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Touring businesses, Meehan heeds angel investors

Republican Pat Meehan, left, listens as businessman Steven Welch, right, moderates a roundtable of entrepreneurs and angel investors Tuesday in Philadelphia.

PHILADELPHIA—Republican Pat Meehan met Tuesday with some of the region’s best and brightest entrepreneurs Tuesday, using a roundtable discussion to soak up some advice about how the federal government can best foster an atmosphere that will lead to business development and job creation.

Meehan’s appearance at the University City Science Center here was one of several business tours the 7th District hopeful has undertaken in recent weeks. The campaign has mixed forum-style discussions with more traditional campaign business visits, with plans for one event almost every week.

“By listening to people who have actually created jobs and viable businesses, you learn from their experiences,” Meehan told pa2010.com. “It’s inspiring because it makes you believe that there is a way.”

Tuesday’s event was organized by Steven Welch, a wealthy businessman and informal Meehan adviser who was briefly seeking the GOP nomination in the 7th District himself before Meehan decided to run. Welch is currently a managing partner at DreamIt Ventures, a business accelerator for technology start-ups. For about an hour Tuesday, Meehan listened to more than a dozen entrepreneurs, angel investors and other business leaders assembled by Welch, including Science Center president Stephen Tang.

“The problem in America is that we’ve sent too many people to Washington who don’t understand these issues,” Welch said later. “Here we have a cross-section of entrepreneurs and investors speaking to issues that affect this community and create jobs.”

Meehan did much more listening than talking during the roundtable, leaning forward and taking notes as he asked, among other things, about economic policies that would help transition fledgling businesses from incubation to self-sufficiency; immigration policies that would provide more skilled workers; and taxation incentives that would attract more so-called angel investors to fund promising start-ups. At one point, participants had to pick from a list of 10 possible policy prescriptions to encourage economic development.

“It’s very apparent from the start that since I’m the only one wearing a tie, that you guys are doing something right,” Meehan said with a smile at the outset.

Sentiments in the small Science Center conference room ran the gamut from a disdain for the uncertainty surrounding capital gains tax rates to a feeling that the Small Business Administration has done little for technology and life sciences start-ups.

“What do you want from the federal government?” Meehan asked simply at one point.

Meehan, a former U.S. Attorney, faces state Representative Bryan Lentz (D-Delaware) in one of the country’s most competitive House races.

“Fundamentally,” Meehan said, “it’s about what we can do here to create jobs that are sustainable. There’s obviously a role for government, but much of that is just to be supportive without picking winners and losers.”

See video of Meehan’s opening remarks to the group below.

June 22, 2010 at 5:13 pm

--Dan Hirschhorn

Tags: Bryan Lentz, PA-7, Pat Meehan

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