“Mr. Feld wants to make it clear that all sorts of cities across the world can become home to job-creating new businesses if only they foster the necessary culture. He sets out a framework?? for a successful start-up community… if more people contributed to the places in which they live, as Mr. Feld and others have evidently done in Boulder, we probably would have more start-up communities around the world for him to visit.”
―Jonathan Moules, Financial Times book review, November 15, 2012
“A favorite question at entrepreneurship conferences is which world city has the entrepreneurial dynamism to become a major start-up capital on par with Silicon Valley. London, Singapore, Tel Aviv, New York and Berlin are usually cited. Seldom, however, do you hear anyone propose Boulder, Colorado. That is, unless you are in the company of Brad Feld, an early-stage investor, technology entrepreneur and author of Startup Communities: Building an Entrepreneurial Ecosystem in Your City, published by Wiley. Feld wants to make clear that all sorts of cities across the world can become home to job-creating new businesses if only they foster the necessary culture.”
―Los Angeles Times book review, December 9, 2012
“StartUp Communities was designed to engage and inspire entrepreneurs everywhere… definitely worth a look if you’re felling fired up about looking beyond the ‘Silicon Roundabout’ to create real hotbeds of entrepreneurial activity in the UK.” (Talk Business, January 2013)
PRAISE FOR STARTUP COMMUNITIES
“Innovation and entrepreneurship are at the heart of America’s long-term economic growth story. As the nation’s first Chief Technology Officer, I heard a great deal of interest in strategies to foster local startup communities beyond Silicon Valley. In this book, Brad Feld captures the essence of what drives the creation and development of startup communities and provides a clear road map for everyone interested in expanding the entrepreneurial ecosystem wherever they live.”
—Aneesh Chopra, Senior Advisor, The Advisory Board Company, former U.S. CTO
“Any city in the world can be the home of a vibrant startup community. Many of the principles in this book are similar to the ones we are applying at DowntownProject.com to help revitalize downtown Vegas and transform our city into one of the leading startup communities in the world. This book and its principles are applicable to any city that wants to reinvigorate itself through the power of entrepreneurship.”
—Tony Hsieh, New York Times bestselling author of Delivering Happiness and CEO, Zappos.com, Inc.
“Entrepreneurship and innovation are the key drivers of the emerging creative economy. Startup Communities provides the playbook of how communities can harness the power of creative entrepreneurs that power long-run economic growth and development. Feld gives entrepreneurs and political and civic leaders a powerful framework filled with examples on how to build vibrant entrepreneurial communities.”
—Richard Florida, author of The Rise of the Creative Class; Professor, University of Toronto, NYU; Senior Editor, The Atlantic
“Brad Feld’s involvement in the Startup America Partnership since its inception has heavily influenced our thinking and approach to accelerating startup communities throughout the United States. We have shared many of the ideas in the book with community champions—successful serial entrepreneurs around the country—who are leveraging them to build vibrant growing startup economies.”
—Scott Case, CEO, Startup America Partnership
“If you care about economic growth at any level this book will help you figure out how you can play a role in your own startup community. Brad Feld’s book will become the Myth Buster of Startup Communities. Reality requires collaboration, inclusiveness, a network of leaders, and feeders operating without hierarchy. All hard work and a ton of fun.”
—Lesa Mitchell, VP Innovation & Networks, Kauffman Foundation
“This book beautifully captures the essence of what drives a startup community. Brad Feld highlights the importance of having continual activities that engage the entire entrepreneurial stack in order to create a long-term sustainable startup community. At Startup Weekend, we are doing our small part to help as many people around the world experience entrepreneurship, and we are proud to count Brad Feld as a board member in our efforts.”
—Marc Nager, CEO, Startup Weekend
“Clear, concise, and accessible, Feld offers informative and entertaining background on successful entrepreneurial communities, and more importantly, terrific tips, sometimes emphatic, on what it takes to develop an entrepreneurial ecosystem.”
—Tom Swartwood, aka, Dr. Smartwood
“Clear, concise, and accessible, Feld offers informative and entertaining background on successful entrepreneurial communities, and more importantly, terrific tips, sometimes emphatic, on what it takes to develop an entrepreneurial ecosystem.” –Tom Swartwood, aka, Dr. Smartwood
From the Back Cover
“Startup communities” are popping up everywhere, from cities all over the United States like Boulder, Boston, New York, Seattle, and Omaha to countries like Iceland. These entrepreneurial ecosystems are driving innovation, new business creation, and job growth. Startup Communities documents the strategy, dynamics, tactics, and long-term perspective required for building communities of entrepreneurs who can feed off of each other’s talent, creativity, and support. So if you think Silicon Valley is the only place to start your next venture, think again. These days, great business ideas can come from anywhere, and this book is the smart wake-up call you’ve been waiting for.
Based on more than twenty years of Boulder-based entrepreneur-turned-venture-capitalist Brad Feld’s experience, as well as contributions from entrepreneurs in Boulder and other innovative startup communitiesthis reliable resource skillfully explores what it takes to create a startup community in any city, at any time. With this book as your guide, you’ll gain valuable insights into building a more vibrant startup community, as you discover how to increase the breadth and depth of the entrepreneurial ecosystem by multiplying connections among entrepreneurs and mentors, improving access to entrepreneurial education, creating events and activities that activate all the participants in the startup community, and much more.
Along the way, Feld details the critical principles for forming a sustainable startup community, and discusses the various tactics you need to put around them. You’ll become familiar with the idea that in order for a community to grow both deep and wideand to enhance its entrepreneurial densityentrepreneurs must lead the charge themselves. You’ll also see how developing a long-term commitment to the startup community is the only way to realistically become a leader of it.
Feld continues the conversation by discussing how an openness to include anyone who is interested in joining the startup communityfrom students, researchers, and professors to corporate employees, lawyers, government, and investorsis critical. He also reveals how there has to be activities and events in the startup community that engage everyone in it from top to bottom. So, whether it be accelerators, meetups, or startup weekends, you have to create things that involve everyone.
You can have a sustainable startup community in virtually any city in the world. But you need to know what it takes to really make this happenunderstanding everything from the problems that may arise to the power of the community. Engaging and informative, this practical guide not only shows you how startup communities work, it also shows you how you can make them work anywhere.
About the Author
Brad Feld has been an early-stage investor and entrepreneur for over twenty years. Prior to cofounding Foundry Group—a Boulder, Colorado–based early-stage venture capital fund that invests in information technology companies all over the United States—he cofounded Mobius Venture Capital and, prior to that, founded Intensity Ventures, a company that helped launch and operate software companies. Feld is also a cofounder of TechStars and has been active with several nonprofit organizations. He is a nationally recognized speaker on the topics of venture capital investing and entrepreneurship.
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