Chris Dima, Author at Walnut St. Labs

Make Money, Change the World: Cora- A High Growth For-Profit/For-Purpose Startup

Molly Hayward, Founder of Cora

“My work at Cora has taken hold of me. It really found me. I certainly wasn’t looking for it, but it’s been incredible.”
— Molly Hayward, Founder of Cora

“My background was in economic development, women’s rights and human rights. I thought I was going to work for a big NGO, join the peace core, or work for a non-profit after college. Fate kind of intervened and I very serendipitously joined a tech startup in Philly.”
— Molly Hayward, Founder of Cora

“I started as a intern. They paid me a thousand dollars a month, which was awful. Yeah, it sucked! Although, now I look back and I’d kill for a thousand dollars a month.”
— Molly Hayward, Founder of Cora

“Within three months, I was out raising money with the CEO. That was where I cut my teeth, and I learned by doing. I really loved the CEO’s role. It was that high level, visionary work that appealed to me most.”
— Molly Hayward, Founder of Cora

“My first company was a draw. I invested a lot and somehow broke-even, myself. After two years, I couldn’t get an entrepreneurial visa to stay in London, and so I was unceremoniously deported.”
— Molly Hayward, Founder of Cora

“Its really funny looking back on my journey, because it was just a fucking mess!”
— Molly Hayward, Founder of Cora

“(At Cora) wWe are a Women’s health company that aligns technology and products to a Woman’s natural cycles, across her entire lifetime. We started out as a monthly subscription box for organic feminine hygiene products.”
— Molly Hayward, Founder of Cora

“We let women create a customized box of organic feminine products, and we ship them to her every month. Like Tom’s Shoes , like Warby Parker, for every monthly box that we ship to a women here in the US, we provide a month supply of products to a girl in a developing country, who would otherwise be missing days of school every month during her period.”
— Molly Hayward, Founder of Cora

“This is a huge problem, all around the developing world. There are many NGO’s that are pumping tons and tons of money into girls education because we see these massive returns economically when we invest in girls’ education, and yet, girls at 12 or 13 drop out of school because they miss days of school, due to their period and they fall behind.”
— Molly Hayward, Founder of Cora

Toxic Chemicals: “I found that most of the products that most
women use in this country, conventional products like Tampax, Kotex, Playtex, they’re made from cotton that has been heavily sprayed with pesticides, mixed with synthetics and bleached. All of those substances cause there to be toxic chemical residue, that are linked to reproductive diseases and cancers.”
— Molly Hayward, Founder of Cora

“Women are exposing themselves to these products for days at time , every month, for forty years of their lives. And it’s really just wrong. I couldn’t in good conscience contribute to that.”
— Molly Hayward, Founder of Cora

“Prior to (raising 30,000 crowdfunding with) my plum ally campaign, I had completely bootstrapped it, including money from the job, as well as multiple credit cards. I don’t think enough people talk about that.”
— Molly Hayward, Founder of Cora

“Now, we are raising a seed round. And, I say we’re because while for a long time it was just me, I’ve more recently and all the sudden, hired on a team of five people.”
— Molly Hayward, Founder of Cora

“We advocacy center for women at Cora. We started out with menstruation, and we quickly noticed more comprehensive support system was needed. Our intention is to build a brand that is massive and inclusive, to become a mainstream provider, in a way that organic pr0ducts haven’t yet mastered.”
— Molly Hayward, Founder of Cora

Indie Film Nite w/ Andrew Schwabe

Andrew C Schwabe is an entrepreneur, musician, film producer and a humanitarian. He is the founder of Countdown Productions, an independent film production group.

Mark was sporting a precursory ‘cop-mustache’ for Movember.

It’s an opportunity for men to gain permission from their wives or girlfriends in order to raise money for men’s health. It seems, despite our patriarchal roots, men still need an excuse to grow mustaches.

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Andrew provided the storyline underlying his eclectic medley of film projects, most of which involved some degree of gun play with live ammunition and blood.

Bloodlust was a reoccurring element throughout.

Jesse Piersol (our special events coordinator) brought her mother along, who happens to be one of sweetest people on the planet!

Andrew showed some graphic, yet artful clips from“Dark of Winter” and elucidated some of the film’s imagery.

Despite it’s violent overtones and our lack of exposure to the entire piece, it was obvious that each detail was chosen with the end in mind. Let’s just say that the murders were most certainly premeditated.

“This is how we do Romance” (password: “romance”) was a really interesting commentary on relational dynamics.

In line with the Schwabe aesthetic, its portrayal was extremely twisted, dark and strangely hilarious!

Mrs. Schwabe, Rebecca, was kind enough to facilitate the technical operations and baked some righteous cupcakes! As Andrew would say, “they rawked!”

Andrew shot part of a documentary about Aboriginal Australia filmed in Queensland Australia in 2012, and will be showing a rough cut of the footage. It was never finished because the majority of the film is about his friend who passed away 2 months after it was recorded.

The Schwabes’ documentary revealed a completely different side of Countdown Productions.

Andrew skyped in a call to his director and childhood friend, Mr. David C Snyder of HWIC Filmworks.

They fielded some seriously thoughtful questions and reminisced about their process.

It was heartwarming to see Andy and David discuss their lifelong friendship and their love for indie film.

Their collaborative efforts have amounted to such a creative and provocative body of independent films.

Bootstrapping a MilkCrate; A Digital Hub for Sustainability

Morgan Berman, Cofounder and CEO of MilkCrate Philly

MilkCratePhilly.com
@MilkCratePhilly
@morganberman

“I didn’t know how to write. I didn’t know how to code. I just had the desire and the insanity to do it.”
— Morgan Berman, Cofounder of MilkCrate Philly

“My confusion on how to live more sustainably is what inspired MilkCrate Philly. When I was writing my master’s thesis I learned that pretty much everyone else was confused too. People want to make transformative choices, but we get stuck in our habits because we’re confused and the information too spread out.”
— Morgan Berman, Cofounder of MilkCrate Philly

“There are a lot of green apps out there, but they’re all very niche. Many are siloed by the technology they’re focusing on, the category they’re focused on, or the geography they’re active in.”
— Morgan Berman, Cofounder of MilkCrate Philly

“What will make MilkCrate Philly successful is providing engaging everyday experience, where you can see what people are doing in your community to be more sustainable. A lot of those actions are going to be sponsored by places like the water department, the energy Co-op, or local green companies. Each sponsor will have signup forms with simple calls to action or lifestyle tips.”
— Morgan Berman, Cofounder of MilkCrate Philly

“With the use of social logins, we’re giving your interests, as consumers, to related parties and organizations. We’re capturing that interest and creating a funnel for local programs. With one click, you can make those decisions and the rest is up to them.”
— Morgan Berman, Cofounder of MilkCrate Philly

“We also have a searchable database that will allow you to browse for businesses on your own, but we’re giving your interests to them and creating a funnel for participation and engagement, so that it can evolve naturally.”
— Morgan Berman, Cofounder of MilkCrate Philly

“We just got into Project Liberty , which is an incubator with the Philadelphia Inquirer and Benjamin Franklin Tech Partners, SEP. We’re really excited about potential for creating more engaging content for sustainability.”
— Morgan Berman, Cofounder of MilkCrate Philly

“We’ve been talking with Ticketleap about how to integrate with them, in an effort to make it really easy for you to engage with our community and actively participate”
— Morgan Berman, Cofounder of MilkCrate Philly

“We’re not creating our own criteria system or standards. We’re using the existing standards of our partner organizations. B Corp is a partner. SBN Philadelphia is a partner. We basically get their lists, import them into our database and it codes whether someone is a member or not, and those badges will show up on the app.”
— Morgan Berman, Cofounder of MilkCrate Philly

We’ve also been talking with Change.org in order to expand beyond conscientious consumerism. We’re venturing into opportunities for political action and civic engagement, so that you can support other causes that matter to you.”
— Morgan Berman, Cofounder of MilkCrate Philly

“Our collaborators are truly at the heart of what we are doing!”
— Morgan Berman, Cofounder of MilkCrate Philly

Prezi Bootcamp w/ the i2n Team

The CCEDC’s i2n team visited WSL today for a crash course on Prezi. Our designers, Daniel, Jehrin and Mary are all very innately creative people who enjoy working with design softwares that are as fun and exciting as they are!

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We took the Prezi Bootcamp opportunity as an excuse to show off a new product that we’ve been working on. So, we decided to demo a scheduling software that provides local innovators opportunity to share their expertise with aspiring entrepreneurs, at one of three locations.

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There was a previous attempt on our part to implement a comparable product as part of our mentorship program, but there were far too many bugs and too few answers from their support team. Rather than attempting to lash back at their apathetic team, we opted to quietly build a replacement.

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Following the demo, our design team stepped in and gave an overview of the prezi’s basic functionality. They displayed a step by step walkthrough of the software, gave real life examples, and answered questions.

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The bootcamp seemed like it was very well received and we had some fun in the process of doing it. Another fun day at WSL, filled with learning opportunities.

EarthNight Demo w/ Rich Siegel

@cleaversoft
@RichSieges

What was the inspiration behind EarthNight?

My friend Paul and I were playing lots of runner games at the time on iOS, and they all lacked depth. It was nothing like the kind of depth I had come to expect from great games. So, we set out to make the best runner game of all time! That was almost three years ago now.

Paul’s graphic illustrations and Chipocrite‘s chiptunes are my main sources of inspiration for the game. We wanted to make every single frame of the game look like a living painting, a super graphically deep experience. We want to provide an experience that no other runner has pulled off yet. And, Chipocrite is the best chiptune artist I know, perhaps the best of all time!

NO1

What does EarthNight offer that is chiefly unique?

Well, the game is not easy at all. You really have to have fast reaction timing and understand the game’s systems in order to be successful. You cant just start mashing buttons and hope to beat the game. It’s a game of finesse. Once you get a game over, that’s it, you’ll have to restart form the beginning. The game only has two buttons so it’s simple enough for anyone to learn how to play in 10 seconds, but it’ll take a lifetime to master. I hope it’s one of those games that people can play over and over and over again.

NO2

What’s next for EarthNight?

Who knows?! We just announced on a couple months ago that EarthNight will be launched on PlayStation 4. I had the opportunity to demo EarthNight at the Sony booth at E3. We also got to demo EarthNight to a ton of people at Technically Phill’s Philly Tech Week. A lot have people have been asking when the release date will be, even my parents, and my answer to them is I have no idea. You cant rush art and I think of this project as a work of art. So, the answer is as long as it takes!

NO3

Building a Better Startup Ecosystem in Philadelphia w/ Eamon Gallagher

@PHLStartupLaw
@gweberlaw

“Through my work as a recruiter, I quickly found out that the good clients to target were companies that were going through series A, series B, or series C rounds of financing because they needed to grow very rapidly, and they needed quality individuals in order to scale up their businesses. I really became involved in companies in growth mode at that time.”
–Eamon Gallagher, Associate of Weber Law

“I was very fortunate that Drexel Law had a business and entrepreneurship program. It’s actually focused on training students to become attorneys in a transactional law practice, not litigation, not in the courtroom, not tearing things apart. I wanted to be on the constructive side of things.”
–Eamon Gallagher, Associate of Weber Law

“I graduated last May and now I’m a practicing startup attorney. I was very much the beneficiary of a certain level of randomness, which is the amazing growth of the philadelphia startup scene and the startup tech scene.”
–Eamon Gallagher, Associate of Weber Law

“The Keiretsu Angel Investment Forum was partnering with Drexel Law to form what they called the Due Diligence Fellowship Program and that meant I got to help them screen deals, look at pitches, be a part of their forums with their investors, see how they critiqued deals, and what their pain points were.”
–Eamon Gallagher, Associate of Weber Law

“I built up a network over a period of time, and places like Walnut St. Labs, Seed Philly, Venturef0rth, 3401 Market (Innovation Center @3401) are the types of places where you can get plugged into a community really really fast and avoid some of the pitfalls that first, second or third-time entrepreneurs are susceptible to. You are able to move and grow exponentially faster with a community.”
–Eamon Gallagher, Associate of Weber Law

“When you look nationally; there are often those touchstone places for the tech scene where investors can source companies, service providers can find companies. I’m not just talking about accountants and attorneys, but Amazon Web Services, Google, Microsoft, can all go into those spaces and help get companies off the ground, which means a serious competitive advantage.”
–Eamon Gallagher, Associate of Weber Law

“The general value of startup communities is that they can get you further down the line, faster, by collaborating with other people who are solving similar issues in different way or entirely different problems. There’s a lot of cross-pollination that can happen if you’re in those spaces with a critical mass of people working towards similar outcomes.”
–Eamon Gallagher, Associate of Weber Law

Funnel Optimizer demo at WSL

@brandonhilkert
FunnelOptimizer.io

What is Funnel Optimizer?

Funnel Optimizer is a monthly subscription service to help bloggers provide more value to their audience and sell more of their products by offering subscribers access to new content and discounts, rather than showing them the same subscription forms.

Funnel Optimizer alters what the user sees, based on each individual’s level of involvement.

The current funnel looks like this:
bad-funnel-155e7edb90a3250ccfcbb85a1670cb3f

And, with Funnel Optmizer:
good-funnel-annotated-8fdeed9db5051ca51f302de12ab30b43

Why did you create it?

Six months ago, I released a book called ‘How to Build a Ruby Gem’ that resulted in $16k+ in sales, so far. My Multilevel marketing approach, and a niche target population of ruby developers contributed to my book’s success. But, I also believe that choosing to capture emails on my blog and posting gem-related content regularly seemed like a good way to grow interest, offer subscribers additional incentives like discounts, and ultimately sell more books.

In the process, I observed that my previously subscribed readers to my newsletter STILL saw the same newsletter opt-in form shown above. I thought to myself, ‘Why on Earth would that be helpful to the them?’ It prevented me from offering previously subscribed users to new offers and stifled the opportunity to sell my products.

newsletter-form

Traditionally, the way to solve this pain point was to purchase a fancy marketing automation system and pay potentially 4 figures a month. So, I decided to build a solution that would be more accessible for people like myself. Ideally, what I wanted was to show my first visitor the opt-in form above, and if they signed up, promote my book. It was a choice to consider my viewership by customizing their experience and provide them access to new offerings.

What’s next for Funnel Optimizer?

The next step for Funnel Optimizer is to develop a full payment processing system on my site, FunnelOptimizer.io , So when people sign up they can instantly use it. Im currently operating under a somewhat slower on-boarding approach, and now Im ready to put the power in their hands!

A Decade of Decision Points with Bob Moore

@robertjmoore
@RJMetrics

“I knew before starting RJMetrics that there was a 13 Billion dollar market in just selling Business Intelligence to the fortune 5000, to the biggest companies in the world.”
— Robert J. Moore, CEO & Cofounder of RJMetrics

“Not only is our product complex, but the space that we are in is like this ‘data-soup’, where everyone seems to a have a data-related startup.”
— Robert J. Moore, CEO & Cofounder of RJMetrics

“In 2004, I built this thing called the ‘Mooraculator’, which was the beginning of a trend of me obnoxiously naming companies after myself!”
— Robert J. Moore, CEO & Cofounder of RJMetrics

“In 2007, I decided to start a company (SmartRaise) on the side while I was doing my job full-time. I had no time. I had no money. I outsourced everything to the cheapest possible offshore vendor that I could find. Great decision! Sarcasm! Things got really painful, really fast!”
— Robert J. Moore, CEO & Cofounder of RJMetrics

“Building a business has these really really long feedback cycles and you don’t really know if you’re successful or not in your day-to-day. But with programming, you get these beautiful short feedback loops! For me, it was always super satisfying.”
— Robert J. Moore, CEO & Cofounder of RJMetrics

“Deciding to shift the majority of my time away from engineering to focus on building and growing the business allowed us to do better, over the course of the last two years.”
–Robert J. Moore, CEO & Cofounder of RJMetrics

“We ended raising a 5 million dollar series A, in May of 2013 because we were able to provide evidence that we were capable of spending money, while keeping those customer economics in-check. It was our biggest year, ever!”
— Robert J. Moore, CEO & Cofounder of RJMetrics

“In 2014, we doubled our staff from 40 at the beginning of last year to 85 and moved from a 3,000 sq/ft space on Walnut St. to 13,000 sq/ft space on Chestnut St., which we have now completely filled. And, we raised a 16.5 million dollar series B just a month and a half ago from August Capital, which haven’t even started to deploy yet. We are just swinging the bat, really hard!”
— Robert J. Moore, CEO & Cofounder of RJMetrics

“We are a meritocracy of nerds! That means the best ideas win and everybody’s really smart. The marriage of those two things is what makes RJMetrics a really excellent place to work.”
— Robert J. Moore, CEO & Cofounder of RJMetrics

“Pick your startup stereotype, in terms of office environment. We got the ping-pong table, we got the nap room and there’s bean bag chairs everywhere, but none of that crap matters. Those are outputs, not inputs to culture. The inputs for us are that we don’t hire people who aren’t intellectually honest, or admit when they are wrong.”
— Robert J. Moore, CEO & Cofounder of RJMetrics

WSL Becomes a BizSpark Network Partner

With the help of Yuriy Porytko and Dave Mann, we invited Amanda Lange to stop by the lab the and explain the benefits of becoming a network a Microsoft’s Bizspark program.

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BizSpark is an international network of entrepreneurial startups and partners.

Simply sign up, get free software; including Developer tools, support, and training to build apps & scale your business, and get help marketing your app.

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BizSpark members receive free one-year Windows Store and Windows Phone developer accounts where you can promote and distribute your apps around the world, offer trial versions to build excitement, track sales and customer feedback.

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It will also help startups gain market traction by offering the opportunity for startups to promote your app on the BizSpark website and gain further visibility through the Featured BizSpark Startup series.

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As we experienced, It’s super easy for startups to become network partners at BizSpark! Signing up startups to BizSpark in the Greater Philadelphia Area will encourage MS to dedicate more resources to startups in our region, including increased sponsorship opportunities!

The Emerging Digital Financial Industry and Moven

“My children don’t really know money as physical money. And the next generation will most likely be cashless. Some people believe a cashless society is right around the corner. I can’t predict when that will happen, but as we have seen with Apple Pay and mobile payments, cash has been devalued.”
— Bob Savino, CTO of Moven

“In ten years from now, we’ll be leveraging even more innovative technologies and you’ll see buzz words like; Internet of Everything (IOE), Artificial Intellegence and Web 3.0.”
— Bob Savino, CTO of Moven

“The Banking and Technology industries are converging into what Im calling, ‘The Digital Financial Industry’.
— Bob Savino, CTO of Moven

“Traditional Banks are scared of these modern technology companies and what they might do with their disruptive business models”
— Bob Savino, CTO of Moven

“The mobile wallet’s biggest value is aggregating your valuables and literally turning your physical wallet into a digital wallet.”
— Bob Savino, CTO of Moven

“At Moven, Were taking traditional digital banking and customer service, merging it with financial wellness management and blending it with innovative technologies.”
— Bob Savino, CTO of Moven

“In the future, large banks will become digital, they’ll use Apple Pay, etcetera, but their motives won’t change. They’ll still be giving advice that favors their bottom line. At Moven, our oath is based on helping you, and not us.”
— Bob Savino, CTO of Moven

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