THE GREATER PHILADELPHIA CHAMBER OF COMMERCE offers entrepreneurs help with launching or expanding businesses. Its Venture Capital program provides assistance with identifying and understanding the financing process, and it has a pool of volunteer executives who will preview a business plan before it is shopped to financiers.
THE OPPORTUNITY FINANCE NETWORK is a $4 billion national network formerly known as the National Community Capital Association. For 20 years, it has implemented "high-volume and high-impact financing strategies to align capital with social, economic, and political justice." It says it is "dedicated to closing the gap between promising opportunities and real accomplishments for American people, communities, and markets that are outside the economic mainstream today."
THE ENTERPRISE CENTER AT THE WHARTON SCHOOL is a premier "accelerator" of minority entrepreneurship. It operates the U.S. Department of Commerce's Pennsylvania Minority Business Development Center, the Enterprise Center Capital Corporation, the Enterprise Center Community Development Corporation, an award-winning youth entrepreneurship program, and the Magic Johnson / HP Digital Inventor Center. The facility also hosts 50 to 60 major business events a year.
INNOVATION PHILADELPHIA is a quasi-governmental organization set up "to enhance the global innovation economy of Philadelphia through technological leadership." It works to increase the entrepreneurial resources in the region, such as pre-seed and seed capital investment, and aims to develop "a balanced portfolio of programs that support retention, recruitment and grow-your-own strategies for the new economy in the region."
A MILLION FOR US says its purpose "is to provide capital to startup companies owned and operated by young adults. We want to provide a means by which young adults can transition into their next phase of life through economic development and support."
THE EMPOWERMENT GROUP, INC., based in Kensington, seeks to accelerate economic growth in distressed urban communities by cultivating local entrepreneurship. Its programs include the Philadelphia Entrepreneurship Program for adults, a Youth Entrepreneurship Program, and a Bilingual Business Resource Center.
BIOADVANCE calls itself "the biotechnology greenhouse corporation of Southeastern Pennsylvania." It was founded as part of a $2 billion state initiative to strengthen its commitment to the life sciences industry, including $33.8 million from the commonwealth's share of tobacco settlement monies. BioAdvance invests in emerging biotechnologies; aids the transfer of technology from research laboratories to start-ups and established companies; brings together academic, entrepreneurial, corporate, financial, and government partners; and supports life sciences entrepreneurs. Its portfolio includes 21 seed and 9 pre-seed investments in 30 firms, from Acuity Pharmaceuticals in Philadelphia to Yaupon Therapeutics in Radnor.
THE SCIENCE CENTER (formerly the University City Science Center) is a physical hub, bringing together entrepreneurs, scientists, and established businesses with the goal of advancing life science and technology companies. Resources range from incubator space with laboratories to "plug ?n play" offices for entrepreneurs, to global consulting services in the development of science and technology parks. The center features its own SC Capital Partners investment fund, management services SC Knowledge and Information Exchange.
THE PHILADELPHIA BUSINESS JOURNAL, a well-read weekly, has reporters who cover the venture capital and technology beat. They could offer impartial insights and analysis.
