The Startup Community Way

CHAPTER TENTHE ABSENCE OF A BLUEPRINT

Startup Community Way Principle

Each startup community is unique and cannot be replicated. Startup communities are shaped by a wide range of factors, individuals, and histories of each place. Instead of emulating others, startup communities should look to build upon their own unique strengths.

No two startup communities are the same. The multitude of relevant actors and factors, which are often deeply ingrained in the local history and culture, along with the dynamic nature of complex systems, ensures this. Inherent differences mean inherent limitations to replication, but we humans don't like that, so we look for ways to abstract and generalize.

A human instinct is to compare things, particularly ourselves, to others, as this provides a mode for learning and feeds our competitive instincts. But comparison requires a certain level of generalization, which can lead to misguided understanding and strategies. The complexity of startup communities makes this problem especially acute, where abstraction can take away too much of the unique characteristics that make each startup community special. Comparison can inform, but more often, it distracts and leads astray.

The most obvious example is the endless comparison to Silicon Valley, but the problem goes much deeper than that. There is an urge (almost an obsession) to compare startup communities to one another by tabulating a set of standardized metrics that produce ecosystem rankings. ...