Create a Peer Network: Connecting And Supporting Ecosystem Builders
[Dispatches from ESHIP Mission Control]
In June 2017, 450 entrepreneurial ecosystem builders gathered in Kansas City for the first ESHIP Summit, a three-day conference convened by the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation and 54 national partners.
The goal: Advance the work of community leaders who focus on a collaborative and systematic approach to fostering more entrepreneurial starts and success in their area.
On the last day of the Summit, the event participants formed small groups around 12 common challenges in entrepreneurial ecosystem building and developed initial concepts for new tools, trainings, and shared understanding to help each other be more effective in their work. A summary of their collective work is available here.
The following post summarizes the specific group discussions about how to best create a national support network for ecosystem builders.
Many ecosystem builders feel isolated in this emerging field. Several program-specific professional networks exist including InBIA, Startup Champions Network, GAN, the National Urban League, and AUTM, but no universal community has come together where ecosystem builders of all backgrounds, positions, and perspectives can connect with a diverse set of peers to build relationships, share insights, and support each other in an ongoing way.
At the ESHIP Summit in June 2017, we challenged a small group of entrepreneurial ecosystem builders to:
Develop a workable plan to grow an authentic peer community for ecosystems builders everywhere.
We asked them to consider these questions as conversation starters:
- How do we as individuals stay connected and keep building relationships beyond this Summit?
- What activities create value for members of this community? Are there existing activities this community can join or encourage its members to join?
- What are the biggest barriers to connection and collaboration among ecosystem builders? How do we address those barriers as a community?
- How do we ensure the community is decentralized and develop roles that empower the people in it to take charge?
- What is needed to make this a consistent community that will exist for the next 10+ years?
Here are ideas and solution concepts the groups came up with at the first ESHIP Summit (in a very limited amount of time):
The Ecosystem Builder Network (EBN)
(Team 12)
An online platform for networking and sharing content:
ESHIP Local Learns
(Team 13)
A set of materials and activities that help ESHIP community members to replicate ESHIP Summits in their local community (like TEDx) as well as learn from each others’ local insights. This would include a one-page pre-event conversation guide to learn, explore, and leverage what ecosystem building is and how it can be helpful to your community.
eBuilder Network
(Team 14)
A peer-to-peer online/everywhere network for ecosystem builders:
Our Emerging Thoughts:
The Groups’ Insights:
As we at the ESHIP Summit Community Team reflect on this challenge area and the notes from the teams’ work, the following thoughts surface:
To fortify the field of ecosystem building we need a strong national support system for all entrepreneurial ecosystem builders to draw from for connection, learning, and inspiration.
A dynamic national network helps entrepreneurial ecosystem builders find and connect with:
- People who do similar work in different communities
- Fresh approaches to common challenges
- New programs to grow local ecosystems
- Access to national and global opportunities for local companies
- Advanced training for community leaders to level-up their ecosystem building skills
The two biggest threats to entrepreneurial ecosystems are leader burnout and community stagnation. Both result in lost opportunity for the entrepreneurs they serve.
A dynamic, supportive, and accessible national network could make a significant impact in both preventing leader burnout and propelling communities forward across the country.
There are a number of organizations working to build national networks of ecosystem builders. Some organizations are creating big tents for leaders from all parts of an ecosystem (i.e. InBIA, Startup Champions Network, and the five organizations behind the Growing Entrepreneurial Communities Summit, just to name a few). Others are gathering leaders around specific types of entrepreneurial support programs (examples include the Global Accelerator Network, which connects accelerator managers, and AUTM connects university technology managers). And other national organizations connect ecosystem builders from underrepresented communities including the National Urban League, which supports minority-owned business growth, and StartOut, which focuses on empowering LGBTQ entrepreneurs. Many of these organizations are ESHIP Summit Partners (and if there are national organizations working on this issue who are not yet a partner, we’d love to talk!).
Our vision for the ESHIP Summit is to convene and better connect this national network of conveners to advance the emerging field of entrepreneurial ecosystem building. To this end, the ESHIP Summit is designed to be a temporary initiative (The Kauffman Foundation has committed to hosting the Summit through 2019) to facilitate the establishment of more permanent ‘community infrastructure’ for the field and support the development of stronger connective tissue among the growing national leadership collective.
Our ultimate goal is to help entrepreneurial ecosystem builders find and meaningfully connect with the support and resources they need in a just-in-time fashion to keep building their local ecosystem and better support the entrepreneurs in their area.
Next Steps:
Looking at ways to build on this work, we recommend the development of a plan and platform to help ecosystem builders find and meaningfully engage with each other in-person and virtually throughout each year.
Key components of a peer network plan may include:
- A national organizing strategy to build an ecosystem of ecosystem builders. Included in this strategy could be 1) a PR campaign that rallies enthusiasm among ecosystem builders and encourages them to connect and support each other and 2) identified roles and on-ramps to give individual members clear opportunities to lead and contribute to the national community in a variety of ways.
- An online platform for ongoing connection and resource sharing
- A calendar of in-person gatherings and connection points for ecosystem builders
- More opportunities for ecosystem builders to collaborate across geographic, industrial and other barriers.
Do you have a network of peers supporting your ecosystem building work?
We’d love to learn from your work and help others do the same. Tell us about the support system you have (or wish you had) for your ecosystem building efforts. Leave a comments below or email playbook@kauffman.org. We looking forward to hearing from you!
