How Social Incentives Prevent Critical Honesty About Players in the Entrepreneurship Support Space

Yesterday I wrote about how the elevation of unimpressive women and POCs hurts the fight for equality and I’ve written in the past about “pretangels” and the damage they do to the ecosystem. Both situations – fake investors and incapable ecosystem leaders – are able to happen for the same reason: nobody calls them out.  Continue Reading

Let’s Be More Critical of This Entrepreneurship “Hero’s Journey”

Many of our favorite success stories follow the “hero’s journey.” This isn’t unique to the world of entrepreneurship, but there is one particular “hero’s journey” tale that is incredibly popular right now, is intimately tied to entrepreneurship theater, and that we should all examine a little more closely.  Continue Reading

Providing Googleable Information Isn’t Entrepreneurship Support

Very quick post today but it’s about a topic that I think is incredibly important for those who fund ESOs to take note of: entrepreneurship support should not be about sharing facts, figures, and well-known tools like the Lean Canvas, it should be about providing individualized assistance to the entrepreneurs we’re trying to serve.  Continue Reading

Are Affinity Group Accelerators Helping or Hurting Minority and Female Entrepreneurs?

Recently, an interesting report from ICIC and the JPMorgan Chase Foundation about high tech incubator and accelerator programs revives the question of whether historically oppressed and/or underrepresented groups benefit from programs that segregate them from their white male counterparts.  Continue Reading

Don’t Bet Your Business on an N of 1

When you’re doing statistical analysis, N is your sample size. If you want results that are statistically significant, meaning that those results show an actual pattern as opposed to having likely just occurred by chance, you need a large enough sample size. Yes, I know this is a super dumbed-down simplification but stick with me…One of the things I see a lot in entrepreneurship circles is that business owners are willing to bet their entire companies on an N of 1, which is never statistically significant.  Continue Reading

How (and Why) ESOs Distract You With BS That Doesn’t Matter

I’ve worked in the entrepreneurship support space for many years so I’ve been to my fair share of workshops, conferences, and roundtables with economic development professionals and one of the most frustrating aspects of these get-togethers for me has always been the desire of some to spend an inordinate amount of time discussing useless crap that doesn’t matter at all.  Continue Reading