Introducing Angel Interviews, a series dedicated to debunking the assumption that entrepreneurs need to look outside of Philadelphia for angel and early stage investment. Every so often we’ll interview a local angel and ask him or her about investment criteria and how to get in contact. If you’re an angel investor that deals primarily with technology companies or you have any suggestions about how we can improve this series drop us a line.

Ehud Israel wasted no time admitting that he was new to angel investing.

The 43-year-old is one of the mentors at Drexel’s Baiada Center for Entrepreneurship, a business incubator that caters exclusively to the Drexel University community, and it was in that role that he decided to invest in one of the Center’s companies: Async Interview.

“There’s a gap in our support [at the Center] of the students in respect to funding, so I’ve been trying to fill that gap,” says Israel. “It just so happens that, as a mentor, I’m in the ground floor at these ideas.”

Now in an operational role at as Async’s CFO and CTO, Israel has also invested in one other company and is keeping his ears open for other deals, though he says he is not actively pursuing companies.

We ask Israel what he looks for in a company, how to get started as an angel investor and the reason for the misperceptions about Philadelphia’s angel community.

How did you get started with investing?

I became a mentor at the Baiada Center where once a week I work with the entrepreneurs there. I see lots of types of ideas and the stage that the entrepreneur is at. A lot of what we do is at the concept level. Sometimes it runs from a t-shirt company up to a level of what I call “investable” where you have some serious ideas that warrant being able to take it to an angel investor or venture capitalist to get some serious money.

I’m tapping into a vein not a lot of people are viewing

How do these companies come across your desk?
So far its been out of the Baiada Center. There’s a gap in our support of the students in respect to funding so I’ve been trying to fill that gap. It just so happens that as a mentor I’m in the ground floor at these ideas. Most of these students come to the Baiada Center before they go anywhere else. So if you are looking at this from a deal flow perspective, I’m tapping into a vein not a lot of people are viewing.

What’s your criteria for investment? You’ve said you’ve only had two investments thus far, but what are you looking for when you look at a company?

I think I’m open in respect to industry and concept, but I’ll only invest in what I understand. I wont do pharmaceutical or biotech or anything like that. My investments tend to be tech-oriented. My other deal is in material science.

We’ve heard local entrepreneurs say there are not enough investors in Philadelphia. Investors say there are not enough entrepreneurs. Where do you fall on that spectrum, being both?

I actually there’s enough of both. What is lacking is a mechanism to get the two side to know each other. I thought about joining angel investment clubs and I have a tangential relationship with a couple of clubs. My problem was finding a fit for myself. I decided not to align myself with anybody.

But you’re only looking at two dimensions: investors and entrepreneurs. I’d add “unaffiliated angel investor” to that. I’ve found that there’s a dearth of resources to the unaffiliated angel investor to be part of the greater community. From my perspective it’s not a lack of anything, it’s a lack of coordination.

You said there’s a problem connecting, Is there a good way for someone reading this to connect to you?

The Baiada Center is really made for Drexel students, so you wont be able to get any connection that way. I’m not actively promoting myself so you have to stumble across me. I’m not actively looking for deals so maybe I’m part of the problem I’m articulating as I’m getting enough of play out of Drexel. I’m not sitting here saying, “I want to invest in 20 companies.”

Angel Interviews will occasionally profile an angel investor that primarily operates in the Philadelphia region. If you’re an angel investor and would like to be profiled, reach out.

Investing in start-ups is the business of venture capitalists, some of whom have come up with a new formula for profits. It goes roughly like this: Give a few V.C.’s access to the technology deals. Let them raise some capital and invest it shrewdly. The V.C.’s become rich. And if the deals are done correctly, the schools share handsomely in the riches. As an incidental but significant benefit, it’s at least possible that venture capitalists, working with universities, could help create manufacturing jobs in the United States.

Last year I was on Sand Hill Road in Silicon Valley meeting with one of the most prominent venture capital firms in the country.

We were talking about a company, Factual (disclosure my firm is an investor), which was founded by one of LA’s most talented Internet entrepreneurs, Gil Elbaz, who as co-founder of Applied Semantics (purchased by pre-IPO Google for $102 million and now Google AdSense) is responsible for a large portion of the Internet’s monetization.

The VC partner, somebody I greatly respect said, “Yeah, we like Gil and what they’re doing. I’m just not sure you can build a great technology firm outside of Bay Area.”

via Can You Really Build a Great Tech Firm Outside Silicon Valley? | Both Sides of the Table.

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.

As always, edited for length and clarity

Not a lot of VC guys end up in office, why does your past fit the job?

My background in finance has proven acutely and extremely valuable in this position. No one from the Wharton School has held statewide office, I believe, let alone state treasurer. Nobody who gets in arguments about asset allocation has ever run for state treasurer. There have been bond underwriters, but not someone who talks about illiquid assets and entrepreneur-spurring assets. I have spent a lot of time in that area, so I thought with my venture capital background, I was able to really delve into these other issues that interested me.

I have… a good background to be in a chief investment officer role. …I just think it’s valuable for entrepreneurs to be represented by entrepreneurs and be asking the question ‘when we put this money to work, how much will come back in job creating, innovation-spurring endeavors in Pennsylvania?’

Rob McCord is sworn in as the new Pennsylvania State Treasurer during a ceremony held in the North Office Building. JOE HERMITT, The Patriot-News

Where is Philadelphia in this scheme of entrepreneurship compared nationally?

I’m a glass half full guy. Pennsylvania is doing very well, not perfect, but very well.

Most regions in the country couldn’t just add water — give them a certain amount of money — and have jobs follow. Philadelphia is one of those regions.

Pittsburgh, Allegheny County, is another. Very few people in the southeast known what is happening in that southwest portion. It takes more work there, but it’s real… I look at it region by region, and Pennsylvania has a uniquely high number of those regions that can offer wealth from entrepreneurial-ism.

So just add water?

Yes…if you had another billion dollars, if you said to entrepreneurs that we will back your company but you have to be located in the Greater Philadelphia region… there are few entrepreneurs who would say ‘no way, I can’t make that work.’

When you look at our operating costs when compared to Silicon Valley or San Francisco or Manhattan or Boston or even Austin, TX, we’re right up there with the rest of them [in terms of being a competitive place to be].

The Research Triangle in North Carolina and Philadelphia are two of the country’s best lower cost centers of entrepreneurship.

…I would say San Fran, Boston and Austin are ahead of us in the sexy for young people factor, and that means we should put more work into reminding people what a great place it is to live here. But when you look at your overall cost of doing business as a young, only modestly funded entrepreneur living in say Center City or Old City Philadelphia to the same pay living in Manhattan, it is just hugely different.

The lifestyle in Philadelphia is much greater than what you might say is Greater Connecticut, but you simply have more money washing around Greater Connecticut because you have people saying I want to be within 45 minutes of the doorstep of my portfolio CEO. The increase supply of capital makes the difference… [but don't think Philadelphia isn't competitive in a national way.]

…So, yes, if you gave me a billion dollars in venture capital in this area, I could make it one or two, but of course if you gave me the first five draft picks, I could improve the Eagles, so it’s harder than that. …In the end, we need to continue to sell Philly as this great region that it is but also be growing the entrepreneurial community that we need with the help of the schools to support it.

To some extent Ben Franklin Technology Partners is meant to invest in only locally-based companies, but is it realistic to think others would do the same?

[In my venture career], we certainly set up soft goals for how much investment and success we hoped to have in the local region. If you look at groups like Penn State alumns, Carnegie Mellion alumns, fans of Greater Philadelphia and if more private groups could increase their soft goals [around Philly-specific funding], that could start something.

Some career fiduciary bureaucrats are resistant because they don’t want to reduce possible earnings. So it’s about early funds. I would love to see nonprofis like foundations be involved where we run an experiment, we invest in a for-profit-way but the profit goes back in a foundation. [The foundation network] only invests in locally-based companies, and if they can prove the profitability and sustainability of the experiment, they open it up beyond Greater Philadelphia… It’s about understanding the value of various, strong local hubs of investment and entrepreneurship.

What is your role in making any of that happen?

In the treasurer’s office, people reach out, and we try to put them in touch with appropriate investors. Right now, our coffers are dry, like lots of governments….

They should continue to come say to us that ‘we’re a growing company and venture eligible and can you introduce us.’ The odds of us getting you fresh funding is very low right now, but we sell this region. As I travel around the country with conferences and meetings, and I’ll say to private equity managers that you’re a fool if you ‘re looking at Greater New York but not Greater Philadelphia. A lot of big companies are looking at more rollups — complete acquisition — so a local company gets wrapped up into a national scale… we can help connect there.

A sub item of that is that a lot of people are not ready for venture capital but don’t know it, so often we spend time educating people about that, and people want a sounding board on how to grow their companies, whether it’s angel or other moves, and we can help.

So other than reaching out, how should this community interact with you?

Offer empathy. [laughs]

…They should know that this is someone who has invested in companies like mine, who has grown companies like mine, who, to a certain extent, has worked at companies like mine, so at least I’m someone who empathizes with the cause. I’m a Democrat but a market-minded Democrat… so when an entrepreneur reaches out to me and tells me what legislation is hurting or helping them, I want to hear it and I listen, so know at least that there is representation in statewide office.

Big companies get a lot of representation because they buy it. … I tend to think job-creating, technology-orientated entrepreneurs and service providers who go out of their way to support them as my base. …So I want to help however I can….

We are something of a clearinghouse, so we can guide people to the services that their companies need. We have ginned up demand generally in the need for information technology support in Harrisburg.

Why is IT in government an important match?

There are two different directions: as cost reducer and quality of life improve and job creator.

As a cost reducer, when less money is used to get the same work done, you almost always need to call on technology, so we’ve been able to cut [treasury] payroll 16 percent while increasing productivity by 25 percent in our direct service areas.

How? What are specific examples?

In a number of ways… We improved decision rules in the Bureau of Unclaimed Property with on-going searches, some automated with various technologies, to look for people who reported [or when it has been found in government control.] Half of that unclaimed property doesn’t get collected. That’s a tax-free, limited effort to bring in revenue and reduce the cost of government. That’s since we we came into office… and just one example.

Similarly, we reduced the fees in our Vanguard [college savings] tuition account program… with increased tech both in Vanguard and in treasury with customer service and in simple maintenance… So look at pa529.com for details. We dramatically reduced fees, increased the amount collected in and reduced the cost of government through technology.

….We have to face that regardless of the exchange rate between China and us, uneducated labor will be less expensive outside our borders, so we have to create high value work. You do that with relationships and protectable technology advantages.

And that’s what I do best: relationships and protectable technology advantages.

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.

Since it’s a light news week. Let’s call these all “Might be worth your time:”

NJBiz has a story about the recent success of Edison Ventures and what it means to New Jersey entrepreneurs.

Not exactly venture capital, but an investment firm in Marlton has been accused of cheating its investors out of $40 milion through a complicated Ponzi scheme.  The Inquirer reports that Carr Miller Capital spent investor’s money on on luxury cars, vacations, and a suite at the New Jersey Devils’ arena.

Comcast Interactive Capital portfolio company Ortiva Wireless has received $8 million Series C investment from Intel. The company helps wireless providers monitor video traffic.

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

Remember when Safeguard Scientifics sold Clarient Technologies? It turns out that the company netted $144 million from the deal. According to the press release the deal gave Safeguard a debt-to-equity ratio of three-to-one. Safeguard also announced that it received a 3X return on its sale of Avid Pharmaceuticals.

Next time you hear someone complain about lack of capital in the Philadelphia region, tell them about Treventis Corp, a Canadian biotech company that established offices in Philadelphia “where it is hoping to have greater access to American venture capital.” The credit here, of course, goes to Cliff Lee.

MIGHT BE WORTH YOUR TIME

Who says the IPO is dead? Edison Ventures’ GAIN Capital has recently begun trading on the New York Stock Exchange. According to the press release, Edison still owns 13 percent of the company and the firm realized an 18X return on securities sold.

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

Edison Ventures continues its push in New England with a $5.5 million investment in NetProspex a company based in Waltham, Mass. that helps businesses track sales and marketing clients. Mass High Tech has more about the firm’s sudden infatuation with New England.

MIGHT BE WORTH YOUR TIME

First Round Capital has invested $1.75 million in Fab.com (formally Fabulous.com) the gay social network. The Washington Post also invested in the company, curiously enough.

First Round Capital has also upped its investment in TechForward, the Los Angeles-based provider of technology buyback plans.

GIVE A GLANCE

It must have been follow-on investment week over in Conshohocken as First Round also invested additional cash in Flurry, the mobile analytics company.

Will somebody tweeted:

Jeremy Bloom, a much-hyped former kick returner for the Philadelphia Eagles, didn’t make it in the NFL. However, his new startup just received VC investment.

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?

Well, one of the greatest needs for a start-up or early stage technology company is the capital needed to fund growth.  The lack of capital lies at the very heart of building an emerging growth company.  Entrepreneurs also don’t have the patience for long drawn out procedures so early in a company’s existence.  Speed is viewed as a competitive advantage to some.

Given that lack of capital, as well as the quick need for it, both entrepreneurs and angel and venture financing groups have long wanted a standard set of financing documents that could quickly result in a closed financing round.  A round of financing quickly closed on mutually acceptable terms and costing the least amount of money (i.e., legal fees) would be the goal.  If both goals couldn’t be achieved, I think reduced fees would be favored over speed when it comes to standardized financing documents.

With that being said, if I had to argue against standardized financing documents, I’d probably point out the following flaws:

• Not all Deals are the Same – the earlier the financing round, the more homogeneous the terms, however, the later the round of financing the less likely standardized documents are going to work.  If standardized financing documents were a reality, I think for this reason they would be limited to either angel or series seed deals.  Growth rounds have more complexity built into them (e.g., recapping, taking out early investors, letting founders take money off the table, wash-outs or cram downs, etc.), and therefore may not lend themselves to a “canned” document.
• As Much as People Love to Knock Lawyers, Getting Deals Done is an Intelligent Process – Some of us love the start-up space and work very hard to provide real value to early stage companies.  Many of you have probably witnessed first hand the value add from these types of lawyers being involved in these types of rounds.Create standardized documents and I can guarantee you lawyers of all walks (read:  lawyers without the proper start-up or early stage financing experience) will start offering these types of services to early stage companies because of the comfort that “canned” documents give them.  Just because you attend a CLE (continuing legal education) course on mergers and acquisitions, and walk with your book of forms, does not an M&A attorney make.  Look at every venture blogs’ posts (including my own) and you’ll see advice about hiring the right lawyers early for this type of work.  Start relying on “canned” documents and this problem will grow worse by a magnitude.The fact that most lawyers that do this work have learned the trade in the old apprentice fashion (having been taught by those that have done it for generations prior) is a barrier to entry.  Remove that barrier and the goals of speed and saving money will produce leagues of early stage companies with inexperienced advisors.
• Do You Really Want to Feel Like You Just Bought a House When You Close Your Series AA Round? – look at the areas that do use standardized documents and look at the lack of leverage in those deals – buying a house, taking out a mortgage, leasing a car, renting an apartment.  These form documents certainly save money for the person with the leverage (i.e., the person selling the house, offering the mortgage, leasing you the car or renting you the apartment), but they don’t create a level playing field.
• Attempts to Date Have Failed- other than the form documents that are used specifically inside a model (think TechStars, YCombinator, etc.), most form documents have not taken off.  In particular I think of the NVCA form documents.  The only time I hear or see them referenced in a deal is when one party is trying to convince the other that a particular provision is or is not industry.  To the extent that provision is or is not in the NVCA form documents, I’ve seen parties reference that fact as proof that they are correct.

Leveraging off of the second bullet point above, I think my greatest argument against standardized documents requires one to think back to the industrial revolution. The industrial revolution killed the craftsman, much the way big box retailers killed the mom & pop store (for those of you that remember the days when customer service actually meant something).  I think standardized financing documents will have the same effect.  It will destroy the legitimate skill set that some of us possess in the start-up and early stage space.  And it will rob the younger associates of the real skills required to represent great start-up and early stage companies in financing rounds.

My Solution: I think the answer lies in how lawyers bill for this work.  I think you can get to the same result of standardization if lawyers would just agree to cap the fees they charge.  For those of us that possess the right experience for this work, most of the problems or hurdles we hit in closing financing rounds have been seen before and dealt with.  I have yet to come across an issue in getting a round of financing done that isn’t somehow derivative of some other issue I’ve run into before, and therefore I probably already have some way of dealing with the issue.

I see no reason lawyers cannot come up with flat fees for closing these rounds that solve the “expense” issue and still allow the deal to move quickly and close inside a time frame that any of us would consider reasonable.

Just my two cents.  I welcome your comments and/or questions.

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.

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.

Kicking off the speaking was Mayor Nutter who focused on the need for young people to “be cheerleaders” for Philadelphia. Perception, he said, was among the strongest enemies to Philadelphia’s future success. He also sought to speak to the power of youth, taking ownership by recalling the support he received among young progressive voters in his mayoral election.

“Your active engagement in the 2007 election was very important,” Nutter said. “I can truly tell you that [young Philadelphians] had a big impact.”

Nutter was followed by state Treasurer Rob McCord, a former venture capitalist from Montgomery County, who rattled off advice, including an encouragement for young people to get to know the VC community and government leaders, like himself.

He also spoke about deciding to speak at the YIP event in Old City rather than at another event in Scranton.

“I’m sure most of you would rather be in Scranton,” he said, earning laughs. He lauded Philadelphia as a city poised for greatness.

“I look forward to Philadelphia being the greenest city in the country,” he said, before touting other successes, like the recent deal to bring a $129 million sustainability research and development program to the Naval Yard. “I look forward to a lot from Philadelphia and from you all.”

Arriving after McCord already began his speech, cutting through the crowd, was the next speaker: Street, the sometimes irascible former mayor who has been recently parading into local headlines following the controversy at the Philadelphia Housing Authority, of which he is board, and sudden criticism of Nutter’s policies and politics.

Not known for his public speaking, Street may have given the liveliest of all the speeches, centrally calling for the young and involved to be much more involved.

He credited the Tea Party movement and activism around casinos with earning victories for their respective positions.

Street urged young people to interact with those in power and create real action, a sentiment he managed to convey in a memorable contortion of phrase.

“I like to see people doing blogs, but that’s not really getting it. The blogs are not really getting it,” Street said. “People need to get out of their comfort zones.”

After two other speakers and an intermission, PSL leader Jennelle, dressed as the urban cowboy from MyDunkTank.com, spoke about what is ‘hot’ about Philadelphia’s startup community — innovative companies, supportive institutions — and growing what is ‘not hot’ about the community.

Watch his presentation below.

Jennelle credited the innovation of some in the region’s investment community, like First Round Capital and Genacast Ventures, but spoke about a need for greater early-stage VC to grow a still under-developed scene, characterizing investment companies like Ben Franklin Technology Partners and SeventySix Capital as being stubborn and stodgy.

Chris Satullo, of WHYY, introducing NewsWorks.org. Photo by Sean Blanda.

Other speakers included WHYY civic engagement director Chris Satullo who introduced NewsWorks.org, the regional news portal that the public media company will be debuting in November.

YIP chair Robertson-Kraft said the group hopes to make the State of Young Philly an annual event series and “a continuous dialogue” about shaping and improving Philadelphia.

“When YIP was first founded 10 years ago, it was one of the only groups in the region for young professionals, so it had to grow that community,” Robertson-Kraft said. “Now, we don’t see that the problem is not having enough talented and interested young people, it’s about how fractured we all are, and that’s what we want to change.”

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Video by Sean Blanda.