Temple Entrepreneurship Open House features PHmHEALTH

In its ongoing effort to cast light on its years-long blossoming of startup preparation, Temple University’s Innovation and Entrepreneurship Institute in the Fox School of Business held its 2012 Entrepreneurship Open House Wednesday.

More than 20 — half of 40 registered — student or alumni affiliated startups, technology and not, took to the business school’s modern business school site along the university’s main drag Liacouras Walk.

One in attendance was Michael Mittelman, co-founder of PHmHEALTH, a pre-launch mobile healthcare alert service that won this year’s Temple’s 14th annual Be Your Own Boss Bowl, which boasts $125,000 in cash and prizes. IEI Executive Director  Jaine Lucas, cited Mittelman and team as a standout among those present, one with “real potential.”

At its roots though, the event is part of a continued effort to create a college-themed hub around entrepreneurship, something that has been strong in University City for years.

At the event, students, faculty and alumni with a strong interest in entrepreneurship exchanged names, phone numbers and emails, something that Amy Yom, the associate director of IEI, said is essential.

“It takes a village to build a business,” Yom said. “No one’s really successful on their own…pretty much any business that grows to any size is going to need different people involved. It’s going to need different people involved, whether its an accounting person, marketing person, finance person, so that’s why this event appeals to not only entrepreneurship majors, but to everyone that’s kind of interested in start ups – because they all have something to share.”

Not focusing only on technology, another startup represented included Temple alumna Rachel Furman, who had her startup featured on MTV’s hit show Made: #DreamBigger. Furman, of LoudMouth Beauty, displayed her natural, scented and brightly-colored lip gloss at yesterday’s event.

The event ended with a raffle, giving away entrepreneur-inspired books and software to a few lucky winners.

This report was done in partnership with Temple University’s Philadelphia Neighborhoods program, the capstone class for the Temple’s Department of Journalism. Additional reporting was provided by editor Christopher Wink and reporter Juliana Reyes.