Meet the winners of 1Philadelphia’s 2023 Innovation Awards

It’s been a busy couple of days for the Philly tech community, from Founder Factory to CapCon to 1Philadelphia’s 2023 Innovation Weekend, which closed last week with a focus on the people who are passionate about tech equity.

Held last Friday and Saturday, Innovation Weekend recognized the progress made and work that still needs to be done to help underrepresented Philadelphians access sustainable technology jobs and entrepreneurship opportunities. One stat to remind why that’s needed: Only 9.2% of tech occupations in Philly are held by Black professionals, according to Technical.ly’s Tech Economy Dashboard featuring proprietary data sourced by Lightcast.

This year’s Innovation Weekend theme was “Meeting our Moment,” encouraging attendees to recognize the present as a call-to-action to pursue equity-related goals.

The weekend’s events kicked off on Friday morning with the IW Summit. During the summit’s opening session, 1Philadelphia Executive Director Danae Mobley said the community of people working toward more opportunities for underrepresented Philadelphians are “playing defense” right now, but tech equity is a tangible goal. As part of this effort, she announced the organization’s commitment to raising $20 million by 2026.

“When we think about people that have access to well-sustaining careers, the way that they can invest back into their communities, their families, this is something that can really change the face of Philadelphia,” Mobley said. “So I really want to encourage everyone to find their space to get involved.”

Other Friday sessions included a series of expert talks and a demo day for participants of 1Philadelphia’s Early Validation Academy, a program that supports underrepresented founders in developing their tech business ideas. The demos were followed by networking and happy hour.

Saturday started with more panels and sessions at the IW Retreat, before the Innovation Bowl invited high school students in Coded by Kids’ Innovation League to present their tech-minded entrepreneurship projects and compete for awards and prizes.

The weekend’s closer was the second annual Innovation Awards, which recognized the professionals doing exceptional work in the Philly tech community. Here were this year’s nominees and winners:

Entrepreneur of the Year

• Bruce Marable, Employee Cycle
• Felicite Moorman, BOSS.Tech
• Sumorwuo Zaza, Nicklpass
• Amelia Zellander, BioLattice
• Rudiger J. Ellis (Rudy), Switchboard Live

Bruce Marable, cofounder and CEO of HR tech company Employee Cycle, won Entrepreneur of the Year.

Young Leader of the Year

• Gianna Grossmann, Philadelphia Department of Commerce
• Shane D. Nelson, Reify Solutions
• Opeola Bukola, 10K Independents Project
• Byron Jenkins, Capital One

Gianna Grossman, senior director of workforce development in the City of Philadelphia’s Department of Commerce, won Young Leader of the Year.

Advocate for Equity

• Monique Curry-Mims, Generocity and Civic Capital
• Michael O’Bryan, Humanature
• Mjumbe Poe, University of Pennsylvania
• Ashley Putnam, Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia
• Christopher Wink, Technical.ly

Michael O’Bryan, founder and CEO of management consulting firm Humanature, won Advocate for Equity.

“It was an honor to be nominated alongside so many friends in the work,” O’Bryan wrote in a LinkedIn post. “Thanks 1Philadelphia for the award and for recognizing so many dope humans engaged in creating the Philadelphia our youth and families deserve.”

Catalyst for Change — Individual

• Ayanna Lott-Pollard, Resilient Coders
• Dan Rhoton, Hopeworks
• Blessy Thomas, Innovate Capital Growth Fund
• Nicole Pumphrey, Per Scholas

Ayanna Lott-Pollard, executive director of coding bootcamp Resilient Coders, won Catalyst for Change.

Community Cultivator

• Jen Rajchel, University City Science Center
• Senzwa Ntshepe, The Connect
• Shannon Morales, Tribaja.co
• Sulaiman Rahman, DiverseForce

The Community Cultivator winner was Senzwa Ntshepe, president of The Connect, an organization focused on supporting Black and brown talent.

“Humbled to receive the Community Cultivator award from 1Philadelphia during their transformative Innovation Weekend,” Ntshepe wrote in a LinkedIn post. “Thank you for recognizing The Connect‘s tireless efforts to cultivate a thriving ecosystem for Black and Brown professionals in Philadelphia.”

215 Award

• Seer Interactive
• 10K Independents Project
• Amplify Philly
• Comcast NBCUniversal LIFT Labs

Amplify Philly, an organization focused on branding and economic development of Philadelphia, won the 215 Award.

Comcast also won the Catalyst for Change — Organization award.

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.