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GoodCompany Group Investor Day: highlights from the summer accelerator’s pitch day

It was a night for GoodCompany Group‘s social entrepreneurs to show off their stuff. Thirteen startups participated in GoodCompany Group’s summer accelerator, and last week, ten startups pitched at the socially-minded firm’s Investor Day, held at First Round Capital‘s University City headquarters. (A few startups did not pitch because of scheduling and organizational reasons, said […]

A staffer from GoodCompany Group startup Wash Cycle Laundry dropped in (working gear in tow) for the event.

It was a night for GoodCompany Group‘s social entrepreneurs to show off their stuff.

Thirteen startups participated in GoodCompany Group’s summer accelerator, and last week, ten startups pitched at the socially-minded firm’s Investor Day, held at First Round Capital‘s University City headquarters. (A few startups did not pitch because of scheduling and organizational reasons, said executive director Zoe Selzer.)

We give out some awards below, including Most Unexpected Soundbyte, Most Controversial Mission Statement and the Love/Hate Relationship with Investors Award. We couldn’t give love to every company, but check out our previous coverage of GoodCompany startups Desmo, Philantech and PSGive here.

MOST STAFFED UP

Wash Cycle Laundry, the Philly-based sustainable laundry service that uses bike laundry messengers to get the job done, now has 15 staffers, said founder Gabriel Mandujano, who used to be the Executive Director of the Enterprise Center CDC. You’ve probably seen the neon-clad bike messengers around Center City and beyond, carting buckets of laundry in what can look like a superhuman feat (especially when going uphill). Mandjuano said he hopes to expand to other markets. 

THE LOVE/HATE RELATIONSHIP WITH INVESTORS AWARD

We’ve been hearing investment buzz about the mobile remittances app Regalii. But during his pitch, founder and Wharton grad Edrizio de la Cruz said that seeing Regalii users’ reactions to the service was the most rewarding part of his job. de la Cruz, who said he grew up on remittances, later told us, “If I could pay my rent with that smile, I would,” he said, but, of course, he still has to talk to investors. Regalii will be headquartered in New York City, where most of its user-base is, de la Cruz said. Read more about Regalii in the Philadelphia Inquirer.

MOST CONTROVERSIAL MISSION STATEMENT*

Edibikes, the Philly-based company that sells simple commuter bikes, said it aims to take the at-times insider-y bicycle culture out of the process of buying a bike. We were struck by this mission statement because it made us feel conflicted: on the one hand, we get it completely, bike culture is intimidating (remember how we were overwhelmed by all the gear-talk at the urban cycling session at BarCamp?). On the other hand, bike culture is so very Philly. Case in point: David Curtis‘s Twitter response to our tweet about Edibikes’ mission: “I’d like to hear more about what this means for bike culture in Phila.”

*Granted, most mission statements were not controversial at all, so keep in mind that this is quite relative.

An audience member tests out a junk-mail filled pillow made by GoodCompany Group startup Paper Wool.

MOST UNEXPECTED

Pillows. Filled with 100 percent junk mail. That’s the idea behind Philly startup Paper Wool, said founder Valerie Linnhart Mallya, a Corzo Center fellow in partnership with GoodCompany Group. Linnhart Mallya said she wasn’t looking for outside investment, though she would welcome any connections to retailers like Free People and West Elm.

MOST UNEXPECTED SOUNDBYTE

“…and then they snort highly concentrated brine out of their nostrils,” said ZiyROn founder Karen Meidlinger. That’s it. You get no context.

Just kidding. Meidlinger, whose Philly-based company ZiyROn has developed a desalination technology, was talking about how certain birds have evolved to desalinate (that is, remove salt from) sea water that they drink. Meidlinger was previously a GoodCompany co-chair and runs sustainable private equity firm Meidlinger Partners.

MOST HIGH-PROFILE ADVISORY BOARD

StartSomeGood, the Washington, D.C.-based crowdfunding platform for social entrepreneurs, counts Reddit cofounder Steve Huffman, Scribd cofounder Tikhon Bernstam (who will be coming for a Philly Tech Talk soon) and DonorsChoose founder Charles Best as part of its advisory board.

Companies: Desmo / Edibikes / Free People / GoodCompany Group / Meidlinger Partners / PhilanTech / psGive / Regalii / Wash Cycle Laundry / West Elm
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