{"id":18790,"date":"2019-12-04T20:04:22","date_gmt":"2019-12-04T20:04:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/?p=18790"},"modified":"2019-12-06T10:07:09","modified_gmt":"2019-12-06T10:07:09","slug":"it-takes-an-ecosystem-to-raise-a-successful-start-up","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/it-takes-an-ecosystem-to-raise-a-successful-start-up\/","title":{"rendered":"It takes an ecosystem to raise a successful start-up"},"content":{"rendered":"

Colin Mason<\/a>, University of Glasgow<\/a><\/em> and Michaela Hruskova<\/a>, University of Glasgow<\/a><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

The geography of entrepreneurship is \u201cspiky<\/a>\u201d, meaning that from region to region there are significant variations in rates of start-ups and, in particular, \u201cscale-ups<\/a>\u201d \u2013 new businesses that are evolving into larger enterprises.<\/p>\n

This can be explained by the fact that successful entrepreneurship occurs in \u201cfertile soil\u201d \u2013 economic and social environments conducive to entrepreneurial activity. And in some places these environments \u2013 or ecosystems \u2013 are much better at generating and supporting entrepreneurial activity than others.<\/p>\n

An entrepreneurial ecosystem<\/a> is a clustering of interconnected individuals, organisations and bodies that facilitates and supports entrepreneurial activity. This ecosystem provides start-up businesses with resources \u2013 money, people, markets and infrastructure \u2013 within an open, inclusive culture that has supportive policies and leadership. <\/p>\n

Supporting the development of entrepreneurial ecosystems is now a prime focus<\/a> of economic development policy. Cities and regions typically have dozens of entrepreneurship support organisations<\/a> (ESOs) that are fully-funded public bodies or not-for-profit organisations whose funding comes from government. These ESOs provide information, advice, networking, training, mentoring and financial help that is considered essential for entrepreneurial activity.<\/p>\n

In Scotland, for example, one recent study<\/a> identified 43 ESOs in Edinburgh focused just on technology entrepreneurs. Our own ongoing research has identified 87 ESOs in Glasgow covering all sectors including social enterprise.<\/p>\n

However, this profusion of ESOs is thought to be confusing for entrepreneurs who find it difficult to navigate the support infrastructure, raising concerns that there is overlap in the services that ESOs provide. But this is to misunderstand how entrepreneurial ecosystems work.<\/p>\n

Everything is connected<\/h2>\n

Every year the University of Glasgow runs a programme to support four start-up teams with a grant of \u00a32,500 and 12 weeks of one-to-one mentorship from the student enterprise manager. This includes introduction to ESOs in the wider ecosystem, training and space in the university\u2019s \u201cincubator\u201d to help teams develop their embryonic start-up. <\/p>\n

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