PHILLY STARTUP LEADERS BAND TOGETHER TO KEEP BUSINESS IN PHILADELPHIA
Grass roots organization explodes from 40 startup leaders to
200+ in five months
Philadelphia, PA – July 8, 2008 – To support Metropolitan Philadelphia’s technology and creative industry, 200+ Philly Startup Leaders (“PSL”) – www.phillystartupleaders.org – banded together to unite isolated entrepreneurs with a network where ambitious leaders inspire, energize and empower each other.
By applying the same energy and creativity they use to start their own businesses, PSL members utilize their network to support each other and share ideas, intellectual property, partnerships, resources, and advocate for each other’s companies and the technology and creative industry. The ultimate goal of PSL is to establish an environment where member companies thrive, where Philadelphia retains talent and where industry nourishes and perpetuates itself.
According to Graduate! Philadelphia, 108,000 Philadelphia region graduates, from internationally recognized regional colleges and universities, many of which focus on business, technology and creative, leave Philadelphia each year. This is unsettling to many PSL companies, as they need to employ young, enthusiastic, entrepreneurial area talent. It is part of PSL’s vision to create an environment in Philadelphia that supports and sustains the growth of innovative new technology and creative businesses that in turn will attract and keep skilled talent in the Philadelphia workforce.
PSL members created a series of programs to keep businesses in Metro Philly. Initiatives include: monthly happy hours, to network, collaborate and solve problems; The Mentor Program, to link seasoned, successful entrepreneurs with young, ambitious entrepreneurs; The FishBowl, a safe and confidential setting for entrepreneurs to present their funding pitch or business plan to executives, VC’s, University and City Officials for honest and constructive criticism; and The Founder Factory, a series of events with inspirational speakers that will direct both current and future entrepreneurs through a series of presentations, live advisory panels and networking opportunities. To see one of these events first hand, contact PSL representatives listed below,
Blake Jennelle or Aaron McLean.
“We created an organization that attracts entrepreneurs, universities and their students, investors and City Officials alike,” said Blake Jennelle, President of Philly Startup Leaders and CEO of Anthillz.com. “PSL really took off at our first leadership meeting, where 40 area entrepreneurs got together to discuss the challenges in establishing and building a business in Philadelphia,” Jennelle continued. “The need for this kind of group in Metro Philly is so great that PSL members stepped up to the plate to establish a series of officers and leadership teams that run PSL even while running their own businesses.”
“Each year, the University of the Arts—and Philadelphia’s other art and design institutions—graduate scores of young people seeking to start their own creativity-based businesses or to contribute their design talents to other entrepreneurial ventures,” said Sean T. Buffington, President of University of the Arts in Philadelphia. “We want Philadelphia to be a serious option for these graduates and want the City’s remarkable breadth and depth in design education to be matched by its strength in design entrepreneurship, research and development. This will make Philadelphia a true national leader in the design fields and in creativity-based business. We believe Philly Startup Leaders will be the organization that initiates this change and so we are proud to give them our full support.”
About PSL: Philly Startup Leaders unites isolated entrepreneurs into a network of ambitious leaders who inspire, energize and empower each other. PSL was founded in September, 2007, by an entrepreneur and exists as an active network of more than 200 business founders and executives, Venture Capitalists, Angel Investors, College and University Professors and executives and City Officials. PSL can be found making history in Historical Philadelphia everyday, at www.PhillyStartUpLeaders.org.
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Press Contacts:
Blake Jennelle, President
Philly Startup Leaders
Aaron Haydn McLean,
Marketing & PR Director
Philly Startup Leaders
