7 steps to make Philadelphia closer to being a hub for social entrepreneurship

Knight Foundation Philadelphia Program Director Donna Frisby-Greenwood addressing attendees of an event on Philadelphia distinguishing itself as a leader in social entrepreneurship.

Philadelphia is a big market, has the infrastructure of other leading regions for social enterprise and, oh, the city has a lot of problems.

That’s the value proposition coming out of an event organized last week by the Knight Foundation, the Delaware Valley Grantmakers and Technically Philly and held at the University City Science Center. Spurred in part by a post from this author, the event brought together more than 30 leaders in the region’s nonprofit, investment and socially-focused entrepreneur communities.

Kicked off by a presentation by Cheryl Dorsey, the president of the celebrated New York City-based social enterprise foundation Echoing Green, the event featured a large group discussion and then smaller breakout sessions on how the region might further its reputation for the effort.

There was no shortage of perspective from attendees.

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Hydros Bottle: what is social entrepreneurship? [VIDEO]

Hydros Bottle, a University City-based startup that develops a cost-effective reusable water bottle with a portable filtration system to increase access to potable water internationally.

The company donates portions of its profits to potable water programs in developing countries.

Below, watch the Empowerment Group speak to co-founders Aakash Mathur and Jay Parekh.

The startup is a member of the Sustainable Business Network of Philadelphia. It recently filed $550,000 in funding.

Philly Give Camp wants you for MLK day

Some of the largest service efforts on Martin Luther King Day occur here in Philadelphia, and the Philadelphia technology community is pitching in.

On January 14th, Philly Give Camp looks to combine developers with non-profits for a weekend hackathon at the Microsoft Offices at Malvern, PA. Developers get three days to help non-profits such as Philabundance and Milagre Kids School update their websites or build a mobile application.

“Instead of going to a soup kitchen or something that doesn’t utilize your skills, do something like this where you can you use your passion to give back to these charities,” says organizer Vince Paglione, 24, a developer for CIGNA.
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DreamIt Ventures Demo Day preview (part one)

Edit: added beta code for Adapt.ly

This year, it’s different.

For the past three summers Dreamit Ventures has incubated early-stage startups at the University City Science Center, giving each startup a small bit of seed capital while providing advice from some of the brightest entrepreneurial minds in the city.

Startups like SCVNGR, Seatgeek and Notehall all have roots in the incubator.

This year, DreamIt upped the ante by partnering with Brooklyn-based Startl to incubate more companies than ever and DreamIt is starting to receive national attention as one of the best early stage technology incubators in the country.

“One barometer [for the city] is DreamIt,” says Gil Beyda, founder of an early stage technology-focused venture capital firm Genacast Ventures. “Year after year, I’ve seen better companies and better entrepreneurs coming out of there.”

The first two DreamIt seasons culminated in Demo Day, an all-day event where companies show off their wares in the hopes of attracting attention and investment — see last year’s coverage — and that much will stay the same this year when the companies gather on August 11th.

Technically Philly stopped by the incubator last week to get a sneak peak of what some of the companies are working on, and five of 14 were ready to offer a small preview of what they will be presenting.

In the first of three parts, we look at Yunno, Adapt.ly and Give Loop. Tomorrow we will preview two additional companies and on Friday we’ll round up those who didn’t demo their product for us.

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