Last week, Penn co-launched a free entrepreneurship academy designed to strengthen local small businesses.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The program<\/a>, offered in collaboration with the Community College of Philadelphia, caters to existing West Philadelphia entrepreneurs who aim to achieve an annual revenue between $1 million and $10 million within the next three years. The academy will follow a cohort-based learning style and include 10 educational sessions taught by Penn faculty members and industry experts.\u00a0<\/p>\n Praveen Kosuri, the initiative’s faculty director, wrote in a statement that the goal of the partnership is \u201cto equip entrepreneurs with knowledge\u201d and give them \u201cthe ability to recognize when to seek additional help.\u201d<\/p>\n He wrote that a \u201challmark\u201d of the academy is the Penn faculty who will be teaching the course.<\/p>\n Kosuri \u2014 a University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School Practice Professor of Law and Director of the school’s Entrepreneurship Legal Clinic \u2014 added that this faculty expertise will be \u201csupplemented by real-life entrepreneurs and professional experts who will illuminate the topics and provide a network for our participants to draw from even after the program has ended.\u201d<\/p>\n Get the DP delivered straight to your inbox.<\/p>\n Sign Up<\/a><\/p>\n \u201cSmall businesses create local jobs,\u201d he wrote. \u201cWhat’s been unevenly distributed is access to the strategic advice, legal fluency, capital networks, and business mentoring that turn a small business into a bigger one.\u201d<\/p>\n