Lucky for those of us who weren’t around or who don’t remember, the docuseries “Developing Philly” provides a time capsule into the tech community in 2012 and 2013. Members of the current Philly tech community gathered Monday night to watch episodes of the series and reflect on the last 10 years as part of Philly Startup Leaders’ annual Founder Factory event.
The series, which premiered at Philly Tech Week 2012, covers the history of the Philly tech community and the growth it experienced a decade ago.
David Dylan Thomas, one of the filmmakers, said during a panel following the screening that it was validating to see a group of people watching the documentary 10 years later.
“When we were making it, it never occurred to us that there would be new people entering the community,” he said. “For me, this would be a way to look back at the origins of that community.”
Maurice Gaston, the docuseries’ other filmmaker, said it’s valuable to watch the series now that there’s distance between himself and those experiences, and to reflect on how the community has and has not changed.
Alex Hillman, cofounder of Indy Hall, is featured in the docuseries. Watching it back years later, he said, he thinks the series captured the hopeful energy of the tech community at the time.
“I think the earliest days of Philly tech were unbridled hopefulness and optimism and people who thought they could do anything, even if it made zero sense at all,” he said. “To rewatch it and be like, no, we can be hopeful, I think is really important.”
If you’re curious to look back at what Philly tech was like at the time, you can watch the full seven episode series below:
Episode 1: “The End is the Beginning”
Episode 2: “Anyone Can Be an Entrepreneur”
Episode 3: “Come Together”
Episode 4: “Neighborhoods”
Episode 5: “Clubhouses”
Episode 6: “Get on Your Boots”
Episode 7: “The Shape of Things to Come”
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.Before you go...
Please consider supporting Technical.ly to keep our independent journalism strong. Unlike most business-focused media outlets, we don’t have a paywall. Instead, we count on your personal and organizational support.
3 ways to support our work:- Contribute to the Journalism Fund. Charitable giving ensures our information remains free and accessible for residents to discover workforce programs and entrepreneurship pathways. This includes philanthropic grants and individual tax-deductible donations from readers like you.
- Use our Preferred Partners. Our directory of vetted providers offers high-quality recommendations for services our readers need, and each referral supports our journalism.
- Use our services. If you need entrepreneurs and tech leaders to buy your services, are seeking technologists to hire or want more professionals to know about your ecosystem, Technical.ly has the biggest and most engaged audience in the mid-Atlantic. We help companies tell their stories and answer big questions to meet and serve our community.
Join our growing Slack community
Join 5,000 tech professionals and entrepreneurs in our community Slack today!