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This was analogous to the state of the startup community in Boulder post‐9/11. Everyone took a giant step back and reevaluated how they were spending their time, what they were spending it on, and why they were spending it that way. Financings came to a halt, along with the creation of new startups. Entrepreneurs and the startup community turned inward and paused.
“give before you get” (now called #GiveFirst)
Saxenian persuasively argues that a culture of openness and information exchange fueled Silicon Valley's ascent over Route 128.
Entrepreneurs must lead the startup community.
The leaders must have a long‐term commitment.
The startup community must be inclusive of anyone who wants t...
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The startup community must have continual activities that engage the entire...
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If you aspire to be a leader of your startup community, but you aren't willing to live where you are for the next 20 years and work hard at leading the startup community for that period of time, ask yourself what your real motivation is for being a leader. Although you can have impact for a shorter period of time, it'll take at least this level of commitment from some leaders to sustain a vibrant startup community.
Building a startup community is not a zero‐sum game in which there are winners and losers; if everyone engages, they and the entire community can all be winners.
Startup communities must have regular activities that engage the entire entrepreneurial stack. This includes first‐time entrepreneurs, experienced entrepreneurs, aspiring entrepreneurs, investors, mentors, employees of startups, service providers to startups, and anyone else who wants to be involved.
Feeders are the organizations and people working for these organizations who are involved in a startup community. This includes government, universities, investors, mentors, service providers, and large companies.
One of the classic problems is that some investors view themselves as gatekeepers to a startup community. This is especially true at the early stages where investors, especially local VC firms, position themselves as the first source of smart capital.
In the context of the long‐term development of a startup community, this investor arrogance can be destructive if it polarizes an already fragile relationship between the entrepreneur and investor.
Fundamentally, a VC can't declare herself a leader of a startup community; she must earn this over a long period of time through deep commitment, effort, and involvement in the startup community.
The most powerful mentor/mentee relationships are those in which the mentor and the mentee ultimately become peers. In many situations, the mentor often learns more from the mentee. At some moment in time, they become mentors to each other.
The three most powerful things large companies can do for the startup community are: (1) provide a convening space and resources for local startups; (2) create programs to encourage startups to build companies that enhance the large company's ecosystem; and (3) be customers of local startups.
Always remember the mindset of #GiveFirst and challenge anyone who wants to engage in the startup community to demonstrate this with their actions.
When someone new shows up at the gates of a startup community, the leaders should do a few things. First, they should make sure the person knows what activities exist to quickly get them involved. Although a leader can occasionally chaperone a person around, it's more powerful to get the community to work by building a culture in which everyone in the community is willing to spend time with someone new in town.
The best startup community leaders are constantly nurturing new leaders, handing off existing activities to them, and then taking on new responsibilities and starting up new sets of activities.
The entrepreneurs aren't shamed when they fail; it's quite the opposite reaction. They immediately are welcomed as advisors for other companies, entrepreneurs in residence for VC firms, and mentors or executives in residence for accelerators like Techstars.
And they should be mentoring each other because the best mentor‐mentee relationships come when the relationship turns into a peer relationship.
To be successful, embrace failure as part of the process.
Next, the leaders of the startup community should simply ignore the patriarchs.
Over and over I hear one thing from entrepreneurs: “There is not enough capital here.” My message is the same for entrepreneurs—let it go. There will always be an imbalance between supply of capital and demand for capital. The whole idea of “enough capital” is nonsensical, and complaining about it doesn't actually impact it.
In contrast, the best startup communities operate as networks: a broad, loosely affiliated set of leaders and organizations, which are working in parallel on a variety of different initiatives. There is rarely a leader of a network, just nodes that are interconnected.
Entrepreneurs live in networks. Government lives in a hierarchy.
Yet an offering that is experiential, hands‐on, and catalytic for student involvement in startups is more than worth the cost of its imperfections.
