Burck Smith — Baltimore Friends High School graduate, resident of Charm City’s Homeland neighborhood, repeat entrepreneur — is a thought leader in the online college education conversation. His company, StraighterLine, allows students to take about 60, for-credit courses, completely online, for $49 per course (plus a $99 per month subscription fee). The startup, originally a […]

Alex Gilliam is going back to basics. With his organization Public Workshop, the social entrepreneur aims to create opportunities for the city’s youth to get involved with the design of their city: build a playground here, create a bus shelter there (find photos of Public Workshop’s work here). He encourages students to make things the […]

DreamIt Ventures‘ fall Philly class is winding down with Demo Day just around the corner. Before the startups leave the accelerator and their office space inside the University City Science Center‘s 3701 Market Street building, we wanted to take a look at where this year’s startup magic happened. Check out the photos below for a […]

Laurin Hodge with Maryland governor, Martin O’Malley. Social entrepreneur Laurin Hodge — the founder of Mission: Launch, a nonprofit created to help ex-offenders receive job training and professional experience, ultimately in the hope they’ll start their own businesses or find other work — is now a StartingBloc fellow. Since 2005 StartingBloc, a New York-based organization, “has […]

In August, CEO of Mindgrub Technologies Todd Marks formed the mobile product and web development agency’s mobile gaming division. “I keep my focus on paradigm shifts,” the 36-year-old Marks told Technically Baltimore in September. “I did the math and thought mobile games is going to be pretty hot.” Now Mindgrub’s mobile games and its mobile […]

Could a former venture capitalist and early Philly tech scene cheerleader become our next governor? That’s the big question driving Philadelphia Magazine’s feature on state treasurer Rob McCord. Check out our Q&A with McCord here, and find more of our coverage of the state treasurer here.

The Usic, the marketplace for creative services based in York, Pennsylvania, will expand into Washington, D.C., and Baltimore sometime in the next few months, according to the Central Penn Business Journal. The startup serves as an online marketplace for creatives types (artists, videographers, photographers, musicians and the like) to “[s]ell creative services to other artists, band together […]

Firefighters join online program for healthy change [Philadelphia Inquirer] Philly police now on Pinterest [Philly.com] (And Philebrity‘s signature cheeky take on the same news.)

The Rise of the New Baltimoreans [Next American City]: “Baltimore has seen its population shrink by 33 percent since its peak in the 1950s. Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake has a plan to halt the contraction in part by boosting the city’s immigrant population.” Oculis Labs reaches 10,000 user milestone [Baltimore Sun]: “[T]he company surpassed 10,000 users of […]

McKeever Conwell of Given.to When McKeever Conwell first presented at Baltimore TechBreakfast, the company he and co-founders Sam Henry and Michael Washington had formed was still called NoBadGift, a crowdfunding site where friends and family could contribute any dollar amount toward items on gift “wish lists” that users of the site had put together. But […]