#39: How Can We Help the Miami Start-Up Ecosystem?

No question the momentum in Miami is real.

The question I've been trying to answer is how do you sustain and grow a start-up ecosystem?

I've been thinking a lot about my experience in the NYC start-up ecosystem starting in 2008 and looking to Brad Feld's Boulder Thesis, the Kauffman Foundation, 1 Million Cups, Founders Institute and others.

Here are 5 key takeaways:

1. Leaders vs Feeders

2. As laid out in the Boulder Thesis by Brad Feld, the ecosystem needs to be built bottoms-up, led by Entrepreneurs and supported / driven by everyone else aka Feeders.

3. Long-Game

4. Those invested in the ecosystem need to be playing the long-game and committed to 20+ year journey to navigate the ups and downs.

5. Collaborative Mentality

6. Critical that both the Leaders and Feeders embrace a collaborative mentality of building something bigger than themselves, creating new markets, making the pie bigger for all.

7. Quality, Consistency + Inclusiveness of Events

8. Engaging the entire entrepreneurial tech stack in meaningful ways that drive peer-to-peer learning, networking, idea sharing, connections between future business partners, opportunities to explore launching a company and to become inspired.

9. Curate + Create Tools / Resources

10. Reducing friction, accelerating knowledge sharing, increasing awareness / access to existing tools / resources and enabling feedback loops throughout the interconnected ecosystem.

February 4, 2021 (Tweet Link)