Kevin Romano wrote to tell us about his upcoming local co-working space:

Co-working space for freelancers and small businesses in Manayunk is in the works.  The 4,000 ft. building is designed specifically for small and creative businesses and people to work and network.  It will feature shared conference rooms, mail, printers, and all utilities, desks, etc. There will also be event space for networking.  Rates will be very affordable and flexible – members may be full time or just a few days per week – and you can scale up or down with ease.  Great location next to the train, highway, and Main Street.  Mostly we are working to create a community of like-minded entrepreneurs whose synergies will benefit one another in ways both professional and social.  Membership is forming now.  To learn more please go to: www.greenkindling.com.

Sounds like a great place to go if you’re starting up something of your own but can’t justify an entire office or just want to be around more like minded entrepreneurs.  We’ll be sure to follow up on them as this project progresses.

As always, if you have a local Philadelphia area project or startup you think we should know about, please contact us.

Max has a great post up over on his blog, 5 realities of the Startup Interview.   There’s some really good stuff in there and most of us have experienced at least one or two of these things on either side of the interview equation.  Just like he says in the intro, the startup interview is nothing like the one you were trained for, so bring your A game and take some of these lessons with you.

The Small Business and Entrepreneurship Council released their small business survival index for 2009.  Coming in at 27th was Pennsylvania.

According to the SBE Council’s chief economist Raymond Keating, “The ‘Small Business Survival Index’ helps business owners and investors understand the public policy burdens placed on entrepreneurship and small business, with the states ranked accordingly.”

Factors considered included various taxes (everything from income, gas, internet, through death taxes), health care costs, crime, utility costs, and various workers’ rights.  Clearly hurting Pennsylvania’s score were corporate taxes.

The top ten friendly states were:

1. South Dakota
2. Nevada
3. Texas
4. Wyoming
5. Washington
6. Florida
7. South Carolina
8. Colorado
9. Alabama
10. Virginia

The least friendly was the District of Columbia followed closely by New Jersey.

The Ben Franklin Technology Partners development program announced Monday that it will be investing $950,000 in five startups in the Philadelphia region.  The program strives to help emerging technology companies with capital, as well as both product focus and direction and networking support.  Any and all of these things at a key time could help make a startup a success.

Innova Materials focuses on new types of materials for various uses.  Their core technology, Innlay, helps manufacturers add additional properties to materials as part of the existing manufacturing process, such as antimicrobial protection, seen lately on various types of food prep and bathroom surfaces.  They received $225,000.

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The article Max mentioned, 4 ways to get rejected by an angel, had a follow up piece on Venturebeat, 4 MORE ways to get automatically rejected by an angel investor.

The follow up calls out:

• Having a big monthly burn
• Pretending this isn’t risky
• Not interviewing the Angel
• Not having an exit strategy

I particular like the part about pretending this isn’t risky. I can’t even begin to remember all the ideas I’ve heard that are sure things. Working with an investor should be a healthy relationship, not one started on a false premise.  Everyone knows startups are risky.  If they weren’t, everyone would be doing them, and be a huge success.  Be honest and give all the facts, but show why your calculated risk has a good chance of working out well for both of you.

With the advent of Twitter’s new “lists” feature, Start Philly will be maintaining a few lists that are probably of interest to anyone following along.

• http://twitter.com/startphilly/startups Mostly local startups twittering away.
• http://twitter.com/startphilly/entrepreneurs Entrepreneurs in the area talking about what they’re up to, or even just what music is helping to keep them motivated that day.
• http://twitter.com/startphilly/vc VCs that frequent the area or with vested interests here.
• http://twitter.com/startphilly/orgs Local entrepreneurial, innovative, incubating, or otherwise interesting organizations.

One of the benefits of Twitter lists is that you can follow entire lists themselves.  We’ll be paying close attention to who is using Twitter in the area and be updating as necessary, so by following these lists, you’ll benefit from our work keeping you in the loop.

Hopefully, but how quickly up? IPO Dashboards put together a visualization of their top 100 public software companies and what kind of a success they were. Were they a “Rocket Ship,” “Hot Company,” or “Slow Burner?” How long does it take to build a technology empire?

Some of the conclusions are interesting.  For example, 50% of the companies analyzed took over 9 years to reach $50m in revenue, far from the hockey stick so many like to pitch.  Only 28% did it in less than 6 years.  So, if you’re building the next Adobe, Microsoft, Oracle or Salesforce, do you have the right time frame in mind?

Who knew Novell was such the hit?  $50m in 3 years.  Yow.