient—and fun.” iSchool runs on Wednesday nights during Walnut St. Labs’ Night Owls—a weekly open house that starts at 7pm and runs until 10pm.

CardConnect CardConnect is a leading provider of payment processing and technology services that helps more than 50,000 merchants across the U.S., from Fortune 500 companies to small and mid-sized businesses, accept billions of dollars in card transactions each year. The company’s patented tokenization and gateway solutions make payment acceptance simple, integrated and secure. 

3D Printers, Micro-Manufacturing, the Internet of Things and More

Three months ago we visited NextFab, a collaborative makerspace in Philly, along with the i2n.  We were blown away. We’ve been focused on software here at the lab — but seeing hardware and physical creations — it made us realize that we needed to learn more.

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Through funding provided by the i2n and the Chester County Economic Development Council, we created a partnership with NextFab that brought us education, training and two Bukito 3D printers. It went swimmingly well but we were left with the question:

What do we do now?! What will have the biggest impact?! We were unanimous: Let’s get more printers into the world.

So last month we launched a 3D Printer Boot Camp. We brought people into the lab, taught them all they needed to know to build their own 3D printer and use it. And they did. That was our confirmation that Chester County was ready for innovation in micro-manufacturing and 3D printing. And so are we.

Here’s Our Vision 

Fabrication technologies, maker expertise and advances in electronics, combined with social media, design and a user focus, is the new face of innovation. It’s the type of innovation that positively impacts and changes people’s lives — and the power is in people’s hands to do it for themselves. Walnut St Labs will work hard to be the best hub, the best place to connect businesses, entrepreneurs, academics and makers, for mutual support and inspiration and advancement.

Here’s What We’re Going To Do

1. More 3D Printers with Boot Camps: We have two boot camps slated for Aug 1st and Aug 29th. Our first boot camp sold out the first week we started promoting it and resulted in 5 new 3D printers in Chester County. We expect similar results for these two as well. Our goal is to continually grow our local network of makers and fabricators in size and competency and create exposure. Lots of it.

2. A WSL Makerspace Meetup: Starting now, every Wednesday night from 7-10 we will hold open makerspace hours. It will be an opportunity for makers to meet other makers to collaborate or for novices to see demos of 3D printing. This will connect those interested in 3D printers who aren’t just ready to dive into a bootcamp with the experts we already have. Feel free to come and hang out.

3. We’re Going IoT (Internet of Things): The fun stuff you can make with a 3D printers barely scratches the surface in our opinion. Our vision is to couple 3D printing with embedded electronics and then connect these devices on networks. The future unfolds from there.

4. Welcome Chad Wingrave!: We convinced Dr. Chad Wingrave to help lead the charge. Chad has diverse experience and passion for Virtual Reality, software, hardware, and for creating user-centered technology. He’s a great teacher and facilitator too. We are confident that he can develop the community and help craft the labs’ strategy. Thank you Chad!!

5. We’re Connecting the Dots, the People and the Institutions: Our partnerships with Liberty Value Initiative, Dansko, Penn State Great Valley, and Kennett Square Makers — and the other organizations in this article — will help define what this movement will mean for Chester County. Are you interested in working with us? Helping us? Come out and meet us. Or send us a message.