Startup Communities: Building an Entrepreneurial Ecosystem in Your City

MICRO VERSUS MACRO

Entrepreneurs often focus on the micro, that is, specific things that need to get done or will have impact. In contrast, government focuses on the macro. When I talk to leaders in government, they use words like global, macroeconomic, policy, innovation, and economic development. These are not words that entrepreneurs use; entrepreneurs talk about lean, startup, product, and people.

Several years ago I was giving a talk about the Boulder startup community to a cross-section of Boulder business and local government people. During the Q&A section, a woman I knew got up and said, “What do you think ecodevos should be doing to help?” I stood, stunned for a moment because I didn’t know what ecodevos were. All I could think of was “Whip It” from the punk rock band Devo, and I had to restrain myself from blurting out “Whip It, Whip It Good.” When I realized she was talking about her role, which was economic development for the city of Boulder, I said, “First, stop calling yourself an ecodevo since I’m certain there’s not a single entrepreneur in the room who has any idea what that means.” I then went on to make a few simple suggestions about how, as a feeder, the Boulder economic development people could be helpful, but the moment was defining for me since the language was so fundamentally different.

Every quarter I see reports in the local newspaper about things like increased/decreased amount of VC activity in the quarter, the number of patents granted as an indicator ...