A look at the Philly tech scene in 1999

Tech reporter Peter Key named the Radnor Hotel on the Main Line one of the “Best Places to Cut a Deal” in his wrap of the Philly tech scene in 1999. Photo credit: VisitPhilly.com

The year was 1999 and the Wall Street Journal had just snubbed the Philly tech scene.

It listed the 13 hottest regions for technology and — surprise, surprise — had left out Philly. Since technology reporters care about these kinds of things, Philadelphia Business Journal reporter Peter Key wrote his own entry in the style of the WSJ list about the Philly tech scene. Read more about the major players in the region, the big exits and “where the rich [would] go on weekends” here.

It’s a little gem Key uncovered earlier this month. In his recent column, he compared today’s tech scene to that of 1999, in which he notes the amount of venture capital firms in the region back then.

Read it here.

For more on Philly tech scene history, check out our coverage on 90s-era tech startups Infonautics and CDNow.

Also related: Will Philly’s second tech startup community survive longer than the first? asks Mike Krupit