chris dumler

I’ve just looked over Brad Feld’s outline for Startup Communities: Creating a Great Entrepreneurial Ecosystem in your City and , being a part of the developing startup commmunity in Los Angeles, I decided to pull together my most recent perspective.

An Ecosystem is Cohesive

Most communities can probably point to a handful of local meetups or user groups occuring periodically in their city, but they might be hestant to say they have a startup community there. Why? Most likely because there’s no real cohesion that connects those groups together in a meaningful way. The Hadoop group and the Node.js meetup are separate populations, even if members cross over. This, however starts to change when you…

Help Infrastructure Develop

The shared workspace is becoming a critical factor in startup ecosystem development. They evolve from the home office to the coffee shops and public libraries into multiple companies sharing an office or coworking facilities. But the common thread is the same: different people in the same environment with startup culture in common. I’ve heard a lot of people talk about diversity being key in coworking spaces, and I believe there is some relevance, but I tend to think common culture is more important than diversity. Diversity helps with creativity, but common culture helps momentum. For the new entrepreneur making the leap this is critical as they begin to…

Practice Entrepreneurship

It almost seems crazy to think that there’s a way to practice being an entrepreneur, but it is happening. Events like hackathons and Startup Weekend are two obvious examples of where entrepreneurs spend intense amounts of time learning by doing. The risk is low and because of this sense of safety new entrepreneurs are able to express themselves in actionable ways like they’ve never been able to before. The well-known entrepreneur Sam Wyly has a quote that I think about a lot. He says, “If you don’t know who you are, being an entrepreneur is an expensive way to find out.” While I believe that expense is there for an important reason, I do think that it’s becoming less expensive in a way that’s just as important. The ability to practice building a company through simulation or some other method inevitably grows into prototypes, products, and new businesses that entrepreneurs can be proud of. Even if it’s a failure, a platform of learning is established that hopefully leads to future success. For this reason, when a startup has something to show off I like to…

Let them share, Let them be proud

Not everything is going to be a win. Not everything is even going to be good. But from my perspective as a community member I want to encourage startups to share what they’re doing. I want them to get feedback from other stakeholders in the community. I believe in this way they can get better. Having local “megaphones”, professional and amateur journalists willing to promote the startups is really valuable to the community as a whole. Having places where startups can promote what they’ve done helps generate buzz. It also tends to bring startups together as they recognize commonalities. This is important because…

Connecting to other founders keeps you going 

Anyone who has participated in a startup knows how lonely it can be. Few outsiders understand what you do. Fewer understand why you do it. Being able to connect to other founders and team members on a social level just keeps you going because, in a way, it’s validating. No one else gets your jokes, cares about the things you read, or understands what inspires you in the same way. Being able to grab drinks with other startups - and having places where this happens routinely - helps in the obvious practical ways (talent and knowledge sharing) but also in ways that are beneficial to the psyche. The dark side of course is that occasionally the emotional turbulence can lead to….

Infighting that will destroy your ecosystem

Passionate people are passionate people and they’re not always going to agree. There’s nothing wrong with that, but it can quickly get messy if there is internal community infighting and it will really slow the growth of your developing ecosystem. To combat this…

Continually reiterate and promote the values of your community

Create a community where helping each other is encouraged and where people are excited about growing the ecosystem. It’s not all selfless. Supporting positive community values helps all of the stakeholders and the businesses that support them.

I have numerous thoughts about this topic and hope to dive into more of the details about workspace as community as I watch the Los Angeles startup ecosystem develop. My perspective continues to evolve as I get to meet more new entrepreneurs and ecosystem stakeholders. But as we head into 2012, these are the components I am reminded of. 

Happy New Year!

See thoughts on this same topic from:
Marc Nager Contribution to Brad Feld’s “Startup Communities” post
The Franck ENTREPRENEURIAL ECOSYSTEMS : DO OR DO NOT THERE IS NO TRY