A summary of book by Brad Feld called "Startup Communities". It contains of important points & highlights of the book about how to build an entreprenurial ecosystem in a city.

1. Start Up Communities
[ an entrepreneurial ecosystem]
A book by Brad Feld
By Mercy Setiawan.
Merah Putih Inc.
2013

2. Start Up Community
Brad Feld is using Boulder startup community as
an example.
New approach to build a community
=
Boulder Thesis.

3. Principles of a
Vibrant Startup Community
Economic Sociology Geography

4. Economic
External Economies Factors
Accounting
Services
Specialized
Suppliers
Direct
Legal
economic
benefit to
companies
Startup s in located within
common
Infrastructures
geographic
Labor pools a startup
area community.
Share fixed costs of these resources
Average cost per startup drops

5. Sociology
Community with a culture of information sharing across
companies & industries (Example: Silicon Valley)
Horizontal exchange of information across and between
companies
Respond to
Share Adopt new Leverage
new
information trends Innovations
condition
Densely Networked Culture  Successful Industrial Adaption

6. Geography
Creative
class
Creative
Creative individual
class
class
individual
individual
A location
with many
Creative Creative Creative
class class
individual
Class individual
Creative Class
Components Characteristics
• Entrepreneurs • Want to live in nice places,
• Engineers • Enjoy culture with a tolerance for new ideas & weirdness
• Professors • Want to be around other creative-class individuals
• Artists

7. The Boulder Thesis
1. ENTREPRENEURS must lead the startup
communities.
2. The leaders must have a LONG-TERM
COMMITMENT.
3. The startup community must be INCLUSIVE of
anyone who wants to participate in it.
4. The startup community must have continual
ACTIVITIES / EVENTS that engage the entire
entrepreneurial stack.

8. Participants in Startup Community
Startup
Community
Leaders Feeders

9. Leader
The leaders of a startup community must be the
entrepreneurs.
Characteristics:
 Long-term commitment
 Inclusive of anyone who wants to engage with the startup
community
 Actively involved
 Play non-zero sum game
 Mentorship driven
 Experiment & Fail fast

10. Feeders
• Government
 They existed to support rather than to lead
• Universities
 Great conveyer of entrepreneurship
• Investors
 VC & Angel Investors
• Mentors
 Those who help but hope no economic rewards
• Service Providers
 Lawyers, accountant, etc. who invest their time and
energy for no charge in early stage.
• Large Companies

11. Classical Problem
• Patriarch Problem
• Complaining about capital
• Being too reliant on government
• Making short-term commitments
• Having bias against new-comers
• Attempt by a feeder to control the community
• Having a cultural risk aversion
• Avoiding people because of their past failure

12. Patriarch Problem
Situation Solutions
Operated as Hierarchy
It mattered :
- who you were, Operated as a Network
- where you went to school, The only thing that mattered is :
- where you had worked, and what you did.
- who you knew

13. Complaining about capital
Situation Solutions
Raise the capital they need.
There is always an imbalance
between supply of capital and
demand for capital.
Focus on creating business itself.

14. Being too reliant on government
Situation Solutions
• Government = leader.
• Government has less money than
people think it does.
• No background as entrepreneurs.
• Moves at slower pace
In contrast, the best startup
communities operate as networks:
Government operates a hierarchy.
There is rarely a leader of a network,
just nodes that are interconnected.

15. Making short-term commitments
Situation Solutions
Need to be committed and keep
Building a startup community building their companies.
takes a long time.
It takes a generation of effort to
get a startup community up and
running in a sustainable way. Additional effort to lead the startup
community

16. Having bias against new-comers
Situation Solutions
Many cities ran as hierarchies. Welcome newcomer.
Newcomers had to wait to
earn their way into the
hierarchy.
Invite them to join every activities
they want to be involved in.

17. Feeder want to control the community
Situation Solutions
Network should drives an entity, not
Feeders try to control: hierarchy
- VC‟s
- Government
- University
Use warning sign when you see top-
down control over all activities.

18. Having a cultural risk aversion
Situation Solutions
Take more chances and give their
A concern about investing time in
effort time boundaries.
something that doesn‟t have impact.
If it fails, change it or kill it
Just ignore the existing hierarchy. If
Fear of rejection by other leaders in
your initiative doesn‟t work, try
the startup community.
another one.

19. Avoiding people because of past failure
Situation Solutions
Let go and embrace the failed
entrepreneur
Failed entrepreneurs was being
avoided because of his failure
Shift the culture around failure in a
positive way.

20. Holding Activities & Events
• Organization
• Tech Meet-up
• Open Coffee Club
• Start Up Weekend
• Ignite
• Startup Week

21. Roles of University
University Smart Young People

22. The Power of Alumni
University could leverage the power of
entrepreneurial alumni :
▫ Bring alumni back to campus
▫ Create a mentor relationship with the alumni and
a top student in his area
▫ Highlight the alumni publicly

23. Accelerators Vs. Incubators
Accelerators Incubators
Rigorous Application Process Rigorous Application Process
Provides business resources Provides business resources
Access to investors Access to investors
Shorter period of time Longer period of time
Rapid Growth Nurturing Development
Hands-on mentorship External mentorship teams
Small – seed investment for equity Fee for service / space
(sometime s equity)
„Fail-fast‟ mentality Long-term relationship
Improved chance of success Improved chance of success in long
term

24. Community Culture
• Give before you get
• Everyone is a mentor
• Embrace weirdness
• Be open to any ideas
• Be honest
• Go for a walk
• The importance of after-party

25. To Remember
Great entrepreneurial companies such as Apple,
Genentech, Microsoft and Intel, were started during down
economic cycles.
“It takes such a long time to create something powerful
that, almost by definition, you will go through several
economic cycles on the path to glory.”

26. Thank You