John Henry
Cameron Cushman, left, and Ian Hathaway discuss the characteristics of healthy entrepreneurial communities at The Ashton Depot in Fort Worth on Tuesday (11/09/2021).
A study in 2013 did more than reveal mild surprise among the observing classes, particularly those whose work is in assets, liabilities, and capital.
According to data uncovered by the Kauffman Foundation that year, Boulder, Colorado, had six times more high-tech startup businesses per capita than the national average, second only to Silicon Valley.
That’s Boulder, not exactly known as a bastion of red-meat business conservatives but rather one place on the map where far-left leaning modern liberals move about like a disrupted fire-ant hill. A place Lenin might pinpoint for the next revolution.
So, what in tarnation is up with that?
Author and startup wizard Ian Hathaway, in Fort Worth for Global Entrepreneurship Week, is certain that he knows.
Collaboration.
Boulder’s collaborative spirit — one that includes support and knowledge-sharing, cultivated and nourished by its entrepreneurial leaders — is the backbone of that city’s success.
“The leaders are very generous and willing to help other people,” Hathaway said during a midday Tuesday lunch gathering of like-minded business innovators at The Ashton Depot in the southeast portion of downtown Fort Worth.
Fort Worth mayor Mattie Parker delivered the keynote address, asserting that entrepreneurship is at the heart of her vision for the city.
“The data speaks for itself,” she said, pointing to numbers produced by Sparkyard that show new firms (that is, first-time employers with a new business one-year-old or newer) created almost 30,000 jobs in Tarrant County in 2019. The report used data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics’ Quarterly Workforce Indicators to quantify the impact to the economy.
That jobs figure ranked third in the state of Texas. Tarrant County ranked more in the middle in average annual wages paid by new firms, behind Travis, Dallas, Harris, and Collin.
So, there’s work to do to keep pace with our closest competitors.
It’s why, the mayor said, it’s imperative for the city’s leadership to get the public policy right “to support all business and [make the city] a thriving place for entrepreneurs.”
Hathaway, who has an expertise in technology startups, entrepreneurship and venture capital — he leads investment analytics at Techstars — was here to lend his advice and what he has found. His book, The Startup Community Way, co-authored by Brad Feld, explored Boulder.
He participated in a Q&A with Cameron Cushman, assistant vice president, innovation ecosystems at the University of North Texas Health Science Center in Fort Worth.
In essence, building a successful entrepreneurial community, or ecosystem, is done with a group of leaders who come together with the shared mission to help entrepreneurs succeed by instilling values and guidelines. The community must have:
- A long-term view and commitment to build a flourishing entrepreneurial ecosystem. “It just takes time … to change the culture and mindset.”
- Inclusivity. “Anybody can participate. We don’t know where the greatest ideas come from. The more people involved in the process the better” to find the solutions to the various necessary combinations involved in starting a business. Inclusivity also breeds collaboration.
- A giver mentality. One must be of the mind to help others without the expectation of getting anything in return.
- Entrepreneurs at the center of everything.
Hathaway relayed the story of his father, a “brilliant inventor” but with no education, no network, and no wealth. As a result, he struggled getting his ideas into a commercially viable product, Hathaway said, emphasizing the moral of the story that innovation and entrepreneurism are not the same thing.
“I always wondered if we had been from Palo Alto,” with a strong entrepreneurial community, “and keeping all those conditions the same, would the outcome have been different for my dad? I think the answer is yes. My hope is that through this work we can create opportunities for people no matter where they live. It’s not to guarantee success. It’s just to make them a little more likely.
“Entrepreneurs bring value to where it didn’t exist before. Life improving innovations. When they do that, the rest of us benefit. They also create jobs, improve productivity. When entrepreneurs do well, we do well.”
Fort Worth’s Global Entrepreneurship Week continues through Friday with a number of symposium offerings and opportunities to network.