Nobody in Philadelphia is claiming that the city will be the next Silicon Valley. But they do argue that it has a great startup scene that makes it easy to connect with experienced entrepreneurs and plenty of programs to help new companies get funding and encourage young people to make this their home.
Juliana Reyes, a tech reporter for Technical.ly, has seen the city undergo a radical transformation. She moved here four years ago and quickly found herself immersed in the local business community, writing stories about Philadelphia’s startup culture and interviewing up-and-coming entrepreneurs.
Reyes, who is used to being behind the microphone, shares her insights she gained from building relationships with startup leaders in Philadelphia.
What is the startup culture in Philadelphia like?
Scrappy and tight knit. The tech scene is growing, but it’s also really connected. If you want to meet someone it’s not hard to meet them. In Philly, they say there’s at most six degrees of separation, usually fewer. If you want to meet an investor or owner of a co-working space or founder, and you ask one or two people, they’ll make introductions. It’s not hard to get introduced and connected to people in the tech scene. The entrepreneurs are also inclusive. They’re socially minded, civic hackers.
What drew you to Philly, and why did you decide to stay here?
Two reasons—my boyfriend was here after college, and I got a job at the Philadelphia Daily News. Then Technical.ly reached out to me. I didn’t know anything about the startup scene before, but I was drawn by the energy of Technical.ly’s co-founders. They started this right out of college. Seeing what they’ve done with it was inspiring.
People here know my name and know who I am. All the people I write about I see regularly. I’m not a journalist covering them from an ivory tower. If I’m writing about layoffs at a company, I’m going to see the CEO a week later at a tech event.
What was Philly’s startup scene like when Technical.ly first launched?
When Technical.ly started seven years ago, the tech scene in Philly was really young. There weren’t many startups and not a lot of stuff was going on. Also, no media outlet was really covering the startup scene. Since the time we started covering it in 2012, there’s been at least four reporters, including myself, focused on the tech scene.
What does Philly provide for young startups?
The big selling point is the affordability of the city. For a young startup, you can’t afford an office or expensive rent for your apartment. Philly is so much more affordable than NYC or San Francisco. You could live very comfortably here on a young founder’s salary.
What industries are commonly drawn to Philly?
Philly is the leader in eds and meds—higher education and life sciences. And the next iteration of that is health IT. There’s a big effort around health IT. The BioBots, which is a Philly-based 3D printing startup for human tissues, won ‘most innovative’ at South By Southwest. Then there’s Philly-based Biomeme, a smart phone DNA test. Both of those companies went through DreamIt Ventures. Philly is a prime place to have a health IT hub because of Independence Blue Cross and universities and university hospitals like Penn medicine and Thomas Jefferson. There are a lot of infrastructures here already.
What resources make Philly an attractive place to start a startup?
There are a lot of universities in the area, so there’s access to an unlimited talent pool from Bryn Mawr College and Haverford College to Penn and Drexel. There are big businesses like Comcast and Independence Blue Cross that want to work with startups.
What are the challenges of being a startup in Philly?
Funding can be a challenge. All growing tech scenes deal with that. There isn’t a lot of local investment capital for early stage companies. Most local companies look outside of Philly for that. There needs to be a big exit or more than one exit that spawns angel investors who are more willing to invest in early stage companies, but that takes time.
What is your hope for Philly’s startup scene and how do you think it’ll grow?
We’ve seen more and more millennials coming into the city, and college graduates are choosing to stay here and start a business instead of leaving. We’d hope to see more of that. With the population rising, it would lead to more companies coming and growing.
Photo: Chris Kendig Photography