Philadelphia scored today...

I did not expect much today... And I was wrong... Today turned out to be one of the most interesting for the whole trip... But let me start from the beginning - and maybe divide parts of my day into several posts so it is more readable...

My first meeting was at 8.15 which meant I had to leave the hotel in Conshohacken around 6.50 if I went by train, so I asked the reception to order me a taxi for 7.30... Unfortunately, when I got out 2 minutes before 7.30, my taxi was not there... So I came to my meeting late - I believe for the first time during my fellowship... But I should have known that bad starts sometimes end up with great days...

So I met with Emily Cieri, Managing Director of Entrepreneurial Program at the Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania... After I apologised many times, we got to talking about Wharton's multiple activities to encourage entrepreneurship with both faculty and students (including alumni)... Out of the discussion my main take-aways are the following:

• Practitioners, not just academics - I learned that approximately half of the courses are tought by people who "make a living outside the university": entrepreneurs, VCs, lawyers, consultants... people from practise... and don't be misunderstood, it's not because Wharton doesn't have money to pay for professors, but because they see a lot of value in it... University compensates those lecturers (although not on market terms, of course) and only works with people they have a long-term relationship with... It is for sure that there's a long way from guest lecturing like I do back in Prague, and actually teaching a course which is a part of the academic curriculum... But certainly something I have to pitch to the Czech schools...


• VIP - Venture Initiation Program is Wharton's way to support students of University of Pennsylvania (not just Wharton), shortly an incubator... But what needs to be accented is that VIP never takes equity, only tries to encourage entrepreneurship and also gain something for educational purposes... Companies in VIP get not just space, but mainly each of them gets an advisor who helps them with business, and VIP also organizes networking events, invites successful entrepreneurs who can advise and mentor... Every year about 35 ventures get incepted and supported by VIP - they have to present a business plan and milestones, and even if accepted to the incubator, each has to re-apply every 3 months, present monthly reports with key performance metrics (5x 5)...


• Wharton Business Plan Competition - WBPC is one of the leading university business plan competition, with more than 10 years since its inception... and it really is well thought through... Wharton developed a 3-phase process which forms a very comprehensive 7-month program which is supposed to not just pick the best business plan, but mainly to promote and educate... WBPC actually helps the participants to develop their business plan in a very structured and collaborative way - and some of them persue the business plans into real companies (like the last year's winner Solixia which also went through the VIP)... Impressed I was... And similarly to Babson's FME, I will try to pitch it to the schools in the Czech Republic - because guess what, Wharton will be happy to help in creating any such competition, and even provide the online platform used for WBPC...!


• Entrepreneurs-in-Residence - finally, I learned about a relatively new activity of Wharton which is EiR... They went out to several successful entrepreneurs and executives (usually alumni) and asked them for 1 day of their time, to come over to the campus, willing to meet and chat with the students - for 12 half-hour slots which students book online on a first-come-first-serve basis... There are only two limitations: students are not allowed to raise money and ask for a job... My question whether bad students don't take over all of the slots, so the good ones don't have the chance was surprising to Emily - "no, it doesn't happen, usually it works out great"... Again, something very easily impletable in the Czech Republic (maybe with some limitation to prevent the situation in my question)...

So that was my visit of Wharton - the home of Knowledge@Wharton which inspired me back in the dotcom times... Finally I saw it live, and it was a very inspiring visit... I will for sure try staying in touch with Emily and connect her with some of the progressive uni guys from back home - it surely seemed she is interested...