The Keystone - A Podcast For Ecosystem Builders

The Keystone - A Podcast For Ecosystem Builders

By Yuval YardenBusiness
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The Keystone - A Podcast For Ecosystem Builders episodes

  • [Offseason] Meet Charlton, our newest co-host!
    Today is a big day for The Keystone! Yuval will be introducing you to our newest co-host, Charlton Cunningham. We'll be chatting about his story, current work and role on our show.

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    17 min
  • Episode #12: Rise of MSP and the Rest with Mary Grove
    We're coming to you from Minneapolis with the very first live episode (meaning we have a studio audience!) of The Keystone! Today we'll be interviewing Mary Grove, Partner at Rise of the Rest Seed Fund and co-founder of Silicon North Star, a non profit focused on giving Minnesota youth the opportunity to imagine exciting careers in technology through experiential learning in Silicon Valley. We'll be chatting about the creation of Google for Entrepreneurs, investing in startups outside of Silicon Valley and rise of the Minneapolis - St. Paul startup community.

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    42 min
  • Episode #10: Inclusion, culture development and program expansion with Shelly Bell of Black Girl Ventures

    We’ve officially hit double digits and to celebrate, I invited one of my favorite ecosystem builders (I know I say that often, but this woman is really at the very top of my list)… shelly Bell.


    She’s a computer scientist, a former high school teacher, a performance poet, a community organizer, a founder, and a CEO. She has two successful apparel printing businesses: MsPrint USA — through which she creates swag for clients like Amazon and Google with a team of women designers and printers — and Made By A Black Woman, which celebrates products made by Black women.


    She now serves as the Founder and CEO of Black Girl Ventures, and is focused on creating access to capital for black and brown women through interactive pitch competitions. Shelly is a force of nature, and I’m so glad we were able to capture her thoughts around inclusion, business growth, training, culture development and program expansion and fundraising. We hit a TON of topics. Buckle up, and help me welcome shelly bell to the keystone!


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    55 min
  • Episode #9: Building Rainforests- A conversation with Victor Hwang about the growth of ecosystem building as a profession

    Today, we have a very special guest, one of our very first supporters, and a man many of you turn to for guidance and inspiration- Victor Hwang!

    For those unfamiliar with Victor, he is the VP of Entrepreneurship at the Kauffman Foundation, the author of The Rainforest book and a long time ecosystem builder and supporter of entrepreneurs. We’ll be discussing his story, how he fell in love with his work, how he’s seen the industry change and the thing you’ve all been waiting for, where he’s headed next. Spoiler alert, the big reveal won’t be happening on todays episode, but we’ll hear some of his thoughts on the direction he’ll be moving in.


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    33 min
  • Episode #8: Empowering rural startup communities with the Rural Rise organizing team
    On today’s episode, we’ll be diving into a conversation many of you have asked for: rural entrepreneurship. In order to fully dive in and share several perspectives, we decided to do our very first group interview with the Rural Rise organizers. We'll begin by discussing the state of rural entrepreneurship and then transition to learning all about the Rural Rise community. Whether you are knee deep in understanding rural communities, have zero insights or are somewhere in between, I think you’ll find value in this conversation.

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    37 min
  • Episode #7: Building the largest free entrepreneurial event in the world with Erik Mitisek, Co-Founder of Denver Startup Week
    Today on our show we have Erik Mitisek, co-founder of Denver Startup Week, the largest free startup gathering in the world! He’s here to share the story of how they grew their event to 20,000 attendees and the lessons they’ve learned along the way while keeping the event completely free and welcoming to all. We’ll be chatting about developing partnerships, managing volunteers and building scalable solutions that enabled year over year sustainability. 

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    33 min
  • Episode #6: Lessons from building an innovation hub | From 1871 in Chicago to Embarc Collective in Tampa Bay With Lakshmi Shenoy
    This week I’m excited to introduce you to Lakshmi Shenoy an ecosystem builder I greatly admire. She recently moved from Chicago where she worked at 1871, to Tampa Bay where she’s spear heading the development of Embarc Collective. We’ll be chatting about her decisions to move down to Tampa, the listening tour she embraced on to develop her strategy and the journey she’s been on building a team and a space to support the community needs. 

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    37 min
  • Episode #5: Playing with Legos with Kate Hodel | Economic development, community infrastructure and leadership styles

    Today on our show, we have Kate Hodel, a pioneer ecosystem builder. I invited Kate to share some of her learnings with us today on our show. I feel lucky and humbled and inspired and i cant wait to share our conversation with you. A bit more about Kate… 


    She is the co-author of Beyond Collisions: How to build your entrepreneurial infrastructure which I highly recommend and has has been instrumental in building tools for ecosystem builders through her work at the Kauffman Foundation and then at KC Source Link. Today, we’ll be chatting about economic development, community infrastructure, leadership styles and lego building.


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    45 min

About The Keystone - A Podcast For Ecosystem Builders

From the publisher's feed

The Keystone is the very first podcast for ecosystem builders. Through interviews featuring guests from around the world, co-hosts, Yuval Yarden and Charlton Cunningham, uncover engaging stories,…