In the business world, it’s not about how much you know, but who you know. The Drexel Entrepreneurs live by this motto, as they resurrected their outreach campaign, teaming up with a group of entrepreneurs, investors, stakeholders and members of the Philadelphia community.
The relationship started with DreamIT Ventures co-founder Steven Welch, who introduced me to Blake Jennelle, the founder and CEO of Anthillz, an on-demand outsourcing resource for companies in the Philadelphia region, and the founder of Philly Startup Leaders. Always looking to meet new people, I reached out to Blake, and he invited us to a networking event on a Wednesday night in Rittenhouse Square.

After the networking event, the next morning was an Entrepreneurial Breakfast Series event, sponsored by the Baiada Center, with one of the panelists being Blake Jennelle, and most of the audience being part of the Philly Startup Leaders. After listening in and meeting a variety of tremendous people, we networked for an additional hour, meeting new people such as David Bookspan, Owner of DreamIT Ventures, and Anthony Mari, founder of CasinoJobs.com.

Collaboration amongst entrepreneurs is the one common thread we all share. In May, we are looking to host a large dinner event, entitled “Philadelphia: The Next Entrepreneurial Hotspot”, an event dedicated to establishing the roles of entrepreneurs in Philadelphia, the current state of Philadelphia, and how we relate to other entrepreneurial cities, such as Silicon Valley. Leading up to this event, the DEA will be sponsoring and cosponsoring a variety of events, including bi-weekly speaking engagements, Entrepreneurial Entrees – lunch with an entrepreneur, and even a summer internship fair.

The long term goal of such collaboration is to connect the student population to a different demographics of job and internship opportunities, specifically those present in new startups and growing companies. As the leader of technology in Philadelphia, Drexel’s students are a great choice for interns and future venture partners.As an organization, our goal is to inspire students to become entrepreneurs and to connect them with opportunities within the business community. What it comes down to is everyone could be entrepreneurial, and the possibilities are endless.

For more information on events involving the Philly Startup Leaders at Drexel, contact Shams Naim, DEA President, at This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it .