Ecosystems For Change

As I was wrapping up the first year of the show, I found myself wondering what had come of all those great plans and even greater unknowns that many of my guests had shared with me when they were on the show. And selfishly I wanted to catch up with some of my previous guests to hear what they are working on these days.

So I invited a handful of them to come back and let us know how their world has evolved since we last heard from them.

You will hear stories about leaving corporate, entering corporate, hosting large events, and leading teams. We talked about the Lord of the Rings and weeding out hegemonic systems. We also talked about grief and fear and becoming parents.

And throughout all of it, there runs a beautiful thread of building and nurturing entrepreneurial ecosystems and communities throughout the Americas.

Listen to the full episode to hear:

How Charlton Cunningham is bringing intentionality in his relationships to his new, more settled role in Tulsa, Oklahoma

• Why Michelle Arevalo-Carpenter says it was important for her to model planning for transitions and stepping down as CEO of Impaqto
• How Shelly Rose moved past her fears, left her corporate job, started grad school, and went all-in on her business
• Why Denisse Rodriguez and Colmena66 brought in a DEI expert to kickstart a conversation about diversity and inclusion in Puerto Rico and how that impacted their reporting and events in 2022
• How Sassy Sassoon’s journey to parenthood has expanded her understanding of systemic barriers and injustice and how that parallelled her experiences at Zebras Unite in 2022

Learn More About Anika Horn:

• Website: www.socialventurers.com 
• Instagram: SocialVenturers
• Newsletter: Sign up for Impact Curator

Resources:

Charlton Cunningham:

• S01E03 – How to Build Trust Within an Ecosystem with Charlton Cunningham
• Shout-out to Cecilia Wessinger
• Lightship Foundation
• Charlton’s Tulsa startup guide
• Black Tech Week
• Startup Champions Network Spring Summit 
• SXSW
• The Power of Strangers. The benefits of connecting in a suspicious world. Joe Keohane

Michelle Arevalo-Carpenter:

• S01E07 – How to Build a Full-Service Ecosystem Support Organization with Michelle Arévalo-Carpenter
• The Wellbeing Project
• BMW Responsible Leaders Program
• Fabian Pfortmueller
• Life is in the transitions. Mastering Change at any age, Bruce Feiler

Shelly Rose:

• S03E06 - Slow Your Roll: Creating a Healthy Lifestyle with Shelly Rose
• Pure Roots Nutrition

Denisse Rodriguez:

• S01E04 – How to build an island-wide ecosystem with Denisse Rodríguez
• Dell Gines
• Boricua Entrepreneur Fest
• Colmena66 2022 Impact Report
• Startup Champions Network Spring Summit 
• Ecosystem Building Leadership Project
• Ecosystems Emerge, Dell Gines

Sassy Sassoon:

• S02E07 - Good Trouble: Stakeholder Capitalism and Global Cooperatives with Kate "Sassy" Sassoon
• California Center for Cooperatives’ multi-sector co-op conference
• Zebras Unite newsletter 
• Zebras Unite online community
• Holding Change: The Way of Emergent Strategy Facilitation and Mediation, adrienne maree brown
• Old Man’s War, John Scalzi

Before we kick off the next season, I have a very special episode for you today. 

At the end of 2022, I found out that there are several federal funding opportunities for entrepreneurial ecosystem builders here in the US. The US government is starting to see the effectiveness of an ecosystem approach and has started recruiting some of their programs accordingly, which is a great opportunity for grassroots ecosystem builders to finally get their work funded.

The downside is, they’re not really called entrepreneurial ecosystem building, so I knew I had to find someone who could help us translate these opportunities. 

In this episode, I am excited to introduce you to Melissa Roberts Chapman at the Federation of American Scientists who took the time to break down these funding opportunities for ecosystem builders here in the US. Meet Melissa Roberts Chapman. 

Melissa Roberts Chapman has worked at the nexus of policy, entrepreneurship, innovation, and economic development throughout her career. She identifies as an ecosystem builder and entrepreneur, and is a proud native of Kansas City.

Prior to joining the Federation of American Scientists, Melissa was a Senior Program Officer at the Kauffman Foundation, where she led a grantmaking team focused on building more inclusive, collaborative, and vibrant entrepreneurial ecosystems in the Heartland. Previously, she held leadership roles in entrepreneurship support organizations, started her own business, led coalition-building efforts, and managed political campaigns.

Melissa is deeply involved in her community, working both “in” and “on” Kansas City, where she is based. She is passionate about centering equity in her work, and building a future in which geography has no impact on the opportunities folks can access. In her free time, she and her husband Brad enjoy watching the Royals, perfecting brisket smoking techniques, and throwing dinner parties.

Melissa earned an MBA from the MIT Sloan School of Management with a certificate in Business Analytics, and a bachelor’s degree in History from Boston College.

Listen to the full episode to hear:

• Why ecosystem builders should keep paying attention to and partnering with legacy sources of funding and support
• How to bridge the language gaps between ecosystem builders and potential investors
• Why there is a place for all kinds of entrepreneurs in innovation ecosystems

Learn More About Melissa Roberts Chapman:

• Federation of American Scientists
• Connect with Melissa on LinkedIn

Learn More About Anika Horn:

• Website: www.socialventurers.com 
• Instagram: SocialVenturers
• Newsletter: Sign up for Impact Curator

Resources:

• SBDC network
• SBA lending programs
• EDA
• Provide input to the Federal Register
• Build Back Better Regional Challenge
• Good Jobs Challenge
• National Science Foundation (NSF) Engines
• Tech Hubs program
• Build Back Better Regional Challenge Winners
• Good Jobs Challenge Winners
• NSF Engines Applicants
• Sign up for the NSF Engines email list
• Sign up for the EDA email list
• Sign up for the SBA Ecosystem Building list
• EDA Build to Scale Grant Competition
• Natalie Self, Cortex, St Louis
• Ashlei Spivey, I Be Black Girl, Omaha 
• 24/7 Blac, Waterloo, Iowa
• Nia Richardson, KC BizCare, KC 
• Simone Curls, Prospect Business Association, KC
• Dan Smith, The Porter House, KC
• MIT's Stakeholder Framework for Building & Accelerating Innovation Ecosystems, Fiona Murray and Phil Budden

Welcome to my fifth logbook, an in-between-seasons update on what’s happening in the field of entrepreneurial ecosystem building, what’s going on behind the scenes of the show, and what is happening in my day job as Director of Ecosystem Building at the Shenandoah Community Capital Fund.

In this quarterly format, I love sharing with you what I’ve learned over the previous months and what I have planned for the next quarter.

Today’s logbook also marks the one-year anniversary of this show, so I’m taking stock of the first year of this podcast and filling you in on what I have planned for 2023!

Last but not least we’ll get to my favorite part: I’ll invite you to join me! I’m sharing several opportunities in which you - my dear listeners and raving fans - can get involved in what I’m doing!

Listen to the full episode to hear:

• Highlights from the last few months at the Shenandoah Community Capital Fund
• Looking back at the first year of Ecosystems for Change
• What’s ahead for the show in 2023
• An interview with Neil Mylet, founder of the RuralUrban Center in Camden, Indiana
• Three ways you can get involved in & support this show in 2023

Learn More About Anika Horn:

• Website: www.socialventurers.com 
• Instagram: SocialVenturers
• Newsletter: Sign up for Impact Curator

Resources:

• Shenandoah Community Capital Fund Blog
• Startup Champions Network Summit
• RuralUrban Center

How you can help:

• Nominate an Unsung Hero of Ecosystem Building!
• Leave me a voice message to share your thoughts on the show!
• Connect with me on LinkedIn and Instagram
• Respond to my fortnightly newsletter!

Throughout this season, we really traveled through the lowest valleys and highest mountaintops of ecosystem building.

My guests shared some of their hardest experiences of facing and trying to navigate conflict.  We heard some pretty hairy tales about naysayers and saboteurs and how even seasoned ecosystem builders struggle to keep their call and move their communities forward regardless.

But then we also talked about the magic that is social capital and all the things we can get done almost effortlessly when people within the ecosystem trust each other and are willing to pursue opportunities that are best for entrepreneurs in their ecosystem. 

Listen to the full episode to hear:

• The power of introductions and what social capital looks like in action
• Why conflict is inevitable in ecosystem building, and that’s not necessarily a bad thing
• Five key aspects of managing conflict in ecosystems
• How to mitigate  conflict before it arises
• Six ways to build trust and credibility within your ecosystem

Learn More About Anika Horn:

• Website: www.socialventurers.com 
• Instagram: SocialVenturers
• Newsletter: Sign up for Impact Curator

For our last interview of the season, we’re headed to Portland, Oregon, to chat with Rick Turoczy.

As Silicon Florist and co-founder and general manager of the Portland Incubator Experiment, or PIE, Rick has been supporting founders in the Portland startup community for fifteen years. 

We talked about how you might plan for succession as a keystone in your community, how you transfer social capital, and how you might leverage your social capital to put the next generation of ecosystem builders in place.

Even though he will never say so himself, Rick is an institution in the Portland startup community and I couldn’t think of a better guest to close out this season.

Listen to the full episode to hear:

• Why Rick believes in being place-motivated and focusing on a community
• The unique challenges of building community in a city with a small-town feel
• Why ecosystem builders need to be wary of nostalgia for what used to work
• Why ecosystem builders need to think more like entrepreneurs when it comes to scarcity and abundance
• Why Rick says the first step to building trust is showing up

Learn More About Rick Turoczy:

• Portland Incubator Experiment
• Silicon Florist
• Twitter: @turoczy

Learn More About Anika Horn:

• Website: www.socialventurers.com 
• Instagram: SocialVenturers
• Newsletter: Sign up for Impact Curator

Resources:

• Rick’s written interview on Social Venturers (2020)
• Stephen Green
• Mitch Daugherty
• Startup Champions Network
• The Startup Community Way

For today’s episode, we make our way to Indianapolis, Indiana, to talk to Julie Heath, Vice President of Entrepreneurial Ecosystems at the Indiana Economic Development Corporation.

Julie was the first employee at a startup, then executive director at Indiana’s first collaborative workspace, the Speak Easy, and now serves as a statewide ecosystem builder under the Secretary of Commerce of Indiana.

Julie shares how she and her team spread the ecosystem gospel among economic developers and gives us a new way to think about social capital that the Indianapolis ecosystem has embraced: Know How via Know Who.

Let’s go to Indianapolis.

Listen to the full episode to hear:

• Why Julie says “know-how via know-who” is the secret sauce of building healthy ecosystems
• How a personal conflict with her husband challenged Julie’s vision
• The challenges of scale in distributing game-changing smaller sums to founders
• How distilling problem sets helps resolve conflict
• How Julie has leveraged old trust networks to build new trust in her various roles

Learn More About Julie Heath:

• Connect with Julie on LinkedIn
• Entrepreneurship Indiana Yearbook

Learn More About Anika Horn:

• Website: www.socialventurers.com 
• Instagram: SocialVenturers
• Newsletter: Sign up for Impact Curator

Resources:

• Developer Town
• the Speak Easy
• 1Million Cups Indy
• Hidden Brain: Relationships 2.0: How To Keep Conflict From Spiraling.
• ESHIP Summit
• Startup Champions Network
• Entrepreneurship Building Leadership Project
• Kauffman Foundation: EPOP: Understanding Entrepreneurship in the U.S. 
• The Rainforest Blueprint
• The Rainforest: The Secret to Building the Next Silicon Valley, Victor Hwang and Greg Horowitt
• Amandula Anderson
• Strategic Doing, Ed Morrison
• The Power of Giving Away Power: How the Best Leaders Learn to Let Go, Matthew Barzun
• Social Physics: How Social Networks Can Make Us Smarter, Alex Pentland

If you listened to the very first episode of this show, the name Todd Nuckols and part of the following story might sound familiar.

When I first moved to the US eight years ago, Todd was one of the very first people I met. We met up at a coworking space called 804 RVA and I asked him how to get involved in Richmond’s entrepreneurship scene. Without hesitation, he pulled out his metaphorical Rolodex and generously opened up his network. To top it all off, he invited me to attend a conference in New York City with him that got me in the same room for two days with some of the world’s most renowned startup accelerators.

Todd’s rich social capital and the generosity with which he meets people are only two of the reasons I knew I couldn’t produce this season without him on the show. Todd, like me, is not keen on confrontation and conflict, yet he has managed it masterfully as a keystone in RVA’s entrepreneurial ecosystem.

A career technologist and committed dad, Todd Nuckols is passionate about advancing access to capital to fuel founders and community growth. Driven by faith and seeking to be part of the conversation wherever he finds himself, he wants to be known for leaving an impact on those around him for the better!

Let’s talk to Todd and find out how he invests in the lives of founders.

Disclaimer: We had audio issues with this episode but trust me that the content is worth suffering through some of the distortions.

Listen to the full episode to hear:

• How clarity and simplicity of mission turned one of Lighthouse’s initial opponents into a supporter
• Why Todd says it’s so important to focus on common ground when there’s conflict
• How to compromise while maintaining the integrity of your mission and purpose
• How Todd says establishing a framework where everyone gets a win builds trust
• Why owning your failures is also key to earning trust

Learn More About Todd Nuckols:

• Lighthouse Labs
• Connect with Lighthouse Labs on LinkedIn

Learn More About Anika Horn:

• Website: www.socialventurers.com 
• Instagram: SocialVenturers
• Newsletter: Sign up for Impact Curator

For today’s episode, we’re headed to Anchorage, Alaska to sit down with Margo Fliss.

Margo is a lifelong and proud Alaskan; when she’s not building the entrepreneurial ecosystem for the state of Alaska, you can find her fishing salmon in the Kenai river during the summer and raising her newborn daughter.

In this conversation, Margo talks about an ecosystem convening that went terribly sideways and talks about how she moved through this experience with a lot of grace and professionalism if you ask me. But I’ll let you judge for yourself. 

Tallyho to Anchorage, Alaska!

Listen to the full episode to hear:

• How a lack of consensus among stakeholders derailed an event Margo facilitated
• What Margo would do differently to establish common ground, communication, and expectations prior to getting everyone in the room
• How to approach “soreheads” who have lost hope in the project
• How showing up with support – even when the project isn’t yours – builds trust and rapport in the community
• Why building trust and social capital is like putting money in a piggy bank

Learn More About Margo Fliss:

• Connect with Margo on LinkedIn

Learn More About Anika Horn:

• Website: www.socialventurers.com 
• Instagram: SocialVenturers
• Newsletter: Sign up for Impact Curator

Resources:

• Anchorage First Friday
• Cal Newport
• The Medici Effect: What Elephants and Epidemics Can Teach Us about Innovation, Frans Johansson

Today, I want you to meet Cecilia Wessinger, who I’ve known for several years through her work as a community activator with the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation and her role at Startup Champions Network.

Cecilia shares what types of conflict she has encountered in helping convene an ecosystem of ecosystem builders. Cecilia also talks about how she approaches trust building among diverse parties.

Find out why we shouldn’t quiet but encourage dissent and what places you need to check out if you ever make it to Tulsa, Oklahoma. 

Cecilia Wessinger is an entrepreneurial ecosystem builder and founder of Mass Collaboration. She is also the Director for Global Community with the Global Entrepreneurship Network (GEN).  Prior to joining GEN, Cecilia was a consultant with the Kauffman Foundation, Future Agro Challenge and has led small group mastermind workshops and cohorts around the world. She has extensive experience mentoring and advising startup founders, ecosystem builders and organizations.

Cecilia has served as a speaker, facilitator and panelist at innovation- and entrepreneurship-focused events such as Shift, Tom-Tom Festival and ESHIP Summit. She has judged and supported pitch competitions for SXSW, U.S. Small Business Administration and the U.S. Department of State's Global Innovation through Science and Technology program. She currently serves on the executive board(s) of the Institute for Work and the Economy and Startup Champions Network, and has served on over a dozen non-profit boards in her local community ranging from the arts to education and entrepreneurship.

Listen to the full episode to hear:

• How Cecilia’s role as an ecosystem builder of ecosystem builders brought her close to being “collateral damage” when navigating conflict
• Why Cecilia says that cooperation can actually get in the way of real progress, and why dissent is necessary to problem-solving and innovation
• The lessons Cecilia has learned about transparency and relationships
• Why Cecilia defines trust in terms of hope, consistency, and honesty

Learn More About Cecilia Wessinger:

• CeciliaWessinger.me
• Twitter: @Liminal_Nexus
• Connect with Cecilia on LinkedIn
• Read Cecilia's Blog Post on Phenomenology

Learn More About Anika Horn:

• Website: www.socialventurers.com 
• Instagram: SocialVenturers
• Newsletter: Sign up for Impact Curator

Resources:

• Kauffman Foundation
• Global Entrepreneurship Network
• Startup Champions Network
• Who Do We Choose To Be? Facing Reality | Claiming Leadership | Restoring Sanity, Margaret Wheatley

Today’s conversation did not take me far from home because my guest, Jess Edwards, is in the midst of wrapping up a project in Danville, VA.

Jess is a project-based ecosystem builder who has done this work in her hometown of Buffalo, NY, in Dubai as well as in Alaska and - most recently - in the South of Virginia.

Jess spilled the beans on how she builds and leverages her social capital when she parachutes into a community and explains why ecosystem projects are very much like going on a roadtrip to Florida.

Jess Edwards is a systems leader that can quickly identify talent and resources from various industries and mobilize them. She has an exceptional ability to maintain a bigger picture mission while developing a comprehensive implementation plan. Jess has a vast ability to help people, organizations and communities reach their greatest potential.

Listen to the full episode to hear:

• Why some measure of conflict is inherent in the work of ecosystem building
• How Jess defines social capital and why it’s not just about how big your network is
• The three groups ecosystem builders need to have positive social capital with
• The number one conflict Jess sees across ecosystems, and three key ways to manage it
• How ecosystem builders can use their social capital to navigate interpersonal conflicts among stakeholders
• Three ways that proving your credibility in a new environment builds trust

Learn More About Jess Edwards:

• JessEdwards.com
• Connect with Jessica on LinkedIn

Learn More About Anika Horn:

• Website: www.socialventurers.com 
• Instagram: SocialVenturers
• Newsletter: Sign up for Impact Curator

Resources:

• Kauffman Foundation
• Social Capital Research