I'm a Philly native, and participated in the DreamIt program this summer. -- vuzit.com. In 2005/2006, it seemed that everytime Paul Graham wanted to bash a cit

I'm a Philly native, and participated in the DreamIt program this summer. -- vuzit.com. In 2005/2006, it seemed that everytime Paul Graham wanted to bash a city's startup culture Philadelphia got thrown in there. I'm hoping that perception is changing ... http://www.paulgraham.com/siliconvalley.html http://www.paulgraham.com/siliconvalley.html http://www.paulgraham.com/startupfunding.html http://www.paulgraham.com/startupfunding.html Philly is one of the largest startup hubs in the world for bio-tech and life sciences. Philly might not be known for its tech scene as much, or very early stage investing, so DreamIt has been a big step for the ecosystem here. Philosophy on investing seems different than what I see in Silicon Valley and NYC. There is money here: Entrepreneur Magazine's VC 100 in August 2008 listed Ben Franklin Technology Partners of Southeastern PA as tied for 3rd in the country as far as #deals done. Josh Kopelman and Chris Fralic from First Round Capital are here too. There is community here: Phillystartupleaders.org is a group of 250+ mostly tech entrepreneurs and VCs that meet monthly for a happy hour event. Indyhall.org is one of the most successful coworking spaces out there. IgnitePhilly was a huge success, with another one planned in the next couple of weeks. phillytechhq.com is a blog aggregator of all the tech companies here (big + small). The "user group" community is pretty huge too: http://phillygroups.org/community/GroupDirectory http://phillygroups.org/community/GroupDirectory There are alot of universities that provide access to talent: Drexel, Penn/Wharton, Temple/Fox, etc. Philly also has an awesome combination of art and American history that make it a wonderful place to live. I hope this clears up some perceptions about Philly!