The Startup Community Way

CHAPTER TWELVESIMPLIFYING COMPLEXITY

Startup Community Way Principle

The best startup communities are interconnected with other startup communities. Startup communities become stronger when they share ideas and resources with others. Continued exposure and engagement strengthen bonds forged across geographic boundaries.

The Startup Community Way differs from traditional entrepreneurial ecosystem thinking because it puts the startup community and entrepreneurs at the center of the ecosystem. We focus all of the activity on the entrepreneur. Enhancing relationships by taking a network-centric approach around cultural, social, and behavioral factors creates a startup community that is more supportive and collaborative.

Our limitations—as individuals and as a collective whole—become magnified within the broader social dynamic of the community. Changing the ways we think, behave, collaborate, share, and support enables us to be much more effective, regardless of the existing resources at our disposal. This is difficult to do because it requires people to take accountability for their current situation and to change deeply ingrained thought and behavior patterns that hold a startup community back. However, startup communities anywhere have the power to improve their situations immediately, even if it's little by little.

Two existing cultural-behavioral startup community models inform how we approach this change. The first of these is the Boulder Thesis from Startup Communities ...