Pillar companies are local, publicly-traded firms that provide startups with talent and capital by using their products and sometimes by acquiring the startups once they’ve grown to their full potential as independent firms. Pillar companies are important to a region’s startup ecosystem for four reasons:
They boost local entrepreneurship culture. A pillar company’s success provides local entrepreneurs with a compelling example of the advantages over big company employment of taking the risk to start a company or work with a startup. A region’s first ...
