Startup Communities: Building an Entrepreneurial Ecosystem in Your City

GOVERNMENT

When I’m talking to groups about startup communities, one of the questions I ask is, “How many of you are entrepreneurs?” If less than half the audience consists of entrepreneurs, there is a fundamental problem. I’ve been in situations in which, after I’ve asked, “How many of you are entrepreneurs or investors—angel or VC?” still less than half of the hands went up. In one case, this was less than a quarter of the hands. When I started going around the room and asking the rest of the people for titles, they were things like city economic development director, state office of economic development, northwest state regional development director, and mayor’s office of business development. Twenty-five people later, I asked each of them to stop and then turned to the entrepreneurs and said, “Please give me specific examples of how these people have helped you with your business.” None were forthcoming.

In general, state and local governments, at least in the United States, are well intentioned. So, when you think of government as a feeder into your startup community, take an optimistic and constructive view. Recognize that there are a number of barriers that people in government have to overcome to be effective in a startup community.

For starters, the cadence of government is out of sync with a long-term view. Government runs in short time cycles, usually less than four years. It often feels like we are in an endless campaign cycle and, in some cases, at least half of the ...