Reports: 3 of the 25 'best young entrepreneurs' are from Philly

BusinessWeek magazine scouted 25 "best young entrepreneurs," and found three of the 25 were from Philly. List here, Philly excerpts below, thanks to my colleague Peter Mucha:

1) Carbon Nanoprobes www.cnprobes.com, Malvern -  Founder: Brian Ruby, 25

"When he was a 15-year-old intern at IBM," winning science fairs in his spare time, Ruby "devised a tip for the end of imaging equipment that made it possible to capture images of the smallest particles on earth. He founded Carbon Nanoprobes in 2003 in his Columbia University dorm room and has since raised about $4 million from institutional and private investors.

"The company has nine employees and sells its equipment to universities, semiconductor firms, and material sciences companies. After six years in research stage, Carbon Nanoprobes is now transitioning to equipment sales and expects about $1 million in revenue in 2009.

2) Invite Media www.invitemedia.com, Philadelphia -   Founders: Nat Turner, 23; Zach Weinburg, 23; Scott Becker, 23; Michael Provenzano, 23

"Drawing on Turner's experience as an intern at VideoEgg, where he came up with an idea to help the firm sell its excess inventory, (Turner and Weinburg) launched the company in 2007. Turner calls the site a 'Bloomberg machine for online media' that allows agencies to log in and buy advertising space on Web sites." Invite "has landed $2.5 million in venture capital from First Round Capital and Genacast...

"Invite now has 25 employees, about 30 clients, and hopes to expand beyond online banner ads into other mediums such as online video," and "expects to (sell) $5 million to $10 million in 2009 and turn profitable" next year.

3) MyYearbook www.myyearbook.com, New Hope -  Founders: Catherine Cook, 19, and David Cook, 21

"Sister-and-brother team Catherine and David Cook built their own (high school) yearbook online. They launched the site, MyYearbook.com, at their high school in New Jersey in 2005... MyYearbook focuses on helping users meet new people through games and other applications... Their older brother Jack, who had already run several Internet businesses, and he acted as an initial investor. Since then the company has raised $17.1 million in two rounds.

"They have 75 employees at an office in New Hope, Pa. About two-thirds of the company's revenue comes from advertising; the rest is from VIP subscriptions and sales of the network's virtual currency. MyYearbook turned profitable in the first quarter of this year."