ThinkFest Preview: Apu Gupta on Philly’s Changing Tech Scene
In just four years, Apu Gupta’s brainchild Curalate has singlehandedly advanced the way millions of consumers interact with brands. The startup has made it so that the process of scrolling through your favorite department store’s Instagram feed is less about mindless browsing and more about being connected directly to the product and story being depicted in photos and videos.
The leading visual commerce platform has become a staple marketing strategy for more than 850 brands and has catapulted into local and national stardom with big-name brands like Neiman Marcus, Swarovski and Gap on board.
On November 15th, at a ThinkFest talk titled “Philly’s First Unicorn? Notes on the Philly Tech Scene,” Gupta will headline and share details about Curalate’s explosive growth (they raised a whopping $27.5 million in February and doubled the staff in just one year) and its recent groundbreaking deals with Facebook and Google. In August, Facebook tapped the company as one of its marketing partners and beginning in September, Google partnered with the startup on “Shop the Look,” a new shopping experience to help users discover products they never knew they were looking for. The startup even found a way to bring tech to the DNC this summer.
Curalate’s secret to success may be in its ability to stay current, aligning itself with the social media elements that are all the rage. It recently added Curalate Tilt to its host of offerings, a product that will help brands take advantage of vertical videos, the ones that disappear after a few moments on Snapchat and Instagram Stories. More on that at the talk.
And as if that wasn’t enough to get you to buy a ticket and mark your calendar STAT, you should know that Gupta has been at the heart of Philly’s burgeoning tech scene. When Mayor Kenney took office, the startup leader penned an op-ed, “Make Philly the Tech Place to Be,” urging the mayor and tech community to work together. Has the city and its techies heeded the visionary’s call to action? We’ll hear Gupta’s observations at Thinkfest. See you there!
Join us on November 15th at the Convention Center for this one-day event where Philly’s smartest people share their biggest ideas. Check out the full lineup of speakers and get your tickets today.
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