That was in 1993, after one failed business and several brief stints in the corporate world. Today, Ellen E. Thompson, a Wharton School graduate who grew up in Scotch Plains, N.J., runs one of the nation's fastest-growing software firms. Though she declined to give her net worth, her firm, Know It All Inc., has 40 employees. Locust St. She said the city offers certain operational advantages. One is, and nobody advertises this, the cost of doing business in the city can be less than in the suburbs.
Space is available.
We're a software company. We've got people walking around in their socks all day. Thompson herself lives on Juniper Street. For now, she said, she has no plans to leave the city. In fact, she's thinking about buying her own building and is looking at sites in Old City and near Chinatown.