Yesterday, a trending topic that encouraged a lot of good discussion from the people I follow from Philadelphia, was sparked by a blog posted by @bjennelle in regards to Fast Company searching for the five best cities in the country to launch a startup. In Blake's post he posed some really good points as to why Philly is a good place for a startup: (1) because they have "one of the tightest startup communities of significant size in the country"; (2) Philly's entrepreneurial and creative scene have been built grassroots by entrepreneurs for entrepreneurs; (3) Philly has had success in grassroot help-groups for entrepreneurs like Philly Startup Leaders , Indy Hall, Barcamp, Ignite, Technically Philly, MakePhilly, The Hacktory, Hive76, Refresh Philly, etc. Even though it seems with all these resources Philly has a great startup ecosystem already in place, the people that commented on the post, as well as Blake all still feel that the city needs to make a good amount of changes to catch up to elite cities like New York, San Francisco, Boulder, Seattle, and Austin. The unanimous feeling was that Philly has made some good strides, but as far as being a great city for startups, it is just in the infancy stages.
Naturally as I read through the comments, I started to think about where Delaware (Wilmington) would be on the food chain for great startup cities. As many of you all from Delaware know, our state is not the most receptive to new ideas or businesses. I can say this since Wes and I are in the process of launching an untraditional business (The coIN Loft) in Delaware, and have found it more of an uphill battle, even though it can do so much good for the entrepreneurial ecosystem. It seems that things that are adopted in the elite cities, take forever to make a splash in this state, don't believe me, just take a gander at the small number of people really using social media to their advantage. I find it kind of embarrassing that this is the way things work here, however I also find it encouraging, mostly because this means that this state is leaving it open for new leaders to step up and pull this state to where I know it can be. Like Governor Markell said in something I read yesterday about the future of business in Delaware, "Delaware needs to be and can be the best place in the country to start and grow a business."
My first reaction to this quote by Markell is: Wow, this is awesome; it looks like Delaware is finally going to be placed where it should be, but then reality sets in and I realize that this is something that is not going to happen very soon if some action doesn't take place NOW. One of my biggest pet peeves is the type of people that just complain and point out all the negatives, so instead of me being one of "those people", I'm going to suggest my opinions on what Delaware needs to do ( Wes and I included) to make Governor Markell's statement ring true.
(1) We need new ideas. This was very evident in Wes and I's talks with Mayor Baker, who said that Delaware is in dire need of new ideas because the traditional businesses are becoming obsolete. Unfortunately, the inability to remain relevant has led to many of these places closing or downsizing, thus creating a rise in unemployment.
(2) We need to be open-minded. Needing new ideas is one thing, but when these NEW ideas are generated, we need to be open-minded and embrace the ones with potential (not just potential we're comfortable with either). A perfect example of this was an innovative tech company Wes and I were working with last year, that could not and did not get the proper help/funding from the state. This company was forced to leave the state in order to be successful, and sadly once they reach success, I can pretty much guarantee they will not return.
(3) We need to build a close-knit entrepreneurial community. Selfishness is a thing of the past, that does not exist in a world that embraces collaboration and community, due to the mass transparency social media brings us today. Just take a look at the people trying to sell you something on Twitter, they do not retain many followers since they have nothing real to say, and often times make an ass of themselves, thus diminishing their reputation. When everyone bands together and realizes the power a "crowd" can breed, that is when we (Delawareans) will create the type of ecosystem that is conducive to startups. New entrepreneurs need to see that there is a community that will welcome them and help them grow. When ego is dropped at the door, it is miraculous what the mind of many can conceive.
(4) We need to embrace and harness the young talent. This is something that goes beyond words, the young talent is going to be the future of the city, so it should be paramount that it is embraced and encouraged now. One of the biggest problems Delaware has it that it does a poor job of retaining the graduates of its schools. We are losing very smart and talented people to these other cities because they do not see the same opportunity in this state compared to the others. I can speak from experience on this because Wes and I would often travel to New York, Boston, and Philly when we launched Verge because we related to the entrepreneurial community in the other states much more than the experiences we had in Delaware. We had thoughts of just doing business in other states because we felt Delaware just wasn't moving at the speed we wanted. It was not until we began launching The coIN Loft, that we truly felt Delaware had a lot of potential. What I am trying to say is that by embracing the younger generations and letting them give their input, it would make this state a lot more attractive. For that reason alone, we've opened the doors of coIN to high school and college students exploring the idea of entrepreneurship while they're still in school.
(5) We need experience in today's economy/hot industries. Experience is something that is very much needed in our state, and I am not talking about just any experience, I am talking about the people who have their hands on the pulse of the hot industries and the ones who have launched successful scaling startups in this decade. This may seem like a dig, but I think everyone can agree that the business world today is a thousand times different than what it was years and years ago. Experience like this is invaluable, take a look at the dream team Foursquare, a New York startup put together.
(6) We need true startup/early-stage capital. It doesn't matter how great of a startup ecosystem you have, if there is no access to early-stage capital. Ultimately, a startup is going to go where the money is, since it is money that will be the spark that will allow them to scale. Delaware has a few resources for capital, however these resources need to look at alternative investments and new ideas. Now, it is easy to say that they shouldn't be so risk averse, because it isn't my money, however the angel groups and VCs that took risks on early-stage investments such as Twitter, Facebook, Foursquare, etc. will be receiving large returns, thus placing more money in the trough for the next homerun idea. It sounds like this wish may actually be underway, as I saw last night that Ernie from First State Innovation will be launching a fund for startups. One idea we've been kicking around internally is a local stock exchange. This isn't the time to talk about this, but I think it brings balance back towards the people, rather than a select few. A crowdfunding model specifically for startups would also be a great idea (this is apart of the vision of The coIN Loft).
(7) We need leadership and most importantly ACTION. Like Andrew Carnegie said, "As I grow older, I pay less attention to what men say. I just watch what they do." I felt this quote was important because in order to make Delaware into a great environment for startups, people are going to need to stand up and lead this change, not just by words, but by action. Philly has done a great job of this thus far with entrepreneurs launching the groups I spoke of before.
My point in writing this post is to hopefully envoke response to what others feel is needed to put Delaware on the map as a great place for startups, or to tell me I am completely wrong. Some discussion is better than no discussion, so I encourage the people that read this to PLEASE leave a comment. Let this be the beginning of an avenue to voice your opinion on doing business in Delaware.
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