Alex Smith

I live here. I founded and run Greater Philly AI, the region’s AI meetup, which runs its speaker series at a venue here in town. I also built Made in Chester County, an independent showcase of 62 companies across the county. Both came out of the same itch as this site. The information about a place is always scattered across a dozen websites, and somebody has to sit down and collect it.

For work I run spktr, an applied-AI consultancy based here in Phoenixville, working with owner-operated companies that have real operational problems and no engineering team. Before that I spent about twelve years leading product in China, most recently as a senior product manager at Klarna, and before that running Le Wagon’s China business across three campuses.

None of that qualifies anyone to run a volunteer directory. I check it because I live here and my name’s on it.

I have no affiliation with Phoenixville Borough, and Shows Up isn’t a borough service. I have no affiliation with any organization listed here either. Nobody pays to be listed, and nobody can pay to rank higher, because there’s no ranking. The site is free for residents, free for organizations, and it makes no money.