Startup Communities: Building an Entrepreneurial Ecosystem in Your City

GIVE BEFORE YOU GET

One of my deeply held beliefs to the secret of success in life is to give before you get. In this approach, I am always willing to try to be helpful to anyone, without having a clear expectation of what is in it for me. If, over time, the relationship is one way (e.g., I’m giving, but getting nothing) I’ll often back off on my level of give because this belief doesn’t underlie a fundamentally altruistic approach. However, by investing time and energy up front without a specifically defined outcome, I have found that, over time, the rewards that come back to me exceed my wildest expectations.

A group of us have worked very hard to incorporate this give-before-you-get philosophy into the Boulder startup community. You rarely hear the words, “What’s in it for me?” around Boulder; rather, it’s “How can I be helpful?” Introductions flow freely, as do invitations. As I travel around the country, I hear people talking about how easy it is to engage with people in Boulder and how good karma flows freely. This is give before you get hard at work.

A key attribute of a great mentor is someone who is willing to contribute time and energy to a mentee without a clear expectation of what is coming back. David Cohen talks about this constantly, and he leads by example, not just with TechStars companies but also with many other companies in which he’s not an investor. TechStars has specific programs like TechStars for a Day (http://startuprev.com/n3) that are open to anyone ...