Startup Communities: Building an Entrepreneurial Ecosystem in Your City

How to build regional entrepreneurial communities has just gotten it's first "here's how to do it" book. Brad Feld's new book Startup Communities joins the two other "must reads," (Regional Advantage and Startup Nation) and one "must view" (The Secret History of Silicon Valley) for anyone trying to understand the components of a regional cluster.There's probably no one more qualified to write this book then Brad Feld (startup founder, co founder of two VC firms - Mobius and Foundry, and founder of TechStars.)Leaders and FeedersFeld's thesis is that unlike the common wisdom, it is entrepreneurs that lead a startup community while everyone else feeds the community.Feld describes the characteristics of those who want to be regional Entrepreneurial Leaders; they need to be committed to their region for the long term (20+ years), the community and its leaders must be inclusive, play a non-zero sum game, be mentorship-driven and be comfortable experimenting and failing fast.Feeders include the government, universities, investors, mentors, service providers and large companies. He points out that some of these, government, universities and investors think of themselves as the leaders and Feld's thesis is that we've gotten it wrong for decades.This is a huge insight, a big idea and a fresh way to view and build a regional ecosystem in the 21st century. It may even be right.Activities and EventsOne of the most surprising (to me) was the observation that a regional community must have continual activities and events to engage all participants. Using Boulder Colorado as an example, (Feld's home town) this small entrepreneurial community runs office hours, Boulder Denver Tech Meetup, Boulder Open Coffee Club, Ignite Boulder, Boulder Beta, Boulder Startup Digest, Startup Weekend events, CU New Venture Challenge, Boulder Startup Week, Young Entrepreneurs Organization and the Entrepreneurs Foundation of Colorado. For a city of 100,000 (in a metro area of just 300,000 people) the list of activities/events in Boulder takes your breath away. They are not run by the government or any single organization. These are all grassroots efforts by entrepreneurial leaders. These events are a good proxy for the health and depth of a startup community.Incubators and AcceleratorsOne of the best definitions in the book is when Feld articulates the difference between an incubator and an accelerator. An incubator provides year-round physical space, infrastructure and advice in exchange for a fee (often in equity.) They are typically non-profit, attached to a university (or in some locations a local government.) For some incubators, entrepreneurs can stay as long as they want. There is no guaranteed funding. In contrast, an accelerator has cohorts going through a program of a set length, with funding typically provided at the end.Feld describes TechStars (founded in 2006 with David Cohen) as an example of how to build a regional accelerator. In contrast to other accelerators TechStars is mentor-driven, with a profound belief that entrepreneurs learn best from other entrepreneurs. It's a 90-day program with a clear beginning and end for each cohort. TechStars selection criteria is to first focus on picking the right team then the market. They invest $118,000 ($18k seed funding + $100K convertible note) in 10 teams per region.Role of UniversitiesTo the entrepreneurial community Stanford and MIT are held up as models for "outward-facing" research universities. They act as community catalysts, as a magnet for great entrepreneurial talent for the region, and as teachers and then a pipeline for talent back into the region. In addition their research offers a continual stream of new technologies to be commercialized.Feld's observation is that that these schools are exceptions that are hard to duplicate. In most universities entrepreneurial engagement is not rewarded, there's a lack of resources for entrepreneurial programs and cross-campus collaboration is not in the DNA of most universities.Rather than thinking of the local university as the leader, Feld posits a more effective approach is to use the local college or university as a resource and a feeder of entrepreneurial students to the local entrepreneurial community. He uses Colorado University' Boulder as an example of of a regional university being as inclusive as possible with courses, programs and activities.Finally, he suggests engaging alumni for something other than fundraising - bringing back to the campus, having them mentor top students and celebrating their successes.Role of GovernmentFeld is not a big fan of top-down government driven clusters. He contrasts the disconnect between entrepreneurs and government. Entrepreneurs are painfully self-aware but governments are chronically not self-aware. This makes government leaders out of touch on how the dynamics of startups really work. Governments have a top-down command and control hierarchy, while entrepreneurs work in a bottoms-up networked world. Governments tend to focus on macro metrics of economic development policy while entrepreneurs talk about lean, startups, people and product. Entrepreneurs talk about immediate action while government conversations about policy do not have urgency. Startups aim for immediate impact, while governments want to control. Startup communities are networked and don't lend themselves to a command and control system.Community CultureFeld believes that the Community Culture, how individuals interact and behave to each other, is a key part of defining and entrepreneurial community. His list of cultural attributes is an integral part of Silicon Valley. Give before you get, (in the valley we call this the "pay it forward" culture.) Everyone is a mentor, so share your knowledge and give back. Embrace weirdness, describes a community culture that accepts differences. (Starting post World War II the San Francisco bay area became a magnet for those wanting to embrace alternate lifestyles. For personal lifestyles people headed to San Francisco. For alternate business lifestyles they went 35 miles south to Silicon Valley.)I was surprised to note that the biggest cultural meme of Silicon Valley didn't make his Community Culture chapter - failure equals experience.Broadening the Startup CommunityFeld closes by highlighting some of the issues faced by a startup community in Boulder. The one he calls Parallel Universes notes that there may be industry specific (biotech, clean tech etc.) startup communities sitting side-by-side and not interacting with each other.He then busts the myths clusters tell themselves; "lets be like Silicon Valley" and the "there's not enough capital here."QuibblesThere's data that that seems to indicate a few of Feld's claims about about the limited role of venture, universities and governments might be overly broad (but doesn't diminish his observation that they're feeders not leaders.) In addition, while Silicon Valley was a series of happy accidents, other national clusters have extracted its lessons and successfully engineered on top of those heuristics. And while I might have misread Feld's premise about local venture capital, but it seems to be, "if there isn't a robust venture capital in your region it's because there isn't a vibrant entrepreneurial community with great startups. As venture capital exists to service startup when great startups are built investors will show up." Wow.Finally, local government top-down initiatives are not the only way governments can incentivize entrepreneurial efforts. Some like the National Science Foundation Innovation Corps have had a big bang for little bucks.SummaryEntrepreneurship is rising in almost every major city and region around the world. I host at least one region a week at the ranch and each of these regions are looking for a roadmap. Startup Communities is it. It's a strategic, groundbreaking book and a major addition to what was missing in the discussion of how to build a regional cluster. I'm going to be quoting from it liberally, stealing from it often, and handing it out to my visitors.Buy it.Lessons Learned- Entrepreneurs lead a startup community while everyone else feeds the community- Feeders include the government, universities, investors, mentors, service providers and large companies- Continual activities and events are essential to engage all participants- Top-down government-driven clusters are an oxymoronBuilding a regional entrepreneurial culture is critical

I found Brad's book as an extraordinary framework and tool in which to work from in building a startup community. He even took the time to meet with some entrepreneurs from our community to help and discuss the book in detail. Below is the excerpt on what we learned:"We had the fantastic opportunity to meet with Brad Feld last Friday in Boulder. The agenda was focused on startup communities and more specifically how we could apply the concepts in his book to the Loveland/Fort Collins ecosystem.Ben West, Marshall Smith, and I made the drive over to Boulder and had an opportunity to sit down and have breakfast with Brad and ask him some questions. My takeaways are below:On MeetupsBrad spoke about the success of the various organic meetups that occur in Boulder. He talked about the beginning of the Boulder Open Coffee Meet Up at Atlas Purveyors. A key point he made is to be consistent about having the meetings every month. He said it is easy to get discouraged when there are only a small group of people starting out at first.He advised that the focus should be on the quality of the meetup and the value that each participant is getting from the event. Furthermore, to grow the meet up he said to have each participant invite one friend each month. Without consistency of meetups, then this aspect of the ecosystem will never grow and thrive.Our Action Items:1. Ben West is likely going to lead a monthly Javascript Meetup and get assistance from Marshall. The plan would be to hold the meetings at DazBog, The Coffee Tree, and possibly at The Armory in Loveland.2. I plan to lead through my work with EmployTown a "Skills Bootcamp" once a month to hold discussions on the key skills that job seekers and top performers need to have.3. Hold "Office Hours" at either DazBog, The Coffee Tree, or The Armory in Loveland once a month to help local job seekers, employees, or managers with specific questions that they may have.4. Partner with local business leaders to offer a "Open Forum" for questions and answers on a variety of interesting topics that are happening locally.On Finding Space For The Startup CommunityWe were concerned about finding the space to hold meetups and other informal events. Brad said this is actually easy. He said to begin hanging out at local coffee shops. As more entrepreneurs and people begin hanging out, the coffee shops will get the benefit of increased business with community members buying food and coffee. As the meet ups increase in size, a smart coffee shop will gladly welcome the trickle down in business to them. For larger events, he said adopt local businesses products as the preferred products of the startup community and they will have to notice. He mentioned his adage--"Give before you get".Our Action Items1. Otterbox will be the official technology case for the Fort Collins/Loveland Startup Community.2. Grimm Brothers and New Belgium Beer will be the beer of choice and served at events in the Fort Collins/Loveland Startup Community.3. We will continue this same pattern for other businesses in the startup community as needed and applicable.On Relationships with Other Entrepreneurs/Members of the Startup CommunityBrad laid out numerous case studies as reasons to avoid transactional relationships. He advised to give your time, money (when you can), and effort without any kind of expectations. Conversely, if you can't do something the other community members should hold no grudge against that person. That way there is not a culture of indebtedness. ultimately, this will lead to the strengthening of the community and the entrepreneurial fabric in the community.Additionally, he differentiated neighborhoods and cities. He encouraged us to understand this difference. I was re-assured by this since many of the creative people that we currently know work and live near the Downtown Loveland district.Our Action Items1. Marshall, Ben, and I are currently helping each other with our various projects. Marshall and Ben are already introducing me to their contacts. We will continue to build on this to build our network of entrepreneurs and others that want to be leaders/participants in the startup community in Fort Collins/Loveland.2. Support over community members to give them the best chance at success. Over the long term, more startups and businesses will have success and that will bring in more customers, more employees, and grow the startup community and the entire ecosystem will reap the benefits of this. Eventually, there will be anchor startups that can be pillars to host events and provide further guidance to the rest of the startup community.3. Work harder than ever at supporting other startups in the community as much as our own.These are some of my initial thoughts. I hope to expand in a few weeks on other ideas that I have. Of course, I welcome feedback and suggestions from the Fort Collins/Loveland community and from other communities regarding what has worked and what has stalled.Finally, we would like to extend a huge thank you for Brad Feld for taking time to talk to us and being so gracious in sharing his knowledge and insight in order to help propel us and our startup community."

Start Up Communities arrived today. It was a great read with so many relevant lessons for those wishing to stimulate start ups! In the UK now as everywhere around the world, there is a lot of excitement about how to develop and manage a start up community. Brad Feld's lessons from the Boulder thesis and the myths to challenge are so aposite. A great read for any policy maker or individual looking for a quick start guide to start up communities. J

Very easy read but the content could have gone into a bit more detail. Nothing in the book is new, but does help you gather some thoughts.

Great book for anyone who's keen to be a part of the startup community.

easy to read and with valuable information for those that intend to be a part of the team creating an entrepreneurial ecosystem in your city/region!

Excellent job in making it. I really enjoyed reading it. Some very insightful and useful points on how to create startup communities