A new structure in business, one that involves a large group of equal partners, could be the next big job creator.
There isn’t a simple or easy explanation for Roanoke’s next big thing in business, but understanding it will be crucial to successful job creation.
The “entrepreneurial ecosystem” has been adopted in many parts of the country in order to increase entrepreneurial success by providing a supportive framework with no central figure. Rather, it involves a core of co-equal parts that together, produce positive results for everyone involved.
Samantha Steidle, who identifies as an educator, researcher and advocate for entrepreneurial initiatives, is finishing her Ph.D. in Community College Leadership with a research focus on the power of entrepreneurial ecosystems.
“Everyone wants it to be so simple and the thing is, the world in general is becoming more complex. Smart collaboration is no different,” she says. “The common denominator that hasn’t changed and, in fact, has become more important than ever, is the power of relationships. That has nothing to do with geography or hierarchy.
“Here’s what people don’t get, but it’s important that they do. A strong entrepreneurial ecosystem involves: Academic players, including community colleges and four-year institutions; government supporters and policymakers; content creators including media, researchers and other writers; corporate supporters; investors and venture capitalists; infrastructure, including broadband; physical spaces like CoLab, RAMP, and The Hive; service providers including lawyers, accountants, bankers, and advisors, like the SBDC; entrepreneurial events and conferences held by groups like technology council Virginia Tech/Carilion Research Institute and Virginia Western Community College.”
“Entrepreneurs are at the center,” Steidle continues. “Entrepreneurs come in all different styles and include life-science researchers, institutional entrepreneurs, inventors, main street businesses, minority business networks, high-growth entrepreneurs, social problem-solvers, political entrepreneurs, female entrepreneur networks, giggers and a host of brand new words: techno-preneurs, agri-preneurs, mom-preneurs, intra-preneurs and kid-preneurs.”
A strong ecosystem serves to support entrepreneurs of all kinds with a focus on inclusivity. That’s not to say that industry clusters, such as biotechnology, aren’t able to be front and center as one of the key initiatives within the startup community.
Steidle’s dissertation centers on the concept of institutional entrepreneurship for financial and social impact. Institutional entrepreneurs are defined as “change agents who introduce business models that diverge from the predominant model in the institutional environment.” In short, they help to develop a new vision, mobilize support, and motivate allies for desired outcomes.
One of the communities she’s highlighted throughout her research is Walla Walla, WA, and the role Walla Walla Community College played in cultivating economic impact through its viticulture (wine) program. (Brian Duvall, head of the Walla Walla Chamber of Commerce is a former chamber head in the Roanoke area.)
In 2000, the wine industry, and private sources donated $5 million dollars to launch College Cellars of Walla Walla, a viticulture incubator program. The economic impact was notable. In 2000, there were 20 wineries in the community. By 2014, there were 140 wineries and countless jobs created.
The National Association of Community College Entrepreneurship has highlighted similar stories of economic and social impact generated through entrepreneurial initiatives.
“Entrepreneurial ecosystems are powerful when partnerships are intentionally designed with an emphasis on impact and trust,” says Steidle. “Everything moves at the speed of trust.”
Roanoke’s Vice Mayor, Joe Cobb, recently attended the Kauffman Foundation’s annual Mayor’s Conference on Entrepreneurship in Kansas City (a city benefitting from entrepreneurial ecosystems). He came away impressed by the concept. He calls it “a creative, vibrant and connected network of entrepreneurs dedicated to sustaining a thriving environment for innovation, business development and growth, and community solutions.
“The key to this effort is to work together to identify roadblocks to innovation, entrepreneurship, education and community development by partnering with companies, universities, foundations and entrepreneurs to commit to solutions.”
He talks of innovation corridors like VTC School of Medicine, Carilion Clinic, Fralin Bio-Medical Institute and Radford Carilion, “expanding our ability to both grow the economy and address challenges our community faces (a 23% poverty rate, access to health care, workforce development, food security). A 2018 study conducted by the Weldon Cooper Center at the University of Virginia estimated the corridor’s fiscal impact for the region would reach $465 million by 2026.”
Steidle says that, in an effort to support Roanoke’s innovation corridor, “Virginia Western Community College’s new 77,000-square-foot building and forward-thinking leadership is offering STEM students entrepreneurial programming designed to cultivate a mindset for innovation. These early efforts will pave a career path—and talent pipeline—to the field of research commercialization, which is a key focus” of Virginia Tech Carilion Research Institute.
According to Cobb, “The synergy created between local government and entrepreneurs is dynamic and is shaping an environment for continued focus on inclusion, equity and growth in innovation. All of this is working together to make our city and region healthy and whole.”
Although economic impact is key, the power of social impact through inclusion is important. According to Marc Nelson, Roanoke City’s Special Projects Coordinator, “Entrepreneurship is now a viable path to success for many of Roanoke’s citizens. We are at a critical point in the development of our ecosystem. The foundation is solid, but it’s vital to ensure that opportunities are available for everyone, including women, minorities, and citizens from traditionally underrepresented neighborhoods. The city is partnering with a broad spectrum of community partners to make those opportunities a reality. “
Sheri Winesett, an advocate for the Innovation Mill and Advancement Foundation says, “There are so many resources in our community” to help entrepreneurs of all kinds, but the individual “may know only one. They don’t know which to go to and who is best to help. We are funnels for each other [within the entrepreneurial ecosystem]. We weave each other into the story.”
That system “takes it up to the next level,” she says. “We get so caught up in our own goals and this enables us to help each other, tying together education, research, data, interns, market research” and more.
The Entrepreneurial Coalition was recently founded with the goal of, creating “an awareness of each other,” Winesett says. “We are a community of partners that support entrepreneurs. We need to tell a better story … and we need to tie it all together.”
Tom Tanner of the Small Business Development Center in Roanoke says, “we all need to get on the same page,” emphasizing that when we do, there will be many opportunities. He talks of the Valley Innovation Council, that “oversees the technology side of the equation,” a vital ingredient in any ecosystem.
Margaret Cowell, Sarah Lyon-Hill and Scott Tate of Virginia Tech’s Economic Development office recently co-authored the paper “It Takes All Kinds: Understanding Diverse Entrepreneurial Ecosystems” and used the Roanoke-Blacksburg ecosystem as the case study because it is “interconnected socially and economically.”
The area is 3,300 square miles and houses 495,000 people in cities, towns and farms that have “nurtured a distinct region-wide identity and fostered business development activities at the regional scale.”
The study looked at the large variety of educational institutions in the region and how they are supporting entrepreneurs. One example involves the public-private partnership between the Roanoke-Blacksburg Technology Council, the City of Roanoke, and Virginia Western Community College to develop the RAMP accelerator, which supports high-growth tech and life science companies.
Also, in Roanoke, Virginia Tech’s partnership with Roanoke City and Carilion Clinic is growing through an expansion of the Virginia Tech Carilion Research Institute and associated development of an Innovation Corridor around health, life sciences and biotechnology.
Existing coworking and incubator spaces, such as the CoLab in Roanoke, the New River Valley Business Center in Radford and TechPad in Blacksburg, support a variety of entrepreneurs. In addition, a new coworking space called COgro, at the Virginia Tech Corporate Research Center opened in late fall.
There are several other efforts that promise “high potential” for young entrepreneurs offered at a collegiate level through Radford University, Hollins University, Roanoke College and Dabney S. Lancaster Community College.
Steidle stresses that, “no one individual or organization owns the ecosystem.” Rather, it is a collaboration intentionally designed for win-win outcomes for all partners involved, but especially for the region’s entrepreneurs.”
Ultimately, the impact will be “more jobs, more people served, and more social issues tackled together,” she says. “The most powerful ecosystems are led by entrepreneurs.”
If an ecosystem approach means more jobs and an improved quality of life, it is worth paying attention to.