Phoenix Sucks for Startups
I believe in a vibrant future for Arizona’s startup community, but that future starts with you.
As a native Phoenician and serial entrepreneur, I believe I have enough experience to express my feelings about the current state of our ecosystem:
Phoenix sucks for startups.
Probably not for the reasons you would immediately think, either. I don’t believe it’s a lack of resources, venture capital, or talent at the source of our suck — though all of these are problems of their own, no doubt. Instead, I believe Phoenix lacks for one main, huge, it-matters-more-than-you-realize reason:
We aren’t helping each other.
A lot of people in this town like talking about what they want to see happen or how we have a long way to go before catching up to startup-friendly markets, but they fail to help anyone other than themselves or their own companies. I’ve been guilty of that myself. We get so heads down on our own initiatives that we fail to roll up our sleeves, pitch in, and build more value locally. We’re not even effectively talking about the positive activity that’s happening in our own backyard, let alone making more good stuff happen.
We need each other.
As much as I would love to see things change overnight, they won’t. It will take a concerted effort from every founder, investor, employee, and venture that considers themselves a part of Arizona’s startup ecosystem to turn Phoenix into the vibrant community we all want.
Let’s form friendships, not just connections. Let’s meet together more. Let’s learn together what’s working and what’s not. Let’s stop trying to hurt competitors and start building partnerships. Let’s improve pay and increase local jobs. Let’s share strategic introductions. Let’s attract more investment from outside of the state. Let’s dream bigger. Let’s get louder. Let’s unify. Let’s put Phoenix — yes, Phoenix — on the map as a serious, leading, vibrant marketplace for startup activity.
How exactly we achieve the vision, I’m not 100% sure…but I know it starts with me. And you. And it starts today.
Update:
A short two-and-a-half years later, I no longer think Phoenix sucks for startups. Here’s my updated perspective on the Phoenix startup community in the wake of launching #yesphx 2.0.
