Philadelphia scores III...

After lunch I went off to the Science Center at Drexel University which is close to the 30th Street Station to meet an entrepreneur... So far most of my meetings were with investors or universities, but I was also interested in the view from the other side of the river... Therefore, Steve Welch recommended Chris Cera of Vuzit... And it was an excellent choice...

I spent almost two hours with Chris, asking him to comment my observations from the 2-month journey, checking with him my opinions or lost ideals, and Chris was extremely patient with me and communicative... Also, what needs to be said is also that I listened as patiently to his story, including the recent years with Vuzit, its fundraising process (successful, they raised from Ben Franklin, DreamIt, Innovation Philadelphia and Robin Hood)... And I will be very much interested in watching Vuzit as it grows - it certainly has the potential and Chris is excellent - BTW, he also founded Philly Startup Leaders, and I was happy to learn about this group as it is (as also Chris says) one of the few "bottom up" membership organizations (he was not too positive about some other associations and their events)...

And after Chris I went a couple of blocks to Laurence A. Baiada Center for Entrepreneurship in Technology of Drexel University where I met with the Center's Director Mark Loschiavo (as I discovered later, he will be speaking at 2007 Eisenhower Fellow Olga Girstlova's conference in NYC on the 21st, on the same panel I was invited to) and Mel Baiada, Managing Partner of BaseCamp Ventures, founder of Bluestone Software (IPO in 1999, sold to HP in 2001)...

Discussion with Mel and Mark was one of the best I've had for the last two months... We covered most of the topics I have been covering during my fellowship: entrepreneurship and what drives is, are entrepreneurs born or raised (Mel calls it "nature or nurture"), ecosystem development, universities as sources of innovation, venture financing and many more... Out of this extensive 2-hour conversation, I am picking just a bit:

1) In order to build and develop venture ecosystem, there have to be many activities, and all of them should follow one of two goals:

• Present Best Practises and create Role Models
• Create Passion for Entrepreneurship

2) In the "Nature versus Nurture" question we all agree that there is probably majority of Nurture... Whether in very early age or later, what matters are "seeds" that inseminate on the way... So when trying to make a change, we have to be creating positive seeds - back to the first point: best practises and passion...

Definitely interesting and inspiring discussion, and I will be looking forward to seeing Mel again next week as he will join the EF Closing Seminar (as he travelled to China with Steve Welch)...