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How Philadelphia incubator DreamIt Ventures wants to improve on Y Combinator model

xconomy.com

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Re: How Philadelphia incubator DreamIt Ventures wants to improve on Y Combinator model

#11

Post by fallentimes »

kingkongrevenge wrote: post #10
fallentimes wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

haha that was my bad, corrected. Just because the zip code is rich doesn't mean the area is full of startup investors. Maybe I should up & move to Beverly Hills, Palm Beach or New Canaan. Come on. I didn't say it was awful, it's just not very good.

> doesn't mean the area is full of startup investors I'm sorry, I forgot startup just means webtard 2.0 stuff around here. New profitable companies that work with elevators or pharmaceutical plant operations don't count.

We're profitable. And so were my two businesses (one website, one not) before this one.

I get what you're saying, but I believe the article was talking about startup/website/application investments not traditional brick & mortar businesses.

Re: How Philadelphia incubator DreamIt Ventures wants to improve on Y Combinator model

#12

Post by kingkongrevenge »

philipcristiano wrote: post #4
kingkongrevenge wrote: post #2

The problem with Philadelphia is the City of Philadelphia. The surrounding suburbs have tons of capital and businesses and highly educated people and very nice neighborhoods. The city itself is a hopeless basket-case. It just seems to me that you can't make the leap into being a first tier metro region without desirable urban neighborhoods. I've read that younger people leave Pennsylvania not for lack of jobs or for…

As someone who lives just outside Philadelphia I would disagree. At least the people I know who have left the city do so because they only came here for school and take jobs back home.

We're not talking about them. We're talking about the net outflow of younger natives.

Re: How Philadelphia incubator DreamIt Ventures wants to improve on Y Combinator model

#13

Post by tyler »

kingkongrevenge wrote: post #2

The problem with Philadelphia is the City of Philadelphia. The surrounding suburbs have tons of capital and businesses and highly educated people and very nice neighborhoods. The city itself is a hopeless basket-case. It just seems to me that you can't make the leap into being a first tier metro region without desirable urban neighborhoods. I've read that younger people leave Pennsylvania not for lack of jobs or for…

As someone who left Pennsylvania: Dead on.

Re: How Philadelphia incubator DreamIt Ventures wants to improve on Y Combinator model

#14

Post by fallentimes »

kingkongrevenge wrote: post #2

The problem with Philadelphia is the City of Philadelphia. The surrounding suburbs have tons of capital and businesses and highly educated people and very nice neighborhoods. The city itself is a hopeless basket-case. It just seems to me that you can't make the leap into being a first tier metro region without desirable urban neighborhoods. I've read that younger people leave Pennsylvania not for lack of jobs or for…

Reminds me of Cleveland, Ohio and to a lesser extent Detroit. Some of the young neighborhoods (The Flats is a prime example) in Cleveland who were thriving ~10 years ago are now dead. It's ridiculous.

Re: How Philadelphia incubator DreamIt Ventures wants to improve on Y Combinator model

#15

Post by sjs382 »

tyler wrote: post #13
kingkongrevenge wrote: post #2

The problem with Philadelphia is the City of Philadelphia. The surrounding suburbs have tons of capital and businesses and highly educated people and very nice neighborhoods. The city itself is a hopeless basket-case. It just seems to me that you can't make the leap into being a first tier metro region without desirable urban neighborhoods. I've read that younger people leave Pennsylvania not for lack of jobs or for…

As someone who left Pennsylvania: Dead on.

As a resident of Pittsburgh, I disagree. :)

Re: How Philadelphia incubator DreamIt Ventures wants to improve on Y Combinator model

#16

Post by drusenko »

"So, with the help of the strategists and the professional firms we were able to throw a few more resources at the teams. We got a local marketing firm to donate some strategizing help. We wanted to set up an infrastructure for each team that they could potentially build around. And it worked out really, really well. I know that some of the DreamIt companies ended up getting quite a few people from these partners companies to be on their boards."

Having people on the board of directors of your company from the local accounting and marketing firms? That's just really weird.

A board position is certainly not something to be handed out lightly, should reflect the ownership of the company, and definitely not something you're "lucky to have people on".

Re: How Philadelphia incubator DreamIt Ventures wants to improve on Y Combinator model

#17

Post by Riley »

kingkongrevenge wrote: post #2

The problem with Philadelphia is the City of Philadelphia. The surrounding suburbs have tons of capital and businesses and highly educated people and very nice neighborhoods. The city itself is a hopeless basket-case. It just seems to me that you can't make the leap into being a first tier metro region without desirable urban neighborhoods. I've read that younger people leave Pennsylvania not for lack of jobs or for…

Philly has some issues, but it's much better than it used to be. It's a huge city. There's a lot of growth in some great areas. You get a lot for your money here. Many compare the current state of the city to NYC in the 80's. There's lots of potential.

Re: How Philadelphia incubator DreamIt Ventures wants to improve on Y Combinator model

#18

Post by umjames »

shedd wrote: post #3

Good overview of the motivations behind the DreamIt program as it ran this past summer, but it does cover any of the apparent upcoming changes to the DreamIt model which were mentioned ( http://www.psustartups.com/content/2008/09/25/ignitephilly-a... ) in Steve Welch's (another of the DreamIt founders) ignitePhilly talk, including the so called "Hacker Track".

the next DreamIt program will be (or include?) “Hacker Track”, which will address the problem DreamIt noted that was there were a lot of great ideas, without the technical developers to implement them. Steve mentions that this Hacker Track will allow hackers to apply and they’ll be teamed up (I’m assuming) with teams with business skills, but in need of technical assistance.

As someone from the Philly suburbs, I would say this sums up the problem. How is this that different from a consulting gig from the point of view of the hacker? I can already see the nightmares of business-bred founders bombarding the hacker(s) with requirements that reflect their understanding of computers as some sort of magic box. I wonder how often this sort of situation occurs at YC.

That being said, if anyone can bring decent tech entrepreneurship to Philly, I support the idea. God knows Philly needs it in the worst way.

Re: How Philadelphia incubator DreamIt Ventures wants to improve on Y Combinator model

#19

Post by kingkongrevenge »

Riley wrote: post #17
kingkongrevenge wrote: post #2

The problem with Philadelphia is the City of Philadelphia. The surrounding suburbs have tons of capital and businesses and highly educated people and very nice neighborhoods. The city itself is a hopeless basket-case. It just seems to me that you can't make the leap into being a first tier metro region without desirable urban neighborhoods. I've read that younger people leave Pennsylvania not for lack of jobs or for…

Philly has some issues, but it's much better than it used to be. It's a huge city. There's a lot of growth in some great areas. You get a lot for your money here. Many compare the current state of the city to NYC in the 80's. There's lots of potential.

> You get a lot for your money here.

Rents are cheap. Taxes, insurance, and any sort of labor the unions control are absurdly expensive. You have to be crazy to start a business downtown rather than just outside the city. If you're a major corporation you can negotiate special terms so it makes sense to locate downtown, but that's more of a bad sign than anything.

Re: How Philadelphia incubator DreamIt Ventures wants to improve on Y Combinator model

#20

Post by hugh »

drusenko wrote: post #16

"So, with the help of the strategists and the professional firms we were able to throw a few more resources at the teams. We got a local marketing firm to donate some strategizing help. We wanted to set up an infrastructure for each team that they could potentially build around. And it worked out really, really well. I know that some of the DreamIt companies ended up getting quite a few people from these partners com…

Perhaps they mean an advisory board rather than a board of directors?
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