When Ideas and Opportuniti es Collide Dr. Richard Swart Executive Vice President Grow America
When Ideas and
Opportunities Collide
Dr. Richard SwartExecutive Vice President
Grow America
Required Disclaimer
The crazy ideas in this presentation are entirely mine
I don’t speak for the views of Grow America all of the time
I disagree with
Classical economic theory
Economic clusters
Incubators
Much of the way businesses in Utah are organized and formed
Laissez-faire economics and limited government role in spurring entrepreneurship
Tribal society
The belief that smart people will do the right thing most of the time
What exists between ideas and opportunity?
There are only three essential ingredients to a successful launch:
IDEAS
TALENT
CAPITAL
Startup Recipe
Once launched, you need: To navigate growth Capture loyalty of new users Develop good business deals to grow
user base Forge advertising deals to convert
users to revenue Hire the right executives that
understand marketing to your customer
Raise capital to make all of this possible
Community High Level Recipe
To build a world class company (you want to, don’t you?) you need:
Clusters of accessible executive talent
Entrepreneurial capital Strategic partners that know how to
build from startup to sustainability
The most precious resource of all – human relationships!
Bad news for Economic Development
Clusters of smart, highly trained people do not mean that capital or business savvy naturally form
The cluster and center of excellence model do not show results, if created in areas without existing high velocity of capital to high growth potential startups
Recipe for Possibility Discovery
Ideas
People
Entrepreneurs
Organizations
Coordinating Infrastructure (unbounded)
Recipe for Innovative Ecosystems
Information Sharing
Education
Networking
Recipe for Business Generation
Analysis and Review
Mentorship
Virtual Companies
Building highly successful teams and scalable models
The Real Killer: Social Distance and Distrust
Networks are highly inefficient
Hubs are golden
Most entrepreneurs do not know how to connect to connectors
Social barriers create real transaction costs
Disintermediation of screened entrepreneurs and resource providers (meet useful people who provide a lot of value)
Circles of Trust
Family
Present coworkers
Past colleague
s
Professional
AffiliationsFriends
Social Affiliation
s
Church
Value of Networks
RX for Better Odds
Vet and validate your ideas, actively engage a wide range of people
Network at and above your level
Don’t waste your time, follow-up
Actively seek co-founders (outside your circles if possible)
Get on a plane and into networks
Grow America’s Role
Providing opportunities for feedback and mentoring
Learning and tools
Competitions
Supporting existing community innovators and trying to be the bridge between groups