We’ve arrived at roughly the midpoint of summer. The days are as long as they are going to get, which makes bedtime for the kids that much more difficult. When daylight begins to appear before 5 am, and stays light past 9 pm, it feels like everyone is awake all the time. I tend to put in later nights this time of year for the same reason. With as many projects as I’m juggling right now, going to bed after 1 in the morning has become the norm. It’s definitely exhausting, but still energizing to see the needle moving, even if just a tiny bit.
Much like last year, this summer has been devoted to the pursuit of community and entrepreneurial ecosystem building. I’ve been volunteering some time listening to the JPEC Student Summer Accelerator teams weekly updates as they move through the program and learn the basics of building a startup or business that could be scaled up quickly. Each year, the program tends to pick student businesses that are a bit farther along than they were the previous year, and several of the businesses in this year’s accelerator cohort came out of Iowa Startup Games events this past academic year.
I’m always amazed at how well the teams are able to move through relatively difficult business and startup concepts as quickly as they do. During mentor feedback, I try my best to educate rather than criticize, unless it seems like the team isn’t making a good faith effort to learn the concepts. For example, the teams learned about Total Addressable Market, Serviceable Addressable Market, and Target Market – TAM, SAM, and TM – a couple of weeks ago. When they first covered it, I tried my best to explain to the group the differences between the three, and how SAM is a subset of TAM, and TM is a subset of SAM. Each of those three things needs some sort of number to go along with it – preferably number of people in each group and dollar value of market in each group. Last week, most of the teams had figured this out, but there were still a couple of teams who weren’t getting it or weren’t trying to learn. I was much harder on the teams that hadn’t figured it out by this past Friday.
I’ll be mentoring during their Friday updates the couple of weeks after Startup Weekend Iowa City as they quickly move toward the end of their program. On the final Friday, the instructors will then sort the 14 teams into two groups, and the top group will get to pitch their businesses in front of a panel of judges to win prizes. Accelerator Launch Day programs are always fun to watch, especially when judging panels and cash prizes are at stake. I have already picked a couple of teams that I’m sure – barring any major catastrophes – will be in the top group for Launch Day. I won’t reveal my picks until after the fact, as I should stay as neutral as possible since I’m involved with so many facets of the entrepreneurial community.
Startup Weekend Iowa City is approaching quickly, and all of the pieces have just about fallen into place for the event. We have plenty of attendees signed up, several mentors are volunteering some time during the weekend, and we have two of the three final pitch judges secured for Sunday. We’re still looking for a handful of mentors to pop in on Saturday afternoon and help the teams. If you’d like to be part of the event, including free meals while you’re there, just let me know. Also, we have some free tickets left for students and community members who can’t afford the $25 entry fee – if you fall into either one of those categories and would like to participate during the weekend, let me know as well. We always order way too much food, and you might as well help us eat it.
Once Startup Weekend Iowa City concludes, I’ll be able to take a small breather on this front before I embark on a couple of new entrepreneurial community building projects. I’ve been talking to several people who have been in the entrepreneurial community for several years now, but have felt somewhat disconnected from it over the last few years. We’ve been discussing ways to improve existing programs, like Startup Weekend Iowa City, but also brainstorming other things that could reinvigorate the people who are still here, and reengage some of the tech companies who used to sponsor startup events on a regular basis but have, for whatever reason, not given as much support over the last two or three years.
One of the main points that I’ve been hearing is that there’s been too much focus on chasing investment dollars, courting large multinational companies, and sidling up to governmental officials and the media, and not enough focus on creativity and community. These four groups should be adjacent to the startup community, being available for collaborations. They shouldn’t be given the spotlight in the way they have, because they do nothing to deserve it. They’re just here to collect rent from you until there is no more rent to collect. Unfortunately, people and organizations who were supposed to be “all in” on startups and the entrepreneurial ecosystem were bamboozled by these groups, and now they’re stuck, having burned bridges with the startup community.
I think there’s an opportunity for a two-pronged approach here – to regain the trust and engagement with seasoned entrepreneurs and creatives in the area, while lowering as many barriers as possible for people to enter the ecosystem, share their ideas, and receive help without the fear of someone trying to monetize each step of the process. I think we can do both, and I’m starting to formulate ideas based on events and activities in which I’ve participated in the Midwest and beyond over the last few years. With events like Startup Weekend Iowa City, Iowa City Open Coffee and 1 Million Cups Iowa City, we’re attempting to lower the barriers to entry as much as possible, and making people feel welcome to enter and share their ideas. I’ve received great responses from other entrepreneurs about the formats of those programs, as well as positive comments about the atmosphere surrounding our events, in comparison to similar events nearby. At our events, you don’t have to know someone to get your foot in the door.
Regaining the trust and engagement with seasoned entrepreneurs and creatives is going to be more difficult and involve significantly more legwork than just holding events and opening the doors. I’ve started to put together an incredibly rough version of a “constitution for creatives” in the area. It’s a way to energize the talent we have here who feel forgotten or cast out by the largest players in the ecosystem. Engaging with the people who might have felt as though they’ve been wronged by those who claim to help is the first step in regaining the community momentum lost over the last three years or so. Once engaged, I feel as though these folks will be interested in helping with events and activities, which will continue increasing forward momentum for the entrepreneurial community. Getting the train moving forward always takes the most energy – once it’s moving forward, speeding up doesn’t take as much fuel.
Before I make any moves on new events, I do want to talk to more of the “old-timers” in the area and get them engaged in the process. It’s going to take a fair number of us fighting the wind and the noise that tends to drown out what we’re doing, to regain that entrepreneurial ecosystem energy that we’ve lost over the last three or four years. It’s not impossible, but it’s going to be difficult. There aren’t going to be any awards given out for this – our local media outlets don’t give awards to people actually accomplishing something. It’s the feeling of creating something bigger than yourself and setting the foundation for a better tomorrow where you live.
It’s going to be an interesting next few years seeing how everything plays out. Let’s try moving that needle forward, even if just a small amount.