5 Biggest Errors in Entrepreneur Ecosystem Building

When it comes to serving entrepreneurs and building an entrepreneurial ecosystem, there are a lot of amazing things happening in communities right now.

But there are also some common problems, which hinder how quickly ecosystem builders are able to make progress.

Here are the 5 biggest of these errors in ecosystem building, from my own point of view…

1. No Value Proposition. Many of us are not making our value as clear to entrepreneurs and we could be. And that’s probably because if we’re honest with ourselves, we’re not sure what our core value proposition to entrepreneurs even is. Telling someone “We help entrepreneurs” is not enough. What specific RESULT do you provide entrepreneurs and why should anyone CARE? Using the elevator pitch analogy, just as an entrepreneur should be able to sell someone on their idea before the doors of the elevator open on the next floor, so too should an ecosystem builder be able to “sell” what they do to help entrepreneurs.

2. No Connections. To me, absolutely at the CORE of ecosystem building is making CONNECTIONS. As in, “Hey Joe, this is Jane. She’s staring a business and I thought the two of you might be able to partner in some way.”

The role of an ecosystem builder is to make connections for entrepreneurs in the ecosystem.

This includes connections of entrepreneurs to:

other entrepreneurs,
mentors,
talent,
investors,
customers,
etc.

If you’re not building connections, you’re not building a startup ecosystem.

3. No Communication (w/ other builders in your ecosystem). This is the taboo topic which ecosystem builders don’t like to discuss, but I’m just going to toss it out there…

I once visited a community with about seven different entrepreneur development programs, most of them incubators or accelerators. After I left from my visit, I felt really impressed at the quality of these programs — they each had a niche and they seemed to be doing very well.

But what shocked me was that there was ZERO communication between these programs. Literally, the program directors didn’t even talk to one another. Some of them had never even MET one another! And they were in the same freakin’ town!!!

Imagine what untapped potential could be unleashed if those seven program directors set their egos aside and met for lunch once a week.

I get that the non-profit world is competitive, and that in many communities ecosystem builders are all playing for the same pot of money, but come on people…

If you’re really passionate about developing the startup ecosystem in your community, you have to start by agreeing with other ecosystem builders that you’re on the same team. Helping entrepreneurs grow their companies is our mission, not maintaining our own egos.

4. No Diversity. You have to be intentional about creating diversity as an ecosystem builder. This doesn’t happen automatically.

In fact, if you’re not intentional, the exact opposite of diversity tends to happen — and you end-up with a very homogonized-looking group of entrepreneurs (age, gender, race, etc.). And a community that looks like that will never be creative or innovative in the way a truly diverse one can be. It’s just a law of nature that diversity and creativity/innovation go hand-in-hand.

The best advice I ever heard on building diversity in an ecosystem was: sit down to a meal together. There’s power in bringing a bunch of unlike people together around a table to break bread, laugh, and treat one another as equals. And it can grow an ecosystem like nothing else.

5. No Storytelling. As I mentioned towards the end of my TEDx Talk, there are communities with growing entrepreneurial ecosystems… yet hardly anyone knows about them.

We have to get better at telling our own stories. Maybe that means starting a startup news organization in your community. Or it could be more simple, like writing a blog article or doing a Facebook Live video about a new startup in your town. But you have to start getting the word out!

Wrapping everything up…

In startup ecosystem building:

Be clear on the value you’re adding,
always focus on making connections for entrepreneurs,
communicate with other builders,
be intentional about diversity (invite people to lunch),
and tell your story!

If you can do those things, you’ll be way ahead of the game — and so will the entrepreneurs playing in your ecosystem.

Ryan Lilly is an innovator, speaker, and writer. He speaks at local, state, and national conferences on his ideas in entrepreneurship support, business incubation, and economic development. For more info on Ryan, to hear his latest talks, or to make a speaking inquiry visit www.RyanLilly.com