In 2014, the City of Philadelphia took a million dollars and devoted it to streamlining the procurement process. Why? Because how governments buy goods and services from the private sector can be clunky.

Funded by a Bloomberg Philanthropies grant, the FastFWD project became a startup accelerator, a bold idea and a sizable bet on startups as apotential remedy to the city’s problems. Instead of the lowest bidder, why not value the innovation a startup may offer? Maybe it was more risky than going with the sure thing, but the upside was there. And it was supporting local, impact-minded ventures. Plus, it was grant money.

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