Rural Startup Lab

Slide decks and investor pipelines: fundraising in rural areas.

Raising money is different for rural founders. While tricky, it's no longer impossible.

In rural communities, innovators often think regionally rather than globally. Is there any way to change that?

Rural communities often use "Startup" and "Small Business" interchangeably. But they are not the same thing.

An excerpt from the upcoming book, "Building a Rural Startup Ecosystem"

Founders in rural communities often don't know what they're capable of. An excerpt from our founder's upcoming book, "Building a Rural Startup Ecosystem."

What is the role of patents and startups? Too often it is misunderstood. Would love to hear feedback from Wilson Fay and Cam Houser among others.

Community support is crucial for a startup founders. But in rural communities, too often people (yes, including parents) just don't understand.

Helping your community overcome the solo founder problem.

Here's an excerpt from my upcoming book, "Building a Rural Startup Ecosystem." I'll be posting a couple excerpts every week. -Maia Patrick Donohue Rural communities have unique challenges to overcome when growing a startup ecosystem. Many leaders will put "lack of investors" at the very top, but this is a mistake. Even if your community had a healthy sized community of Angel Investors, they would need companies in which to invest. To that end, I want to focus on 3 unique challenges that most rural ecosystems face, and how to solve them. The challenges are: Solo Founders Lack of community support Family issues Solo Founders I have run multiple startup tech accelerators in rural America, and the vast majority of our cohort were solo founders. Being a solo founder isn’t always a bad thing, as many companies fail due to troubled cofounder dynamics. One founder might think the other isn’t pulling their weight, or they might have different visions of where the company should go. I’ve seen cases where one founder hopes to IPO some day, and the other is comfortable running a small, lifestyle company. Similar to a romantic relationship, things that seem insignificant in the early days can balloon into seismic problems down the road. With all that being said there are more advantages than disadvantages of having a cofounder, and as a leader in your community, you can play a crucial role in guiding them through this process. The biggest advantage of a cofounder is complementing skill sets. One founder might work on software or building a prototype, while the other is working out the sales and go-to-market strategy. Without a cofounder, I’ve seen too many companies stagnate with a product, but no idea how to sell it, or a concept with no one to build it. Here is a quick, but crucial tip. Make sure founders only choose a cofounder with an essential skill set worthy of a CXO title. We had a great company in one of our accelerator cohorts, but they had a huge problem. The team was a CEO, a CTO, and a content creator. All had equity. Once they began to fundraise, the equity share of the content creator quickly began to raise investor eyebrows. This was more of an entry-level position that should merit a fraction of a percent in equity, not a major share. It took this company years to work through this problem, and they handled it with tact and skill. Still, it was tough to ponder how much further ahead they would have been had they not made their content creator into a cofounder with equity. Another big advantage of a cofounder is loneliness. A healthy cofounder team motivates each other. The sense of togetherness inspires and keep founders refreshed and working hard. Equally important is having a sounding board. Again, think of this from a relationship standpoint. Having a spouse or partner who cares about every aspect of your day is vital. That’s all fine, but how can you help your founders find cofounders??We'll cover that next. ?