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