A national top 10 venture capital firm driving technology innovation and growth in Pennsylvania

The Ben Franklin Technology Partners of Northeastern Pennsylvania (BFTP/NEP) is a technology-based economic development organization that creates and retains highly paid, sustainable jobs by linking companies with experts, universities, funding, and other resources to help them prosper through innovation. BFTP/NEP’s strategy encompasses three key areas:

1. developing early-stage technology-oriented companies,

2. helping established manufacturers creatively apply new technology and business practices to achieve industry leadership, and

3. promoting an innovative community-wide infrastructure that fosters a favorable business environment for high-growth companies.

An initiative of the Pennsylvania Department of Community and Economic Development and funded by the Ben Franklin Technology Development Authority, BFTP/NEP is part of a four-member statewide Ben Franklin network that has returned $3.60 to the state treasury for every $1.00 invested in the program. Pennsylvania’s Ben Franklin Technology Partners (BFTP) have helped client companies create and retain thousands of good jobs, launch hundreds of new companies, and invent products and processes that improve the human condition. In light of its success, BFTP has earned awards for excellence in technology-based economic development from the International Economic Development Council and the U.S. Department of Commerce/Economic Development Administration, and recognition as one of the top 10 seed venture capital firms in the nation as ranked by Entrepreneur magazine.

R. Chadwick Paul, Jr. spoke with citybizlist publisher Edwin Warfield for this interview.

EDWIN WARFIELD: Tell us about Ben Franklin Technology Partners.

R. CHADWICK PAUL, JR: We are Pennsylvania’s state-funded technology economic development organization. Our principal mission is not to invest for maximum financial benefit to Ben Franklin, but in the alternative, to invest for the maximum benefit of the taxpayers of Pennsylvania through the high-paying technology jobs that our companies create.

Q. When did you get started with Ben Franklin, and what are your priorities as CEO?

A. When I got to Ben Franklin, our incubator had been in what’s referred to as Jordan Hall on the Lehigh campus. It actually had been the photography lab of Bethlehem Steel when we started. In 1982, when Ben Franklin was created, there were no business incubators in Pennsylvania. We created the first one, and it opened in 1983. That 18,000-square foot footprint served as our incubator home for 25 years.

We’d always been full, we were always turning clients away, and so as the new CEO one of my challenges from the board was to figure out how we could expand the incubator space. Once Bethlehem Steel was out of business, ultimately the building was gifted to Lehigh University. At the time, they were raising money for their new science and technology building on the main campus, so they really did not have any use for the building. So we bought that building for a dollar. $8.5 million later, it passed code. But at the end of the day we got twice as much building as we would have gotten had we started from scratch in a green field, and as real estate people always say, location, location, location - right here on the Lehigh campus with access to all the expertise on the Lehigh campus, both professors and students, to help our client companies be successful.

Q. How does Ben Franklin Technology Partners differ from other VC firms?

In so many places around the country people have thought, “I’m going to go into the business of business incubation,” and really it becomes a real estate play. Because our focus is not to make money for Ben Franklin, but rather to make money for the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania through the increase in taxes from the jobs we create, that’s a whole different model from people who do private incubators, or who do an incubator and think that it is going to stand on its own. The most important thing that we tout is that for every dollar that comes to Ben Franklin, the state gets in excess of $3.60 of incremental state tax revenue back. I know of no state, or for that matter federally funded organization, that provides a 3.6 to 1 return on investment.

Q. How is the incubator network set up?

A. Ben Franklin Tech Ventures is clearly our flagship incubator but there are 10 other incubators that have been in our network for quite some time and we are on the cusp of adding five or six more. What we do is utilize the guidelines from the International Business Incubation Association about what makes a successful incubator and we use those to mentor these organizations. As a result, we have one of the largest incubator networks in the United States right here in northeastern Pennsylvania.

Q. What do you love most about what you do?

A. One of the reasons I have such passion about what we do here at Ben Franklin is that many of our companies are not only creating products and technologies that are financially successful and create jobs that pay taxes, but they’re also solving human problems - global human problems. That’s why I get up in the morning and come to work and I’m happy to do it. There’s nothing like working with companies that are flourishing, jobs are being created, technologies are being created, problems are being solved, and people all over the world are being benefited. And all this is happening right here in the Lehigh Valley.

Connect with Chadwick on LinkedIn

ABOUT OFFIT KURMAN

Offit Kurman is one of the fastest-growing, full-service law firms in the Mid-Atlantic region. With over 120 attorneys offering a comprehensive range of services in virtually every legal category, the firm is well positioned to meet the needs of dynamic businesses and the people who own and operate them. Our eight offices serve individual and corporate clients in the Maryland, Delaware, New Jersey, and Northern Virginia markets, as well as the Washington DC, Baltimore, Philadelphia, and New York City metropolitan areas. At Offit Kurman, we are our clients’ most trusted legal advisors, professionals who help maximize and protect business value and personal wealth. In every interaction, we consistently maintain our clients’ confidence by remaining focused on furthering their objectives and achieving their goals in an efficient manner. Trust, knowledge, confidence—in a partner, that’s perfect.

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