I think we can all agree that helping people develop an entrepreneurial mindset can have its challenges.  After all, you’re trying to change attitudes and behaviours – and most of us are creatures of habit and change doesn’t come easy.  Leadership and innovative thinking play a critical role in moving mindsets.  And when your audience is a room full of teenagers, you have your work cut out for you!

That’s the landscape for Lisa Evans, Founder & Director of the eAcademy at LindenPointe in Hermitage, Pennsylvania.  Lisa is one of those inspirational leaders who has a unique approach and program to help high school seniors become more entrepreneurial.  Her goal is simple but profound – to help prepare them for the world after high school as confident, creative, and thoughtful participants – maybe as a start-up founder, but equally valuable, as a contributing member of the community. 

Karl LaPan, President & CEO of The Northeast Indiana Innovation Center is no stranger to the world of company building.  As the first president and CEO of the NIIC, Karl has been able to shape the organization with his core values surrounding entrepreneurship, helping it grow into one of the top entrepreneurial resource centers in the country. The center is built with advising at its heart; from unique business building resources, the Women’s Entrepreneurial Opportunity Center (WEOC), the connected health lab, and programs that reach deep into the community. 

I recently sat down with Karl at the entrepreneurial table. The great thing about chatting with Karl is you can cover a wide range of topics – and we did.  From his thoughts on global entrepreneurship trends, to his latest book Guard Rails, his perspectives on advising and coaching entrepreneurs and of course, his deep passion for creating inclusive communities.  Sprinkled throughout our conversation are dozens of tips, insights and advice for those of us who support and inspire entrepreneurs.

Scott Koorndyk is the President of TEC Dayton. For the past four years, Scott has been leading his team and the community to build a vibrant entrepreneurial hub in the heart of Dayton. Listen as Scott details his vision for this community including their innovative partnership with the Air Force Research Labs (AFRL), 444 – AFRL’s newest creative space, their track record of SBIR success, and their efforts to build an entrepreneurial vocabulary among scientists and engineers.

Mark Long is the Director of Incubation Services at the University Florida. Under his leadership, UF Innovate and the Sid Martin Biotech Institute have both been recognized as world-class Incubation centers. In this interview we talk about four major themes Mark is passionate about – Recruitment, Retention, Capital, and Knowledge. And along the way you’ll find many nuggets of wisdom and a few humorous analogies. I hope you enjoy this insightful conversation with a business incubation thought leader.

In this episode, Wendy talks with Pete Turner, Vice President of Innovation at Indianapolis based Community Health Network about building an innovation hub in healthcare – the story of Community Launchpad.  Listen in as Pete describes how the concept of Community Launchpad got ignition inside a 16,000 person healthcare system and the vision, strategies, and lessons learned to create one of the nation’s foremost healthcare innovation companies. 

Darlene Boudreaux is known as a trailblazer who helped build a vibrant entrepreneurial ecosystem in Fort Worth, Texas. In this interview, she talks about the classic mistakes many startup entrepreneurs make when they are starting out, why the first $1M in revenue is so critical, and things communities can do to support the build-out of life science startups.