{"id":152248,"date":"2026-03-30T11:36:11","date_gmt":"2026-03-30T11:36:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/152248\/"},"modified":"2026-03-30T11:36:11","modified_gmt":"2026-03-30T11:36:11","slug":"scranton-pittston-twp-companies-earn-ben-franklin-funding-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/152248\/","title":{"rendered":"Scranton, Pittston Twp. companies earn Ben Franklin funding"},"content":{"rendered":"

Two area firms will receive funding from Ben Franklin Partners of Northeastern Pennsylvania to enhance marketing efforts and bolster organizational processes.<\/p>\n

Brian Jagger, founder and chief technology officer for\u00a0TechA11y \u2014 based in the Scranton Enterprise Center on Lackawanna Avenue in the city \u2014 plans to use the $75,000 investment to boost marketing, sales and focus.<\/p>\n

\"Founder<\/p>\n

Founder and Chief Technology Officer for TechA11y Brian Jagger in his office inside of the Scranton Enterprise Center in Scranton on Friday, March 27, 2026. (REBECCA PARTICKA\/STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER)\n<\/p>\n

\"Founder<\/p>\n

Founder and Chief Technology Officer for TechA11y Brian Jagger in his office inside of the Scranton Enterprise Center in Scranton on Friday, March 27, 2026. (REBECCA PARTICKA\/STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER)\n<\/p>\n

\"Founder<\/p>\n

Founder and Chief Technology Officer for TechA11y Brian Jagger in his office inside of the Scranton Enterprise Center in Scranton on Friday, March 27, 2026. (REBECCA PARTICKA\/STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER)\n<\/p>\n

Show Caption<\/p>\n

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Founder and Chief Technology Officer for TechA11y Brian Jagger in his office inside of the Scranton Enterprise Center in Scranton on Friday, March 27, 2026. (REBECCA PARTICKA\/STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER)\n<\/p>\n

Expand<\/a><\/p>\n

TechA11y offers an AI-powered web accessibility compliance platform that combines audits, remediation and ongoing monitoring, Ben Franklin officials said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have the technology in a really good place right now,\u201d Jagger said. \u201cThe biggest challenge for us is getting the word out. It kind of evolved over the summer and then, thankfully, I was part of the TechCelerator program the chamber puts on. That really helped us define what we were doing and accelerate the concept.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jagger \u2014 who has nearly a decade of experience in AI and has served as an AI engineer since 2019 \u2014 moved to the area from Idaho in June and enjoys working in the region.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe community has been really supportive and welcoming,\u201d he said. \u201cPrior to this, I was working on a project focused on educational tools for schools and AI in schools. As we were looking at what we would need to do to make sure all the items we were working on for accessibility \u2026 were compliant, we realized we were able to solve a problem for other people with the solutions we came up with.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ken Okrepkie, regional manager for Ben Franklin\u2019s northeast division, praised Jagger\u2019s commitment to his craft and entrepreneurial spirit.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s identified a problem, they had initial customers that are utilizing the products, and now it\u2019s (time) to elevate the market acceptance by rolling out the products on a national scale,\u201d Okrepkie said.<\/p>\n

Pittston Twp.-based Interstate Window & Door Co. will receive a $25,000 one-to-one cash match where they will engage a resource to do process improvement activity through Ben Franklin\u2019s manufacturing program, Okrepkie said.<\/p>\n

The company \u2014 founded in 1938\u00a0\u2014 has evolved over a number of generations for building products and building materials, Okrepkie added.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis most recent generation is focused on making some of the best windows in the industry,\u201d he said. \u201cThey\u2019ve excelled recently in vinyl and composite wood windows from an energy efficiency perspective. They\u2019re doing an assessment of their manufacturing processes, and how they can strengthen the organization as it positions itself for continued growth in the industry.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Two area firms will receive funding from Ben Franklin Partners of Northeastern Pennsylvania to enhance marketing efforts and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":152059,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[60,201,182,803,28,4487,178,180,179],"class_list":["post-152248","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-scranton","tag-business","tag-lackawanna-county","tag-local-news","tag-luzerne-county","tag-pennsylvania","tag-pittston-township","tag-scranton","tag-scranton-headlines","tag-scranton-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/152248","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=152248"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/152248\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/152059"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=152248"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=152248"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=152248"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}