The Startup Community Way

The Startup Community Way

by Brad Feld, Ian Hathaway
Released July 2020
Publisher(s): Wiley
ISBN: 9781119613602

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Book description

The Way Forward for Entrepreneurship Around the World

We are in the midst of a startup revolution. The growth and proliferation of innovation-driven startup activity is profound, unprecedented, and global in scope. Today, it is understood that communities of support and knowledge-sharing go along with other resources. The importance of collaboration and a long-term commitment has gained wider acceptance. These principles are adopted in many startup communities throughout the world.

And yet, much more work is needed. Startup activity is highly concentrated in large cities. Governments and other actors such as large corporations and universities are not collaborating with each other nor with entrepreneurs as well as they could. Too often, these actors try to control activity or impose their view from the top-down, rather than supporting an environment that is led from the bottom-up. We continue to see a disconnect between an entrepreneurial mindset and that of many actors who wish to engage with and support entrepreneurship. There are structural reasons for this, but we can overcome many of these obstacles with appropriate focus and sustained practice.

No one tells this story better than Brad Feld and Ian Hathaway. The Startup Community Way: Evolving an Entrepreneurial Ecosystem explores what makes startup communities thrive and how to improve collaboration in these rapidly evolving, complex environments.

The Startup Community Way is an explanatory guide for startup communities. Rooted in the theory of complex systems, this book establishes the systemic properties of entrepreneurial ecosystems and explains why their complex nature leads people to make predictable mistakes. As complex systems, value creation occurs in startup communities primarily through the interaction of the "parts" - the people, organizations, resources, and conditions involved - not the parts themselves. This continual process of bottom-up interactions unfolds naturally, producing value in novel and unexpected ways. Through these complex, emergent processes, the whole becomes greater and substantially different than what the parts alone could produce.

Because of this, participants must take a fundamentally different approach than is common in much of our civic and professional lives. Participants must take a whole-system view, rather than simply trying to optimize their individual part. They must prioritize experimentation and learning over planning and execution. Complex systems are uncertain and unpredictable. They cannot be controlled, only guided and influenced. Each startup community is unique. Replication is enticing but impossible. The race to become "The Next Silicon Valley" is futile - even Silicon Valley couldn't recreate itself.

This book:

  • Offers practical advice for entrepreneurs, community builders, government officials, and other stakeholders who want to harness the power of entrepreneurship in their city
  • Describes the core components of startup communities and entrepreneurial ecosystems, as well as an explanation of the differences between these two related, but distinct concepts
  • Advances a new framework for effective startup community building based on the theory of complex systems and insights from systems thinking
  • Includes contributions from leading entrepreneurial voices
  • Is a must-have resource for entrepreneurs, venture capitalists, executives, business and community leaders, economic development authorities, policymakers, university officials, and anyone wishing to understand how startup communities work anywhere in the world

Table of contents

  1. COVER
  2. FOREWORD
  3. PREFACE
  4. CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION
    1. THE NEXT GENERATION
    2. OUR APPROACH
    3. A DEEPER MOTIVATION
    4. THE BOULDER THESIS
    5. STARTUP COMMUNITIES ARE COMPLEX ADAPTIVE SYSTEMS
    6. WHERE WE WERE IN 2012
    7. WHERE WE ARE NOW IN 2020
    8. USING COMPLEXITY THEORY TO EXPLAIN STARTUP COMMUNITIES
    9. EVOLVING THE BOULDER THESIS TO THE STARTUP COMMUNITY WAY
    10. NOTES
  5. PART I: INTRODUCTION TO STARTUP COMMUNITIES
    1. CHAPTER TWO: WHY STARTUP COMMUNITIES EXIST
      1. WHAT ENTREPRENEURS DO
      2. THE EXTERNAL ENVIRONMENT
      3. NETWORKS OVER HIERARCHIES
      4. NETWORKS OF TRUST
      5. DENSITY AND AGGLOMERATION
      6. QUALITY OF PLACE
      7. NOTES
    2. CHAPTER THREE: THE ACTORS
      1. LEADERS, FEEDERS, AND INSTIGATORS
      2. ACTORS
      3. NOTES
    3. CHAPTER FOUR: THE FACTORS
      1. THE SEVEN CAPITALS
      2. FACTORS
      3. NOTES
    4. CHAPTER FIVE: STARTUP COMMUNITIES VERSUS ENTREPRENEURIAL ECOSYSTEMS
      1. ENTREPRENEURIAL ECOSYSTEMS
      2. ALIGNMENT OF ACTORS
      3. DIFFERENT, BUT MUTUALLY REINFORCING, PURPOSE
      4. SYSTEMS WITHIN SYSTEMS
      5. ENTREPRENEURIAL SUCCESS
      6. COMMUNITY/ECOSYSTEM FIT
      7. NOTES
  6. PART II: STARTUP COMMUNITIES AS COMPLEX SYSTEMS
    1. CHAPTER SIX: PUTTING THE SYSTEM BACK INTO ECOSYSTEM
      1. INTRODUCTION TO SYSTEMS
      2. THE WHOLE SYSTEM
      3. SIMPLE, COMPLICATED, AND COMPLEX ACTIVITIES
      4. MOVING FROM ACTIVITIES TO SYSTEMS
      5. NOTES
    2. CHAPTER SEVEN: UNPREDICTABLE CREATIVITY
      1. EMERGENCE
      2. SYNERGIES AND NONLINEARITY
      3. SELF-ORGANIZATION
      4. DYNAMISM
      5. THE STUDY OF INTERACTIONS
      6. NOTES
    3. CHAPTER EIGHT: THE MYTH OF QUANTITY
      1. MORE OF EVERYTHING
      2. OUTLIERS, NOT AVERAGES
      3. ENTREPRENEURIAL RECYCLING
      4. LEADERS AS SUPERNODES
      5. NOTES
    4. CHAPTER NINE: THE ILLUSION OF CONTROL
      1. NOT CONTROLLABLE
      2. NOT FULLY KNOWABLE
      3. FEEDBACKS AND CONTAGION
      4. GETTING UNSTUCK
      5. LETTING GO
      6. NOTES
    5. CHAPTER TEN: THE ABSENCE OF A BLUEPRINT
      1. INITIAL CONDITIONS AND BASINS OF ATTRACTION
      2. THE NARRATIVE FALLACY
      3. BUILDING ON STRENGTHS AND LEARNING FROM FAILURES
      4. CULTIVATING TOPOPHILIA
      5. NOTES
    6. CHAPTER ELEVEN: THE MEASUREMENT TRAP
      1. THE FUNDAMENTAL MEASUREMENT PROBLEM
      2. ACTOR AND FACTOR MODELS: A CATEGORICAL APPROACH
      3. STANDARDIZED METRICS MODELS: A COMPARATIVE APPROACH
      4. NETWORK MODELS: A RELATIONAL APPROACH
      5. DYNAMIC MODELS: AN EVOLUTIONARY APPROACH
      6. CULTURAL-SOCIAL MODELS: A BEHAVIORAL APPROACH
      7. LOGIC MODELS: A CAUSAL APPROACH
      8. AGENT-BASED MODELS: A SIMULATION APPROACH
      9. APPLYING THE DIFFERENT MODELS
      10. NOTES
  7. PART III: FROM THE BOULDER THESIS TO THE STARTUP COMMUNITY WAY
    1. CHAPTER TWELVE: SIMPLIFYING COMPLEXITY
      1. THE BOULDER THESIS
      2. THE RAINFOREST
      3. APPLYING SYSTEMS THINKING
      4. LOOKING DEEPLY
      5. LEVERAGE POINTS
      6. NOTES
    2. CHAPTER THIRTEEN: LEADERSHIP IS KEY
      1. BE A MENTOR
      2. ENTREPRENEURS AS ROLE MODELS
      3. KEY LEADERSHIP CHARACTERISTICS
      4. NOTES
    3. CHAPTER FOURTEEN: THINK INGENERATIONS
      1. PROGRESS IS UNEVEN AND OFTEN FEELS SLOW
      2. THE ENDLESS LONG-TERM GAME
      3. NOTES
    4. CHAPTER FIFTEEN: DIVERSITY IS A FEATURE, NOT A BUG
      1. CULTIVATE DIVERSITY
      2. EMBRACING DIVERSITY
      3. THINK BROADLY ABOUT ENTREPRENEURSHIP
      4. NOTES
    5. CHAPTER SIXTEEN: BE ACTIVE, NOT PASSIVE
      1. SELF-SIMILARITY AND REPLICATION
      2. DON'T WAIT OR ASK PERMISSION
      3. PLAY A POSITIVE-SUM GAME
      4. CONTINUOUSLY AND ACTIVELY ENGAGE
      5. NOTES
  8. PART IV: CONCLUSION
    1. CHAPTER SEVENTEEN: CONCLUSION
      1. REFLECTIONS
      2. SUMMARY OF THE BOOK
      3. FINAL THOUGHTS
  9. ABOUT THE AUTHORS
  10. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
  11. INDEX
  12. END USER LICENSE AGREEMENT

Product information

  • Title: The Startup Community Way
  • Author(s): Brad Feld, Ian Hathaway
  • Release date: July 2020
  • Publisher(s): Wiley
  • ISBN: 9781119613602