Who You Calling A Jesse?

They did it again, Communitech pulled off an amazing week in Waterloo focused on entrepreneurship. With some great speakers (Ali Asaria, Jim Estill, Tim Bray, etc) and a great events (Gala, StartupCampWaterloo, Founders and Funders, etc) the week was a rather intense week of networking, learning, and having fun. I had the opportunity to attend most of it and there were a couple themes coming up in conversations…

Talent, money, opportunity

The number one discussion item is where are the people to lead local startups, develop them or develop for them, and ensure they succeed. The stories range from not being able to pull senior developers from their high paying jobs at RIM to statements like “all Canada’s top talent leaves.” It flows directly into money.

If a startup is trying to bootstrap or has just enough revenue to grow but grow slowly it can’t offer the 100K+ salaries that some local companies offer for the most talented and experienced folks in town or those willing to come to this town. That is probably the big advantage startups in the US have over their Canadian counter-parts in that they are normally better funded earlier on and offer a more interesting life style that makes up for less pay.

However, I don’t believe that. Canada’s top talent is here in Waterloo. They are going to school here and making decisions on their future. The opportunity is here to sign them up to entrepreneurship young and develop that talent locally and I think a big piece of doing that is connecting them to their peers on a different level than simply academic.

The missing component: a belief that you can do it yourself

I have a nearly three year old son, I am his parent and his mentor (along with my wife). How do I guide him? Am I required to? He is fiercely independent and at the moment needs me to stay out of the way and simply (or not so much) keep him from hurting himself too badly. That is an entrepreneur to me. Someone who is constantly pushing the rules, the boundaries, and not taking direction literally. They don’t read instructions, they don’t follow the rules, they see all that stuff as guidelines and principles. Every minute of every day they are learning, adapting, and trying a new way to do something.

That all has to be tempered with the ability to know when to turn off that behavior/instinct and simply play the game to achieve their goal. That goal could be their undergraduate degree or that goal could be to ship a product and start generating revenue even though they themselves might not think it is awesome enough.

Mentors as (and) peers are essential to help entrepreneurs learn to harness their curiosity and drive.

It is about community

You can not underestimate the value of community. I absolutely loved the Founders and Funders event but at the same time it was intense speed dating compared to the open and fun atmosphere at StartupCampWaterloo. I found Founders and Funders a much better event because of the other community events where I have had the opportunity to interact with a lot of the same people in a less formal atmosphere—many I consider my peers or mentors.

Locally we now have community events like: StartupDrinks, DevHouseWaterloo, Web Design Meetup, Social Media Meetup, BarCampWaterloo, StartupCampWaterloo, DemoCampGuelph, MoTH (I think), Ignite, and likely others. These events level the playing field and support the idea that there is not a hierarchy with experts or gurus but a peer driven community.

I will say it a thousand times; money, speeches, and mentors do not create a thriving entrepreneurial community. It can compliment a community or they can hinder community growth or worse perpetuate a class system that might be applied to entrepreneurs (classes defined by age, experience, education, background, etc).

Waterloo is lucky. Communitech, the Accelerator Centre, VeloCity, CBET, TechCapital, and many other organizations are here contributing to the growth of the community at a number of different levels for a number of different big players. Momentum is growing… the best is yet to come.