Ecosystem for building !and sustaining entrepreneurship ! | Entrepreneurs Anonymous

Ecosystem for building and sustaining entrepreneurship
Everyone’s yalking (it was a typo, but chose to retain it, as I felt it sounds more appropriate in the context) about the Eco System that is necessary for Entrepreneurship to thrive. I thought lets look up what are the popular things that people are talking about.
I. 5 things that make up for a healthy Ecosystem for Entrepreneurs according to Tom Chapman, director of innovation and entrepreneurship for the Greater Omaha Chamber of Commerce, says;
1. human capital
2. financial capital
3. metrics / deal flow (This is about cash-ability of Investors, )
4. community
5. infrastructure.
II. According one other study in Europe, 5 factors are

1. Entrepreneurs. Talented people with bright ideas, motivated to take the risk to develop them, are probably the most important ingredient to success.

2. Venture capitalists. Provide growth capital, market discipline, and help recruiting management.

3. Big companies. An important source of skilled entrepreneurs, and the nucleus of ecosystems of innovation involving small companies and university labs.

4. Universities. Provide training for business and entrepreneurial skills. Also an important source of technology entrepreneurs.

5. Media and opinion leaders. Influence the way people think about entrepreneurship and risk.

III. Nathaniel Whittemore is the founder of Assetmap. Previously he was the founding director of the Northwestern University Center for Global Engagement. Says;
1. Social Density. Talented (Potential) Teammates. Inspiring Peers. Experienced Mentors. Enough people outside your field who don’t give a crap to keep you honest. People are the lifeblood of any startup ecosystem; if you don’t have them, you don’t have anything. Much of the rest of the list is about types of people, and how they find and connect with one another.
2. Great Workspaces. Obviously people can work anywhere, but the difference between a great set of workspace options vs. your house and a crowded Starbucks is huge. So for me, great workspaces means, firstly, great coffee shop density. You need plugs, free wifi, and if possible, some variety of feel. Second, it means (hopefully) coworking spaces or places where there is actual comingling. Finally, it involves room to grow so that it’s easy to graduate to bigger spaces.
3. Events. Events are the physical gatherings where people anchor community through interaction. A startup ecosystem needs a pretty rich array of events – from mixers and lunches to maker faires to conferences to pitch sessions to whatever. In a great startup ecosystem, the members make the events whether they’re professional planners or not.
4. Proximity to money. I debated about putting this one on this list for the reason that if you have a good product or company, you can go out and find money that doesn’t exist locally. But in the end I decided to include it for a few reasons. First, funders are just like any other group. Your social capital and relationships with potential funders create opportunities that cold proposals just don’t have. Physical proximity still matters there. Second, the lure of money attracts more of those peers (and in turn, leaves more experienced mentors), so there is some foundational aspect I think to money. Third, if you’re in a startup, you have to believe deeply in your own success. Having sources of money around, even if you haven’t tapped them yet, makes success feel closer, and that matters.
5. Creative diversity. I think this is more important than it seems. One of the things I love about living in SF – particularly right near Valencia street in the Mission – is that it is where a) a lot of young nonprofit folks are and b) where a good chunk of the artist galleries are. These are creative, driven people, who have nothing to do with technology, but who provide a different lens to see things. At the end of the day, startups are all about thinking outside the box, and it’s quite easy to get focused on the inside-the-box thinking of your industry when that is all you experience.
IV. One more:
1. New entrepreneurs
2. Veteran entrepreneurs
3. Angel investors
4. Venture capitalists
5. Supporting players (lawyers, accountants, marketing, PR, etc.)
What is interesting to note over the above four references from popular sources, only two aspects are common, Human Resource and Availability or proximity of Finance / Investments.
While keeping the above in the Perspective, if we first list down all factors,\;
1. Human Capital – New Entrepreneurs
2. Investors – Angel Investors & Venture Capitalists
3. Large, established Business entities (who can feed into and draw from small start ups and also acquire such firms enabling exits for Investors)
4. Infrastructure – coffee shops, reliable and low cost broadband, etc.
5. Community & Events – Jams, Networks, groups, incubators
6. Academics – Universities, research Institutes, Student base (interns), Mentors, guides, etc
7. Media & Opinion / Thought Leaders – Print & Online media and celebrated successful entrepreneurs
8. Veteran Entrepreneurs / Mentors
9. Support infrastructure – Legal, Governance, Marketing, etc.
10. Creative Diversity
Let’s consider Bangalore, It has all the 10 listed criterion to make Bangalore one of the best suited ecosystems that are sought for world. We may also observe similar things across few of our leading Cities such as NCR, Mumbai, Pune, Hyderabad and Chennai. We may have to further classify to a different degree perhaps but broadly these things exist and are only getting better. Some of them are very obviously favourable to technology Entrepreneurs.
So? Are you an Entrepreneur? What do you think??

via entrepreneursanonymous.wordpress.com

Posted via email from soulhangout's posterous