The next phase of StartNow Pittsburgh

What a difference a few months can make. 

A few months ago, at the tail end of 2020, we made the tough decision to shut down StartNow Pittsburgh after a year of lost momentum due to the pandemic. 

When we turned off the lights, we thought that was it. But once we crossed over into the new year, something unexpected happened — our phones started ringing. Before we knew it, we were having multiple conversations with subscribers, previous partner organizations, and even a few random introductions that were sent to us. 

Today, we are excited to announce the result of all of those conversations: 

Technically Media, which publishes Technical.ly, is acquiring StartNow. 

The Baltimore-based news organization has decided to expand their footprint and make Pittsburgh the fifth market that they’ll be covering. 

Want more information on the announcement? 

You can read the press release and Technically Media’s take here.

Over the next few months, we will be working with their team to roll the StartNow brand into their company. The newsletter, website, social accounts, and calendar you’re used to will return — but in a different form and under new ownership. 

What does this mean for StartNow’s future? 

This deal ensures that the hard work our team put into this brand will continue by connecting with our neighboring metros for much more well-rounded coverage than we could ever provide. When we made this deal, it was important for us to have the brand go beyond Pittsburgh to a much wider audience and allow others to see the exciting things happening here. 

By collaborating with Technically Media, this gives our ecosystem an opportunity to build bridges to neighboring metros to inspire, inform, and support all of our collective efforts. For those in economic development, these communication highways are incredibly important for growth, attracting talent, and strengthening the tech companies putting down roots here. 

We’re so excited about this announcement and we can’t wait to see how this new ownership group will help define the next decade of tech reporting in Pittsburgh. 

To all of our readers, email subscribers, and the Pittsburgh tech community at large: Thank you for your continued support as we usher in a new phase for StartNow Pittsburgh. 

As for next steps, we encourage you to join the Technical.ly Pittsburgh newsletter, which will launch in June, and if you haven’t already you can join the Technical.ly This Week in Jobs Pittsburgh newsletter here. If you’re curious, you can join the Technical.ly public Slack community here. 

To a better tomorrow,

John Quayle
Founder & Operator, StartNow Pittsburgh