After three eventful years, I’m excited to say that my new book—The Startup Community Way: Evolving an Entrepreneurial Ecosystem, with Brad Feld—is officially available to the public today! It’s my first book, so this is a new feeling. It’s hard to put into words just how grateful I am for the experience. I learned so much in the process and developed a large number of meaningful relationships along the way that will last a lifetime. It wasn’t always fun; writing a book of this nature is really hard work. But it was worth it.
I believe that Brad and I have created something that will be useful to many people, not just in entrepreneurship and community-building, but far beyond. Our book is not the final say on the topic of startup communities; it’s the beginning of a conversation. There is more work to do and many other voices to hear from. Like with startup communities, the work is truly never finished. But, I believe we have provided a solid foundation from which many people can benefit and build upon for years to come. I’m proud of our work.
Here’s a link where you can order a copy on Amazon. As a token of appreciation, here’s a link where you can preview Chapter 8: The Myth of Quantity, compliments of Brad, me, and Wiley, our publisher. In the text below are two items: (i) an official book summary, and (ii) an excerpt from the book’s Foreword, written by Eric Ries—the author of The Lean Startup: How Today's Entrepreneurs Use Continuous Innovation to Create Radically Successful Businesses. Enjoy!
Book Summary
The Way Forward for Entrepreneurship Around the World
We are in the midst of a startup revolution. The growth and proliferation of innovation-driven startup activity is profound, unprecedented, and global in scope. Today, it is understood that communities of support and knowledge-sharing go along with other resources. The importance of collaboration and a long-term commitment has gained wider acceptance. These principles are adopted in many startup communities throughout the world.
And yet, much more work is needed. Startup activity is highly concentrated in large cities. Governments and other actors such as large corporations and universities are not collaborating with each other nor with entrepreneurs as well as they could. Too often, these actors try to control activity or impose their view from the top-down, rather than supporting an environment that is led from the bottom-up. We continue to see a disconnect between an entrepreneurial mindset and that of many actors who wish to engage with and support entrepreneurship. There are structural reasons for this, but we can overcome many of these obstacles with appropriate focus and sustained practice.
No one tells this story better than Brad Feld and Ian Hathaway. The Startup Community Way: Evolving an Entrepreneurial Ecosystem explores what makes startup communities thrive and how to improve collaboration in these rapidly evolving, complex environments.
The Startup Community Way is an explanatory guide for startup communities. Rooted in the theory of complex systems, this book establishes the systemic properties of entrepreneurial ecosystems and explains why their complex nature leads people to make predictable mistakes. As complex systems, value creation occurs in startup communities primarily through the interaction of the "parts" - the people, organizations, resources, and conditions involved - not the parts themselves. This continual process of bottom-up interactions unfolds naturally, producing value in novel and unexpected ways. Through these complex, emergent processes, the whole becomes greater and substantially different than what the parts alone could produce.
Because of this, participants must take a fundamentally different approach than is common in much of our civic and professional lives. Participants must take a whole-system view, rather than simply trying to optimize their individual part. They must prioritize experimentation and learning over planning and execution. Complex systems are uncertain and unpredictable. They cannot be controlled, only guided and influenced. Each startup community is unique. Replication is enticing but impossible. The race to become "The Next Silicon Valley" is futile - even Silicon Valley couldn't recreate itself.
This book:
Offers practical advice for entrepreneurs, community builders, government officials, and other stakeholders who want to harness the power of entrepreneurship in their city
Describes the core components of startup communities and entrepreneurial ecosystems, as well as an explanation of the differences between these two related, but distinct concepts
Advances a new framework for effective startup community building based on the theory of complex systems and insights from systems thinking
Includes contributions from leading entrepreneurial voices
Is a must-have resource for entrepreneurs, venture capitalists, executives, business and community leaders, economic development authorities, policymakers, university officials, and anyone wishing to understand how startup communities work anywhere in the world
Foreword Excerpt
Here’s an excerpt from the Foreword, written by The Lean Startup author, Eric Ries:
“The Startup Community Way zooms out to look at the big picture even as it provides a close, highly detailed look at each of the actors, factors, and conditions that can combine to create a successful entrepreneurial ecosystem . . . The work of innovation is continuous, and thinking truly long-term is crucial in order to reap its true benefits. What I mean by long-term thinking is an ongoing, honest, and comprehensive consideration of what we want our companies to look like—and our country and our world—for upcoming generations. In order to have the future we strive for, one in which opportunity and assets are fairly distributed, and thoughtful management and care for the planet and all of the people who live on it with us is central, we need to look beyond the right now to the realization of all the promise of the work that’s already been done. This book is a perfect entry point for doing just that.”
