Well actually, it takes a venture ecosystem to help startups flourish. Our academic research explores venture ecosystems and how founders can create positive momentum, even when they don’t have a lot of financial resources. The reality is that founders must rely on the help of many others in the venture community to get feedback, refine their ideas, and connect to investors and customers. We call these supporters “Venture Advocates.” See this link to a video summary of our article on the subject in the Strategic Entrepreneurship Journal. We have shown that the ability to cultivate venture advocate behaviors (VABs) increases the likelihood of survival for a startup.
Why is this relevant? Powderkeg, headquartered in Indianapolis, has been a source of support for founders in the venture and tech community for years. The seeds of many local success stories, including @Lessonly, @Emplify, and @OpenMartech among many others, were sown at least in part at Powderkeg events. The meetings, as well as the associated resources that Powderkeg now brings to those launching and scaling tech ventures, have been a great boon to Indianapolis, and now Cincinnati, Nashville, Denver, and other venture hubs.
Organizations like @Powderkegco, @StartupLadies, @Ventureclubindy, @LaunchFishers and many others play an indispensable role in central Indiana by helping entrepreneurs connect with energy, support, and like-minded others.
So, here’s our thank you to @Powderkeg for providing the opportunity to do a podcast about The Titanic Effect: Successfully Navigating the Uncertainties that Sink Most Startups! Here is a link to the podcast.
Now, we want to share our thoughts about the experience. It was a blast to do. Fortunately, our “host,” @MattHunckler of @Powderkegco, is an experienced and accomplished podcaster. We just had to follow his lead in terms of questions and interaction. The process was relaxed. Creating the content was fun—no multiple takes, no directors yelling “CUT”—just a fun conversation about the book origins and key content.
Probably the best thing about taping the podcast—and reaffirming to us—was that as the three of us shared experiences and concepts, we still had the initial enthusiasm, even passion, for the ideas in the book. The topics are fun to discuss. We still believe they are of value to #startups, #angelinvestors, and venture ecosystem supporters. Like starting a company, writing a book is a challenging and exhausting endeavor. It was reassuring to reconnect with all the co-authors and be as excited about the ideas as we were before we embarked on the book journey. It also reminded us that no one goes it alone.
We dedicate this podcast to the forums and communities that enable the VABs, without which our venture ecosystems would wither. And the podcast mentioned is just one small way to connect ideas to startups and supporters near and far.
If you’ve made it this far, we have a favor to ask: share your support for the book on social media by liking our Facebook page and/or following us on Twitter.