Presentation on how to merge the work of economic development and entrepreneurship to build a strong entrepreneurial ecosystem.

1. ENTREPRENEURSHIP AS AN ECONOMIC DRIVER
Fusing Training, Relationships & Resources within a Community
EC GO: www.ec.co/ec-go
Twitter: @entrecenter
Michael Burcham
President & CEO
The Nashville Entrepreneur Center
615.400.7662
m@ec.co

2. THE DYSFUNCTION
I’VE OBSERVED
Mentoring
Government
Support

3. EVALUATING THE ECOSYTEM

4. BUILDING AN ENTREPRENEURIAL
ECOSYSTEM
The Individuals, Organizations and Institutions – outside
the individual entrepreneur - that are conducive to the
choice of a person to become an entrepreneur, or the
probabilities of his or her success.

5. Think of the Entrepreneurial Ecosystem as providing fertile soil and a
climate in which to seed, nurture and grow new businesses.
The enablers…
• Venture Creators
• Mentors & Advisors
• University Partnerships
• Support Organizations (Legal, Accounting, Technology)
• Labor Markets
• Investors
• Government
• Large Businesses
Are more effective when they are networked to encourage intellectual,
financial and human capital to flow to enterprises at every phase of the
startup journey.

6. ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT | ENTREPRENEURSHIP
Ecosystem Assessment | Key
Ingredients for Success
ECOSYSTEM
ASSESSMENT
1.
Economic & Community Development |
Planning via Entrepreneurship
ECD STRATEGY
2.
Partner, Business, Investor & Government
Engagement in the Plan
STAKEHOLDER
ENGAGEMENT
3.
Set Phased Priorities Based Upon
Findings of 1, 2 and 3
PRIORITY
PLANNING
4.
Do The Right Things | Do
Things Right | Execute
LAUNCH AND
EXECUTION
5.
Mentoring, Training, Capital
Continuum, Founder to CEO
BEST-IN-CLASS
PROGRAMMING
6.
Celebrate Successes,
Communication Planning
BUILD ON
SUCCESS
7.
FOMO
Fear of Missing Out

7. STEPS IN BUILDING A SUSTAINABLE
ENTREPRENEURIAL ECOSYSTEM
Align Your Vision for
Success
Ensure the definitions of success
match. Choose core measures.
Secure Business &
Stakeholder Support
Identify who is committed to help
create success.
Connect to Capital - Build
Funding Pipeline
Connect to Sources of Capital in the
Public and Private Sector.
Leverage Resources to
Drive Opportunities
Leverage resources to help create
wins with investable stories.
Organize Your Community
“Front Door”
Build partnerships: Entrepreneurs,
Mentors, Investors, Biz Partners

8. STEPS IN BUILDING
A SUSTAINBLE ENTREPRENEURIAL ECOSYSTEM
1. Align Your Vision for Success
You must engage in Intentional
Conversation about what you wish to
accomplish.
What Worked for Us?
- Partners see new businesses as a
form of new product development
- We Screen, Score, Mentor, and
Launch startups – these are our
measures of success

9. STEPS IN BUILDING
A SUSTAINBLE ENTREPRENEURIAL ECOSYSTEM
2. Secure Business & Stakeholder Support
What are the various Motives of the
Partners who need to participate in the
success of the plan?
What Worked for Us?
- Businesses become the 1st
Customers of our startups
- Find ways for partners to
contribute in their area of
expertise.

10. STEPS IN BUILDING
A SUSTAINBLE ENTREPRENEURIAL ECOSYSTEM
3. Connect to Capital | Build a Funding Pipeline
Spend some energy to link the various
components of the capital continuum
What worked for Us?
- Build seed funds: We have created
funds to invest in our own new
businesses.
- We have established 2 angel
networks
- We linked venture & private equity
firms into the process

11. STEPS IN BUILDING
A SUSTAINBLE ENTREPRENEURIAL ECOSYSTEM
4. Leverage Resources to Secure Your Opportunities
In my community, we have focused our startup | entrepreneurial efforts around the
categories that represent both our large businesses and our investment community

12. STEPS IN BUILDING
A SUSTAINBLE ENTREPRENEURIAL ECOSYSTEM
5. Organize | Create your “Front Door”
We established the Nashville
Entrepreneur Center as the city’s “Front
Door” for entrepreneurship
What worked?
- We screen over 100 new startup
concepts each month from all over
the US
- We have launched 114 new
businesses in 48 months
- They employ over 1,000 people and
provide over $100M USD in
economic impact already

13. SCREENING STARTUPS

14. THE “5M” FRAMEWORK
FOR SUCCESSFUL FUNDING OF STARTUPS
01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10 11 12 13 14 15 16
Idea – Biz Model
ü Management
ü Model
ü Market
ü Money
ü Momentum
Structure - Team
Operations - Market
Financing - Funding
Model
Management
MarketMoney
Momentum
Market Interest - Adoption
Weeks:

15. Entrepreneurs
“Ideas”
Categorized Entrepreneurs EC
Filter by EC Involvement
A’s
High Value
Entrepreneurs
B’s
Budding
Entrepreneurs
C’s
Concept or Early
Entrepreneurs
• Strong business plans
• Needs immediate access to
capital to start
• Good business model
• Potentially high growth
• Some developmental
issues or limited model
• Needs coaching and
development to finalize
• Early concept ideas
• Desire to build a business
• Needs basic information
such as registering
company, biz model design
55 - 60%
25 - 30%
10 - 15%
Our Business Model

16. OUR PROCESS
Intake
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
D’s
50%
C’s
30%
B’s
15%
100-Day Plan
A’s
5%
REFER TO CLASSES
“Learn About Business Models”
COUNSEL OUT
“Consider Helping Someone Else”
MENTORING VISITS
“Candidates for A-level”
Investment
LAUNCH
ACCELERATING STARTUPS
“Investable Start-up within 180 Days”
Activities
Screening
The “B” to “A” journey
Accelerator
Activities
Activities
Activities
Activities
Activities
Activities
Activities
Activities
Activities
Activities
Activities
Activities
Week
Week
Week
Week
Week
Week
Week
Week
Week
Week

17. SUMMARY

18. 7 CORE FUNCTIONS
FOR ENTREPRENEURSHIP TO THRIVE
Tools That Build Success
1. Process for Screening Ideas
2. Method to Identify High Growth Opportunities
3. Led by Successful Entrepreneurs
4. Business Modeling and Startup Tools
5. Seed Capital
6. Training and Mentoring
7. Community Engagement

19. OUR LESSONS LEARNED
WHAT HAS HELPED CREATE OUR SUCCESS?
Businesses
Must Be
Engaged
It’s not about the
building – it’s
business helping
startups build
their team, test
business models,
capture market &
raise capital
Seed & Angel
Capital is
Required
Early stage capital
is essential to
create prototypes
and build out
technologies. The
best startups go
to the sources of
capital.
1.
Execution, Not
Ideas Create
Value
Ideas are nice,
but there’s no
market for them.
Transforming an
idea into a
business requires
execution skill.
2.
3.
4.
The Ecosystem
Matters – a
LOT
The combination
of the creative
talent, seasoned
entrepreneurs,
business support,
programmers &
investors – they’re
all essential.

20. CONTACT INFORMATION
Dr. Michael R. Burcham
c. 615.400.7662
e.
m@ec.co
w.
www.ec.co
t. www.twitter.com/michaelrburcham
l.
www.linkedin.com/in/michaelburcham