Today only one meeting, but a very interesting one - a group visit to The Enterprise Center (TEC) in West Philadelphia (http://www.theenterprisecenter.com/)...
The Center's President is one of U.S. Fellows (she went for her fellowship to Eastern Europe in 2002 - and she was also in the Czech Republic), it's an energetic woman named Della Clark, and even during the short visit we had the chance to see her enthusiasm and competence...
TEC was founded in 1989 by Wharton's Small Business Development Center to offer a comprehensive system of incubation and accelaration of businesses... Over time it re-design its focus - first, TEC won a bid and became the Minority Business Development Center for Pennsylvania... Also, over time TEC moved from the very early stage incubation to a business acceleration model - when TEC only accepts businesses which are already up and running, with annual revenues of at least $100,000...
It seems that TEC has been very successful, with annual revenues of $6 million, staff of 20 and over 100 companies in acceleration (clients)... When asked about the single most successful case of incubation/acceleration, Della mentioned a woman who came to TEC some 15 years ago, with huge financial problems, 2 kids, no house, no car, almost with no hope... But today this woman is running her own business which has a 7-digit turn over, and is self-confident and happy... I agree that this sounds like a fabulous story, and I am happy for Drella...
More info on TEC web site...
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