The Penn State grad founded the Mitos Group, a biotech company that grew to over 40 employees before it was sold to a Fortune 500 company when Welch was 29. Welch then co-founded DreamIt ventures, an early-stage incubator based in the University City Science Center. And, most recently he just fathered his second child.

But 32-year-old Welch, the new-father-entrepreneur-angel investor, is looking to add another job title to his resume: congressman.

Earlier this month, he launched his candidacy for the 7th congressional district of Pennsylvania with a video on his Web site.

Welch will become the Republican challenger to Democratic representative Joe Sestak. Sestak ultimately may not be his opponent, as he is said to be considering a showdown for the Democratic Senate seat against newly-minted Democrat Arlen Specter.

If elected, he would be the second youngest congressman, behind 28-year-old Aaron Schock (R- Minn.).

True to his past, Welch sees small business as the way out of the recession for the country and for Philadelphia. Welch says the level of spending and government impact on the free market is one of the primary reasons he is running. When we spoke, his second child was still on the way, and the thought that he would be born into debt was a motivation to act.

For the past year, Welch was an Eisenhower Fellow, which allowed him to travel the world taking notes on the best tactics for encouraging small business development.

“In my heart of hearts, I love seeing a need in the marketplace and rushing to fill that need. It’s the greatest rush in the world,” says Welch.

One plan he is fond of, he said, was the tactic of the government matching local early stage investments. That way, firms can decide what is the best investment, and the government can increase the flow of early stage capital with little to no additional labor or bureaucracy.

“We want the best in the world to land in Philadelphia,” he says, “that’s the greatest way to ensure long term success in this region.”

We chatted with Welch about small business in Philadelphia, and the effect of organizations like DreamIt and Ben Franklin Technology Partners.

One of the hot issues at the moment, is the future of Ben Franklin Technology Partners, what is your take on their future?

Ben Franklin companies have had a huge impact on this region. Somebody that’s never been in the business doesn’t understand that once that money goes into a Ben Franklin-funded company… Give me a Ben Franklin funded company.

How about Vuzit?

Vuzit! So Vuzit has vendors that are local and that they are spending money with. They have attorneys that they are spending money with. It creates a curculation of funds in the early stage of businesses, which is undeniable. You look at any stat out there and you will see that small businesses create jobs, not big businesses.

That was something that was often tossed around during the presidential election.

Yep. And if you look, the patents filed by small businesses are more relevant, they get cited more often and [generate] more sales revenue. So small business are more innovative and therefore have a greater impact on society … If jobs are the government’s number one priority, [Ben Franklin Technology Partners] is the last thing I would cut.

What role does DreamIt play in fostering small businesses?

We’re very early-stage, we often invest in ideas on a napkin. So they have a long way to grow.

Last year we had several companies that got additional funding and that added jobs in the area and those companies will have a big impact. We are bringing companies here now, and once they are here they are more likely to stay here so they will add jobs to the region.

The 7th district of PA (click to enlarge)

Can you detail how DreamIt works?

We open up the application for a couple of months, this year we received several hundred. We care about what’s the need in the market place, what makes your product different and what makes you think you can do it. If it takes you more than an hour to finish our application, you’re doing it wrong.

We have some companies that are already generating revenue .. and some companies come in and do a 180-degree turn, and that’s great.

How so?

If you find that out fast, good, and you can change directions. And that is one of the things we need as a society. We need risk-taking to occur. We need to see what works and doesn’t work. That’s how you create innovation, that’s how you create new markets and that’s how you create jobs.

Art taken from Ben Franklin Technology Partners' 5-year Plan.

Yesterday, we reported that because of a State budget crunch, Ben Franklin Technology Partners faces the possibility of funding cuts. As the July 1 budget deadline looms, the organization might see a $10 million cut proposed by Governor Rendell or a 60 percent cut in funding proposed by Senate Bill 840.

tweeted:

Thanks to a tip from a reader, Technically Philly has learned that the Southeastern branch of Ben Franklin Technology Partners has streamlined ways to contact legislators to tell them how important the organization has been to the region and the state.

Last month, both Allentown’s Morning Call and Harrisburg’s Patriot-News ran op-eds written by top BFTP execs that cite the tech incubator’s influence.

Ben Franklin Tech Partners have appeared often on this site. In our short 4 month existence, the company has invested $3.4 million in 19 regional companies in two deals. That’s only a small chunk of the $130 million invested in the region during the last 25 years, and that’s not including state-wide investment.

In March, an independent study showed that tech companies funded by the network generate 5 more jobs each year and paid 33 percent better than companies not funded. Since 1989, the organization claims to have boosted the economy by more than $17 billion and created 125,000 job-years of full-time work.

For every $1 invested in Ben Franklin Technology Partners, $3.50 is returned to the state treasury.

Though no budget has passed on time since Rendell took office, he warned state workers last month that if the budget is late, they would not be paid on time until the budget is cleared.

Staff reporter Christopher Wink contributed to this story.

In a restricted budget season, you have to make your case for survival.

Pennsylvania’s Ben Franklin Technology Partners program has earned the state $3.50 for every $1 invested, according to an independent study by the Pennsylvania Economy League for the years between 2002 and 2006, as cited in a Morning Call Op-ed.

In 25 years, the program’s Southeastern Pennsylvania branch — based at the Naval Yard in South Philadelphia – has provided more than $130 million to grow more than 1,600 regional enterprises, but still, lingering in the state Senate is a bill that would cut 60 percent of the body that funds the statewide BFTP program.

“This is an extremely challenging year for the state budget, and difficult decisions must be made,” wrote R. Chadwick Paul Jr., the president and CEO of the Northeastern Pa. arm of BFTP, in the Op-ed in the Call. “But decreasing funding for Ben Franklin would reduce Pennsylvania job creation and job retention, and result in a net revenue loss for the commonwealth.”

Innovation groups westward have taken up the cause, too.

Startup Pittsburgh is calling for entrepreneurs to lobby their legislators in Harrisburg, as is the Pittsburgh Technology Council. In addition to the ‘burgh and Philly, BFTP covers the Lehigh Valley from Bethlehem and the Pennsylvania T from the safe confines of State College.

“Since 1983, the Ben Franklin Technology Partners of Northeastern Pennsylvania alone has helped companies create 13,931 jobs and helped them retain 20,772 existing jobs. These are highly paid, sustainable jobs,” Paul also wrote. “Ben Franklin boosted the Pennsylvania gross state product by $9.3 billion.”

The deadline for the state budget looms at the month’s end; it has to be passed by July 1. No budget has passed on time since Gov. Ed Rendell took office in 2003. He recently warned state workers they will stop being paid if the budget fight goes late, again. In a particularly tight fiscal year, that fight is particularly heated, so no matter the importance of innovation, BFTP is, like most other groups, on the chopping block.

Does every group that receives state money have to take cutbacks in this economy, or is it foolish to think to slash any money from BFTP which is said to make the state a profit? Have you seen Philadelphia groups or organizations take a stand on this issue?

H/T Philly Tech News

Governor Rendell announced a certificate program yesterday that would encourage science, technology, engineering and math professionals to take mid-career breaks to become school teachers.

The plan is to attract current workers to be “residents” in the state’s public schools and assign them a teacher to be their guide as they impart their real-world wisdom to students.

The program would streamline the teaching certification process, made difficult in the wake of No Child Left Behind. The country is due to have a shortage of 280,000 math and science teachers by 2015.

Interested in teaching at your local high school? The Governor’s office provided the following requirements for eligible teaching certificate candidates:

• Bachelor’s degree in the subject area, along with at least five years of relevant work experience.
• Master’s degree in the subject area, along with at least two years of relevant work experience.
• Doctoral degree in the subject area.

Candidates would also be required to complete a four month crash course in topics such as childhood development and teaching strategies. Should the “residents” want to stay in the classroom after the three year certificate has expired, an option to convert the certificate into a bona fide instruction certificate.

The legislation was submitted to the state legislature yesterday by Secretary of Education Gerald L. Zahorchak.

Read about what's going on here after the jump.

In which we link out to the tech news from Philly and elsewhere (when it matters) that slips through the cracks and make it way fun. See others here.

Philadelphians are the highest taxed people in the United States. So says eminent Philadelphia Daily News legacy columnist John Baer.

That’s enough to crack any red-blooded American’s Liberty Bell.

In a column, Baer was railing against Mayor Nutter’s calls to Harrisburg for legislative authority to hike the city’s sales tax from seven to eight percent. The story actually has a good dialogue in the comments section, too — a rarity for Philly.com.

The topic came up elsewhere this week.

Joe Distefano, the Inquirer’s top bearded business columnist, wrote an absolute must read on Nutter’s stalling of and his administration’s subsequent rethinking of continuing the move to “eradicating”the city’s two-pronged business privilege tax.

By no account should you think this is strictly a Philly problem these days.

Fast Eddie Rendell said this past week that if he was forced to push for a hike in the state’s income tax, he would vie for it to return to its normal state three years later, according to reporting from foxy Inquirer state capital correspondent Angela “It’s Greek” Couloumbis.

After the jump, why ET is with a Philly cop above, why 600 people paid $500 to be in Delaware and more than five other itches you need scratched, including our best read story of the week.

In order of importance for your ease.

• Our friends at Keystone Edge report on the honoree distinction two Pennsylvania tourism sites won at last week’s Webby Awards. Don’t forget bluecadet, which one a people’s award.
• Philly Tech News reports that three regional firms were named to CIO.com’s recent CIO 100, which honors companies that are creating business through technology innovation. Not one of the three are based within Philly’s 135 square miles. PTN keeps the good times rolling by reporting that the Milken Institute, which recently called Philadelphia the second best life sciences region in the country, ranked the Illadelph 11th in its High Tech Rankings, though there’s some question to that meaning.
• The Inquirer had a front page story on First Tuesday in November, a small Galloway, N.J.-based voter-tracking company that offers real-time Election Day updates. Dude in their photo is wearing a Yankees hat, though.
• You may have heard a collective yelp of excitement from their readers when Geekadelphia reported that Kevin Werbach, an assistant professor over at the University of Pennsylvania, will be giving a talk entitled All I Really Need to Know I Learned in World of Warcraft at tomorrow’s Philly Pecha Kucha event Geekadelphia also reports this week on a young woman who, well, they interview a young woman who goes around Philadelphia and takes photos of herself wearing an ET mask. That’s her standing with some confident Philadelphia police officer in the above photo. And, really, these are the stories that would be lost if newspapers went bankrupt and we didn’t have the Geekadelphia crew.
• Inqy columnist Distefano also reports that 600 hundred guests are said to have paid nearly $500 to attend Early Stage East 2009, a venture capital conference this week. It happened in Wilmington, Del. where happiness is made. [Full Disclosure: Sean Blanda loves Delaware.] That ain’t the only exclusive tech event afoot. The Business Journal reports that NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell will be the keynote speaker at the “client summit” to be held in King of Prussia later this month by e-commerce and interactive marketing services provider GSI Commerce.
• Contentinople reports on Philly.com’s move to use Brightcove to manage its video produced for the site. The move could come with an increase in video content, which reportedly could be a move toward the site’s still publicly undetailed plan for an online content model, which — though Contentinople didn’t make note — we first reported.

• Our Most Trafficked Story of the Week: Shop Talk: Obama Girl’s Leah Kauffman on Phrequency.com redesign

Every Friday morning we make sure you didn’t miss anything with Friday Tech Links.

A rail system high-speed rail system could connect Philadelphia to Pittsburgh through Harrisburg and a second system could link Philadelphia to Reading if state agencies win funding being set aside by President Obama from the economic stimulus package for high speed rail corridors.

State officials have been practically giddy about the administration’s proposal to invest $8 billion in high-speed rail corridors, including ones in Pennsylvania.

“What was so gratifying today was to have President Obama offer a forward-looking vision for high speed rail that will provide mobility options for the nation and contribute to a much needed strategy for reducing greenhouse gas emissions,” Pennsylvania transportation secretary Allen Biehler said in a press release issued by the Governor’s office.

Officials say that the state’s Keystone Corridor—between Harrisburg and Philadelphia—and an oft proposed link between Philadelphia and Reading, are two projects that could qualify for funding. Biehler told KYW Newsradio that PennDOT will also explore additional services between Pittsburgh and Harrisburg.

Rendell said that $145 million in improvements to the Keystone Corridor between Philadelphia and Harrisburg has boosted ridership by 26 percent. He has directed state agencies to “aggressively pursue” part of $8 billion set aside for the rail projects under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.

Critics are urging caution to Obama’s optimism. The Patriot-News Editorial Board wrote that it had seen plans for a rail system connecting Philadelphia to Pittsburgh through Harrisburg, before.

“The cost of connecting the dots in Pennsylvania will likely be substantially more than what President Barack Obama’s seed money can cover,” the editorial stated.

CBS News’ David Freddoso followed-up with a costly analysis comparing Obama’s $8 billion seed and 5-year $5 billion follow-through with other nation’s rail investments.

In the past decade, Taiwan built a single 215-mile high-speed passenger route for $15 billion. Germany, France, and Italy, often cited as advanced railroad nations, subsidize their rail systems heavily: Between 1995 and 2003, Germany spent $104 billion on subsidies, France spent $75 billion, and Italy spent $64 billion, according to a 2008 study by Amtrak’s inspector general. Rail ridership in Europe far outpaces that in the U.S., but in spite of these huge subsidies, trains have lost a significant portion of their market share to automobiles and planes since 1980.

State officials are keeping their heads high.

“We await the specific guidelines to be published by the U.S. Department of Transportation on how this money will be awarded, and we will look for ways to attract those funds to Pennsylvania,” Biehler said.

We may have to adjust our editorial vision here at Technically Philly if these plans are seen through.

Pittsburgh, we come in peace.

Now, to be fair, the Southeastern branch of Ben Franklin Technology Partners certainly has shelled out some cash in the past. However, being the Philly cheerleaders we are, its hard not to be disappointed.

In addition to allocating some money for green initiatives, each branch of the four regional branches of the Ben Franklin Technology Partners also discussed where to place the money received from the Alternative Energy Investment Fund.

According to Governor Rendell, the Ben Franklin Technology Development Authority has invested $4 billion since 2003 and has created 27,000 jobs.

Read the full list of recent investments after the jump.

The investments were broken into two categories: university research projects and Keystone Innovation Zone funding.

Research projects

1. Lehigh University, in partnership with Carnegie Mellon University, received $900,000 to develop nanotechnology materials.
2. The Pittsburgh-based Pennsylvania NanoMaterials Commercialization Center received $500,000 to help grow new and existing energy companies and research projects.
3. The bane of every Temple student’s existence, Penn State, received $850,000 for its Institute for Energy and Environment Faculty Recruitment program.

Keystone Innovation Zone

1. Pittsburgh Central Keystone Innovation Zone received $125,000.
2. York Keystone Innovation Zone received $125,000.
3. Pittsburgh Central Keystone Innovation Zone received $177,975.

A graph on recovery.pa.gov breaks down how stimulus funds will be spent in Pennsylvania.

On Wednesday, Governor Ed Rendell announced plans to ensure accountability for the distribution of $16 billion that Pennsylvania will receive from the federal economic stimulus package. Gov. Rendell unveiled a new Web site to track how funds are spent, recovery.pa.gov, and said he would appoint a Chief Accountability Officer to oversee the process.

“The Web site we’re unveiling today provides a window to this process for everyone to see. The public will be able to track how every dime is spent and for what project and where. We’re committed to making this an open process for everyone,” Rendell said in a press release.

According to the release, citizens will be able to track expenditures that will be updated quarterly and provide input on how funds are invested. A sample template on the Web site shows that individual projects will be tracked by county, and provide details such as completion status, location, project schedule, dollar value of contracts, contractors, and the number of jobs created and saved. The site will be linked to Pennsylvania’s accounting system.

An example of how a project will be displayed for tracking on the State

Rendell estimates that of $9.8 billion set aside for Pennsylvania’s state and local agencies, $5.8 billion will be spent this year, as reported by the Associated Press. Of the $9.8 billion, the site breaks down how the funds will be spent in the commonwealth:

• Health Care – $4 billion
• Education - $2.56 billion
• Transportation Infrastructure – $1.4 billion
• Energy Independence – $472 million
• Other Infrastructure & Housing – $361 million
• Job Training & Other Relief for Pennsylvanians – $1.1 billion, including:
  • $425 million for Job Training/Unemployment Services
  • $347 million for State Budget Relief
  • $120 million for Crime Fighting/Victim Services
  • $116 million for Targeted Assistance to Pennsylvania Families
  • $82 million for Child Care and Head Start

The site also estimates how the economic stimulus could directly benefit citizens in Philadelphia.

• Tax relief: Individuals earning up to $75,000 will receive a $400 tax credit in 2009 and 2010, and married couples filing jointly and earning $150,000 will receive $800. 506,941 individuals and households will likely qualify for the tax credits.
• Unemployment compensation – 23,800 unemployed persons in Philadelphia who qualified for unemployment compensation at the beginning of the year will receive a $25 per week increase in unemployment benefits, along with the possibility of additional benefits through the rest of the year.
• Health insurance for unemployed – Health care will be made available to individuals who are involuntarily separated from their jobs between September 2008 and January 2010. COBRA will pay 65 percent of the monthly premium for individuals earning less than $145,000 and couples earning less than $290,000. The provision could benefit 53,900 unemployed persons in Philadelphia.
• Health insurance – 478,885 low income children and adults can continue to receive health care through the Pennsylvania Medical Assistance program. Federal support will also help 28,881 children and teens in Philadelphia who are not eligible for Medical Assistance.
• Food assistance – 355,219 low income individuals and families could potentially be given a 13.69 percent increase in the maximum Food Stamp benefit, effective in April 2009. Provisions also suspends the 3-month limit on assistance for many unemployed childless adults for the next 18 months.