Ecosystems have overtaken the world by storm, this is a handbook on how to think about ecosystems and go about building them.

1. Apples
Orchards
How to scale your impact & reach through
the power of ecosystems.
Not

2. A Visual Presentation By Rex St. John

3. Rex St. John
Has spent the last 15 years as a self-taught software
engineer and technical evangelist building global
ecosystems at Intel, Arm and NVIDIA prior to entering
Web3 full time. He is the co-founder of ReFi Summit,
Taroko Technologies and Head of DevRel at Saga.
He lives in Seattle with his wife, three children and one
cat.

4. Learn
What You’ll
• A modern understanding of ecosystems
• How to use ecosystems to achieve scale

5. Go!
Let’s

6. The History Of Fishing

7. Give A Fish …
Chasing Fish
Build Fishing Weir …
Teach To Fish …
Fish Come To You
Pure Luck

8. Amount of Fish vs. Energy Spent
Am
ount of Energy
spent fishing
Am
ount of Fish
caught
Understanding
of Fish

9. An ecosystem, like a weir,
is a structure that makes
fish easier to get and
more valuable to have.

10. Why have ecosystemsbecome so important?

11. We have entered
the era of
intangibles.
It is increasingly common for the majority of
an organization’s value to be stored in …
Software …
Algorithms …
Relationships …
Networks …
Brands …
Data …
Ecosystems!

12. As much as 90% of the value of many modern
corporations now come from Intangible
assets.

13. Source: https://www.statista.com/statistics/326052/apple-brand-value/
3 Trillion
What is in that $600 billion?
Relationship Networks
Brand Recognition
Brand Awareness
Brand Affinity
… Ecosystems
… Communities
3 Trillion
600
Billion

14. Ecosystem-based Ecosystem-driven enterprises
have advantages in:
Attracting Partners
Utilization of Talent
Compounding Growth
Time To Market
Antifragility
Efficiency
organizations
are thriving

15. Y-Combinator
Y-Combinator has generated tens of billions in value without any physical or tangible assets, only
pure networks of human relationships.

16. Linux Foundation
The Linux Foundation has grown so much, it has had to spin off multiple project clusters.

17. Taking Notice
VCs beginning to develop ecosystem capabilities.
Venture Capitalists

18. More Valuable
The key talent in the technology industry are being supercharged
via automation tools.
As it becomes more challenging to hire talent, it becomes more
desirable to “Federate” access.
Ecosystem-driven organizations can tap into a broader talent pool
of talent.
Web3 & Automation
Benefit The Top
Talent, Making It

19. The competition increasingly over who
Semiconductor industry has progressed by becoming increasingly intangible
Designs IP
Operates Fabs
Produces Chips
Designs IP
Offloads Fabs
Produces Chips
Designs IP
Offloads Fabs
Doesn’t Produce Chips
Open-Sources IP
Open-Sources Software
Doesn’t Produce Chips
More Tangible Less Tangible
“goes intangible” faster

20. offloading capabilities
As Tangibility Decreases,
Tangibility
Ecosystem
s
Ecosystems Increase
which are not core to the business.
Ecosystem means

21. Rebel Alliance vs.
Many shots, Many Strategies, Fast Recovery.
Slow, Bureaucratic, Overburdened
Death Star
Few Shots, Painful Misses
Heterogeneous, Agile, Liquid, Motivated, Creative, Resourceful

22. Open IP
Closed IP
Tangible Intangible
“Death Star”
“Rebel Alliance”

23. Challenges of • Take time to develop
• Require counterintuitive thinking
• Require product management design
• Require constant care and upkeep
• Involve risk of conflict
ecosystems

24. What EcosystemsAre Not

25. Resource Extraction
You must navigate the potential for conflict successfully, there will be overlap,
“inspiration” and competition

26. Logo Walls
You should never outgrow your ability to add value to partners

27. Ecosystems And Marketing
The Relationship Between

28. The goal of
When done properly, the value of marketing
compounds over time.
marketing is to
create a mature
market.

29. An ecosystem is An ecosystem is an organized, structured
and systematized market. It is the end
deliverable of the act of “Marketing.”
a mature market.

30. Marketing
Raw Material
Structured Market
Fragmented Market
Marketing Creates
An Ecosystem.
Organized Markets.

31. Market
Structured &
Systematized
Unstructured &
Fragmented
Commercial Motivation
Higher Purpose
Motivation
Community
Disapora
Alliance Foundation
Standards Body
Ecosystem Work Systematizes
and Structures

32. Ineffective Marketing Fails To Produce An
Ecosystem.

33. Becoming Ecosystem-Driven

34. Which would you
A random selection of 30 Y-Combinator Startups?
The Apples
Y-Combinator?
The Orchard
rather have?

35. Orchards
Not
Apples
Organizations of the future seem increasingly likely
to start as ecosystems (Orchards) before
building products (Apples).

36. Apples vs. Orchards Switch
Value of Apples
Value of Orchards
I think we have passed
this point.
Communities, Ecosystems,
Foundations, Individuals
Products, Startups

37. “Apples then orchards”
Step 1:
Old Approach
RIP Atari, killed by own
ecosystem.
Step 2:
Step 3:
Step 4:
Build A Product
Attract Partners
Scramble To Organize Partners
Learn to think in ecosystems

38. “Orchards Then Apples”
Managed Ecosystem
Step 1:
new Approach
Step 2:
Step 3:
Step 4:
Design Ecosystem
Attract Some Partners
Keep Partners Engaged
Bootstrap Products From Ecosystem

39. A modern definition of
“Ecosystem”

40. Community Ecosystems
Two Approaches
Enterprise Ecosystems

41. Enterprise
A system or set of programs
That an originating organization uses
To organize, connect, improve, structure, curate,
recognize, enrich the value of its market
Eco - System
Definition

42. Examples

43. Eco - System A collection of the most skilled & talented individuals in
your market distributed across a set of companies,
communities or organizations who collaborate for the
purpose of a mutual good.
A program or system to enrich, connect, educate, train,
organize, structure external communities of these
individuals
Community
Definition

44. “No matter who you
Joy’s Law
Joy’s Law works to the benefit of
ecosystem-driven organizations.
are, most of the
smartest people work
for someone else.”

45. Ecosystem-driven organizations benefit.
The fastest dogs love to run.

46. Ecosystems
Are Products & Programs

47. Ecosystem As Product
• Recognizable
• Produces Value For Customer
• Produces Value For Your Platform
• Has Features & Benefits

48. Ecosystem As Program
• Has a repeatable, recurring structure
• Is a system which produces value
• Has regularly, is iterative

49. Ecosystem
Our program is the best place for _______ , if you join, you get _____ , _____, ______. Every six
months, ________ happens. And we regularly organize _______ to feature your products.
Signing up is easy, all you have to do is _______.
In exchange, we need you to do _____, ______, ______.
Value Proposition

50. Maslow’s Hierarchy of
Market (Fragmented)
Community (or “Tribe”)
Ecosystem
United by economic purpose
People don’t know one another well
Scattered, not organized
Poorly categorized
Ecosystems

51. United by religious or impact purpose
People have formed into groups
Trust and knowledge increased
The groups have identities
Market (Fragmented)
Community (or “Tribe”)
Ecosystem
Maslow’s Hierarchy of
Ecosystems

52. Market (Fragmented)
Community (or “Tribe”)
Ecosystem
Structure has been organized systematically
Programs are in place to create value
New members are categorized
Value progression is defined
Everyone knows each other
Structure is EFFECTIVE
Maslow’s Hierarchy of
Ecosystems

53. Anchoring Your
Ecosystem

54. Anchor Activations
Evergreen, Repeating, Consistent
• Every 6 months ideally.
• Involve entire ecosystem.
• Involve entire organization.
• Showcase. Deliver. Launch. Synchronize.

55. Center Of Gravity
Evergreen, Repeating, Consistent
Permanent partner, customer engagement factory
Creating A

56. Ecosystem?
What Improves An

57. together
First
Value of a Graph
Connecting people
Number of Nodes ^ Connections Between Nodes

58. Second
Regularity & Repeatability

59. Progression
Third

60. Fourth
Shared Experiences
“Mass Broadcasting” less effective than ever.
People want meaningful experiences.

61. Recognition & Inclusion
Fifth

62. Magic Numbers

63. 50
You don’t need thousands
You only need 50
Sometimes 20
Sometimes 10
Or Fewer …

64. 6 Months Anchor Experience
Unify Your Ecosystem
Repeated Forever

65. 1
Start With One
One Partner, One Activation, One Program
How can I enrich this partner?
What value can I provide them?
Then grow it.

66. Thank you

67. Hardware
Democracy
Web3
Impact &
Sustainability
We are an ecosystem reactor
focused on Impact & Web3

68. We Are A Factory For Ecosystems
Sustainability + Computing
Web3 + Democracy
Web3 | DeFi | Metaverse
Web3 + Space
Web3 + Natural Capital