Category: Community

I’ll be the first to admit that I feel bad turning down requests for help from entrepreneurs, students, people in the community, etc. It’s not that I don’t want to help them, rather I’ve prioritized a number of things I want to do well and have decided to allocate my time there. As Dharmesh likes to say, Dear Friend: Sorry. My heart says yes, but my schedule says no.

So, if helping entrepreneurs is a personal goal, but there isn’t enough time for the requested one-on-ones, I need to figure out how to help entrepreneurs at scale. Much like the conversation changes internally in a startup when going from 10-20 employees vs going from 20-200, I need to be thinking scale as well with helping entrepreneurs.

Here are three ways I try and help entrepreneurs at scale:

• Blogging – An amazing way to reach tens of thousands of people on a daily basis
• Atlanta Tech Village – Community, educational events, office space, and more that reaches thousands of people on a monthly basis
• Public Speaking – Last year I gave 20 talks on entrepreneurship to groups ranging from 25-500 people

Over time I hope to get better at helping entrepreneurs at scale with these three strategies while continuing to look for new ways to share ideas and thoughts.

What else? What are some other ways to help entrepreneurs at scale?

Recently I was asked why I continue to work and start companies when I don’t need the money. Many people I know don’t work because they enjoy it, rather they work because they need the money. For me, the simple answer is that I enjoy doing it, so I’m always going to do it. Thinking about it more, there are several reasons I continue to work and start companies:

• Kids – I want my kids to grow up seeing their dad work hard while still having an abundance of time together
• Innovation – I really enjoy being a part of the new product invention process and seeing an idea unfold in the marketplace
• Jobs – I believe that helping create high quality, culture-first jobs adds tremendous value to our community
• Personal Growth – I’m always learning new things, meeting new people, and having new experiences, all of which contribute to my personal growth
• Entrepreneurial Forces – I believe that entrepreneurship is one of the most powerful forces for helping grow our economy and improve our standard of living

Even after my second, third, or even fourth exit I’m going to keep working and starting companies as I enjoy it and want to give back and help others.

What else? If you didn’t have to work any more, what would you do?

Nationwide there’s a real push right now among city leaders to brand their region as a tech entrepreneurship hub. Tech has been hot for several years and every city can point to a local success story within the past 24 months. As tech becomes more pervasive and more industries are affected by it, it only makes sense that cities want to capitalize on it.

Here are a few thoughts on why city leaders are so excited about tech entrepreneurship:

• Cities are either growing or shrinking, so it makes sense to focus on a growth industry
• The internet provides for amazing distribution, collaboration, and innovation anywhere, so the need to be in a major hub has been greatly diminished
• The majority of new jobs created over the next 10 years will come from companies that aren’t in existence today
• Tech jobs are much higher paying than normal jobs
• Tech entrepreneurs that are successful often create significant wealth which can be used to help the community
• Many city leaders are also business owners and want to see more opportunities for their own companies (e.g. growing populations and growing incomes are critical to growing many businesses)

Like anything, I think this focus on branding tech entrepreneurship cities will pass as the next thing comes along, but I hope that enough awareness and understanding is developed such that city leaders will continue to value entrepreneurship, tech or otherwise.

What else? What are some other thoughts on city leaders and tech entrepreneurship?

OK, I admit it. Tech entrepreneurs outside Silicon Valley often have a chip on their shoulder. There’s this pervasive idea that if you’re in the Valley you’re competing in the Major Leagues, otherwise you’re playing in the Minors. The majority of the press is about startups in Silicon Valley, the majority of the unicorns (companies valued over $1 billion) are in Silicon Valley, and the majority of the venture capital invested in the entire country is in Silicon Valley. What’s a tech entrepreneur to do?

Here are a few ideas on breaking the minor league of startups mentality:

• Spend more time talking about local success stories (e.g. recent exits and job creators)
• Focus energies on playing to the local strengths (e.g. quality of life, employee loyalty, cost of living, etc.)
• Engage with local entrepreneurs through Entrepreneurs’ Organization and Young Presidents’ Organization
• Organize events with doers and avoid the naysayers

In the end it’s all about attitude and outlook. Inevitably there’s going to be people who failed and believe it’s the community’s fault as well as negative people that look to bring the community down. Positive, optimistic entrepreneurs will keep pushing forward and work to make their startup successful as well as make the community more successful.

What else? What are some other thoughts on breaking the minor league of startups mentality?

When starting out one of the biggest challenges is finding early adopter users. You know, the types of people that love trying new things and are happy being the guinea pig. As part of customer discovery, it’s important to talk to as many relevant people as possible and work to find the best opportunity in the market. Even when someone says they’re interested in a potential product, it doesn’t mean they’ll actually use it. Using a product requires a behavior change and behavior changes are hard, very hard.

One of the big benefits of startup communities, like the Atlanta Tech Village, is a built-in group of early adopters. Here are a few of the great things about startup community early adopters:

• Desire to dive in and try out a product in the wild with minimal handholding
• Willing to provide direct feedback and not sugar-coat things (friends are often tough early adopters due to not wanting to hurt any feelings)
• Actively make introductions to other people outside the community that are good candidates to be early adopters
• Eager to act as a reference to talk to other potential customers and share their experience with the product (references and testimonials are always gold, especially so in the early years)

Early adopters are critical for entrepreneurs and the difficult process of finding users is slightly easier with a strong startup community. The larger and stronger the community, the easier the process.

What else? What are some other thoughts on early adopter users and startup communities?

One of the most popular questions I get when people see the Atlanta Tech Village is “when are you going to do the next one?” Quickly, I respond that it’s a one-and-done but that I think within 24 months we’ll see an entrepreneurship center in each of Atlanta’s major sub-markets, and that’s a good thing. Just in the past few weeks we’ve seen announcements for Switchyards in Downtown and Industrious in Midtown. I know of at least three others that are in the planning phase right now and expect more to come.

Here are a few reasons why having multiple entrepreneurship centers makes sense in a major city:

• Areas of town already cater to different types of people, so it makes sense to play to a sub-market’s strengths with a corresponding entrepreneurship center
• Founders and funders of the entrepreneurship centers have their own unique strengths and expertise, which is often a theme for the startups in the facility (e.g. B2B software is strong at the Village)
• Traffic and commuting is a serious challenge for major cities, thus having multiple centers makes them more accessible to a larger number of entrepreneurs (commute time is a big driver for where entrepreneurs choose to work)
• Entrepreneurial density helps increase the likelihood of success for all entrepreneurs in an area, so if more entrepreneurship centers create more pockets of density, the city is going to benefit from more job creation

Multiple entrepreneurship centers make sense for major cities and I’m looking forward to many more forming in Atlanta.

What else? What are your thoughts on multiple entrepreneurship centers in a major city?