News and Blog
Week One #ProtoComp2015 is in the books
The Launch Party last week was a total blast, but the real ‘meat and potatoes’ of this project, the creative core, has only just begun. We were floored to see the extent of community interest at #ProtoComp2015 launch, and were futhermore encouraged to see that almost everyone who partied with us last week, not only signed up, but showed up for Week One to compete.
#PTW15 is All About Community
We live in a very beautiful time in which the appeal of creative endeavors is beginning to outweigh the comfort and allure of barely equitable wages. More than ever, people are considering working for themselves, answering to their own ambitions and ultimately, serving their own passions.
Wilhem Arthur Leads WSL’s MiniMaker Space
We’ve partnered with NextFab to create a “MiniMaker Space” here at Walnut St. Labs. We sent Wilhem, our lead developer, to NextFab to learn about 3D Printing. He jumped at the chance to sign on as our 3D printing technician. He’s always been interested in 3D printing and now gets the chance to run two bukitos. Here’s what he had to say about the experience:
Dave Mann on Learning to Resist Shiny Objects
“I don’t want to work so damn hard. I don’t expect any of my products to be my single source of income. I want to have 3 to 4 smallish products, little plugins for Office 365. Each one brings in an ok amount of money, and I’m good. I don’t need to have that one huge single product.”
WSL and Unisys #ProtoComp2015 Launch Party
The Walnut St. Labs Team and a few key Unisys people, namely Brittney Burchett, have busted their humps to ensure that our Prototyping Competition was a complete and utter success. There were a number of immediate challenges that beset the group in light of the event’s more “nuanced” format. The most blatant of which was the problem of ambiguity.
Bitcoin Panel Discussion
Four bitcoin enthusiasts weigh in on the current stage of bitcoin evolution during a collaborative panel discussion.
Little Talkers Demo
What was the problem that you aimed to solve with Little Talkers?
“Little Talkers aims to make it easy for parents, caretakers or family members to record, store, view and share their children’s first words and expressions.”
— Nada Jaksic Pivcevic, Founder of Little Talkers
Leveraging the Fantasy Market w/ John Walters of StockJock
“We want to be the Flintstones vitamins of stock market games.”
John Walters is bringing the thrill of fantasy sports leagues to the stock market. The Villanova grad started off at First National Bank, where he learned first hand about the problems confronting small businesses. Today, he’s a Senior Living Balance Sheet Specialist at eMoney Advisor, as well as the founder of StockJock, an online fantasy stock trading game.
Unisys and Walnut St. Labs Partner for Innovative Prototyping and Software Design
WEST CHESTER, PA - Walnut St. Labs, an Innovation Lab in West Chester, PA, is partnering with Unisys Corporation to hold a product prototyping competition. The prototyping competition, to be held at Walnut St. Labs across five weeks starting on April 15, will be...
WSL’s Incubating Big Data Technology, MongoSluice, to Participate in Phorum Philly 2015
We are proud to announce that our incubating company MongoSluice, will be included in this year's Phorum Philly event. MongoSluice streams MongoDB to any RDBMS. Simply point MongoSluice to a MongoDB collection and any RDBMS data store and hit enter: watch data stream...
Jason Cox Demos MilkCrate V2
What was the problem or pain point that you and your team were hoping to solve? "We noticed how challenging it can be to live sustainably, especially in an urban setting, and we wanted to help people live more sustainably." -- Jason Cox, CTO of Milkcrate How does...
What’s Worth Building w/ Jason Browne
Jason Browne, CEO of SPOR sporchargers.com @SporrChargers “It’s wildly popular to call yourself an entrepreneur these days.” Jason Browne thinks that lots of people want to be entrepreneurs simply because they don’t want to be labelled as anything else. “Is it that...
Year 1 Numbers, Year 2 Plan, Walnut St. Labs Acquires 23 North Digital +
When I started Walnut St. Labs it was based on instincts—with a half-a-dash of empirical data. Kinda risky. But I had a back up plan: 23 North Digital—a digital innovation consultancy. I launched it at the same time and have been running it simultaneously along with Walnut St. Labs. And to my surprise, WSL + 23ND became BFFS. They enhanced each other. Here’s a shot-glass worth of a recap for both sides of the house.
Beyond Wild w/Kip Wetzel
Kip Wetzel, VP of Social Media Strategy at Capital One @kipwetzel Kip Wetzel claims he’s just a “dirty hippie” despite the fact he’s probably the most dapper person in the room. Fifteen years ago, he abandoned an Andersen Consulting gig to embark on an odyssey, hiking...
MongoSluice’s NoSQL-to-SQL Streaming Engine Now Available to HP Vertica
We are excited to announce that MongoSluice is now available to HP Vertica customers as a solution to move unstructured data from MongoDB into HP Vertica’s big data platform. We think MongoSluice is a great fit for users of HP Vertica, particularly those that store...
16 Lloyd Productions Office Hours Testimonial
Jesse Piersol has been a champion of Walnut St. Labs since the beginning, but was only recently in serious need of accounting help. Her previous experience w/ Office Hours precipitated her undying desire to participate in many of our events, including her recent...
Serial Startup Development w/Kyle Riggle
Kyle Riggle, Partner at EWS, CEO of Orth Cleaners @OrthCleaners @EWSystemsInc Kyle Riggle wants your dirty laundry. Seven months ago, the New York City-based entrepreneur bought Orth Cleaners, a dry cleaning business with locations in Coatesville and West Chester,...
FaceCrunch Demo
FaceCrunch Jonathon Beschen, Founder of FaceCrunch What was the Problem that you planned to solve with FaceCrunch? "There wasn’t a problem per se so much as new research that we found extremely intriguing. A/B advertising has been around for a long time but optimizing...
Sometimes the Straightest Path is a Curved Line w/Tracey Welson-Rossman
Tracey Welson-Rossman, Chief Marketing Officer at Chariot Solutions and Founder of TechGirlz.org @TechGirlz @TWelsonRossman @ChariotSolution “If we don’t engage women and underrepresented groups, the U.S. is going to be in trouble. By 2020, there is going to be a job...
ClusterPuck 99 Demo with The PHL Collective
Post #ClusterPuck99 Demo Interview @PHLCollective What was the problem that ClusterPuck 99 hoped to solve? "We set out to develop a game that brought back local multiplayer experiences where friends gather in a room and play games. We wanted to take the isolation out...
Jesse Piersol’s Office Hours Testimonial
We’ve asked WCU Professor and Founder of 16 Lloyd Productions, Jesse Piersol, to share her Office Hours experiences with us. It’s our hope that connecting with the right people will save your startup time, energy and other finite resources that propel your business,...
“Do What you Love: How the Legend of Zelda Helped Squareknot Create a New Way to Learn How to do Anything”
Jason Rappaport, Founder of Squareknot, Zelda Universe and Zelda Wiki @Squareknot @GoldenChoas @ZeldaUniverse @ZeldaWiki What is Squareknot? Squareknot founder Jason Rappaport seems to be as excited about the appeal of design-heavy guides as he is about the prospect...
TREATMiNT Box Office Hours Testimonial
We've asked Founder of TREATMiNT Box, Kimberly Fink, to share her experiences after participating in an Office Hours session at Walnut St. Labs. "Going to office hours at Walnut Street Labs was an awesome experience. I needed some advice from someone who had been in...
Facecrunch Office Hours Testimonial
We've asked the Founder of Facecrunch, Jon Beschen, to share his Office Hours experiences with us. It's our hope that connecting with the right people will save your startup time, energy and other finite resources that propel your business forward. “Office Hours with...
Science as Creative Process w/Lars Knutsen, Requis Pharmaceuticals
Lars Knutsen, CEO and Co-founder, Requis Pharmaceuticals, Inc. www.requispharma.com Lars Knutsen’s introductory slide is filled with black lines resembling ant trails--diagrams of the chemical structure of the successful drugs he’s developed over the course of his...
SplashFlood’s Pre-Funding Office Hours Testimonial
The guys at SplashFlood were a few days away from their big pitch and turned to Walnut St. Labs' Office Hours to put on some final touches. With the help of our Innovation Advisors, the pitch was a total success, and they got funding the next week! Here's what one of...
Social Selling Made Easy w/Peter Strid, PeopleLinx
Peter Strid, VP of Sales at PeopleLinx @PeterStrid @PeopleLinx PeopleLinx.com Peter Strid has a hunch we are all pretty bad at using LinkedIn. When he asks the 75-person crowd who uses it, almost every hand goes up. “OK, now who considers themselves effective, or has...
WSL Welcomes Neill Reidy to Office Hours
Walnut St. Labs is excited to add Neill to our list of Office Hours Advisors! Neill Reidy has been in technology since 1997 where he worked support for a local dial-up internet service provider. "Sir, please confirm your phone line is connected to your computer." It...
WSL Welcomes Chadwick Wingrave to Office Hours
Walnut St. Labs is excited to welcome Chad to our list of Office Hours Advisors! Dr. Chadwick A. Wingrave is a big picture usability specialist with an industry and research background. His current venture, Conquest Creations LLC, is focused on usability contracting...
Night Owls: We Joined Meetup.com
Despite the fact that Walnut St. Labs has spent the last year growing our community base through organic means, including our own ambitious social media campaigns and by word of mouth, we've took a leap of faith and joined the premier meetup site, meetup.com. Night...