Startup Roundup: Party with PackLate, meet some strangers

Technically Philly’s Startup Roundup parses out the small pieces that make our greater Startup ecosystem thrive. We want to keep you in touch with the innovations that we can’t quite get to covering, but that deserve highlight. Follow along with the Startup Roundup’s dedicated newsletter or RSS feed. If you’ve got news to share, get in touch.
MUST READS
PackLate gets the in-depth treatment by AOL travel site Gadling in a piece that shows off the company’s newest marketing strategy, that yes, includes the opportunity to party with Steve Barsh. Well, that’s true, but that’s not the heart. The story focuses on the company’s idea and tests to pair people for trips. It’s like white collar Couchsurfing.
DreamIt Ventures grad MindSnacks raised $1.2 million in funding, TechCrunch reports. We followed-up with the company’s co-founder Andy Mroczkowski in our Exit Interview series, as the team is headed for the Bay Area.

GIVE A GLANCE
Collaborative development bartering system superfluid is opening up its model to offer free transactions and moving to a per-project-based fee of $20 per month or $14 per year, according to an email newsletter. So, get crackin’ everyone.
Christopher Young’s Async Recruiting, which virtualizes the job interview process, was featured in the Inky on Monday.
A replacement for Twitter? Maybe. P’unk Ave‘s Tom Boutell writes about taking control back from Twitter by, well, replacing it using existing technologies, in light of the recent decision to push out third-party app developers.
The Inky’s Mike Armstrong reports that small business optimism is a’ight. And heck, 5% of small biz’s want to hire. Get your party hats.
MIGHT BE WORTH YOUR TIME
Viridity Energy issued a statement in response to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission’s decision to ensure just compensation to customers who use demand response appliances, helping regulate the energy grid more efficiently, according to an email announcement. More information on the decision is here.
ProtoSphere is working on Mac support. ‘Nuff said.
Vcopius announced a virtual server appliance to bolster its in-house virtual meeting software.
StarCite is optimizing and securing document workflow with Critical data Management, the company announced last week.
Startup Roundup will post weekly on Wednesdays until there’s not a Philly startup story left to link to on the Internet. See others here, or sign-up for its email newsletter.