Philadelphia-based startup accelerator DreamIt Ventures recently announced plans to open an office in New York City. Now it&'s revealed whoa4a4s going to be running it &8212' entrepreneur and investor Mark Wachen.
Managing partner Kerry Rupp said that DreamIta4a4s four Philadelphia partners will all be involved in choosing the NYC companies and hope to be in New York at least once a week, but they also knew they needed a full-time presence in the city. Wachen, meanwhile, is a successful entrepreneur (he sold his startup Optimost to Interwoven in 2007 for $52 million), an early-stage investor through Upstage Ventures (he invested in DreamIt alumnus SeatGeek), and a lifelong New Yorker (he said the only time he moved out of the city was to go to college and graduate school).
For his part, Wachen said hea4a4s excited to see the New York startup scene finally taking off, something he attributes to the fact that therea4a4s finally a big pool of startup capital and technical talent. Thata4a4s why efforts like DreamIt are crucial to building that momentum.
a4AIt seems like the reality has caught up with the hype,a4 he said.
The DreamIt NYC program will run from May to August of this year. Applications are now open, and the incubator said it will accept between 10 and 15 startups, with five being in digital education through a partnership with Startl.
Rupp noted that you dona4a4t have to have a great company idea in order to join &8212' in fact, thata4a4s why the group has tracks for a4Ahackersa4 and a4˜a4Astrategistsa4, so that great programmers can be paired up with people who know how to build a real business. Location-based startup Scvngr, another famous DreamIt graduate, is one company thata4a4s attributed its early success to that kind of pairing, Rupp said.
[top image via Flickr/Swaminathan]
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Companies: DreamIt Ventures
People: Kerry Rupp, Mark Wachen
Companies: DreamIt Ventures
People: Kerry Rupp, Mark Wachen
Anthony is a senior editor at VentureBeat, as well as its reporter on media, advertising, and social networks. Before joining the site in 2008, Anthony worked at the Hollister Free Lance, where he won awards from the California Newspaper Publishers Association for breaking news coverage and writing. He attended Stanford University and now lives in San Francisco. Reach him at anthony@venturebeat.com. (All story pitches should also be sent to tips@venturebeat.com) You can also follow Anthony on Twitter.
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