The seed was planted just under three years ago at a local bar and this past Monday the results were clearly evident at the NJ Tech Meetup where close to 150 passionate attendeesmost of whom were self-described entrepreneurs were on hand to hear serial entrepreneur, TechStars’ co-founder and managing director of Foundry Group, Brad Feld, speak. His topic was “The Boulder Thesis: Four Principles for Startup Communities” based on his book “Startup Communities: Building an Entrepreneurial Ecosystem in Your City”.
Hosted at the Howe Center on the Stevens Institute of Technology campus located in Hoboken New Jersey, the monthly gatherings at the NJ Tech Meetup has fostered a vibrant entrepreneurial hub for New Jersey. With its close connection to the local community as seen through the $32,000 raised to support victims of Sandy and its relationship with Stevens Institute of Technology, Aaron Price the founder of the NJ Tech Meetup has put in place many of the ingredients for a successful startup community that Brad Feld was on hand to talk about.
Before Brad took the stage, entrepreneurs were given the opportunity to network while eating pizza and a select few were given the opportunity to pitch their ventures once the audience was seated. Each had the hope that an investor might be in attendance. But they also sought to benefit from the pitch coaching provided to them in advance as a member of the NJ Tech Meetup community. The evening’s presentations included: Socii, Oventio and Loan Hero. Oventio was voted best by the audience.
Next was the evening’s speaker, Brad Feld, who took center stage and primarily focused on the four principles that he feels are critical to create a healthy startup community. Brad has been an entrepreneur for over twenty years . His accomplishments include numerous startups both as founder and investor, as well as a series of books about startups and entrepreneurship.
Brad’s starting premise was that any town or city with over 50,000 people could potentially create a thriving startup community, if they followed the four principles he feels are critical. He described them as:
#1. The startup community must be driven by entrepreneurs. They must be the leaders and they should be taking the important roles in the community. Others may contribute to the community such as service providers, but the leaders must be the entrepreneurs.
In Boulder Colorado where Brad and his wife now live, he estimates that there are about 100 such leaders that have coalesced to form their city’s startup up community.
#2. The leaders must take the long term view of success. Just as it takes years for a startup company to gain traction and then grow so must a community. Though resources such as universities may contribute to the community as Stevens Institute does to the NJ Tech Meetup, Brad explained that a university’s rhythm is tied more to the ongoing replenishment each year of new studentsnot the cycle that startups need to follow.
#3. The community must have the attitude of inclusiveness. It must have a spirit that encourages people to want to inject energy into the community without some pre-determined expectation of what will be received in return. He specifically emphasized, “I am not advocating altruism”, but a dynamic within the community where participants realize that some benefit will come to them by being focused on the needs of the community.
#4. The community needs to offer activities and events that engage the full community. As examples, he offered technology accelerators and startup weekends that bring entrepreneurs together and offer them solid outcomes for their involvement.
