Startups in Philadelphia: PSL's Map of the Ecosystem

Philly Startup Leaders has developed a map showing the locations of many startups, various companies, accelerators, coworking spaces, investors, and a variety of services. It's the most comprehensive map I've ever come across, and having a map like this when I first started my thesis would have been a great aid. It would have sped up the interviewing process of finding entrepreneurs across Philadelphia. To find entrepreneurs, I to attend the different organizations like Philly Tech Meetup, Philly Startup Leaders, Philly Startup Weekend, Founder Factory, and various other events where entrepreneurs gather in order to tell them about my thesis and find prospective interviewees.

Having trekked across Philadelphia to find and interview people within the startup ecosystem, I mapped out and discovered relationships. Though it's not even close to being as comprehensive as the map above, it sheds light on the relationships between the different types of organizations and how they influence and sustain each other.

PSL ListServ Streamgraph

Has the PSL ListServ lost it's mojo? Short answer, no. But take a look at the streamgraph below to see the ebb and flow of various words used by the community. It seems that the amount of times the word "help" is being used has significantly increased relative to other categories this past month. This means people are using the word "help" in one of two different situations: one where people are asking for help, the other for giving help. Without going into each email containing the word help and highlighting each sentence, it's difficult to know whether asks or gives are occurring.

This streamgraph was built using processing and adobe illustrator.