Techstars Foundation and EforAll
EforAll is a community organization that helps under-represented individuals successfully start and grow their businesses through business training, mentorship, and an extensive support network. If you’ve read my book, The New Builders, you likely know quite a bit about them (and my fondness for what they’re doing). Our systems to support diverse entrepreneurs are lagging, which is why EforAll plays such a critical role in helping foster the next generation of entrepreneurs in our community – taking both a broad view of entrepreneurship and long view for creating impact. They’ve worked with hundreds of companies across the US and continue to expand their reach and the markets in which they are working. I’m both grateful for the work they do and heartened by the stories of their program participants. It’s truly inspiring. …
August 16, 2022· 2 min read
Joining The B Team
For a long time I’ve been fascinated by the intersection between entrepreneurship and social change. When I say that I’m not describing social entrepreneurship (a term I really don’t like; it’s not a subset of entrepreneurship, it’s simply “entrepreneurship”) or impact investing, at least not as they’re commonly understood in the current business lexicon. I really mean two things: The first is the application of entrepreneurial principles and startup techniques to solving critical, basic needs problems around the world (many of the companies I’ve worked with as a founding board member at the Unreasoanble Institute fall into this category, as one example). The second is that all businesses, regardless of the product or service they produce, can work to create positive change in their communities, including with their employees, vendors and partners (The Entrepreneurs Foundation of Colorado and more recently Pledge 1% are both great examples of organizations helping companies create positive impact in the communities in which they are building their businesses). …
May 19, 2016· 3 min read
The Community Foundation, EFCO and Pledge 1%
Cross posting this article I wrote for The Community Foundation of Colorado. As many of my readers know, I’ve been passionate about the intersection of startups and community for years. And specifically developing a worldwide movement of startups giving back to their local communities from their very founding. I blog a lot about community: entrepreneurial, local, national, international, social, etc. The short takeaway is that a group of people acting together towards a common goal can have a far greater impact than they expect – and certainly more than they would acting alone. I often use a great scene in the movie Office Space to illustrate this point. …
April 12, 2016· 3 min read
The Importance of Robust Angel Ecosystems
Earlier this week I gave the keynote address at the Colorado Angel Capital Summit. While the audience was Colorado focused, the overall message I delivered about the angel ecosystem is very relevant to all entrepreneurial communities. I thought I’d share both the presentation and the key thoughts here. The overall trend around angel investing is a pretty interesting one. I’ve talked about this trend before – specifically the acceleration of angel investing in 2011-2014. I think what we’re really seeing here is market excitement around angel investing leading to a quick surge, followed by (I hope) a more normal and sustained level of activity. The sharp rise in angel activity also coincided with the raise of platforms such as AngelList which more easily allowed investors to find interesting companies and to some extent broadened the geographic reach of angels, extending what had been a more localized activity. If you’ve ever participated in a running or cycling race your heart rate graph probably looked similar – you’re excited at the start of the race and go out a bit strong, only to settle back into the right rhythm. I suspect that’s a bit of what we’re seeing here. …
March 17, 2016· 5 min read
Entrepreneurial Density
I’ve been throwing this term around for a while and thought it was worth writing about, as I believe that understanding entrepreneurial how density can shape an entrepreneurial ecosystem is very important. But first, a link back to some ideas around entrepreneurial communities in general. My partner Brad literally wrote the book about this (highly recommended if you haven’t read it already). But the very quick summary is that great entrepreneurial communities are build on the basis of a few key tenets (Brad writes about these in much more detail in the book, which – again – you should read) …
February 26, 2016· 4 min read