Rob McCord, Pennsylvania state treasurer: Philly is one of country’s two best low-cost entrepreneurship spots

Rob McCord, your Pennsylvania state treasurer, wants you to have empathy for him.

Just about the highest ranking Democrat in state politics has an easy laugh and a friendly manner. But, he says, if you’re going to describe him, you ought to start first with his entrepreneurship, and entrepreneurs ought to stick together.

Since 1994, McCord, 51, served as a senior executive at Safeguard Scientifics and founded the Eastern Technology Fund. He co-founded Pennsylvania Early Stage Partners and, from 1996 to 2007, he led the Eastern Technology Council [Official bio here].

He’s a venture capitalist in background, a Harvard kid and a Wharton grad by education and now he’s in his first term safeguarding $120 billion in public funds. In that role, McCord is offering the office up to his base –  whom he describes as “job-creating, technology-orientated entrepreneurs”– for advising, investing and as a potential client.

If nothing else, he thinks the Philadelphia technology community ought to know who he is. If only because he grew up on the Main Line, invested in tech businesses here and, well, because when it comes to statewide representation, Philadelphia could use a friend.

Fortunately, McCord is swearing by the position for now, despite prognostications to the contrary that suggest he is a sure bet to run for governor.

“I love being treasurer. People who watch me will know, it looks a lot more fun to be treasurer than in Congress, which was another option,” McCord told Technically Philly. “I plan to run for reelection [in 2012], and I do not take it for granted. So I’m obsessively focused on the treasurer’s office.”

In between calls on his Blackberry, McCord met with Technically Philly in a crowded Cosi in Bryn Mawr to talk his background, how he could have a big impact if only he had a billion dollars and illiquid assets.

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Jim Cramer investment tip to Chamber: Anyone from PA knows ‘the Marcellus is for real’

G. Paul Burnett/The New York Times

In addition to the release the annual year outlook from the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia, crazed CNBC ‘Mad Money’ host and region native Jim Cramer gave a ‘lively’ keynote at a Greater Philadelphia Chamber of Commerce event.

Afterward, Cramer spoke to the Chamber about his roots in the region, his thoughts on its economic outlook and some financial advice, including interest in investing on scarce oil and gas commodities, noting that ‘anyone from the Pennsylvania area knows the Marcellus is for real,” referring to the controversial Marcellus Shale drilling. He does reference support from the Sierra Club for natural gas generally.

Watch the interview below.

Leonard Lodish of Wharton: ‘Have a simple idea that’s hard to implement’

You might spot Leonard Lodish riding his bicycle to his Wharton office.

The 67-year-old vice dean commutes the six miles from his home in Wynnewood by bike ‘everyday’ that he’s at the University of Pennsylvania, he says, which might keep him active enough to spot the next startup exit.

Earlier this month, the second of two companies that Lodish invested early on exited for a combined total of $575 million: Diapers.com and Milo.com, both of which have Wharton ties.

Like many of the other splashiest Wharton startups in recent years, both Diapers and Milo aren’t Philadelphia companies. The powerful westward pull brought Milo founder Jack Abraham to Palo Alto, Calif., part of the Bay Area that Lodish long recognized as a place that Wharton needed to have a presence in, if it was to remain one of the top flight (and oldest) business schools in the world.

Lodish, a Cleveland native, was part of establishing Wharton West, a satellite campus in San Francisco of which he was vice dean from its 2001 founding until 2009.

Below, we speak to Lodish about the necessity of Wharton West, what he looks for in entrepreneurs, why Milo founder Jack Abraham left Philly and more.

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Does the VC industry need document standards?: Guest Post

This is a guest post by Christopher McDemus of MCD Law Partners a law firm specializing in startups and technology businesses, as part of our Guest Contributor Week. Want to have an op-ed or feature you’ve written to appear on TP, now or in the future? Drop us a line.

Disclosure: MCD Law Partners was a sponsor of our last Switch tech demo event.

The topic of standardized angel or venture financing documents is is an old topic, for sure.  Most recently, Brad Feld weighed in on this issue back in March 2010 by valiantly offering to take on the task of drafting standardized financing documents, but following a post by his partner Jason Mendelson (along with probably millions of emails from the disparate groups wanting to help), Brad decided to set aside the idea.

I am not sure how much another opinion adds to this discussion, but it’s a topic I still view worthy of debate as I think it will re-surface again and again in the future.

People in the start-up community have long called for a set of standard financing documents – a set of financing documents whose structure and substance were widely viewed as acceptable to both the entrepreneur as well as the financier (e.g., angel, super-angel, early stage venture fund) and that fulfilled each side’s legal/business needs.  Why standardize financing documents versus any other corporate set of documents?

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VC Roundup: First Round raises $126 mil, Philly VC investment is up

Welcome to the VC Roundup, where we’ll parse through venture capital news related to Philadelphia-based private equity firms and the companies they fund. Subscribe to the roundup as an email newsletter. If you have any VC-related news to pass along to us, please drop us a line.

Edit: Corrected the amount of Seatgeek’s round.

DEFINITE READS

While Q3 VC investment was down nationally, it was all rosey here in Philadelphia. According to the PricewaterhouseCoopers Money Tree report, there were 31 deals totaling $136.3 million involving companies in the area.

It looks like First Round Capital is finished raising its third fund. Astute SEC watchers have noticed that First Round Capital III is estimated to be somewhere around $126 million. The firm has had several nine-figure exits, and has backed nearly 100 startups, according to PE Hub. The firm celebrated the new fund the only way it knows how: by investing in FREEjit and UberCab.

MIGHT BE WORTH YOUR TIME

DreamIt grads SeatGeek have raised a round of $550,000 from a handful of out-of-town VCs. If you remember, the founders of SeatGeek started out as Scribnia before selling the site midway through their time at DreamIt. We interviewed the then-Scribnia founders last year. The company, now based in the 67th Ward, is a ticket search engine and price forecaster that helps its users find the cheapest tickets.

Comcast Interactive Capital is among the investors in CarWoo, a Lending Tree-like service for automobile purchases. The San Francisco-based company raised a $4.5 million round and is a Y Combinator grad.

GIVE A GLANCE

Burrill & Company, a San Francisco-based life sciences company that dabbles in VC, is opening up a new “Alternative Equities Group” here in Philly. It appears we’ve finally reversed the flow of money from Philly to San Francisco. Good job, everyone.

Nutter, Street to Young Involved Philadelphia: cheerlead, be more aggressive

Young Involved Philadelphia Chair Claire Robertson-Kraft introducing Mayor Nutter at the State of Young Philly showcase event on Fri. Oct. 1, 2010 held at WHYY. Photo by Sean Blanda.

Philadelphia’s young and involved cohort need to take greater hold of the future of the city for it to outperform even the region’s highest expectations, according to a slew of speakers hosted Friday by Young Involved Philadelphia.

The role of the region’s investment community in that future was also called into question during the night.

The social and speaking event was the showcase event of the State of Young Philly series, a first-time, tw0-week crush of conversations, workshops and discussions that brought together the 20-and-30-something sect of Philadelphians, who make up the membership of 10-year-old YIP.

In addition to other events, the week featured a Technically Philly co-sponsored panel discussion on the city’s business future.

Held at WHYY’s new Dorrance H. Hamilton Public Media Commons in Old City, Friday’s showcase featured a cocktail reception followed by a dozen speakers, half of whom were “more seasoned,” according to YIP Chair Claire Robertson-Kraft, and half were themselves young and involved.

Though there were expectations to the contrary, no fireworks shot off between Mayor Nutter and former Mayor John Street, who has recently taken to criticizing his successor on a number of issues. While both spoke at the event, the two men weren’t so much as in the same room at the same time, as their speaking was separated by state Treasurer Rob McCord. Councilman Bill Green was in attendance, welcomed by both Nutter and Street.

All had words for the city’s creative economies, which rely heavily on the young and involved, as did Philly Startup Leaders co-patriarch Blake Jennelle, who spoke during the less-seasoned half of the program.

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VC Roundup: Guggenheim’s weird year, DreamIt gets NYT shoutout

Welcome to the VC Roundup, where we’ll parse through venture capital news related to Philadelphia-based private equity firms and the companies they fund. Subscribe to the roundup as an email newsletter. If you have any VC-related news to pass along to us, please drop us a line.

This edition of the VC Roundup is sponsored by PACT. Check out their latest event “The Next Generation Architecture Summit: Cloud Computing on the Rise” on October 5th. For more details, including a speaker lineup, click here.

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VC Roundup: Get your Switch tickets, Safeguard invests $18 million

Welcome to the VC Roundup, where we’ll parse through venture capital news related to Philadelphia-based private equity firms and the companies they fund. Subscribe to the roundup as an email newsletter. If you have any VC-related news to pass along to us, please drop us a line.

DEFINITE READS
If you read this roundup, then we think you’ll really enjoy Switch, our latest event that has five companies demoing their products for 7 minutes each. So far, Packlate, Orpheus Media Research and P’unk Ave are set to show off their latest and greatest. Come see Philly’s next big thing and snag your tickets today.

First Round Capital has decided to follow on its initial investment of Backupify, a service that backs up cloud computing data. After contributing to the company’s original $900,000 angel round, First Round is one of four firms investing $4.5 million in the Series A.

MIGHT BE WORTH YOUR TIME

Safeguard Scientifics is hosting InvestorDay, an event to help investors learn more about the company. There’s just one problem: the event is in New York. We know, as a publicly traded company, Safeguard must handle some of its business in the 67th Ward. But would it kill New Yorkers if they took a 90-minute Amtrak ride?

Ben Franklin Technology Partners of Northeast Pennsylvania announced $480,000 in new funding today. Most of the companies receiving investment are in the environmental sector.

GIVE A GLANCE

GAIN Capital, portfolio company of Edison Ventures and Cross Atlantic Capital Partners has acquired the foreign exhcange business of MG Financial.

In other Safeguard news, the company recently closed an $18 million Series A round with Good Start Genetics. The Massachusetts-based company develops genetic tests for prospective parents.

It’s an oldie, but it just came across our inbox today. Last year, ChubbyBrain took a look at the business incubation community in Delaware. The most incubated sector? Healthcare.

The Wall Street Journal reports that despite the overall shrinking of the VC industry, many new firms are emerging. We’d guess that it’s because that investments are getting cheaper and cheaper these days.

VC Roundup: BFTP and Fed start fund for green companies

Welcome to the VC Round-up, where we’ll parse through venture capital news related to Philadelphia-based private equity firms and the companies they fund. Subscribe to the roundup as an email newsletter. If you have any VC-related news to pass along to us, please drop us a line.

DEFINITE READS

The city is using stimulus money to create The Greenworks Pilot Energy Technology Program, a new accelerator fund designed to house green startups. The companies will be vetted by Ben Franklin Technology Partners and the grants will range from $50,000 to $150,000. The deadline to apply for the funds is July 31st.

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VC Roundup: Diapers.com takes over the world, DreamIt’s largest class ever

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Updated: Clarified Osage Ventures partnerships.

Welcome to the VC Round-up, where we’ll parse through venture capital news related to Philadelphia-based private equity firms and the companies they fund. Subscribe to the roundup as an email newsletter. If you have any VC-related news to pass along to us, please drop us a line.

DEFINITE READS

PBJ reports that this year’s DreamIt Ventures class of 15 is its largest yet, thanks to a partnership with Brooklyn-based Startl. Five of the fifteen were from the New York fund. Last year Dreamit had 11 companies. Our buddy Peter Key also writes that Steve Barsh will be leaving the incubator to focus on Packlate.com. In a recent interview with Technically Philly, Barsh said he plans on “dedicating ten percent” to the incubator.

Diapers.com is having a hell of a month. The company just finished raising its Series E (!) round to help speed along its already-breakneck growth. The company, originally backed by MentorTech Ventures, is the largest online provider of baby care items in the country. The company has also recently received press in Forbes, TechCrunch and the Financial Times. Fellas, you can now add Technically Philly to your list. You’re welcome.

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