In 2009, a blog called TechnicallyPhilly.com began to chronicle the budding tech ecosystem growing in Philadelphia.

And sure, while updates from the better-known Comcast or the University of Pennsylvania had their space, the blog excelled at covering the rising cadre of companies that were the lifeblood of the tech community: like video-sharing platform RedLasso, or mobile payments company Venmo.

Yup, you read that right. In case you didn’t know, the story of Venmo — that app you likely used a bit ago to settle a bar tab — begins in Philly.

It was at a Philadelphia jazz show that founders Andrew Kortina and Iqram Magdon-Ismail — both Penn grads who met when they were randomly assigned as roommates — came up with the idea of using your phone to purchase MP3 songs with less friction. A couple of years later, Technical.ly (as it came to be known) was sharing frequent updates on Venmo, including a promising rollout of its new mobile apps.

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