Early leaders of Guru, goPuff, Crossbeam and Venmo say these are their fave Philly startups

Four founders of some of Philly’s most influential tech companies gathered last week at Harp & Crown to talk fundraising, growing your company and the highest and lowest moments of building a startup.

The event, run by venture capital firm Accel and Philly Startup Leaders, brought together about 100 founders and entrepreneurs to hear from Bumble COO Sarah Jones Simmer, and the founders and former execs of goPuff, Crossbeam, Guru and Venmo (remember when it was a Philly startup?).

What followed were discussions of some of the crew’s biggest lessons they’ve learned, why they decided to start their companies in Philly, and fundraising (except, notably, no one asked goPuff cofounder Yakir Gola about the company’s massive $750 million raise).

But when the panel leader asked Gola, Crossbeam cofounder and CEO Bob Moore, Guru cofounder and CEO Rick Nucci and Venmo’s former COO, Michael Vaughan, what their current favorite Philly startup was outside of the folks on the stage, they had quick answers.

“gettacar,” Gola and Vaughan said at the same time.

The Northeast Philly company (and 2020 RealLIST Startup) is run by two childhood friends, Yossi Levi and Jake Levin, with years of experience in traditional auto sales and a stint at goPuff for Levin, who helped launch the local delivery service company. They essentially follow the same business model of quick delivery as goPuff, but with cars.

The company raised an undisclosed amount of seed funding in 2018 which included San Francisco-based e.ventures, The Philadelphia Inquirer reported. A gettacar spokesperson told Technical.ly in December that it employed 100 people locally and operates a 25,000-square-foot reconditioning center in Northeast Philly.

Nucci named DuckDuckGo, the privacy-focused internet browser with an office in Chester County.

And Moore said Fishtown Analytics, an analytics consultancy for high-growth, venture-funded startups. The company works with brands like Casper and Away.

Admittedly, he is an investor, Moore said — “but they’re doing something really really smart.”