A national top-10 venture capital firm driving technology innovation and growth in Pennsylvania

The Ben Franklin Technology Partners of Northeastern Pennsylvania (BFTP/NEP) is a technology-based economic development organization that creates and retains highly paid, sustainable jobs by linking companies with experts, universities, funding, and other resources to help them prosper through innovation. BFTP/NEP’s strategy encompasses three key areas:

1. developing early-stage technology-oriented companies,

2. helping established manufacturers creatively apply new technology and business practices to achieve industry leadership, and

3. promoting an innovative community-wide infrastructure that fosters a favorable business environment for high-growth companies.

An initiative of the Pennsylvania Department of Community and Economic Development and funded by the Ben Franklin Technology Development Authority, BFTP/NEP is part of a four-member statewide Ben Franklin network that has returned $3.60 to the state treasury for every $1.00 invested in the program. Pennsylvania’s Ben Franklin Technology Partners (BFTP) have helped client companies create and retain thousands of good jobs, launch hundreds of new companies, and invent products and processes that improve the human condition. In light of its success, BFTP has earned awards for excellence in technology-based economic development from the International Economic Development Council and the U.S. Department of Commerce/Economic Development Administration, and recognition as one of the top 10 seed venture capital firms in the nation as ranked by Entrepreneur magazine.

Rolf Schlake spoke with citybizlist publisher Edwin Warfield for this interview.

EDWIN WARFIELD: Tell us about Applied Separations.

ROLF SCHLAKE: We do a number of things. We’ve moved in and out of couple of different businesses, different technologies. They’ve morphed into a variety of things, but one of the things that we’re keenly involved in, and have been for the last 20 years, is a technology called supercritical fluids. It’s most easily described, in layman’s terms, as a state of matter, but not really quite. We consider states of matter like liquid, solid, and gas. Well, somewhere between a liquid and a gas is this phenomenon called a supercritical fluid. It’s not really quite an additional state of matter, but it’s got the properties of a liquid and the properties of a gas, and that makes it very useful for a wide range of applications.

Q. What is unique about what you do?

We tend to go along doing a lot of research in building systems that go through a wide variety of applications. We’ve been called on by NASA, DARPA, the major pharmaceutical companies, major food companies, and major medical companies to go ahead and do a variety of applications using supercritical fluids—and then building systems for them down the road.

Q. Describe your experience with Ben Franklin Technology Partners.

A. We had a very good experience - an incredibly good experience - with Ben Franklin when we started here at the incubator. I think one of the big advantages is the fact that you’re located on a university campus. Lehigh, as a consequence of its background in the sciences and engineering, was a very good asset to draw on, although we did, in fact, get investment from Ben Franklin in these areas that allowed us to go ahead and draw in some of the keen, forward-thinking minds, scientifically understanding minds of using the incubator here. We’ve got as many as 70 to 100 people at times, although we’ve sold off some of the individual product lines to a variety of different companies that have taken it onto the next step. We kind of consider ourselves to be one of these companies that have taken a technology and brought it to market, and then when it reaches a certain point we feel that there are others that can carry it on to a more promising future.

Connect with Rolf on LinkedIn

ABOUT OFFIT KURMAN

Offit Kurman is one of the fastest-growing, full-service law firms in the Mid-Atlantic region. With over 120 attorneys offering a comprehensive range of services in virtually every legal category, the firm is well positioned to meet the needs of dynamic businesses and the people who own and operate them. Our eight offices serve individual and corporate clients in the Maryland, Delaware, New Jersey, and Northern Virginia markets, as well as the Washington DC, Baltimore, Philadelphia, and New York City metropolitan areas. At Offit Kurman, we are our clients’ most trusted legal advisors, professionals who help maximize and protect business value and personal wealth. In every interaction, we consistently maintain our clients’ confidence by remaining focused on furthering their objectives and achieving their goals in an efficient manner. Trust, knowledge, confidence—in a partner, that’s perfect.

You can connect with Offit Kurman via our Blog, Facebook, Twitter, Google+, YouTube, and LinkedIn pages. You can also sign up to receive Law Matters, Offit Kurman’s monthly newsletter covering a diverse selection of legal and corporate thought leadership content.

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Edwin Warfield, CEO of citybizlist, conducts the CEO Interviews.

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