Bucks County is focused on building a community of startups and entrepreneurs as its economy emerges from the pandemic.
The county is funneling funding into programs like nonprofit Startup Bucks' early-stage startup program, as well as allocating money to its Office of Workforce and Economic Development to support entrepreneurs.
Bucks County has allocated $250,000 to the Bucks Built Startup Fund, a project spearheaded by Startup Bucks to spur entrepreneurship. The program offers a $25,000 investment in the form of a convertible note to startups with a presence in Bucks. Qualified startups must have plans to hire or grow their business in the county, and funding is given to 10 companies in two cohorts.
The application window for the program’s latest cohort closes at the end of June.
Startup Bucks Founder Jon Mercer, who is also the owner of coworking space Stacks Co. in Doylestown, sees his nonprofit as a complement to existing entities like the Bucks County Chambers of Commerce, Industrial Development Authority and other economic development groups.
It provides local startup founders who may not want to travel to Philadelphia, New Jersey or New York with a way to connect to each other and to resources like capital, he said.
There’s also an impetus to “buck” the perception of Bucks County as an enclave of only cute towns and covered bridges, Mercer said. The goal isn’t to become the next Silicon Valley, New York or even Philadelphia, he said. It’s to highlight the existing community of founders in Bucks County and to attract more.
“If it's just, 'Oh, it's a nice place to visit on a weekend,' that's not going to help grow businesses,” Mercer said.
Throughout the pandemic, Bucks County has increasingly seen startups crop up, said Deanna Giorno, economic development program manager for the county. Entrepreneurship presents an opportunity for Bucks to keep workers — who typically commute to Philadelphia or New York — in the county and benefit the local economy, she said.
“That’s great, and of course we want those areas to get business, but it’s also nice to see it close to home,” Giorno said.
The county will be integrating entrepreneurship into its economic development strategy, which is set to be unveiled sometime next year, Giorno said. Bucks is working through how startups will fit into that strategy and how it can keep those companies in the county, she said.
The county’s Office of Workforce and Economic Development is also looking at new opportunities to support up-and-coming businesses thanks to more flexible funding from the federal government.
The workforce development arm was a nonprofit entity separate from the county until July 2020, and before then it hadn’t been very involved with startups or entrepreneurs, said Billie Barnes, director of the Office of Workforce and Economic Development. Now, with flexible funding from the CARES Act and American Rescue Plan, Barnes’ office is more actively engaged with entrepreneurs.
“Moving forward, we're hoping to be more involved in that from the economic development side of the house to really give startups more opportunities with some of the money that we have coming in as a result of Covid,” Barnes said.
Mercer and Startup Bucks were “instrumental” in the office’s newfound involvement with startups, Barnes said. She participated in a review team last winter where startups pitched to her and a panel of judges for an opportunity to receive funding from the Bucks Built Startup Fund.
Bruce Marable, co-founder of human resources firm Employee Cycle, is part of the Bucks Built program’s first cohort. Besides Employee Cycle, the cohort — announced in February — includes stroke detection startup Neuralert, online puppy training platform PupCamp, vegan hair care company Naturaz, and head-impact indicator firm Tozuda.
Employee Cycle’s headquarters are split between Bucks County and Philadelphia. While Marable lives in Philadelphia proper, his co-founder, Salas Saraiya, lives in Bucks County and bases his operations from the county. Several other Employee Cycle team members live in Bucks as well, making the Bucks Built program a natural fit, Marable said.
The Bucks Built Startup Fund’s $25,000 in funding for startups was a draw, Marable said, but it was the program’s tailored programming that provided a big bonus. The program helped Employee Cycle connect with other Bucks County founders, he said.
“Being a founder can be a lonely role,” Marable said. “And so having a community to be able to talk to other founders, bounce ideas off of each other, really learn from each other's experiences and knowing that other people were in the same stage as you were, going through the same challenges as you — where it can seem like you're the only one — that's been helpful.”
