By Rosland Briggs -- Philadelphia Inquirer, November 6, 1998

For an hour Tuesday night, 22 women mingled at a center city law office nibbled appetizers and talked shop. Then they sat down to business: sharing information that the high-tech companies they own could use.

By the end of the meeting, sponsored by law firm Ballard Spahr Andrews and Ingersoll, they had learned about a government program that offers companies free use of university faculty to do research. They had learned about two venture capital funds for women owned businesses. They had learned that even small investments in their business, such as $500,000, can help them win acceptance in the financial world.

It was another successful meeting of the Women's Investment Network (WIN).
WIN -- at first called Female Founders and Executive Officers -- was founded in June 1996. It consisted then of seven women who had started their own businesses or had become top executives of companies.

Today, it has 60 members (including 5 men) and 11 sponsor companies. In September, it hired its first executive director Mary Ann Hearn. Last month, there of the group's founders went to Washington to share the concept of WIN during the Women's Economic Summit. WIN's budget comes from $75 per member annual dues and in contributions from corporate sponsors such as First Union Bank, Citibank, and Duane Morris & Heckscher, the Philadelphia law firm.

The network is aimed at women who own high-growth businesses -- in biotechnology and computer systems, for example. It offers them seminars on such topics as strategic partnerships and investing in entrepreneurial businesses, as well as a "forum" in which business owners and potential investors can exchange information. WIN does not match companies and investors said Iris Newman, a founder and one of four board members.   
                  
"I believe that you have a lot of educating to do with women on the whole gamut of investing." Newman said. "When I started years ago, it was rare to find women who could help one another. Everyone was struggling to get up there. We're starting to get to the point where we can network one another the way men do."

"I hope one day we can look at WIN and say it has been instrumental in giving women the tools to go out and raise those big dollars." she said. "It's about getting the knowledge and experience from the group and taking it back."

The organization does not track investments made through its programs.

Last month, WIN members during an equity discussion at the Women's Economical Summit cosponsored by the National Women's Business Council. The group set out to tout WIN as a model for other organizations, but the summit decided that other steps had to be taken first.

"We're trying to be realistic about what we can do. We have to take one step at a time, starting with a national consortium to link companies with potential investors", said Marsha Firestone, executive director of the summit. 

"But WIN has already started working with the Center for Women and Enterprise in Boston to assist with an educational program for its new Venture Center", said Anne-Marie Corner, president and chief executive officer of Biosyn Inc. in University City and a founding member of WIN. She said the national consortium would help identify other places where the WIN model could be applied.

WIN's next step is to become an outlet for wealthy women seeking investment opportunities.

"There are more women making better salaries and looking to invest their money," said Hearn, WIN's executive director. "My husband got his funding over a game of golf. It's an unrealized opportunity that women have not figured out how to network."

Before Hearn arrived, the organization's management was split between Corner; Newman, who is president and chief executive of Veritas Medical Services Inc.: Denise Devine, another founder and chief executive of Devine Foods Inc.: and Meryle Melincoff, director of business development at the Wistar Institute. Their companies are all based in Philadelphia.

"It's grown to the point where the four of us can't pass hot potato between us anymore," Newman said.

Devine already had used an informal "girls network" to raise money for her company, which produces whole-grain products for use in beverages and foods. After receiving start-up capitol from the Ben Franklin Technology Center, she sought investments from other professional women.

"The whole purpose of the group is to focus attention on the fact that there are actual women involved who are venture-capital fundable," Devine said.