Apr 6 2012

Motivations Of The Different Players In A Startup Community

Over the years I’ve encountered and discussed the motivations of each of the different players in a startup community. Mel Baiada runs a small venture fund in the Greater Philadelphia area named Basecamp Ventures, is the benefactor of the Entrepreneurship Center at Drexel University, and built the Business Calendar Network which is deployed on many entrepreneurial support orgs around the country as a resource to the entrepreneurial ecosystem to help get entrepreneurs together.

Mel emailed me the following chart which is his effort at summarizing the mission, target clients, and motivations of each of the participants. One of the chapters of the upcoming book Startup Communities is dedicated to this topic – please comment on (a) players that Mel has left out and (b) any targets or motivations that are missing from the chart below.

Player Mission / Purpose Target Clients Motivations
Entrepreneur
  • Varies
  • Varies
  • Fix a problem
  • Change the world
  • Hit it big financially
Management
Teams
  • Entrepreneur
  • Purpose, vision
  • Hit it big financially
  • Part of something
  • Fun
Executive Pool
  • Entrepreneur
  • VC
  • Angel Investor
  • Low risk
  • Personal cash flow
  • Hit it big financially
Federal
Government
  • Difficult to work with
  • No consistency
  • Tax revenue
  • Pubic safety
  • Economic growth
State
Government
  • No consistency
  • Four year cycle
  • Tax revenue
  • Public safety
  • Economic growth
State EDA
Agencies
  • Drive job creation
  • Budget from State
Technology
Parks
  • Supportive business environment
  • Start ups
  • Rent revenue
Business Incubators
  • Supportive business environment
  • Start ups
  • Rent revenue
  • State funding
Business Associations
  • Help grow the industry
  • Create jobs
  • Create wealth
  • Facilitate Networking
  • All players in ecosystem
  • Membership revenue
  • Event revenue
  • Sponsorship
Universities
  • Course revenue
  • R&D
  • Ranking/status
 Venture
Capitalists
  • High salaries
  • Generate large ROI
  • Low risk
  • Start up companies
  • Hit it big
  • Fairly secure high salaries
Angel
Investors
  • No salaries
  • Help entrepreneur
  • Generate large ROI
  • Can be a hobby
  • Entrepreneur
  • Hit it big
  • Intellectual stimulation
  • Meet people
Professional Advisors
  • Provide service
  • Minimal motivation to educate or provide knowledge transfer
  • Start ups
  • VCs
  • Angel Investors
  • Revenue
  • Looking for next big client
Chamber of Commerce
  • Help grow the local businesses
  • Facilitate networking
  • Local business people
  • Membership revenue
  • Event revenue
  • Sponsorship
Landlords
  • Businesses
  • Rent Revenue