Summary: In this episode we were joined by the insightful Francine Hardaway, serial entrepreneur on a mission to expand the entrepreneurial ecosystem in Arizona. Some relevant points and great perspective on developing a healthy ecosystem in the modern world. Francine organizes the Arizona Entrepreneurship Conference on November 17th, for more details, visit: www.azec10.com Listen to the episode in the player below. Here’s some quotes from the episode: “.. I felt like, I had to fund this non-profit somehow and I wanted to fund it through a business, so the business is the conference.” “What we need is collaboration, because that’s how you make things happen. You make things happen by aggregating good people and creating an environment in which they can collaborate. Because if you do that, they all find ways of helping each other.” “I believe there is no such thing as a safe corporate job anymore.” “Arizona right now is in a recession, where in the real estate environment people have lost a lot of money and they’re saying ‘oh, woe is me, woe is me’ whereas I’m trying to say ‘No! This is creative destruction!’ And what we have now, is an opportunity to diversify an economy that should have been diversified years ago.” “We have plenty of companies start in Arizona. The startup culture isn’t the issue, it’s the scaling of companies in Arizona that’s the issue.” “Silicon Valley is having a problem getting talent now, because the talent can’t afford to live there..” “Venture Capital has a herd mentality.” “That’s why I actually think that you can build as rich an online community as an in-person community.” “If you think that this is less than a 50 year goal, you have another thing coming.”
