Philly Startup Leaders is excited to announce the first official “PSL University” Event on Monday, July 9th at 6:30PM at Venturef0rth (417 North 8th Street, Philadelphia PA 19123)
What is PSL University?
Topics You Care About -- We’ve surveyed the PSL community to identify the topics that you care about most. Each event is designed to deliver practical advice in the topics that matter to the community.
All-Star Speakers -- PSL University features high-profile leaders from the Philadelphia start-up community. These speakers have learned by doing. They will offer practical advice to entrepreneurs who are “in the trenches” building businesses.
Advice You Can Use -- PSL University events are designed to provide practical advice that entrepreneurs can put to work as soon as they walk out the door.
Our First Topic: Customer Development
How do you find and engage passionate customers? How do you scale that base to build a true success story? What mistakes should you avoid along the way?
This PSL University event will feature presentations from three of our community’s most successful entrepreneurs, each of whom will provide unique perspectives informed by their unique experiences in customer development.
Darren Hill is the co-founder and CEO of Weblinc, one of the nation's leading ecommerce companies. Weblinc has a rich 18 year history in Philadelphia and a client base of major national brands. Darren will share the lessons he’s learned about scaling a base of loyal customers in an industry known for high-touch relationships and project-based work.
Peter Ritz is the co-founder of Xtium, a leading "private cloud" virtual hosting, recovery and infrastructure provider. In his decades-long career, he has led over a half-dozen other successful technology companies. On the heels of Xtium’s recent $11.5 Million funding round, Peter will discuss how an influx of capital can impact customer development strategy and the potential pitfalls it can bring.
Gabe Weinberg is the founder and CEO of search engine DuckDuckGo and an active angel investor. DuckDuckGo boasts a large, growing, and active base of passionate users. Gabe will share lessons he has learned developing a large user base in a highly competitive consumer industry with highly entrenched competitors.
Each speaker will provide a 15-minute presentation on the subject of customer development. The event will end with a moderated panel discussion and Q&A session.