At Founder Factory, entrepreneurs will share lessons for the year ahead

A mix of out-of-town and local speakers from the entrepreneurship and tech worlds are coming together on Dec. 6 for a look back at 2018’s biggest wins and losses.

Philly Startup Leaders’ (PSL) Founder Factory is happening at Fringe Arts and will feature voices from companies such as First Round Capital, Comcast, Techstars, Backstage Capital and Girl Develop It.

“We are extremely excited about the diverse speaker lineup we’ve crafted for Founder Factory this year,” said PSL Executive Director Kiera Smalls in an email. “Attendees will get to hear inspiring talks from both local and national speakers from various industries. Lolita Taub of Backstage Capital will be traveling from California and David Brown of Techstars will be traveling from Colorado.”

Also in the lineup are local investors such as Red & Blue Ventures’ Brett Topche and founders such as NeuroFlow CEO Chris Molaro. PSL President Bob Moore, who cofounded and chairs the board of recently acquired data analytics startup Stitch, will break down how that company went from hackathon idea to standalone spinout company to a $60 million exit.

Smalls said the 10-year-old entrepreneurship nonprofit will also unveil the 2019 PSL Accelerator cohort of startups, and that the size of the program has been doubled from this year. Here’s a look at the 2018 companies.

“We hope attendees leave feeling inspired by the Philly startup community’s success and progress,” Smalls said.