Sneha Shah, the head of new business ventures for SEI Investments Co., says people "outside of Philadelphia don't understand how powerful this [startup ecosystem] could be."
It wasn't long ago that Shah was one of those people, with a career that spanned the globe before coming to SEI's Oaks campus last summer. In her time running the London Stock Exchange Group's business accelerator or working with startups across the continent of Africa, she hadn't had the chance to become familiar Philadelphia's innovation economy.
It's largely a problem of Philadelphia underselling its assets, an issue that Shah discovered when she came to one of the area's largest corporations to incubate and invest in startups. The universities, the research centers, and the mix of industries are all inarguable advantages for the region's ecosystem, Shah said, but not enough people know about them.
"What I think could be done more is the branding of it. Trying to make sure people understand what's really here is going to be important," Shah said, speaking at the Philadelphia Business Journal's second annual Fire Awards celebration on Aug. 15. "But I also think, although there's a lot of startup energy here, figuring out how we can get scale-up energy here is going to be important. How do we actually get more partnerships with corporates? How do we get more people who are longer-term investors here? How do we get more startups from outside of the area to come and actually headquarter here?"
Shah pointed to a comprehensive model in Arlington, Texas, in which the local government collaborates with the chamber of commerce, nonprofit Founders Arena, and universities and corporations to attract startups to the city. The support and resources come through accelerators, pitch competitions, partnerships with companies, tax breaks and incentives to hire locally. SEI partners with the Founders Arena on its WealthTech Accelerator. Shah said with the proper buy-in from local stakeholders, similar programming could help attract international businesses to Philadelphia.
"You might get startups from South Africa, you might get startups from Singapore who want access to the U.S. market, that want to start exploring here," Shah said. "And suddenly, then this becomes a global hub of innovation, not just a local hub of innovation."
That could help further diversify a region that is known nationally for its life sciences prowess. Shah said that was the lens she saw Philadelphia's startup ecosystem through prior to her arrival at SEI, but she now sees an array of emerging startup lanes. As different industries emerge, Shah said it's important to the strength of the overall ecosystem that they aren't siloed.
"The diversity here of industry, of type of person, of the types of universities, and the amount of knowledge centers and universities and research centers that are here, is incredible. But if you have a mix of them, bringing them together is really powerful," Shah said.
