Building a Sustainable Startup Ecosystem: One Essential Ingredient You Should Not Ignore

Two weeks ago, I had the chance to organize an event gathering various stakeholders of the industry, including VCs, academics, researchers, entrepreneurs, lawyers, consumers, consultants, and corporates, and moderate an expert panel discussion to discuss the future of women’s health (LinkedIn post).

If you know me, you know I love to bring the innovation ecosystem together. But why do we need events? To have an innovation theater? To have free food for our guests? For marketing? Well, I guess my message here is to stop ignoring the true value of an event.

More today than at any time before, when building a business, we deal with a million things we don’t know. That’s one of the things that makes entrepreneurship so hard. One of the best ways to overcome the obstacles on your way is to know the people who deal with the same problems as you and those who are good at different areas of interest than you are.

That’s why this week in Berlin, at the Venture Lab, we brought all these players together to discuss the latest trends and roadblocks the women’s health industry is experiencing. This led to many new networks being formed, such as Charité’s Research connecting with our product team, VCs connecting with the startups we invited, and users connecting with the product we’re building and building trust. Can we truly have KPIs when we do these events? The answer is not really. The biggest value you bring here is trust and building relationships that can lead to long-term positive outcomes. The measurement is therefore hard to make, but I am curious to hear how you measure the effectiveness of your events.

 

Silicon Valley and it’s event culture

During my twelve months in Silicon Valley, I went to over 120 events—sometimes after work, sometimes during my working hours if it was related to my job. The people I met there were fun, open, and ready to help. You connect with high energy, talented, individuals by going and participating. People share and give their feedback on, ideas, pitches, or whatever they are working on.

Some of the events I attended include:

  • Product launch seminars with the likes of Adobe’s product manager and Microsoft’s experienced professionals
  • Entrepreneurship stories and round table discussions related to failure, fundraising, or working with corporates
  • A pitch practice event and actual pitches in front of investors
  • Industry-specific meetups—for example, 3D printing, stem cells, etc.
  • A “meet our startups” event at an accelerator/incubator
  • Networking events, getting to know the people of in my industry

 

 

One of the reasons people move to San Francisco is to network and build relationships. I experienced that after going to a few events and seeing the same people. If they like you, these people start inviting you to their private parties. This happened to me; I was invited to “invitation only” parties. At these parties you get to meet the actual drivers and business influencers of Silicon Valley: millionaires and billionaires, serial entrepreneurs, and people highly ranked in society.

Sharing Responsabilities

In our 2020 paper “What Corporates Can Do to Make an Innovation Ecosystem Thrive and Why They Should Do It,” we discussed shared ownership and shared initiatives. Regarding events, we mentioned win-win scenarios through shared ownership of ecosystem events created by diverse players. For example, a venture capital (VC) and a service provider, a corporate host and a university, etc.
 
The Massachusetts Life Science Centers (MLSC) dedicated a special fund to activate the ecosystem and have joint initiatives. One of the five enablers to transform the ecosystem was called “Ecosystem: Enabler: Ecosystem Gap.” The region lacked a well-coalesced relationship network across, which enabled all stakeholders to connect, find needed resources and leverage existing expertise. Therefore, they made a fund available so people can run joint initiatives together.

The 4 rules of how to get a great startup community, By Brad Feld. 


To sum this up, I will share the recommendations of my favorite ecosystem leader, Brad Feld, he mentioned the following in an interview:

  • Rule #1: Grassroots – it has to come from entrepreneurs.
  • Rule #2: It’s a long-term thing, at least 20 years.
  • Rule #3: It has to be inclusive.
  • Rule #4: Events and happenings. But not all events are equal. Awards are nice but not essential. Startup weekends are, however, very important – creating together, getting to know other people who create things, working together on stuff, and the mixing of experienced and new entrepreneurs. All those things are important to get a community going.

Also of great value are continuing and recurring meetups. A place where entrepreneurs can learn from each other and get to know each other.

In conclusion, it’s about giving to the community and the ecosystem, building common values. If you invite those who are relevant to your audience, everyone joining will be delighted to come back. Repetition with a great impact creates a brand and an authentic ecosystem. I’ve experienced the power of serendipity while I was in California, and I loved it – from introductions to highly relevant startups for my work, to key stakeholders who wanted to get to know the startups we had in the incubator. Do more events; with a focus on adding value for the ecosystem; that’s the message of the day! 

 

Source: 

How to build a startup community, with Brad Feld

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/350163423_What_Corporates_Can_Do_to_Help_an_Innovation_Ecosystem_Thrive_–_and_Why_They_Should_Do_It

 More in the Book: Today’s Superpower: Building Networks

 https://www.linkedin.com/posts/mikelmangold_the-future-of-womens-health-venture-activity-7032020197112733696-TQ1m?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_desktop

GET THE BUILDING NETWORKS DISPATCH!

Get a monthly update about the world of Startup & Business Ecosystems, Alliances & Partnerships, and my author’s journey!