The Startup Community Way

CHAPTER EIGHTTHE MYTH OF QUANTITY

Startup Community Way Principle

Startup communities are propelled by entrepreneurial success and the recycling of those resources back into the next generation. Success produces wealth and intangibles that are critical to the process of entrepreneurship. Success also inspires entrepreneurship as a viable option. Recycling the resources, knowledge, and inspiration back into the startup community maintains its vibrancy and sustainability.

Perhaps one of the most significant errors that occurs in a startup community is the belief that doing more of something will result in a better outcome. In particular, people often equate increasing inputs, such as actors (e.g., investors, talent) and factors (e.g., financing, programs) with the increase of desired outputs (e.g., startups, entrepreneurs) and outcomes (e.g., exits, job creation).

Since startup communities are nonlinear and complex, thinking in quantities is a flawed strategy better suited to complicated systems. Nonlinear, network-based systems exhibit power-law dynamics, where a small number of actors and events drive overall value in the system. Quantity-based approaches operate on the assumption that averages, not outliers, drive system value. That is incorrect. Compounding this, inputs and outputs won't be directly correlated or proportional.

The myth of quantity is just that—a myth.

MORE OF EVERYTHING

We call the myth of quantity the more-of-everything problem, and it's one of the ...