Startup Communities(emphasis on communities)

Norris Krueger, PhDOctober/November 2013

WEF SingaporeNorris.Krueger[at]gmail.com ; @entrep_thinking

G+, LinkedIn, Facebook

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…before we get started….

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Brainstorm #1: Are We There Yet?

• Individually: Tell us what is the one thing that tells you that your community is becoming more entrepreneurial? (in a good way)

• NOT more businesses, etc.

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What does GEM say?

Top two predictors of TEA: Human Capital, Social Capital• 1.EHC: Personal preparedness to venture

[“cognitive/cultural”]– Knows an entrepreneur – Mindset, not knowledge/skills per se

• (experiential >> formal ??)

• 2. ESC: Supportive social norms [“normative”]– What would your mother think?

• #3? EPC: Supportive business climate [“regulatory”] [www.DoingBusiness.org]

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SWAG at the key?

• A healthy entrepreneurial community is one that offers multiple opportunities for entrepreneurial learning – deep experiential learning.

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Brainstorm #2

• Individually, write down:– One thing that YOU can do to improve EHC

a. Foster deep entrepreneurial thinking across community? b. Inspire next generation of ideas?

– One thing that YOU can do to improve ESC a. Revitalize local communities/organizations?b. Enhance entire ecosystem?

• Then… huddle up! Form teams and brainstorm how you can help each other on these

• And… how WEF/JWEF can help!Tweet us! #wentfr

• Quick Overview• A Good Place to Start: Feld's Four• What Are We Actually Trying to Do?: DEFRAG

model• Stakeholders?• Are We There Yet?: Metrics • So How Do We Get Started?: Best Practices

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How can we use “defragging”?

• Micro– Who do we want to connect with?– Who should we?

• Macro– How do we help grow/defrag our community?

• Psycho? – World domination! LOL but…

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What can go wrong?• “8 maps”• Idaho’s sordid saga… in 3 verses

• Jim Collins was right…

• You may not like what you learn

• P.S. this is NOT easy(and not for amateurs?)

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What can go right?

We can understand our ecosystem. Really.

We can identify the key leverage points.Who should we help?

We can build trust.

Perfect role for WEF!

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So…..What do we know about entrepreneurial ecosystems?

• Judging by definitional issues…– Not much

• Potentially depressing– Etzkowitz quotes– Universities more often barriers– Institutions more often constraints– “Amateur Night” in general

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Ecosystem 101?

• Misunderstood? (CW? Non-PC?)• Messy

– Dynamic– Interconnected– Filled with…. Humans– Network: neither/both hierarchies, organic

• Flows of resources: Gaps (and, um, non-gaps)• Feld’s Top Two?

– Bottom-up– Inclusive

• Bottom-up AND Comprehensive (how??)• Key Leverage Points: Gatekeepers vs Connectors

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Good News?

• Practitioners FAR ahead of academics, politicos• But research supports the big 2.5 and social nature

• Think “community” or “system”• Not hierarchical, but networked• Bottom-up/supervenient phenomena• (we will see models from Stephenson, Mayer, et al.)

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Feld’s Four?

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Brad Feld (book; also slideshare)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NlFqc8gSm18

• 1. Bottom-up, entrepreneur-led

• 2. Inclusive

• 3. Rallying Point(s)

• 4. Long-term perspectiveTweet us! #wentfr

Brad Feld #1• 1. Bottom-up, entrepreneur-led

– Not institutions– “Leaders and feeders”

• bfd1. Is the defragging of the ecosystem being led by people who actually understand entrepreneurs? Especially by the entrepreneurial community itself?

• (Or are there self-styled experts who don’t ‘get’ the entrepreneurial mindset? The most frequent version of this is bringing together the key institutions, the ‘power players’ –are the power players helping the entrepreneurial community implement their vision or are they dictating it, even inadvertently?)

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Personal Exercise #1

• Build your local “A-Team” (3 C’s)– Competent. – Connected. – Collegial.– (Conscientious?)

Who are the ‘A-Team’ in your ecosystem?who do you already know?who would you LOVE to know?

Who are the power players who fail this test?Tweet us! #wentfr

Brad Feld #2

• 2. Inclusive– “rising tide” policies– But also “T-shaped” (broad and wide)

bfd2. Are the efforts inclusive? Is there something for different types of entrepreneurs? In different industries (high tech and low tech), in different locations (urban and rural) in different strategies (high-growth and low-growth), in different life cycle stages, even for small, medium and large firms? (We need entrepreneurial thinking to blossom all through the ecosystem.) Nonprofits/social ventures? Public sector? (Well, we can dream, eh?)

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Personal exercise #2

• So what is missing in your community?• More to the point…• WHO is missing?

• Make a quick list.

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Brad Feld #3• 3. Rallying Point(s)

– Common cause, identity, events?

• bfd3. Is there a rallying point where everyone can look to? This can take many forms but a good place to start is simply twofold:

• The Bully Pulpit: Is the entrepreneurial ‘gospel’ being preached all through the ecosystem?

• Strategy not Tactics: There actually IS a cohesive strategy, a comprehensive framework to help guide bottom-up efforts? (Or is there an emphasis on thinking up cool tactics that are sexy and have worked elsewhere but need not fit what the ecosystem really needs?)

• WARNING: Exercise on this coming later!

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Brad Feld #4

• 4. Long-term perspective

• bfd4. Are you willing to embrace that this is a long-term proposition? No matter how brilliant we might be now, it will likely be decades before we are really rolling. Again, do you have a cohesive, comprehensive strategy for entrepreneurship development? (a/k/a “Comprehensive Entrepreneurship Development System” to ‘fly cover’ for and support bottom-up efforts.) Or is there no committed strategy that we can hold our leaders to?

Stakeholders?

Stakeholders?

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Sidebar: CEDS, etc.

• Remember “Reynolds’ 3”• Feld’s “Entrepreneur-led”• Feld’s “inclusive”

• CEDS: “Comprehensive Entrepreneurship Development System/Strategy”– How do we be comprehensive/inclusive AND

ruthlessly bottom-up?

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FIRE into ICE?

• ICE is acronym… any guesses?

• FIRE – acronym for keeping comprehensive…– Foster deep entrep thinking across community

– Inspire next gen of great ideas

–Revitalize communities & organizations

– Empower the connectors!

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Brainstorm #4: “Feld’s Four”

• Plan A: Sequential• Plan B: ParallelFirst…. Which is the hardest for your community?Second… Where do YOU add the most value?

Form teams and stop brainstorming.Tell us how YOU would advance each of these…

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The WEF-inspired “Defrag” Process

Let’s start pulling this together!

• How…. Or Who?• CEDS?• Remember the Google map?– Map (A)– Listening Sessions [‘Visioning’] (B)– Align Resources

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• Identify key stakeholders– Who should you be helping?– Not who you want to help?– Need map to get started

• Identify testable value propositions

• Test the MVVPs!

• Learn -> Pivot -> Repeat

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Best practices?

• Eric Ries and “The Startup Way”?

• Accountability• Process• Culture• People

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Hints

• Brad Feld & Kellogg & Kauffman & EDA & ….: Bottom-up, inclusive, people-centric… entrepreneur-centric

• Help connectors. BE a connector,• BE a liaison-animateur!• To get started? Be a CONVENOR

• Advisory boards?

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A few tricks… and caveats

• Distinctive Competence (not Core)• Surveys – – connectors, gatekeepers... and who deserves help?– Triggers? [http://bit.ly/map_ecosys ]

• Visioning/Listening [happy to share more offline]– Accentuate the positive: AI, ABCD

• Are we there yet?– Metrics - process and outcomes [

http://bit.ly/EcoSys ]Tweet us! #wentfr

And a few more…• "no more amateur night"? (Build the “C-Team”)• The 3 (4?) C's: Competent, Connected, Collegial (and ??)

• SAOSW!!

• "Straw man" framework: Jumpstart alignment

• Convenors get loved?• Celebrate. Educate. Initiate.• Big Omaha model: www.BigOmaha.com

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What Have I Missed??

• Your turn!

• What have I missed here?

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Semi-final Brainstorm!

• Form groups.

• Design your own CONVENOR Event that pulls all of this together– Covers “Feld’s Four”– Uses and build your “A-Team”– Is FUN!

(plus…who’s your advisory board? Locally? Non-local?)

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Alternate mapping models

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http://www.ecosystemmap.comwww.iempact.com

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Genealogy map

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Boise

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Sociogram pic

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Who do you want to be?

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We are all Connectors Here but…

• Are we Liaison-Animateurs?

• (bonus personal exercise…– Make a list of people in this room who you would want

helping you and your community?– What expertise is absent?– How else can WEF & JWEF help you?)

– HOMEWORK!! Draft your own advisory board… then start recruiting (WEF & JWEF will help!)

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Stakeholders?

• So how are you going to help your “A-Team”?

• REALLY?

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Value Proposition Canvas

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Customer Jobs

• What functional jobs is your customer trying get done?

• What social jobs is your customer trying to get done?• What emotional jobs is your customer trying get

done? • What basic needs is your customer trying to satisfy?

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Customer Pains• What does your customer find too costly?• What makes your customer feel bad?• How are current solutions underperforming for your customer• What are the main difficulties and challenges your customer

encounters? • What negative social consequences does your customer

encounter or fear• What risks does your customer fear? • What’s keeping your customer awake at night? • What common mistakes does your customer make? • What barriers are keeping your customer from adopting

solutions? Tweet us! #wentfr

Customer Gains

• Which savings would make your customer happy? • What outcomes does your customer expect and what would

go beyond his/her expectations?• How do current solutions delight your customer? • What would make your customer’s job or life easier• What positive social consequences does your customer

desire? • What are customers looking for? • What do customers dream about? • How does your customer measure success and failure? • What would increase the likelihood of adopting a solution?

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Are We There Yet?

Metrics and Governance• Levels/change: Peter Vogel• Bottlenecks: GEDI (Zoltan Acs)– e.g., support for dynamic capabilities

• Process: Markers of Right Path– http://bit.ly/EcoSys

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Your Competitive Edge

• Natural connectors• Neutral turf/fair broker?• Lead by example not turf/juice/clout?• Natural CO-immersion?• Natural bottom-up?• Natural includers?• Already visible contributor in multiple ways?• TRUST!

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• Identify stakeholders; identify what they want (then see what you can help with)

• Deliver it.• Have fun! And… • Entrepreneur Up!

• Norris.Krueger@gmail.com 208.440.3747 @entrep_thinking (& Facebook, G+, LinkedIn).

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Useful links• Global Entrep Week: www.unleashingideas.org • Connectors & gatekeepers: http://bit.ly/Karen_S • Brad Feld: Startup Communities (book; slideshare)• More on Defragging: http://goo.gl/6mmmy • Are we there yet?: Process metrics• Survey idea: http://bit.ly/map_ecosys (also: http://bit.ly/hxVqUa )

• And, of course, contact ANY of us!• Norris.Krueger[at]gmail.com ; @entrep_thinking• Plus G+, LinkedIn, Facebook

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