Entrepreneurship unifies: Introducing a new podcast on ecosystem building

If it feels like Americans are divided on just about every issue, take a closer look at one powerful exception: creating and growing your own business. 

“Entrepreneurship is one of the few issues that unites nearly all Americans,” said Victor Hwang, founder of policy advocacy group Right to Start. In a survey his organization commissioned, 94% of people “believe it’s important for everyone to have a fair chance to start and grow their own business.”

That support across geographies, incomes and political ideologies comes in part because entrepreneurship spans venture-backed growth startups, “Main Street” businesses and practically everything in between. 

While some of the billionaires present at the recent Trump inauguration may have started as entrepreneurs, they’ve crossed into a realm that makes many Americans wary. While nearly all Americans say small business is good for their communities, nearly the same number feel big business is bad, per Pew Research. This divide has long been there, but the gulf has gotten wider. 

Americans may be split on national and international approaches to big economic issues — governing globe-spanning tech giants, AI policy, border security — but locally, there’s consensus. Communities agree on fostering entrepreneurship, promoting workforce development and preparing residents for jobs of the future.

Over 15 years, Technical.ly has followed this up close. Now we’re piloting a monthly podcast on the topic. 

Debuting this week, the podcast features conversations with Hwang and others. It complements my weekly newsletter and our annual Builders Conference (in Philadelphia, May 8–9) to gather a community of economic development leaders and other ecosystem builders to improve their storytelling, and to advance national trends.

The rise of ecosystem building

Today, no US state is without its own entrepreneurship-boosting strategy, many of which include workforce development programs to equip residents with the skills to thrive in emerging industries. Increasingly, these efforts fall under the banner of “ecosystem building.”

However, many of these initiatives don’t yet recognize that many peers across the country are doing the same work. 

From Atlanta to Albuquerque, from Mississippi to Maine, ecosystem builders are tying their lower cost of living to a mix of cultural quirks, homegrown business successes and catchy slogans. But slick websites with glossy photos of young transplants in local breweries aren’t enough anymore. (It’s telling that the craft beer boom has finally ended.)

Local economic development has entered a new era, where attracting human capital — innovative minds, researchers, and workers — matters more than physical infrastructure. And the key to standing out in this crowded field? Telling the story of those who are doing the building.

Introducing the Builders Live podcast: A new monthly conversation

Starting in 2009, Technical.ly has been tracking this work in an expanding number of regions, culminating this winter in our national Map of Innovation Ecosystems — a resource for following and analyzing these efforts nationwide. 

We’re now adding a couple of new tools to elevate this national conversation.

One is the monthly podcast format for Builders Live, a discussion on the trends shaping local entrepreneurial ecosystems. Joining me as cohosts are Right to Start’s Hwang and Brian Brackeen, founding partner of Lightship Capital. For our inaugural episode, we invited Maija Ehlinger, editor in chief of Atlanta-focused news site Hypepotamus, with whom Technical.ly has previously collaborated.

Our goal is simple: to unpack what those organizing, leading and building entrepreneurial ecosystems need to know. Why now? Because after years of experimentation, tech- and startup-led strategies are ready to level up.

Mark your calendar: Builders Conference 2024

Looking ahead, we’ll also host the annual Technical.ly Builders Conference in Philadelphia this May 8–9. 

This year’s theme centers on ecosystem storytelling as a tool for boosting economic mobility. We’ll also explore how to leverage AI tools for professional development — two essential pieces of the puzzle for building thriving local economies.

Highlights from the first episode of this new Builders Live format

Here are a few key points from our debut discussion:

• Chris Wink on the rise of ecosystem building:
  “Ecosystem building is marching from fringe to something more serious. We’re seeing it in more government titles, nonprofit roles, and regional strategies. It’s becoming a discipline in its own right.”

• Brian Brackeen on why top-down efforts fail:
  “There is nothing that is more clear an indication of ecosystem failure than trying to put in a command-and-control aspect. Silicon Valley has no traffic conductor—it’s a bottom-up, chaotic, beautiful mess, and that’s the aspiration.”

• Maija Ehlinger on Atlanta’s ecosystem census:
  “We’ve always known Atlanta as a corporate town, but right now, the city is level-setting—trying to actually measure how many startups and founders are here. It’s about understanding where we are as an ecosystem.”

• Victor Hwang on supporting individual entrepreneurs:
  “The focus has to be on the person creating value—the individual who’s building something new. You do that at scale, and you can transform any economy. That’s where economic growth comes from in the long term.”

Listen now

Subscribe to Builders Live on your favorite podcast platform, or watch the full episode above. Let’s keep this important conversation going, together.