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Technical.ly
23-05-2025
- Business
- Technical.ly
Philly Startup Leaders rebrands and pivots strategy, after years of declining revenue
A longtime startup resource organization in Philly is changing its name, while pivoting to expand outside of the city and swapping in-person programming for virtual resources. Philly Startup Leaders rebranded to Startup Leaders earlier this month and announced a slate of programming that expands its reach outside of Philadelphia. This change was a long time coming, CEO Isabelle Kent told The org had long wanted to create a single place for founders to access everything they need — not necessarily by providing it all directly — while also making the organization more sustainable, she said. 'The goal for us is not to be the primary organizer,' Kent said. 'But rather spread our support around to organizations that can contribute to different aspects of the founder lifecycle, but still be tethered to this anchor of Startup Leaders.' The effort to strengthen the org in the long term comes at a time when Startup Leaders faces its lowest revenue yet. The total amount of money brought in by the org dropped dramatically in recent years, only making $105,000 in 2023, compared to $630,000 in 2019, according to the nonprofit's tax filings. The nonprofit is prioritizing virtual programming with the rebrand, while pointing founders to other orgs for in-person events. Startup Leaders' shift to digital events began during the pandemic, and its model eventually became a mix of both in-person and online events. For example, the org continued to host its monthly founder meetup, Welcome Wagon, until very recently. The newly launched venture studio United Effects Ventures told earlier this week it would be taking over the event series. Startup Leaders has been rethinking its programming for the last few years, according to Kent. It wanted to create more structured, self-paced programming so founders could have access to resources outside of events and accelerator cycles. PSL hasn't conducted its Founded in Philly accelerator since 2022. Instead, the org has been partnering with and supporting Founder Institute's Keystone Chapter accelerator program, Kent said, rather than hosting its own. With the rebrand, Startup Leaders will now launch a 'digital accelerator' program, according to Kent. It will be a database to direct new founders to other support orgs in their region, in-person events, investors and educational materials, as opposed to a traditional in-person accelerator. It also wants to offer an expert library, a job board, a new Slack channel and ecosystem maps. The new format will be a tiered membership structure ranging from $50 to $120 per month, but Philly founders will receive a discount. It is also developing a proprietary mentor matching tool and a chatbot that will act like a digital startup coach. 'Utilize Startup Leaders as a jumping off point,' Kent said, ' as you try to navigate which resources are available [and] what you should be doing at each stage of your growth as a founder.' A rebrand after years of financial struggle Startup Leaders is just one of several entrepreneur support organizations in Philly, all on different tracks. The Philadelphia Alliance for Capital and Technologies (PACT) shifted more of its focus to supporting startups in the city, expanding from the suburbs. 1Philadelphia, an initiative of tech education org Coded By, launched in 2020 with the goal of bringing equity to the tech industry in Philly. Unlike Startup Leaders, both of these organizations saw revenue growth over the last few years. While previously Startup Leaders was making most of its money from events and accelerators, the org's financial dip really began in 2020 when the pandemic forced a change in format, according to Kent. 'Post-pandemic … it became pretty obvious to us that we needed to start reconsidering what the future structure of our organization was in order to create a pretty different channel of revenue for the organization,' Kent said. Still, in other regions, local entrepreneur support organizations are also seeing an uptick in support. While Baltimore and Pittsburgh, for example, have vastly different ecosystems, each city's main ESO has generally increased revenue over time. Startup Leaders will still be a Philly org Startup Leaders launched in 2008, solidifying itself as a gathering and educational space for Philly founders over the years. The nonprofit celebrated its 15th anniversary at the end of 2023. However, the organization faced challenges over the years. In addition to revenue hurdles in the years following the pandemic, Startup Leaders faced criticism in 2017 for a lack of diversity, eventually leading to Yuval Yarden, executive director at the time, stepping down. While Startup Leaders is moving away from its place-based identity, supporting Philadelphia's startup community is still top of mind, Kent said. 'This is not us leaving or abandoning Philadelphia,' she said. 'This is truly an expansion of our capabilities. And the goal for this is to really go out there and bring knowledge and resources back to the Philadelphia community and help it connect with the world at large.' Despite Kent's motivation to reach a wider audience with a virtual focus, she also said that Startup Leaders will be a part of creating more physical spaces for tech leaders in Philly to gather. Physical space is one of the elements that Philadelphia needs for a strong startup ecosystem, she said. Over the years, many physical spaces have shifted focus to just life sciences or have shut down. Startup Leaders has been working with other orgs for over a year to create an emerging technology incubator. It's piloting an in-person space and plans to raise funding to build a new physical meeting place for tech founders that hosts collaborative programming between stakeholders, Kent said. 'All of this will really serve as us helping unite and inform a vision for Philadelphia's innovation ecosystem,' Kent said. 'That all the organizations, whether those are legacy orgs or whether they're newcomers, can work towards.' Sarah Huffman is a 2022-2024 corps member for Report for America, an initiative of The Groundtruth Project that pairs young journalists with local newsrooms. This position is supported by the Lenfest Institute for Journalism.
Yahoo
09-03-2025
- Sport
- Yahoo
Edmonton Oilers' new additions beefing up the physicality
If the Edmonton Oilers were worried they didn't address their most pressing need at the trade deadline, Jake Walman wasted no time putting those fears to rest. In his debut since being traded from the San Jose Sharks for a conditional 2026 first-round draft pick and prospect forward Carl Berglund, Walman didn't only make an impact on the stats sheet in Saturday's 5-4 win over the visiting Dallas Stars, but on opposing players as well. Despite just arriving in the city, he turned right around and pulled out the Welcome Wagon for Stars star acquisition Mikko Rantanen with an open-ice hit in the second period the likes of which hasn't been seen in Edmonton since before Evander Kane finally decided to go under the knife. (The first time, that is). But by then, Walman already made his presence felt by dishing a Hail Mary of a saucer pass that was expertly trapped by Zach Hyman on a breakaway that gave Edmonton its first lead of the game, 2-1. While the Stars marched back from a 5-1 deficit to make it a one-goal game in the end, the Oilers were able to withstand the barrage by a Stars squad that not only better than they were 24 hours earlier, but threw absolutely everything they had Edmonton's way. And the Oilers got the result they wanted not once but twice in a row without the services of their top defensive player, Mattias Ekholm, who sat out his first two games of the season taking care of a minor injury to gear up for a big playoff push. So, yeah. Walman, in one fell swoop, showed his new team he has what it takes to help them out. Now, they just hope he can continue to prove them right in their trade-deadline decision. 'I thought that was a heck of a start. The pass that he made on the Hyman goal, just the composure breaking the pucks out,' said Oilers head coach Kris Knoblauch. 'The second period, he had that big hit in the offensive zone (on Rantanen), blocking the blue line, getting pucks through. 'There's so much we liked about his game. Sometimes as a player, you have that adrenaline and you're really excited about that one, but I think we'll see a lot of play like he did tonight, and that's why management thought very highly of him to trade for him, which I think is really going to pay off for us.' Walman wasn't the only incoming piece last week, of course. The Oilers also brought in Trent Frederic and Max Jones — a tag team of former Boston Bruins heavy hitters coming down the aisle weighing a combined 437 pounds and standing six-foot-three. While Frederic is still recovering from a pre-existing ankle injury, Jones also wasted no time making is presence felt one game earlier, where he also introduced himself to Oilers fans by throwing his body around and — by strange coincidence — sending a long saucer pass down the ice for a breakaway goal, this one by Corey Perry, in his debut in a 3-2 overtime win over the Montreal Canadiens. And the physicality is only going to continue to get cranked up once Frederic and his formidable fists get tossed in the mix, (much to the dismay of Kasperi Kapanen and Jeff Skinner, who will find themselves the odd-men out the rest of the way). 'I think everybody can chip in with the physicality,' Knoblauch said. 'Speaking of physicality, Jones these two games has really provided an element that we've been missing. (Saturday) night he played about eight minutes, five hits. Very similar the night before. 'So, adding a little bit of speed and physicality, which is good for our team.' As will be the return of Ekholm in the top pairing with Evan Bouchard, and fellow injured blue-liner John Klingberg, who will return in the third pairing with Brett Kulak, who is quietly putting together a career year at both ends of the ice. For now, that leaves Walman playing in the second pairing on his off-side alongside left defenceman Darnell Nurse, which didn't seem to bother him in the slightest Saturday. 'He hasn't played much on the right side, but for a guy who hasn't played much on the right side, he looked pretty good,' Knoblauch said. 'So, there's a good chance those two are a regular pair, but I wouldn't say it's something that is set.' For Walman, those are the little details. The big picture is he went from the worst team in the league to playing meaningful games again in less than 48 hours. Back in his home country. On the national broadcast. 'A little bit of a different vibe. Just really exciting for me,' he said. 'I had a bunch of family and friends watching. 'Growing up, I always watched Hockey Night in Canada, and being at this stage is probably the pinnacle of any sport. I'm just really excited to be a part of it.' E-mail: On Twitter: @GerryModdejonge Edmonton Oilers avert catastrophe, make statement at the same time You can also support our journalism by becoming a digital subscriber. Subscribers gain unlimited access to The Edmonton Journal, Edmonton Sun, National Post and 13 other Canadian news sites. The Edmonton Journal | The Edmonton Sun
