Philadelphia was not on my radar screen until regular reader Steve Weiner reached out to tell me about Wharton FinTech, the

“first student-led initiative dedicated to promoting ideas, innovation and investment in FinTech”.

I think this is significant for 3 reasons:

• If you want one word to explain Silicon Valley success it is – Stanford. The wonderful thing about University/College is lots of bright people with time to think (and code).

• Students are Millenials and their changed attitudes explains a lot of of the traction that Fintech ventures are getting.

• An earlier generation of Wharton grads opted straight for the big banks on Wall Street. Look on the Resume of a superstar quant or i-banker and you often saw Wharton. A Fintech career now looks attractive in comparison.

Philadelphia may not rank high when you look at HQ of top Fintech ventures, but many were started by Philadelphia locals, such as: