The Neighborhood Engine: Co-Designing Philadelphia’s Local Economy
Global business trends love to obsess over massive, overnight scale. But at the Charles D. Close School of Entrepreneurship, we know a secret: the most resilient innovations don’t start on a global stage, they start on the block. True economic impact begins with a shift in perspective, moving away from abstract corporate theories and focusing squarely on the tangible, neighborhood-level growth of Philadelphia’s small-to-medium enterprises (SMEs).
By treating our city as both a living classroom and a strategic partner, the Close School acts as the connective tissue plugging local founders into regional power networks. For us, Drexel’s growth and Philadelphia’s prosperity aren’t just related; they are inextricably linked.
A Regional Powerhouse
This commitment to local growth naturally extends beyond the city limits to embrace the entire Greater Philadelphia region. To build a truly resilient economy, we must look at the Philly-Jersey corridor as a unified ecosystem rather than a collection of silos. A primary example of this regional synergy is our collaborative participation in the Hult Prize.
Rather than operating in isolation, the Close School partners with Temple University and Rowan University to host a regional qualifier that brings together the best student talent from across the corridor. By working together to prepare teams for this year-long, five-phase global competition, which culminates in a $1M seed funding prize, these three major institutions choose collaboration over competition. This partnership grounds global challenges in local accountability, ensuring our students operate in a connected environment where resources and talent flow freely across the Delaware River.
Empowering Local Innovators Through Economic Equity
The bridge between academic theory and community impact is built through dedicated programming designed to drive economic mobility. One of the primary vehicles for this mission is Dragon Launch Philly, which functions as the Close School’s leg of the Urban Poverty and Business Initiative (UPBI).
By providing high-level resources, actionable support and mentorship to entrepreneurs in underserved urban areas, Dragon Launch Philly directly addresses economic equity. This program doesn’t just offer advice; it integrates local leaders. Financial experts like Danielle Reasoner, owner and CEO of B Balanced CPA, and culture creators like artist Joe Sanutti partner with the Close School. Together, they help students learn valuable business lessons while expanding networks for Philly-based founders to build sustainable, community-aligned business models.
This focus on keeping talent within city limits is furthered by partner efforts like the Create Change Program, a social entrepreneurship “boot camp” developed in collaboration with Chris Baeza, associate program director and assistant teaching professor of fashion industry & merchandising at Drexel’s Westphal College of Media Arts & Design.
Design thinking is meaningless if it stays trapped in a studio. By partnering with the Close School, we are challenging students to take their wildest, most empathetic ideas and give them economic legs. We’re teaching them that sustainable social impact isn't about swooping into a community with a temporary fix—it’s about co-designing wealth and opportunity alongside the people who already live there.
Through this initiative, students develop “intrapreneurial” skills, pitching models for the Impact Innovation Hub that ensure innovation remains a homegrown resource, strengthening the backbone of Philadelphia’s neighborhood economies from the inside out.
Hands-On Solutions Applied Locally
A critical component of this ecosystem is the Close School’s unique approach to student-led consulting. Unlike traditional corporate models that often rely on rigid, top-down frameworks, our students bring a “founder’s mindset” to every engagement. This agile approach offers Philadelphia business owners fresh, innovative strategies while providing students with high-stakes, on-the-ground business experience.
This model comes to life through Associate Teaching Professor Rob Morier’s consulting projects, where students tackle live operational hurdles for local SMEs, and Managing Director of Educational Affairs Chuck Sacco’s due diligence courses, which train students to evaluate ventures with the critical eye of a professional investor.
We don't protect our students in an academic bubble. When they sit down with a local business owner, the stakes are real. They aren't analyzing just case studies from a textbook; they are navigating live operations and real livelihoods. You can't get this kind of deep, hands-on training from a lecture. It forces our students to think like owners before they even have a diploma.
This creates a mutual benefit: local enterprises receive sophisticated strategy work they might otherwise lack access to, and students, such as Mohammad Abuzar Hasan, BSBA accounting, finance and business analytics ’28, who recently consulted for Greyson Clothiers, gain the confidence that only comes from running real operations and proving their skills in the market before they even graduate.
“This class was one of the most hands-on experiences I’ve had at Drexel. Instead of working through hypothetical case studies, our team was actually consulting for Greyson Clothiers, a real venture-backed apparel brand, on how they should scale their business,” Hasan says. “We dug into their financials, their brand positioning against competitors like Lululemon and Alo, and came up with actual growth strategies, like whether they should expand into the collegiate market.”
Knowing that our recommendations could genuinely influence the decisions Greyson's leadership was making made me take the work a lot more seriously than I would have in a standard class project. Professor Morier also regularly brought in industry guests throughout the quarter, and it was through one of those visits that I heard about a microinternship with Cerity Partners, which I later applied to and won. That opportunity was a direct result of this class.
Real-World Anchors and Community Resilience
The practical application of these principles is visible in the work of our faculty and the success of neighborhood-rooted enterprises. Professor Scott Quitel’s North Philly Project serves as a prime example, where students engage with local organizations in the Logan neighborhood to apply entrepreneurial thinking to urban design and community restoration. This work is mirrored by the success of ventures like Small World Seafood, where Robert Amar has demonstrated how neighborhood-rooted enterprises can strengthen local supply chains and improve community resilience.
But resilience also requires capital and intentional spending. Dr. Tia Lyles-Williams and Professor Rob Morier often emphasize that early-stage funding begins with local relationships and a strong regional reputation. This “walk the walk” mentality is reinforced by Allen Riddick in Drexel’s Procurement Office, whose work in supplier diversity ensures that Close School teachings directly influence the university’s strategy to favor local, sustainable businesses. By integrating into the Sustainable Business Network (SBN), we ensure that our students are not just spectators but active participants in the future of Philadelphia business.
At SBN, we believe resilient local economies are built through purposeful connections between people, businesses, and institutions. The Close School is a leader in its investment in students as contributors to the ecosystem of local businesses and entrepreneurs. The Close School’s integration with our network builds bridges between tomorrow's business leaders and the local independent businesses that form the spirit of Philadelphia’s economy.
A Better City Through Cooperation
As the Close School deepens its collaboration with the LeBow College of Business, our shared mission remains to educate the broader community on the depth of this work. We are far more than a place that simply “starts businesses”; we are a hub of future thinkers who prioritize social impact and community health. By strengthening the Philadelphia ecosystem through regional collaboration and hyper-local engagement, we aren’t just building companies, we are making the city more resilient, equitable and prosperous for everyone who calls it home.
