Summary: This week on the Everyone Funding Startups podcast we spoke to Brad Feld, one of the managing directors at Foundry Group, a venture capital firm that invests in early stage software / Internet companies throughout the United States. He is also the co-founder of TechStars, a mentor-driven accelerator, author of several books and blogs, and a marathon runner. Brad’s latest book, Startup Communities: Building an Entrepreneurial Ecosystem in Your City, describes his experiences in supporting the emergence of now one of the world’s most renowned entrepreneurial ecosystems – Boulder, Colorado – over the last 15 years. We asked Brad about the central framework in his book, the ‘Boulder Thesis’, which gives four guiding principles for building a successful entrepreneurial ecosystem. You can listen to the podcast by clicking here or by subscribing to the Everyone Funding Startups iTunes channel. 01:05 What prompted you to write ‘Startup Communities: Building An Entrepreneurial Ecosystem In Your Community’? 01:40 Whom do you have in mind as someone who will read this and immediately go out and do something? 02:10 What is the ‘Boulder Thesis’? 03:00 To what extent can startup ecosystems be planned? 04:10 Are there any prerequisites for starting an entrepreneurial ecosystems? 05:50 What does it mean for an entrepreneur to take a leadership role in a startup community? 07:35 Can ‘feeder networks’ also stifle an ecosystem? How should an entrepreneur react in that situation? 08:40 Does it make sense for ecosystems to be across geographies as well as local? 10:15 How should we measure the success of entrepreneurial ecosystems? 11:15 How should ‘feeder networks’ think about measuring their contributions? 12:00 What part do you think crowdfunding will play in supporting ecosystems? 13:25 What are the other books coming up in the Startup Revolution series? 15:15 How can people find out more? 16:42 End Startup Communities is part of the Startup Revolution series, which also has a blog at www.StartupRev.com. The next book, Startup Life: Surviving and Thriving in a Relationship with an Entrepreneur is available for pre-order now. The following books will cover Startup Boards, Startup Metrics, and the Startup CEO. You can follow the blog on Twitter @startuprev and you can also follow Brad Feld @bfeld. Thanks for tuning in to this week’s episode of Everyone Funding Startups. Check out our new podcast page at EveryoneFundingStartups.com.
