Startup Communities: Building an Entrepreneurial Ecosystem in Your City

AVOIDING PEOPLE BECAUSE OF PAST FAILURES

I was recently in Iceland for the inaugural Startup Iceland event. Although I had no specific reason to go, my wife, Amy, and I had never been to Iceland and we figured it would be fun to go hang out, see Reykjavik, and meet a bunch of entrepreneurs. We had an awesome time, saw a fascinating country, and met a community of people energized around entrepreneurship, partially as a result of the spectacular economic collapse that Iceland recently had, which caused many people to hit reset and start over.

I remember one of the entrepreneurs distinctly. He was sharp, smart, and had clearly been through a lot. I heard about his previous success and failure, but spent most of my time talking with him about what he was currently working on. He was somewhat cynical about the Startup Iceland activity, but he was engaged because, at his core, he was an entrepreneur and attracted to other entrepreneurs. However, I sensed something was off.

I asked one of the Startup Iceland leaders what the story was with the entrepreneur in question. The response was simple, but enlightening: “He burned a lot of bridges when his last startup failed—a lot of people don’t want to work with him.” I asked if he had done anything illegal or just failed. “He just failed and made a mess, but he wasn’t graceful about it.” I pressed on what graceful meant and didn’t really get a good answer, but it was clear that our failed entrepreneur had tarnished his reputation and was ...