Startup Roundup: ElectNext wins Judges’ Choice Award at Web 2.0 Expo

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 a weekly email newsletter by clicking here and selecting the Startup Roundup button or follow Startup Roundup’s RSS feed. If you’ve got news to share, get in touch.
MUST READS
ElectNext took home the Judges’ Choice Award from the Web2.0 Expo in New York. Listen to the judges’ evaluation here. The Daily Kos also named the platform one of five campaigns and election startups to watch.
Is venture capital even worth it? A BusinessWeek point-counterpoint article reminds people that not even 1 percent of startups receive outside funding. But capital is crucial in helping companies scale, says counterpoint. [via InnovationDaily]

GIVE A GLANCE
TicketLeap was all over the news last week for its attention to Halloween event ticketing, and though much of the coverage found a time hook in the recent holiday, it’s clear the company is thinking strategically about its targets. As Inc. put it, the Halloween events market generates between $400 million and $500 million each year. An Inquirer report says that in at least one instance, TicketLeap is undercut the cost of doing business with TicketMaster by $5 per ticket and is providing better client service to boot. In related news, TicketLeap’s iPhone ticket scanner has officially launched, and the company has a demo video here.
PhillyTechNews catches up with Ryan Meinzer of Washington D.C.’s PlaySay, which got its start here in Philly and moved after receiving $550,000 in funding. The news site notes that a content partnership with publisher McGraw-Hill has led to an iPhone app that teaches Spanish, launched in September.
MIGHT BE WORTH YOUR TIME
App maker and hacker C.C. Laan of Laan Labs has created a system to unlock the front door of his apartment with the iPhone 4S’s Siri personal assistant, using SMS and Arduino. Check out a video of the process here.
The Business Journal has its take on the recent $3 million investment in Duck Duck Go from a round of funding led by Union Square Ventures and angels in Philadelphia, New york and California.
ProgrammableWeb features CloudMine, the local API service.
On November 16, the Science Center is hosting its next Coffee & Capital event with Katherine O’Neill, executive director of JumpStart New Jersey. You can register here.
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.