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And then the pandemic hit.

It was a common phrase heard in the first half of 2020, and even shining stars of the local tech galaxy werent immune to the economic fallout that followed COVID-19s U.S. debut.

At the beginning of this new decade, Technical.lys editorial team called out the top 10 startups in each of our markets that showed the most promise as innovators and as companies that would elevate our respective cities tech communities.

In Philadelphia, we selected 10 RealLIST Startups all founded in the past three years as current movers and shakers of the tech and entrepreneurship ecosystem ranging in industry from data to robotics to biotech to jobs training.

The founders and leaders of these companies have varying backgrounds: Some are first-time founders, while others well dub serial entrepreneurs. Some companies have a small staff of a few employees while others are rapidly hiring.

As we do every year (although, nothing is quite normal in 2020), we reached out to our 2020 RealLIST startup companies to see how things have changed for them six months later. Heres what they told us.

This precision medicine company is run by two former venture capital investors,Tracy WarrenandTammi Jantzen, who have since taken their savvy in raising money for others to their own startup. The team had an especially banner year in 2019 raising a $5 million Series A round in May and an additional $3.5 million in November.

When the pandemic hit, it was hard to get medical centers to focus on the companys flagship product, NICUtrition, a suite of digital tools and diagnostics that supports feeding protocols, practice and decision making in neonatal intensive care units (NICUs) for premature babies, Jantzen told Technical.ly.

We were thrilled to double the size of the team in early 2020 and then the pandemic hit. Selling our NICUtrition solution to hospitals was challenging as they were all laser-focused on COVID-19, however we are now seeing movement from our hospital clients and are optimistic about the remainder of 2020, she said. In addition, we have completed analysis of our NICUbiome dataset and plan to introduce the solution by the end of the year.

The on-demand graphic design startup, founded in 2017, became a go-to for companies looking for design services and has some mass appeal from its unique subscription model: unlimited design services managed through proprietary software for a flat rate per month. Its been heralded for extending those services to Camden nonprofits that couldnt afford them for a single dollar. It earned enough clout to land on theInc. 5000list last year at number 1,006.

Penji set up shop in Camden near the waterfront two years ago, but its significant staff growth up to about 60, as of November, cofounder and CEO Khai Transaid was cause for the startup to move operations over the Ben Franklin Bridgeto Phillyin fall 2019. Tran told Technical.ly at the time: The mission didnt change. Just the location did.

Because of the planned move, Tran told Technical.ly the team had already been working remotely, and have continued to do so during the pandemic.

Penjis graphic design membership model actually grew so much within the last six months that we are expanding and building several new products, he wrote in an email. We are launching an SEO content marketing membership and a SaaS software both scheduled to launch first quarter of 2021.

Three-time founderBob Moorejumped into his latest project, LinkedIn for data startup Crossbeam, in 2018 with cofounderBuck Ryan. The duo raiseda $12.5 million Series Ain August led byFirstMark Capitalwith participation from existing investorsFirst Round Capital,Uncork CapitalandSlack Fund.

Since we talked to the company at the beginning of this year, Moore said that the startups focus on partnerships has made for good business in 2020, when you cant make connections IRL. Moore said the team has broken its own records this past quarter, picked up some exciting new clients and grown to a team of 28 (about double this time last year) with plans for a few more additional roles.

To keep our team connected, weve tried to be creative: Everyone has an Oculus Go headset for VR social events and gaming, we have had several Zoom trivia nights, and everyone received a custom snackathon snack box in the mail for our recent fully virtual hackathon, Moore said.

And, hey, it looks like the company wrote an ebook:

This news subscription startup was born in Brooklyn, but lured to the City of Brotherly Love for the 2019LIFT Labsaccelerator class andhas since decided to make Philly its home. NICKL, and its productNICKLpass, found success in the idea of bundling and selling news outlet subscriptions to groups, namely companies

Since we talked to Zaza in early 2020, the founder has been busy, especially since everyone has seemed to be tuning in for more news during the pandemic.

People arent just interested in the breaking news, but also what [the virus] means fortheir team,their jobs,their life, he told us in May. Because of that, its created a lot of demand.

The startup now has more than 150 publishers on board and raised recent round of bridge fundraising, $225,000.

The Northeast Philly startup is run by two childhood friends,Yossi LeviandJake Levin, with years of experience in traditional auto sales and a stint atgoPufffor Levin, who helped launch the local delivery service companythat got a $750 million investment in 2019.The pair launched the showroom-less auto seller in 2018, essentially an online platform where folks could shop for a used, reasonably priced car and get it delivered the next day.

The company raised an undisclosed amount of seed funding in 2018 which included San Francisco-basede.ventures. A Gettacar spokesperson told Technical.ly in December that it employed 100 people locally and operates a 25,000-square-foot reconditioning center in Northeast Philly.

Early this month, the company announced it expanded to the Washington, D.C. area, six months after it expanded to Baltimore.

Even before the pandemic we saw a huge demand from consumers looking for an easy and accessible way to get in the drivers seat without spending hours at a dealership, the cofounders said in a statement. Now that demand is growing even more as car buyers look to practice social distancing and take advantage of our contactless delivery. People feel even more uncomfortable going to a traditional dealership during the pandemic, so our experience makes a lot more sense because of how easy, fast, and safe it is.

QuotaPath made the2019 RealLISTfor reasons that remain true in 2020: It raised a $1.5 million seed round led by Austin-basedATX Seed Venturesand angel investors, and the companys profile is raised with cofounderAJ Bruno. His first company,TrendKite, was acquired in 2018 in a nine-digit deal. The companyalso raised $3.5 million, doubled its employee headcount and had a company kickoff in Philadelphia where it flew its Austin employees up for a hackathon and a day of strategic sessions.

Six months into 2020, Bruno told Technical.ly that the pandemic forced the company to push back its paid launch because of COVID, but finally went live with it in June. The company had one its most productive quarters to date, and is now 25% above its early March high in terms of total users. The team has also added two people to its headcount.

No job losses from us and Im thankful the team responded so quickly and well to the work from home change, Bruno said.

ThisPennovation Center-based medtech startup was founded byUniversity of PennsylvaniagradRui Jing Jiangin 2017 while she was atThe Wharton School.The companys product,VisiPlate, aims to treat open-angle glaucoma with an ocular implant thats designed to remove excess fluid from inside the eye. The device releases pressures that damage the optic nerve.

In 2019, the company said it was funded via non-dilutive grants and awards including a $225,000 federal government grant from theNational Science Foundationand additional funding from Penn,Ben Franklin Technology Partners and VentureWell E-Teams, among others. Last year, Avisi went through theMedTechInnovator Acceleratorbased in San Francisco.

And since we last checked in, the company was one of 13 accepted to the UCSF Rosenman Institute startup cohort, and had its patent issued and trademark approved, Jiang said.

This job training and reskilling company was started in NYC, but its founder, Pennsylvania nativeKristy McCann Flynn, told Technical.ly last year thatshe was coming hometo run the business from Philly.McCann Flynnlaunched the company in 2018 to offer a SaaS and customer-facing solution to the professional development market.

The app relies on a network of customers and career coaches who work together to bring folks up to speed on current workforce trends and skills. It tracks KPIs, has behavioral assessments and brings in a range of coaches for various industries. The company is remote friendly, and has a handful of employees in Philly, New York, California, Washington and North Carolina.

Since the start of the pandemic, business for virtual job training has been up, McCann Flynn said. The company has trained 3,500 future leaders, helped more than 300 displaced coachees and getting at least 25% of them back into the workforce, and is planning to announce a new partnership toward the end of summer.

Former professional chefJared Cannonlaunched this line of jarred, ready-to-go meals stored in connected smart fridges at the end of 2017, and has seen slow but steady success with the venture since. Cannon was chosen for New York-basedFood-X, an accelerator program for food-related startups, in 2019, and said Simply Good Jars had tapped a handful of Fortune 500companies as customers.

Since the beginning of 2020, Cannon has had to shift the companys business model, since many office buildings and meeting locations (where many of the smart fridges were located) have been empty. The company has started offering at-home delivery service, and recently partnered up with delivery startup goPuff to expand its reach.

Cannon also said the biz has completed full commercialization of the products for regional distribution, launching in more than 60 locations in Chicago over Easter weekend and secured placement in 175 Sheetz locations on Memorial Day weekend. The company is also opening up bridge round of fundraising for $750,000 to achieve annual revenue of $1.7 million in 2020.

With the closing of salad bars and buffets pretty much everywhere, we believe the second half of 2020 will provide a new opportunity to help bridge the gap between shuttered salad bars and catered events, Cannon said in an email. We also have some new exciting partnerships underway utilizing our vending technology in entirely different ways and also expanding our regional distribution footprint.

The one-year-old company is a spinout ofHumanistic Robotics, which was founded in 2004 and created devices to keep humans safe from landmines which were deployed in areas such as Afghanistan and Southeast Asia. In about a year, FORT, which has a mission to create a secure, end-to-end wireless platform that ensures human safety around dangerous machines, grew from its original team of 10 to about 25 employees and raised $4 million in seed funding in 2019.

The company didnt respond to requests for comment about an update, but its LinkedIn and careers pages shows the company is hiring for a handful of roles like embedded software engineer and senior hardware engineer. Back in March, it also announced a next-generation platform,Oversight. The control system enhances worker safety and machine security with built-in encryption, safety-certified communications, and advanced software features with seamless connectivity through web and mobile applications, the company said in a statement.

The rest is here:
Six months later, where are the 2020 RealLIST Startups now? - Technical.ly

Change is never easy, especially when you have to move out of your comfort zone. However, once you decide to take a new direction, you somehow begin to forge your path ahead. You stumble, you fall, then get up and dust yourself, and walk on stronger than ever.

I used to be a corporate executive working in the HR and Training departments of reputed companies. My story follows the trajectory of majority of qualified working women in India. Once I became a mother, I had to select my priorities, and I chose to give up full time employment to devote all my time to my child.

As my child grew up a little, I began to feel restless for resuming my professional life. I knew corporate jobs were out of bounds for me, as I couldnt leave my kid with a hired help for the whole day. At that time, crches within organizations werent common.

Teaching and training had always been close to my heart. From childhood, I loved teaching and had wanted to become a teacher when I grew up. I had pursued English Literature, and later Business Management in college for doing something in academics.

Now I thought of taking up teaching on a part-time basis, for the flexibility it offered to qualified homemakers like me. After applying to various management institutes, I was finally appointed as visiting faculty member at two management institutes. I was to teach HRM, Organizational Behaviour and Industrial Relations in one institute, and Soft Skills and Business Communication at another.

I couldnt believe my luck! I didnt have to compromise on my family life, I got the job I enjoyed, and as a bonus, the pay was good. My students responded well to my teaching, and I loved interacting with bright young minds. Heck, I even enjoyed disciplining the no-gooders and bringing them in line!

Then my luck ran out. One moment I was enjoying animatedly discussing about cross-cultural communication or behavioral grids with my students, and the next moment I found I had no job. The recession had necessitated cost reduction measures. All institutes had closed appointments, and were to work only with internal faculty.

I realized for the first time, that I was classified as external faculty member, someone who could be dispensed with at will.

Feeling worthless is the worst feeling in the world. My identity was gone, and I was left feeling hollow and somehow cheated.

It seemed as if I was doomed to remain just a stay-at-home mom all my life. I desperately wanted an avenue to share my knowledge, to voice my helplessness and angst.

It was then that I started thinking of starting my own blog.I had so much to say, and had no forum to voice my ideas, my learning from so many years of corporate and teaching experience. I started my own blog on Blogger @ http://barnaliviews.blogspot.com

I started small and slow, writing once every few days. In fact, I was so nave that I used to delete some posts after a few days to free up space on the blog! I felt that topical posts had lived their utility, and consigned them to the bin after a week or two. Talk about consistency!

Slowly, however, I began to get a hang of blogging. But even after writing regularly, the number of views was not encouraging. No likes or comments or followers either! Pretty disappointing, wasnt it? Blogging didnt turn out as exciting as I had heard about it.

At the same time I had also started applying to part-time content writing positions. I landed an assignment to develop two skill-training courses for a local institute, for which I would be paid a fixed amount. I had to follow the parameters of NSDC and NASSCOM to create course outlines, teaching guides and learning material.

I was ecstatic. I had the opportunity to utilize my professional and academic knowledge to make relevant contributions.

However, getting paid for this job turned out to be a different ball game altogether. No approval for this and that, changes required, Still not satisfactory, these phrases started cropping up whenever the question of payment popped up. I went on complying, making changes, editing, and managed to get paid for one course.

The second one wasnt approved I was told, so no payment!

All my months of pouring over the laptop, researching and writing, building up volumes of courseware - gone in vain!

The tumultuous, fraud-ridden world of content writing was becoming clear to me. Another portal I wrote for refused to pay, citing trivial excuses. I had no contract or letter to contest these discrepancies. After being cheated for the umpteenth time, I finally decided to draw a line.

Lesson learnt, I started insisting on a contract from the client agency before starting work.

Charging for content writing was another tricky area. I had almost two years of writing experience, but that was mostly through freelancing and blogging. Those didnt count for real work experience, according to most agencies. I had to start with a measly 50 paise per word.

In the midst of all this gloom, there was one positive development. On the basis of my previous work experience, in particular management training experience, I landed a contract of writing for an edu-tech company. Writing on my favourite topics like Workplace Behaviour, Leadership, Performance Feedback, etc., gave me a new high. Though the pay wasnt much to speak of, I loved writing on these topics, and stuck on for a couple of years.

Soon, however, that dried up too. They didnt need any more articles.

Then I chanced upon an opportunity for writing on couple relationships at a portal. I sent them an article, was published online, and continued writing for them for some time. During this period, there were several interesting discussion groups on the portal that I participated in. The exchange of ideas with like-minded people was a welcome change in my rather lonely writing journey.

But, good things come to an end rather soon. The portal stopped paying. They wanted voluntary contributions in the form of personal accounts. I drew a line here. For one, I didnt want to discuss my private life on their site; and secondly, I wasnt going to write for free.

A content writers professional journey, I realized, was a roller coaster ride. Sometimes, I was struggling to handle multiple workloads, working non-stop without breaks, and sometimes days went by without any project.

These days were lonely and fraught with uncertainty, and I was on the verge of giving up many times.

After years of doggedly applying for content writing gigs, following up for payment (which was peanuts), losing patience and regaining it, I finally landed a contract with an agency through my LinkedIn profile. In the meantime, I had also cleared the evaluation criteria of a popular content portal. Slowly, work from the portal also began to trickle in.

It was something of an achievement, and though the pay was nothing extraordinary, I had a steady flow of work at last.

Today, I can sum up my learning in the following words:

Writing content for work, and writing for pleasure are two entirely different things. You cannot afford to be bored by the sameness of the work assigned to you, as long as it pays your bills.

Deadlines are sacrosanct. It is imperative to stick to the allotted deadlines for submission. The agency/portal that assigns work to you is answerable to the business enterprise that has employed them.

Proof reading, cross checking reference sources, editing, rewriting, are part of a content writers job. You cant say no to any of these.

Writing for SEO effectiveness is a different ballgame. Your priority is keyword insertion and in making the text crisp and effective. Your work should have a Call to Action (CTA) effect.

Content writing will feel like drudgery sometimes, and you will be stuck with a Writers Block every now and then. Be prepared to stare at the blank computer screen in front of you for hours at a stretch.Who said writing content was easy, anyway?

Keep an open mind towards writing on any topic that is assigned to you. If you pick and choose, work starts drying up. (My preferred niches are lifestyle, travel, and behavioral sciences, but the bulk of my assigned work is in other areas).

I hope that my learning comes of help to all budding writers and bloggers out there. The initial years of struggle apart, it is a bumpy yet fulfilling journey. And at the end of the day, you get paid to do what you love most Writing!

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How I Evolved Professionally to Find My Calling as a Content Writer - YourStory

If you create content for the web, you already know it takes time to build websites, write blog posts, create videos, produce graphics, and all the other steps that go into keeping a site healthy and flourishing.

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If you have competitors, Long Tail Pro can also help you spy on their efforts with a detailed analysis showing which words theyre using and how much effect theyre having. Its like being inside your rivals camp and learning their battle tactics and theyll never even know you know.

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Hackers tried to break into the World Health Organization earlier in March, as the COVID-19 pandemic spread, Reuters reports. Security experts blame an advanced cyber-espionage hacker group known as DarkHotel. A senior agency official says the WHO has been facing a more than two-fold increase in cyberattacks since the coronavirus pandemic began.

Its a silent tragedy that no one ever wants to even consider. But the reality is that Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS) claims the lives of nearly 3,500 babies in the U.S. every year. Its a horror no parent wants to face, yet the threat of this heartless killer has newborn parents keeping as close []

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Learn how to optimize your site's SEO with the help of this analysis tool - Boing Boing

Dream actors Park Seo Joon, IU and Lee Hyun Woo sent a few special gifts to Kim Soo Hyun and the cast of It's Okay To Not Be Okay.

Kim Soo Hyun has returned to the small screen for the first time since he wrapped his military training with It's Okay To Not Be Okay. The actor plays Moon Kang Tae in the Korean drama. He stars opposite the gorgeous and talented Seo Ye Ji. Although the series has released only two episodes, fans have showered the show with love. Now, it has been revealed that Dream actor Park Seo Joon, IU and Lee Hyun Woo showered Kim Soo Hyun and the cast of It's Okay To Not Be Okay with some love.

It has been revealed that the Dream trio sent trucks of coffee and food on the sets of the tvN drama to show the cast their support. In photos shared by the channel's official Instagram account, the trucks featured banners with Kim Soo Hyun's photos on it. The banners also included drawings of IU, Park Seo Joon and Lee Hyun Woo on them. The message on the truck read, "To all the cast and crew, please enjoy this and keep up the good work.

For the unversed, Kim Soo Hyun has worked with all the three stars. Kim Soo Hyun has worked with the singer on "Dream High" and "Producer." He even had a cameo in the finale of Hotel Del Luna. As for Lee Hyun Woo, the two acted together in the film Secretly, Greatly." Whereas Park Seo Joon and Kim Soo Hyun are good friends. Check out the pictures of the truck here.

What do you think of It's Okay To Not Be Okay? Let us know your first and second episodes review in the comments.

ALSO READ:It's Okay to Not Be Okay Ep 1: Shirtless Kim Soo Hyun leaves Twitter thirsty, Seo Ye Ji impresses with her act

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Park Seo Joon & IU support Kim Soo Hyun & the cast of It's Okay To Not Be Okay with this sweet gesture - PINKVILLA

It's Okay to Not Be Okay premiered its first episode on Saturday, June 20. The K-drama stars Kim Soo-hyun and Seo Ye-ji in the lead. Here's what the best moments of the episode were.

This weekend, K-drama fans sat down to watch Kim Soo-hyun return to the small screen following the end of his military training with It's Okay to Not Be Okay. The actor stars with Seo Ye-ji and Oh Jung-se in the series. While the tvN show's trailers had already caught fans' fancy, the first episode has left fans talking about the show on social media. As the synopsis had already revealed, the unusual love story follows the journey of Moon Kang Tae (Soo-hyun), a medical caretaker who is destined to cross paths with author Ko Moon-young's (Seo Ye-ji).

The first episode established the theme of the series and put the leading characters' battles in the spotlight. While fans have already fallen in love with the series and the discussions surrounding mental health has reignited courtesy the show, there were a few scenes and elements of the first episode that became the talk of social media town.

Before we detail down on the elements, a fair warning that there are spoilers ahead.

Let's start with the beginning. It's Okay to Not Be Okay begins with an animation, telling a tale of a child with a shadow, metaphorically representing a depressive state of mind, who accidentally saves a boy. The boy trails behind her until she gives a glimpse of her inner demons, thus chasing him away. The simple animation has impressed viewers. Several online users took to Twitter to applaud the minimalist yet hard-hitting animation placed at the beginning of the show.

Another aspect that people haven't stop talking about since the episode aired was Seo Ye-ji's incredible acting skills. The episode served as a beautiful platform for the actress to present varied shades of character. Playing the dark Ko Moon-young, she not only starts off as an intimidating writer who doesn't believe in happy fairytales but also exhibits elements of anger, surprise, awe, and joy.

Through the first episode, there were three scenes that had me bowing down to Ye-ji. The first was the establishing scene of her character. After she scares the little girl with her ideology of the witch, the scenes unfold with Moon-young admiring a sharp knife kept on the table. The scene was proof enough that she was going to be the star of this series.

Later in the episode, Ye-ji is involved with a mentally ill patient at the hospital. As she deals with the near-death experience, the events of her childhood flash in front of her eyes. The scene oozed of pain. But it did not take her long to switch emotions. The switch was subtle yet powerful that you empathize with the character. The final scene that had me applauding for her was when Moon-young meets Moon Kang Tae at the publishing office.

As she invests herself in Moon Kang Tae's story about a girl whom he once liked, you could see her lowering her guards. She doesn't utter many words to let the audience know that she is growing close to Moon Kang Tae. But her body language is enough to work the magic. Turns out, I wasn't the only one who was gushing over Seo Ye-ji. Fans took to Twitter and share their favourite scenes featuring the talented actress from the first episode.

We kept the best for the last! Kim Soo-hyun was a treat for the eyes! Given that It's Okay to Not Be Okay is the actor's first show since his military training, there is no denying that we were eager to see him act again. The makers made sure to pack in the adorable factor and added a cherry on the icing by adding a shirtless Kim Soo-hyun scene to make us go weak on our knees.

Apart from these three, I also loved the sprinkle of wit through the episode. Right from messages to the singles out there to the placement of an ad of their own show and the hilarious vomit scene where they used all kinds of clips to convey the point. If we had to write a one-line review of It's Okay to Not Be Okay episode 1: The new K-drama is crisp, doesn't drift away from the focal point of mental health awareness while intertwining the love story and I am definitely going to be hooked to this one! What did you think of It's Okay to Not Be Okay? Let us know your pick of the best moments from the episode and your review of the first episode in the comments below.

ALSO READ: Kim Soo Hyun reveals his chemistry with THIS It's Okay to Not Be Okay co star is 10 on 10 & it's not Seo Ye Ji

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It's Okay to Not Be Okay Ep 1: Shirtless Kim Soo Hyun leaves Twitter thirsty, Seo Ye Ji impresses with her act - PINKVILLA