Entrepreneurial Ecosystems Post COVID

What the last two years of COVID have taught us is that how business was done in the past is no longer the only way. The world has shifted. People understand that they have a role in the world because the logistics have shown them to be a key player, or they’ve noticed that they could do something else in a different way.

With that comes a challenge for those building entrepreneurship ecosystems — a challenge that is also an amazing opportunity. The challenge is that you are still competing in a much more competitive — and smaller world — because the connections can be made much faster than before.

If you were to ask an Angel Investor to meet you on Zoom five years ago, you might have been laughed at or told, once you are in town, let me know. Today, you could potentially get that call via Zoom or phone with a smile.

This doesn’t discount the fact that yes, you should still do things in person when you can, it just adds more to the mix of complexity than it did before. It’s more complex because of this variation. Do you consider The Angel Investors that live in a different city as part of your ecosystem, since they could take a call, or do you not? Are they part of the players or the system, or are they not?

These are questions you may want to think about as you build your ecosystem. Do you count those dollars as dollars invested in the businesses or are foreign or outside investments that came to the city as investments for within the city since the call was done locally?

As you build your entrepreneurship ecosystem within your community, you might want to think about all these variables that today are impacting your system.

Many have gone to what I call hyper-focus on their local community rather than the global community. Those who did that are now paying the price of what they did globally because the globe is paying attention to the globe rather than the single city.

It’s not right or wrong, it’s not do it or don’t do it, it is about understanding the right mix of activities that need to happen to make sure you are still playing in a global setting.

BEFORE YOU GO

We see our blogs as opportunities for dialogue. Please share your thoughts as comments.

1. What are you doing to attract outsiders to your ecosystem?

2. What are you doing to keep your name visible in other ecosystems?

3. What other tools or insights can you share to keep your ecosystem growing?