Startup Roundup: TicketLeap takes a plunge

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
TicketLeap’s exciting announcement last week that it would be ticketing ComicCon, the world’s largest comic book conference, took a turn for the worse this weekend as the site crashed from 9 to 4 on Saturday, after receiving up to 400,000 page requests per minute. Despite preliminary tests, the site just couldn’t handle the traffic load, and as TicketLeap explained in a statement, “In 2009, it sold out after 6 months. In 2010, it sold out in 2 months. On Saturday, Comic-Con International 2011 sold out in 7 HOURS (200x faster than last year if you’re keeping track).” The technological details of the mishap are here. If there’s good news, it’s that the company learned (the hard way) how to handle an incredible influx of sales, which could be a feather in its cap. Or as GigaOM put it, the company still has some homework to do.
Solar States, which received $500,000 in private investment and city grants to power the Crane Arts Building on 1400 N. American Street with an array of solar panels, will host a launch event with the Mayor on Feb. 24.

GIVE A GLANCE
New York media outlets are reporting that two men are being charged with having sexual relations with a 12-year-old girl that they met on MyYearBook.com. Given the nature of the site, which is targetted at primary and secondary school students, we’re wondering how the company will respond to safety concerns.
The Inky’s Mike Armstrong reports that small-business lending is better, despite the fact that In 2006, 90 percent of business owners who wanted credit could get it, while in 2010, 52 percent of owners did not try to borrow last year.
Penn’s Technology Transfer obtained 262 patents, generated 1,636 invention disclosures and completed 322 commecialization agreements, including agreements with 31 startup firms, according to a press release.
Some folks at Hive76 are working on Gitmarks, a project to create user-owned bookmarking service that could replace del.icio.us.
LaunchRock, a startup dedicated to helping startups launch, which debuted at Philly’s Startup Weekend, continues to get coverage in the national tech spotlight, like at TechCrunch, this time in ESBJournal.
ListenLogic has launched a dedicated arm for social market research for the pharmaceutical, healthcare and wellness industries.
Venmo’s transaction system is now faster in thanks to an increased volume of transactions, down to one to three business days instead of four to six days for transactions, the New York Observer reports.
Philly’s Open Angel Forum, which is accepting applications for rounds of angel investing in local companies, reminds us that the deadline is February 18.
MIGHT BE WORTH YOUR TIME
Geekadelphia covers Burst Online Entertainment, a game design firm based in downtown Philadelphia, which is working on <a href="http://www.warlordbattlegrounds.com/default.aspx"Warlord Battlegrounds, a multiplayer tactical strategy game.
Someone in the D.C. startup scene mentioned Philly. That wouldn’t be notable if it wasn’t for the similar problems they’re having in their own ecosystem and how relatable those problems are to Philly’s. Given a more hyperlocal focus with national efforts like Startup America, expect Philly to be a leader for early-stage startup communities.
The plight of the engineer (you know, Computer Jesus) is detailed over at Whartonite Seeks Code Monkey, a hilarious take on a common startup scenario of business folks looking for someone to, ahem, do the actual work. [h/t Under The Button]
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.Press