The Startup Community Way

CHAPTER SEVENTEENCONCLUSION

REFLECTIONS

The Startup Community Way is a set of principles and practices that will improve the performance of startup communities and entrepreneurial ecosystems everywhere. We stress the principles point because every city is fundamentally different from the next. While there are common problems in many places, and these principles apply broadly, the specific details about what ends up working can only emerge through a process of discovery that will be unique to each time and place.

Our central message is that any startup community can be improved by enhancing collaboration, support, and knowledge-sharing, taking a #GiveFirst approach, and placing the entrepreneurs at the center of things. Since startup communities are human social systems, they evolve and improve when the relationships are underpinned by trust, reciprocity, and stewardship of place. In many cities, this will require a transformation of how people think and behave. That's not easy to do, especially when the incentive structures inside of many organizations work against this. It takes time and there are no shortcuts in this work. A commitment of a generation or more is required. Once a critical mass of dedicated individuals is reached, things become easier by involving more people who learn to adopt the established norms and behaviors of the community. Your job is to make sure the norms and behaviors are the right ones.

The entire point of startup communities is to help entrepreneurs ...