With every interview I run, every book I read, every conversation I have about entrepreneurial ecosystem building — the puzzle pieces before me take on a life of their own. What seemed in order and matter-of-fact begins to change color, shape and form, to levitate. So I write. I force the pieces onto the page to keep them in place. Just long enough to connect to one another, make a new kind of sense to build a different type of narrative. A New narrative for a New Majority*.
Our language of ecosystem building does not sit well with some of the antiquated speak of competition, corporate attraction and business retention. I am well aware. And I don’t care. With all due respect. Old schoolers have held the rusty chains of economic development long enough. Allow us to introduce ourselves: Ecosystem Builders.
We don’t claim to be better, whatever that means. We don’t claim to have it all figured out. We jumped off the cliff with a toolbox of skills, experiences and how-not-to’s attached to our minds and hearts. We’re building our plane on the way down. Not unprepared, not entirely reckless, but comfortable with not-knowing what the end result looks like until it’s done. There is so much we yet have to learn, to explore and understand. To define and codify. Reiterate, enunciate, mess up good and try again. Because building a new field is messy.
