SocialLadder wins Philly start-up honors
Iqbal-Bly partnership 'Best in Show'
PACT Phorum, the yearly software and investors' conference organized by the Greater Philadelphia Alliance for Capital Technologies, on Wednesday named SocialLadder, a mobile-platform developer that helps clients "align rewards with the most influential consumers" through game-like interface, as the "Best in Show" start-up from its "demo pit" competition. Other finalists: Canvas, RJMetrics and Buyer MLS.
SocialLadder -- informal motto: "Why toss 100,000 $2 chocolate bars from an airplane, when you can give a $20 gift basket to the top 1,000 most influential people for 1/10th the price?" -- is based on Rittenhouse Square, and run by founders Raavi Iqbal and Alana Bly and a staff of two.
The Phorum's advisory council was chaired by Allen Born, director at investment bank Fairmount Partners. Speakers included Salesforce.com head of platform research Peter Coffee, Yahoo! Tech columnist David Pogue, and Independence Blue Cross boss Dan Hilferty, with panelists from LockheedMartin, Penn Medicine, Wawa and other very prominent locally-based and national outfits. I got to moderate the Mobility panel.