These CSC Station officemates are partnering for max social impact

As Wilmington’s entrepreneurship ecosystem continues to evolve along the Riverfront, a shared office space on CSC Station’s second floor is now home base to a partnership between PMG Consulting and Blue Blaze Associates.

Among their strategic goals: social impact and resource sharing.

The two women-owned businesses have been working in Delaware and the surrounding region for years now: Blue Blaze, founded by Sandy Taccone and Wendy Scott, is an award-winning creative agency with clients that include Versogen and BrightBloom Centers. PMG is a consulting firm owned by Peggy Geisler that specializes in strategic planning, ecosystem analysis, and social impact projects such as Wilmington Alliance’s Second Chance Initiative and the Pete du Pont Freedom Foundation’s E3 (Equitable Entrepreneurial Ecosystem).

They moved in similar circles and worked on some entrepreneurial initiatives together. But it wasn’t until an office space opened up at the new CSC Station— complete with a Christina River-facing conference room — that the idea of teaming up arose.

Geisler had a small space at CSC Station and was looking to move into something a little larger. When CSC VP Scott Malfitano showed her the second floor office and meeting room, she knew it was too large and too costly for PMG alone. But Blue Blaze, she knew, was looking for a space for its all-virtual team to connect on coordinated IRL days.

She called Taccone and Scott and pitched her idea for a shared space where they could collaborate.

They were in.

“I don’t think it was 24 hours,” Geisler told Technical.ly.

PMG and Blue Blaze’s CSC Station office. (Photo by Holly Quinn)

The two companies have not merged — they each continue independently, with the new space serving as each one’s hybrid office. But as partners, their relationship is symbiotic: Clients of both firms now have expanded access to top talent in creative and consulting.

“Our teams really recognize how we could support one another and refer clients, because sometimes we’ll be working on projects can really benefit from Peggy’s team and what they bring, and vice versa,” Taccone said. “And there are there are projects that we are thinking about now, where we can come in together, unified.”

It’s good news, not just for their traditional clients, but for participants in social impact initiatives like E3.

“A lot of [consultees] have never really taken a deep dive on their market, and that is just not my wheelhouse,” Geisler said. “Blue Blaze’s branding is superior. They do this intersection of the individual and what they’re trying to do to really understand and capture that, which is meaningful. … And then we come along and we think about how they can pull in collaborative partners. We figured that there may be a sweet spot to do more of that.”

Part of the goal is to help entrepreneurship grow in Delaware. By sharing resources and connections, they also see the potential for growth on a national scale — even in this economy, when what can now be called traditional startup culture, inspired by Silicon Valley and dominated by white men, is crashing.

PMG and Blue Blaze are both led by women, each with over 20 years in business. They make it clear that they support women and underrepresented entrepreneurs, without a focus on brutal competitiveness and getting the most they can for themselves.

“What is success?” Taccone said. “Is it always about raking in the most money? Doing something that makes a difference? Is it something that you feel good about, that your team feels good about? We work with nonprofits. We work with big fortune 100 companies. And we’re starting to become a little more selective about what we do. If it’s a client that’s just not a good culture fit, we don’t want them to struggle and we don’t want to struggle.”

Part of the companies’ growth will include bringing more people on to the teams.

“If there are folks out there that are looking for a change, please get in touch,” Taccone said.