Hatching Social Ventures in the City of Brotherly Love

While ingenious business incubators keep popping up all over, they’re not usually aimed at for-profit social ventures. But I just heard about a pilot for an interesting new Philadelphia-based program called GoodCompany Ventures, planned for this summer, that’s specifically for not-only-for-profit startups. Executive Director Chris Bentley says they’re in the process of interviewing applicants to fill the 8 to 12 spots for the 10-week-long program. He also thinks the incubator, funded by Murex Investments, a firm that makes double-bottom line investments, and Resources for Human Development, a nonprofit, will eventually hold three sessions a year.

This program will be a nice mix of instruction from experts and peer collaboration. (No potential competitors are allowed to participate at the same time, so there won’t be that conflict.) Thursdays will be workshops run by industry experts on specific topics. First one will be on structuring a socially responsible business with people from B Corp, among others. They’ll talk about the hot topic du jour: non-financial business metrics. (I don’t mean to sound snide; it’s important.)

Other topics will be more of the garden-variety type, but they always include a social entrepreneurial component. For example, a section on HR will touch on information about employee stock ownership plans and other ways to treat employees fairly. Friday will be time for companies to work together on applying the topic of the week to their businesses. So, it’s a little Hub-like. (Here’s something I wrote about the Hub.) By the end of the program, the entrepreneurs are supposed to be in shape to pitch their ideas to angel investors and venture capitalists.

Other features: Interns from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania will be assigned to each startup. Bentley also says there’s a “long list” of business owners and other people who want to serve as mentors. He’ll pick the ones who seem like the best matches for the incubator companies.

Also, unlike incubators such as Business Accelerator for Sustainable Entrepreneurship (BASE) and Y Combinator, this program provides space for anyone who wants it. It’s housed in the Philadelphia Navy Yard, in offices donated by a city-funded group called the Philadelphia Industrial Development Corp. So, clearly, the city government sees the incubator as a promising local business development vehicle.

Of course, the companies only have access to the space for the short duration of the program. But for a startup on the usual starvation diet, every little bit helps.