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Turning #buffalo from a #rustbelt city into a #startup city?

@StartUpGrindBuf Turning #buffalo from a #rustbelt city into a #startup city?
@BrandMother Gloria Zemer May 21, 2014
Emerging research validates that where entrepreneurs start is as important as
what they start-up. And when it comes to where; its all about how. How prepared is
your city to revitalize small business, encourage entrepreneurship and stabilize startups, really? Any region hoping to own a coveted ranking on the next top 10 list of
start-up cities must be thinking deeper than old school incentives and more like
entrepreneurs to address the invisible needs that arent discussed or met.

What percentage of your citys total business is small businesses? How engaged
and invested is your business ecosystem? How is your city encouraging support of
your local business including big business, small business and start-ups across all B-toB, B-to-C and industry sectors?
Has your city clearly identified all of the industry clusters, market potential,
expertise and supports needed to make it all happen? Do your citizens know what you
are hoping to build and own? How is the city shaping the business concentration and
communicating the common goals, to the whole community, necessary to sustain and
accelerate highly specialized industries, innovation and partnerships?
Is your city more loyal than progressive? How is your city training the
conservative, stodgy and mid-sized businesses to take interest in the start-up
competitors, services, and technologies?
Is your city piloting major reforms intent on eradicating corruption, nepotism, old
guard entitlement and free enterprise killers? How is your city dealing with the
established political networks that fear disruption and hinder fair competition?
Is your existing start-up community sprawled about, fragmented and
disconnected? How is your city dismantling scarcity mentalities that hinder the
collision density* required to sustain a vibrant entrepreneurial culture?
How many of your co-working facilities are really investor and university
incubators bartering space, interest-free loans and mentors for an equity stake? How
can your city inspire legit, no-strings co-working and networking that fosters the level
of collision density* needed to inspire solutions, partnerships, and innovations?
Does your city value or devalue the support services, industries and niche
professionals necessary to bring new businesses and products to market? How is the
city preparing the interconnected business ecology to respect that its going to take
the village operating as a united strategic advantage this time?
Does your city know who they are looking for? How is the city attracting and
vetting entrepreneurs that can really go the distance? How is the city separating the
well-connected, wild idea generator with seed money from Dad and nothing better to
do from the business savvy, indefatigable visionary with ample technical skills and just
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operational knowledge to nurture the start-up through idea, launch and phases of
growth?
*Collision Density: as the density of people increases, interactions (collisions)
increase. These collisions lead to unplanned idea exchanges, which increases
innovation. (1)
In ideal ecologies, entrepreneurs attract entrepreneurs, start-ups launch start-ups,
small businesses invest in the community; the community re-invests in small
businesses, all of which cultivates a cluster effect that evolves into a distinct,
reinforcing, start-up friendly ecosystem. And this is the problem for any city hoping to
become a start-up city. Cities shy of entrepreneurs, cities wooing start-ups from long
and far, cities having to incentivize relocation, and cities that arent known for their
distinct, reinforcing, start-up friendly ecosystem likely have wicked problems that
hinder entrepreneurial pursuits and start-ups.
The serious competition for the Start-Up City title is a wicked problem unto itself. Like
the classic, All American City before it, Start-Up City has become the latest defacto brand identifier that too many cities are slapping on their welcome signs and
municipal letterheads. Defending the brand position and standing apart as a serious
contender for the crown requires radical change and serious investments beyond
superficial access to investors, hubs and affordable housing: Streamlining bureaucratic
obstacles and city hall mind sets. Removing overlapping procedural layers while
making it easy and obvious where to go for assistance, or how to assist. Leveling the
playing field and democratizing competition. Supporting existing enterprises,
stimulating latent industries and re-engineering next generation developments ahead
of the curve while nurturing start-ups. Sustaining buy-in while abolishing the practice
of back room deals and entitlement privileges. Inspiring an overarching atmosphere of
consumer engagement and business investment that advocates ownership of and
pride in the citys life support, the sustainable business ecology. These are the
difference makers.
And then there is the ethical dilemma. Every wanna-be, Start-Up City, in dire straits,
luring boot strapped entrepreneurs to your experiment has a duty to consider the
ethics of disadvantaging innovation, investments and entrepreneurs in economically
repressed, politically beholden or uber conservative regions not ready to develop a
reinforcing, start-up friendly ecosystem. Cities coming to see the value of start-ups
this late in the game are definitely disadvantaged; but not as disadvantaged as the
start-ups that get wooed into cities with one time grant funded programs making big
promises but having no community engagement or synergistic collision density
strategies (that actually work), no major reform pilots that ensure access and
opportunity, no long term sustainability plan and definitely no know how.
Entrepreneurship is not something out there, its carried in the vulnerable hearts of
people that think different and embrace progress. Any city vying for the heart of
entrepreneurs has a responsibility to evaluate their own.

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I say all that to say this, @StartUpGrindBuf. I launched a start-up in Buffalo. I know
what the city has to offer and what it has to overcome. Ramping up a Start-Up City
begins with kick starting the human spirit (not free rent at a high cost). In which case
Buffalo has an amazing competitive advantage. Rally, harness and channel the
Buffalove to dismantle the barriers, get down to business and lay claim to your seat at
the start-up table. Identify ways to bring the community together rather than isolate,
exclude or pit competing factions against one another (insider versus outsider, art
against industry, profit versus non-profit). Buffalos resilience, fortitude and spirit could
prove be a fiercely supportive business culture that excites entrepreneurial thinking
and amplifies successes, begetting more ventures, spurring more investment, evolving
a distinct, reinforcing, start-up friendly ecosystem.
Where there is Buffalove there is a way and a how to jump start the human spirit,
the key to your Start-Up City.
(1) Growth, innovation, scaling, and the pace of life in cities.Lus M. A.
Bettencourt,* Jos Lobo, Dirk Helbing, Christian Khnert, and Geoffrey B. West*