13 August 2009

A Tale of Two Incubators, or Entrepreneurial Phun in Philly

Image representing DreamIt Ventures as depicte...Image via CrunchBase

I spent the day with a bunch of cool companies at two start-up incubators here in Philadelphia. Yes, that's right, Philadelphia, home of the original American entrepreneur Ben Franklin.

The first incubator, now in its second season, was DreamIt Ventures. Today was "Demo Day," where this year's cohort, including postling, parse.ly, and kidzillions presented to a group of investors. This was the culmination of their three-month business development program under the tutelage of mentors from the Greater Philadelphia start-up scene and guest speakers from around the country like Howard Lindzon and Brad Feld.

The second, was GoodCompany Ventures, the social enteprise incubator launched this year. Today's session at GoodCompany was a dress rehearsal for the entrepreneurs in advance of their own day of presentations to investors to be held next month. I was one of the judges working with two of the companies, BlackGold Biofuels and BLOX, to refine their pitch.

A fantastic group of companies from the region and outside participated in both programs this summer, proving once again that Philly is a good place to launch a start-up.



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