Community Building and Newtons’ Laws of Physics/Motion
Sir Isaac Newton has something to teach us about startup communities- what not to do.
Newton’s first law of physics states that “a body remains at rest or in uniform motion in a straight line unless acted upon by a force.” For a second, and possibly with a frosty beverage or two in hand, let’s consider your startup community as the “body” in this metaphor. Go ahead, repeat the first sentence but replace the word “body” with “startup community”:
“A startup community remains at rest or in uniform motion in a straight line unless acted upon by a force.”
If we apply Newton’s law then your community will:
- remain stagnant or at rest unless you create a force to remove that state, or
- continue to grow in a straight line (or similar trajectory) unless a force is created.
As a community leader, you are either in fear of living in a stagnant startup community, or you are in fear that your current growth trajectory is either unsustainable or needs a new force to kick your community to that next level. This fear can lead to poor choices.
The key element in this borrowed metaphor is “force.” What is force with regard to startup community building?
Typical startup community-building “forces” include:
- Kickstarting an entrepreneur program at the local college or university
- Building an innovation park or building
- Creating a government-backed venture fund
- Forming an immersive code academy
- Recruiting a large corporation with a highly-relevant brand
- Launching a new-age incubator (now called accelerator)
- Announcing a regional re-branding campaign that includes the word “Silicon”
- Hosting a conference to convene/cheerlead the crowd on all of the great things the community has to offer and we are just so close to having Amazon HQ2 and if we only had more capital from the west coast or at least convince Sequoia to put an office here . . .
Newton’s 2nd law of motion, applied here, states that a startup community’s rate of change of momentum is proportional to the force causing it.
While helping to build the Raleigh/Durham startup community over the past 8+ years and now working with Techstars and Brad Feld – author of Startup Communities – to accelerate startup communities all over the world, I have come to see all of these tactics put into play.