Seed Philly

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http://seedphilly.org


The Seed Philly Difference

What sets Seed Philly apart from other coworking spaces and incubators is our business intelligence information.

Our software is more than just a directory. We spent nearly 18 months of research determining how the best portfolios across the country operate, tracking which data points they each collect about their portfolio companies and learning how that data was used across the portfolio, both by the investors and entrepreneurs. We focused on interviewing the entrepreneurs to understand the motivation behind sharing their information and the best practices in incorporating that data into the daily operations of their startups.

Next, we spoke with more than 100 entrepreneurs whose startups had participated in accelerator programs. We learned what resources were available to each entrepreneur, and which of those resources had real value in building their businesses.

Finally, we set our sights on the local community, with the goal of treating all of the tech startups in the region as if they were all part of the same portfolio. We interview both funded and unfunded companies, startups who were killing it and others without a nickel in revenue. We talked to members of the local investment community, and the supporting lawyers and technologists that help the startups succeed. Ultimately, we came up with a model that we believe will help startups grow more efficiently and result in more jobs and greater success for the whole community.

Our most important user is the entrepreneur, since Seed Philly’s focus is on entrepreneurial education. When an entrepreneur comes through our doors, we ask to track his or her startup’s daily activities. A separate profile is created for each company, and any member of the community can be linked to that company. We encourage each entrepreneur to “look under the hood” and take a full assessment of the hardware and software they use, their vendor relationships and their company’s growth milestones. Companies have the ability to track nearly 20 different types of milestones, including key hires, revenue, financing and press. All milestones have a uniform set of questions, as well as numerous milestone-specific questions. Once we reach a critical mass of information, users will have the ability to compare their company’s growth data to others in the portfolio, and ultimately create a blueprint for other companies to follow.