Startup Communities: Building an Entrepreneurial Ecosystem in Your City

MAKING SHORT-TERM COMMITMENTS

When I talk to groups of people about startup communities, I begin by asking which of the people in the audience are entrepreneurs. I give a short explanation of how the people with their hands up are the ones who have the potential to be the leaders for the startup community. I then ask them to keep their hands up if they plan to be here 20 years from now. For the ones whose hands are still up, I assert that they are the ones who really can be the leaders.

As I’ve said earlier, one of the key principles of building a startup community is that it takes a long time. Although I toss around a 20-year number, this is really the minimum. Optimally, it’s 20 years from today, and that number resets to another 20 years every day. After you’ve been at it for a decade, it still requires a 20-year commitment.

The 20-year timeframe signifies a generation to me. It takes a generation of effort to get a startup community up and running in a sustainable way. The first few years of renewal, which many startup communities are going through right now, are exciting, and progress is easy to measure. However, after a few years, the rate of change often slows, macroeconomic dynamics overshadow whatever is going on locally, the political infrastructure changes or simply is less fresh and exciting. This is when the real work happens—day after day, week after week, month after month. Entrepreneurs continue to build their companies, and the ones who have taken on the additional ...