Mayors Who Look to Improve Their City’s Startup Environment

November 16, 2014 by Todd Crosland

Todd Crosland Startup Silicon Beach What does it take to build a startup environment in your city? Entrepreneur.com put out an article that discusses seven different mayors and the steps they have taken to increase incentives for local entrepreneurs. Most city leaders understand that more entrepreneurs and businesses brining in revenue to the city will be beneficial towards the city’s economic growth. The question, however, is how do they attract these entrepreneurs and develop a startup environment that allows itself to grow? This is the question that a majority of Mayors in budding startup cities are facing. Below are some Mayors that have already taken these steps along with different strategies that they have taken to promote startup growth in their city.

In Los Angeles, California, Mayor Eric Garcetti is focusing on increasing profits from LA’s growing Silicon Beach. The Mayor has recently teamed up with Ernst & Young LLP to launce their Entrepreneur in Residence program. With this program, the city’s team of entrepreneurs will be living in City Hall for a one-year term. The goal of this will be for the entrepreneurs to develop strategies and policies to enhance job creation and the startup community.

Mayor Svante Myrick from Ithaca, New York is creating initiatives to move the startup community from the college campus to the city center to boost the local economy. His plan is to rezone the city center to incorporate commercial buildings as mixed-use space for startups and small businesses.

Last but not least, we have Mayor Greg Fischer from Louisville, Kentucky. Mayor Fischer is an entrepreneurs himself, having invented the automated ice and beverage dispenser seen in most restaurants and convenience stores, SerVend. From his company, he was able to develop a private investment firm and Louisville’s first business accelerator program. Mayor Fischer also recently announced that their one-year old free software-training program, Code Louisville, has received a $2.9 million federal grant. This program looks to fill the thousands of vacant tech jobs in the area.

Bootstrapping for Young Startup Entrepreneurs

Todd Crosland Young Startup Entrepreneur A recent article in Young Upstarts deliberates the developmental phase that every startup company goes through: taking the idea and implementing it into a real, tangible product that creates revenue. A lot of young entrepreneurs might turn to accelerator programs, venture capital, or angel investing. However, this leads to sacrificing equity and freedom at an early stage of their company, which isn’t necessarily ideal.

The term bootstrapping is where young entrepreneurs will max out their credit cards and turn their homes into permanent working locations where they work late nights and early mornings. The article continues to give five pieces of advice from entrepreneurs who have gone through the bootstrapping process and come out the other side.

The first words of advice are from Samuel Huber, founder of Betify. He states, “Budgeting is king.” It is important to know exactly how long your company can last without revenue and external investments. Huber says to create a month-by-month revenue log and multiply that by 1.5 to be on the safe side.

The next word of advice is from Martin Brinkmann, founder of Deez.io. His word of advice is “prioritize.” Prioritizing funds and development is crucial to getting the product out on the market. A lot of time could be wasted nitpicking on “your baby” when the product is ready to hit the market.

Steven Lammertink, founder of cirqle.nl, tells us to master the pitch. The products pitch is how an entrepreneur will let investors and high-profile individuals know about the product. It is important to have a strong pitch to act as a good first impression. The pitch should include what the product is, the market opportunity, and value propositions.

Entrepreneurs should take on investors on their own terms, says founder of chekk.me, Pascal Nizri. A startup needs to be at the right stage of development to take on investors. Entrepreneurs are ready to take on investors if they want to expand their business or receive mentorship. Bankruptcy and last resort should not lead an entrepreneur to seek investors.

The last piece of advice is from our very own, Todd Crosland, founder of Seed Equity Ventures. His advice is to preserver. Nowadays there are thousands of venture capitalists controlling the startup industry, but soon enough individual investors from all around the world will start influencing the startup industry more and more. There are more funding options in the future, so there will be plenty of more opportunities for entrepreneurs in the near future.