After 4 years of hiatus (and withdrawal) from the venture and startup world I decided to reengage with the local entrepreneurs and venture crowd in the Philadelphia area. It is very interesting to compare the Valley venture activities to the one here in Philly. It reminds me of my experience with Canadian investors in Toronto and Montreal from my “Canadian entrepreneur” days.
We had an entrepreneur breakfast where startups had the 2-minute elevator pitch and the mingle afterwards.
The investors seem more close-knit and tight with the companies but there were definite differences in the companies pitching as well. We had many biotech / healthcare companies beyond the technology startups and some traditional businesses.
Some of the obvious differences from my fundraising days:
- Some companies had revenues (one was in the $15-20M revenue range)
- Few had established channels,
- Most had some anchor customers.
Also management teams typically had decades of experience. In fact we did not have a single Wharton MBA pitching their company. Considering that Wharton is the number 1 school in the country I actually expected that.
All in all a great intro to what is to come from the monthly investor series. NewBuzzTV was an interesting local addition to the entertainment / video / web convergence.
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