Tech Crunch: Petsy.mx Raises $1M To Bring U.S.-Style E-Commerce To Mexico’s Pet Lovers

Great news for Petsy.mx, founded by Toby Clarence-Smith & Pablo Pedrejon Garcia (both WG’13), on raising $1M (and getting some terrific press)! MORE

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Shorty Awards: Announcing Neil Blumenthal and Dave Gilboa as new Real-Time Academy members!

Warby Parker founders Neil Blumenthal and Dave Gilboa (both WG’10) join the star-studded Academy of Short Form Arts & Sciences. Comprised of leaders in tech, journalism, business, and culture, the Academy chooses the winners of the Shorty AWards, honoring the best content producers in social media.

Just wow, guys. Wow. MORE

The Street: #DigitalSkeptic: Spotify Being Eaten Alive at Online Music Buffet

“So far, the bigger Spotify has grown, the more money it loses. And if you do the math, there is no end in sight for the losses.”

That’s the assessment of Sam Hamadeh (L’97/WG’97), founder of financial data analysis company PrivCo, which took a hard look at Spotify and the business of streaming music. MORE

QZ: Just say “yes”—the advice that saved my life

Entrepreneur, actor, and more Roger Wu (ENG’00/GEN’00/W’00) tells the incredible story of how saying “Yes” to new challenges literally saved his life. MORE

The Boston Globe: Young college investors back vending machine

Dorm Room Fund came out of First Round Capital, founded by Josh Kopelman W’93, right here in Philly. But of course it’s on campuses across the country, investing in college students.

Now Boston’s Dorm Room Fund has made it’s first investment: $20K for Refresh Water Technologies, an MIT student startup making environmentally friendly vending machines. MORE

Technically Philly: “More graduates mean more Curalates”: Campus Philly Annual Meeting

“More graduates mean more Curalates.”

Curalate, founded by Apu Gupta WG’05, has become the poster child for startups that stay. Apu came for Wharton, but he chose to stay in Philly to build his company, and because of him and others like him, the Philly entrepreneurial scene gets richer every day. MORE

Technically Philly: These 6 winning Penn mobile apps will be built by software companies

There were supposed to be only 5 winners of the AppItUP Challenge, but the ideas for mobile apps were too good. Of the nearly 200 mobile app ideas submitted by Penn students, 6 will be turned into actual prototypes by software development companies. MORE

LA Times: SpaceX reaches milestone in rocket launch from Cape Canaveral

Third time’s the charm for SpaceX (founded by amazing inventor and entrepreneur Elon Musk C’97/W’97)! The Falcon 9 launched at last, lifting a 7,000 telecommunications satellite.

Who knows what they’ll put into space next! MORE

TNooz: Travel startup lessons learned from idea to glory in 12 months

Ryan Frankel WG’12 & Kunal Sarda WG’11, founders of VerbalizeIt, the “human translation platform” recently named travel startup of the year at the PhoCusWright travel Innovation summit, tell tnooz their five pieces of entrepreneurial advice. Read them here: MORE

Wall Street Journal: B-Schools Vie for Startup Crown

“B-Schools Vie for Startup Crown” — I may be biased, but I think Wharton wins!

And it’s nice to see the Wall Street Journal get it right this time about the fantastic entrepreneurial culture here at Wharton. (Nice name checks for Warby Parker and VerbalizeIt, too!) MORE

Business Week: What Do Instagram Advertisers Actually Get for Their Money?

What Do Instagram advertisers actually get for their money? Apu Gupta WG’05, founder of Curalate, has some answers: MORE

Venture Beat: How Stylitics lets consumers track and share their outfits — and gathers a treasure of data at the same time

For fashionable consumers, Stylitics, founded by Rohan Deuskar WG’11, is a tool that helps them be “smarter about their style,” by tracking outfits and sharing them with friends.

For big data, it’s a gold mine of information — like having “a real-time focus group at their fingertips.” MORE

NPR: Businesses Woo Customers With Free Phone-Charging Stations

NPR picks up the story of ChargeItSpot, founded by Doug Baldasare WG’12 — the company that lets you charge your phone while you shop or dine. MORE

Metro: Shop and charge: Philly guy makes it possible

Is ChargeItSpot the next AC?

“Doug Baldasare sees his smartphone charging stations as the next air conditioner.

“When air conditioning first came out,” said the Wharton grad, ‘it wasn’t an understood thing that a retail store had to have it. But eventually, when all the stores had air conditioning, you couldn’t not have air.'”

Doug Baldasare WG’12 just can’t stop getting great press for ChargeItSpot! MORE

Seeing Both Sides: Unicorns and MBAs

What’s that? Some new stats about unicorns, those gorgeous companies, ten years old or younger, worth more than $1 B? Oh, it seems that 33% of unicorns have at least one founder with an MBA. And 82% have at least one founding member or current exec with an MBA. And of those with MBAs on the team, a full 10% of them went to Wharton.

Those are some nice stats about pretty, pretty unicorns. MORE

USA Today: SpaceX launch delayed until Thanksgiving

“Want to be super careful, so pushing launch to Thurs.,” said Elon Musk, C’97/W’97 and SpaceX founder and CEO. So alaos, the Falcon failed to fly yesterday. But keep an eye out on Thanksgiving for a rocket launch – the best possible addition to a turkey dinner, if you ask me. MORE

USA Today: SpaceX satellite launch is a potential game-changer

Three, two, one… liftoff!

That’s what SpaceX, founded by Elon Musk C’97/W’97, hopes to hear today at 5:37 pm, when their upgraded falcon 9 rocket is scheduled to launch.

Space just got exciting again… MORE

FinanzNachrichten: Utah Student Founder Named Entrepreneurs’ Organization’s Global Student Entrepreneur of the Year /

The Entrepreneurs’ Organization’s Global Student Entrepreneur Awards (GSEA) are in, and our own Dan Fine W’15 gets First Runner Up for his company Glass-U, “a custom sunglass company that creates fully folding glasses targeting the youth and young adult market offering licensing for universities nationwide.” Congrats, Dan! MORE

New York Times: In the Health Law, an Open Door for Entrepreneurs

Raj Jeyakumar WG’13, co-founder of Skillbridge, a “Manhattan-based online job marketplace for business consultants” has some interesting things to say about the Affordable Care Act in this article. He’s signed up for individual coverage for himself, and when he hires employees, he plans to let them purchase coverage on the exchanges as well, though he does mention “bump[ing] up their salaries to cover the cost.” MORE

Technically Philly: Digipuppets: Wharton edtech startup uses hardware for youth engagement

Digipuppets, a VIP company co-founded by Brendan Green C’07/WG’14 and Dan Clay WG’14 gets a terrific write up in Technical.ly Philly. MORE

Hospitality Net: PhoCusWright Announces the Next Generation of Groundbreaking Travel Innovators

The Most Innovative Startup Company: VerbalizeIt!

Co-founded by Ryan Frankel WG’12, this Shark Tank winner has now also scored a place as one of the Next Generation of Groundbreaking Travel Innovators. MORE

Business Insider: The 25 Most Influential Business Leaders Of 2013

Elon Musk W’97/C’97 is ALSO on Business Insider’s list of the 25 Most Influential Business Leaders of 2013. Because the CEO of Tesla and SpaceX is about the closest thing the real world has to Iron Man.

I didn’t want to overshadow Warby Parker, so I thought I’d give them separate posts. Super proud of our amazing entrepreneurial grads! MORE

Business Insider: The 25 Most Influential Business Leaders Of 2013

Neil Blumenthal & Dave Gilboa (both WG’10), co-founders of Warby Parker, are in the company of some serious heavy hitters on this list of the 25 Most Influential Business Leaders of 2013. Ever heard of Jeff Bezos? Warren Buffet? Marissa Mayer? Yeah, I thought so. Add Neil and Jeff to that list. MORE

Poets & Quants: Poets&Quants’ Top 100 MBA Startups

Poets&Quants does a Top 100 MBA Startups list — and Wharton gets two in the top 25! Congrats to Warby Parker and Baby.com.br.

Personally, I love that big “BUT” that starts the second sentence of the article:
“Everyone knows you don’t need an MBA to start a company. But what most people don’t know is how ultimately powerful the MBA experience is in shaping a new business concept and getting it successfully off the ground.”

P&Q, you make my argument for me… MORE

Harvard Business Review: Don’t Start a Company with Your Business School Pals

Don’t Start a Company with Your Business School Pals, says the Harvard Business Review.

Um, unless you’re Warby Parker, the exception that proves the rule. As the HBR itself admits. Then it’s a great idea. MORE