Cultivating an Abundance-Mindset (and the Economic Value of Community Building)

The case for an abundance mindset: why it is sine-qua-non to thriving communities, and what it takes to cultivate it (TL;DR: create safe spaces).

Note: the contents of this article are revisited from the original published in chapter 10 (Cultivating an Abundance Mindset of my book Hacking Communities).?

Why an Abundance Mindset?

"My goal is to live as happy an existence on this planet as I can, and by giving before I get, I maximize my chance of this."—" Give Before You Get," Brad Feld

The essence of communities is in sharing (anything). From food and shelter to values, knowledge, and ideas. Sharing translates to optimization. The same resource (concrete or abstract) multiplies its value when it is helpful to a diverse group of people.?

Sharing is one of the main reasons why building communities is not only good for our health but also for economic reasons. An abundance mindset was fundamental to developing some of the most successful startup ecosystems, including Silicon Valley.?

We'll talk about the economic impact of a culture of abundance by looking at some of the fastest-growing startup ecosystems worldwide. Research and evidence-based insights from AnnaLee Saxenian to Startup Genome will help us illustrate this idea. Some of the largest startup communities on the global level have abundance-related values in their list. "Give > Take" for Startup Grind. "Give First" for Techstars.

These communities have achieved grassroots growth at the global level by empowering their leaders with ownership and an abundance mindset, encouraging a simple action: give more than you take. But there's more to their success. These communities select people who already have a practical notion of abundance - I know this from experience since I interviewed hundreds of potential chapter leaders for Startup Grind across Africa and Asia-Pacific. Good candidates were already giving and adding value to their communities. They reinforced their purported values through actions by enabling their peers. They created tools, platforms, and events to help their community leaders give and add value first.?

For a community to grow through its people, it is fundamental to ensure its leaders share its core values—an abundance-mindset sine-qua-non to becoming a thriving community leader.

In this chapter, we will examine how abundance is the key to exponential growth and how it helps to spread a sense of ownership. Communities only grow fast by trusting their members to spread the word, and this only happens when founders are confident and trusting to empower their members with the knowledge and tools to do so.

We will also understand an abundance mindset from an individual's perspective. As a community builder, it is crucial to practice abundance to create a context for sharing between members.?

Finally, we will talk about what it takes to create an abundance mentality in scarce environments. To create abundance, we first need to build trust. It is only possible to ask people to share their ideas or resources if they feel safe. Creating safe spaces where people can be vulnerable allows authenticity, which is foundational for trust and sharing.?

The Rising Tide Lifts All Boats?

When I landed in Malaysia, I looked forward to integrating myself into its startup scene. I learned the best way to do this back in Buenos Aires, where I hosted Startup Grind and worked at one of the top accelerators in Latin America. I knew I had to add value first to become a meaningful part of Malaysia's startup scene.

I decided to start a Startup Grind chapter in Kuala Lumpur. Before that, I explored a little to see what was happening in the scene. I mapped most of its existing communities (events, accelerators, coworking spaces, and meetups) and invited some local leaders for coffee. Most of these conversations were warm welcomes, and I made some good friends. Later, we built ourselves a small community: co-hosting events, sharing best practices and connections, and going for beers.

But a few people advised me to wait to start another meetup. A lot was going on already, they said. There needed to be more people attending the current events. Some didn't even want to meet a "competitor." My first venue request was denied because the space hosted another meetup that competed with Startup Grind.?

Before I go on, I want to remind you that abundance rules all in community building, especially in ecosystem development. There might be competing meetups and companies, but if space gets small, the goal is not to kill others who threaten you but to widen the space. Reach more people. Break bubbles. We were all working towards a region's more extensive economic development (city, state, or nation), and the job was only complete once said region became a global case of economic growth. The more, the merrier: competition raises our bar. Regardless of the negative feedback, I wanted to run Startup Grind as a way to give first. No one was interviewing Malaysia's seasoned founders, which was an evident gap. It was a missed opportunity to share knowledge. I decided to keep going despite a few warnings that there were too many events in town.

I hosted the first Startup Grind Kuala Lumpur in March 2014. Sixty people attended. At the next event, we had seventy-five. Then the third attracted 250 guests, which was a lot for a meetup—too much even.?

Holding on to the mentality of adding value beyond what already existed, we made it different from other events. For catering, we partnered with local food entrepreneurs to spotlight their brands. We partnered with up-and-coming spaces that needed visibility as event venues. We promoted other events happening in town.?

Within three months, Startup Grind Kuala Lumpur became a placemaking machine. Every venue wanted to host us (for free). Others offered food and freebies. I started hosting various ecosystem-building events: private dinners between foreign investors and local founders, coworking days, and cozy brunch sessions for other community builders. I also ran a weekly newsletter promoting all the local events.?

In six months, I was hired by the Malaysian government as a community ambassador consultant to help them build a more cohesive ecosystem, connecting their programs to the grassroots. A year later, I started my first business (acquired in 2016): an online marketplace for flexible work and event spaces. It was built on the extensive portfolio of spaces and people I got to know by hosting a wide variety of events. Most of my clients were large companies (including Heineken, KPMG, and even Google) willing to get their employees out of the office for a bit.

Eventually, I started other communities: one for B2B founders and another for women in science, technology, and business. But more than that, I made a lot of friends.?

What did I learn from this? By starting something from the authentic desire to add value and help others (who thought of themselves as competitors), I built a larger community for everyone. I learned that the rising tide lifts all boats.

Abundance Mindset in Scarcity Contexts

At one of the interviews I hosted, a seasoned entrepreneur said that if we had one thing to copy from Silicon Valley to make any ecosystem successful, it was the mindset of abundance. He explained how in Malaysia, people were often scarcity-driven. A context of poverty and corruption created a sense that if they did not take care of themselves, no one would. People would help themselves first rather than help each other. I could relate to that. Being born and raised in Brazil and living in Mauritius, Argentina, and Malaysia, I have witnessed a pervasive culture of distrust across most emerging countries. In these places, the abundance mindset is often restricted to familiar contexts: friends and family. In some cases, it extends to a geographical community (people help their neighborhoods, but not beyond).

Regardless of your context, whether you grew up in an emerging economy or not, if a scarcity-driven mindset defined the predominant culture, you must break a cycle before expecting abundance.?

You can only engineer an abundance mindset by giving first. Easiest said than done. But it has been done before. Abundance can be embedded (even in scarce contexts) if demonstrated by a core group of people who act generously, regardless of the circumstances, and reinforce a virtuous giving cycle. Over time, this circle expands and ripples, casting a broader net that incorporates even those who did not have a prevailing abundance mindset at the start. But first, you have to start strong.

Let's look at some examples of how this mindset yields positive results.

The Economic Value of Community Building

From Silicon Valley to Stockholm

In the 1970s, Silicon Valley and Boston's Route 128 shared a position as the world's leading centers of technological innovation, entrepreneurship, and economic growth. In the 1980s, both regions faced critical challenges (for different reasons). In her book Regional Advantage, AnnaLee Saxenian says, "It appeared that America's high technology industry, once seen as invulnerable, might not survive the challenge of intensified international competition."?

But while specialists expected its downfall, Silicon Valley was able to reinvent itself, responding fast to competition with new technology brought up by emerging startups.

Today, Silicon Valley maintains its crown as the most relevant startup ecosystem in the world, largely surpassing the runner-ups: London and New York City. According to Startup Genome's Global Startup Ecosystem Report 2020, Silicon Valley's startup ecosystem boasts a value of US$677 billion, while London and New York City are far behind at US$92 billion and US$147 billion, respectively.?

How could Silicon Valley keep its competitive edge while Route 128 took longer to regain relevance? AnnaLee Saxenian explains:

"Silicon Valley has a regional network-based industrial system that promotes collective learning and flexible adjustment among specialist producers of a complex of related technologies. The region's dense social networks and open labor markets encourage experimentation and entrepreneurship. Companies compete intensely while at the same time learning from one another about changing markets and technologies through informal communication and collaborative practices; and loosely linked team structures encourage horizontal communication among firm divisions and with outside suppliers and customers."

Saxenian goes on to quote Tom Wolfe, who says in his article "The Tinkerings of Robert Noyce: How the sun rose on the Silicon Valley" that "it wasn't enough to start up a company; you had to start a community, a community in which there were no social distinctions, and it was first come, first served in the parking lot, and everyone was supposed to internalize the common goals."

Wolfe describes the influence of the Fairchild Semiconductor Corporation in fostering a community-driven management style (which shocked executives from the East Coast). Several companies emerging from Fairchild shared similar core values.

According to Saxenian, "similar shared professional experiences continued to reinforce the sense of community in the region even after individuals had moved on to different, often competing, firms." She adds, "to this day, a poster of the Fairchild family tree, showing the corporate genealogy of the scores of Fairchild spin-offs, hangs on the walls of many Silicon Valley firms."?

The same was seen in other ecosystems. A 2012 study by Endeavor Argentina described how the Argentinian startup ecosystem flourished from its early companies through what it termed "the multiplier effect."?

Why does it matter? These companies embedded the mindset of openness and collaboration that would later influence the success of the ecosystems where they emerged.

The economic impact of collaboration was decoded through research by Startup Genome, which identified that more locally and globally connected startup ecosystems demonstrate better performance at a faster pace:

• Local connectedness translates into the level of collaboration and support from founder to founder, as well as by experts and investors (with no vested interest in the startups they help);
• Global connectedness is measured by the number of quality connections reported by local founders to other founders in top startup ecosystems. Quality is defined by the possibility to text, email, or call a fellow founder and receive an adequate response that includes valuable introductions and knowledge resources.

Strong relationships with other founders are strongly associated with higher startup performance, taking into account two measures: talent hiring and sales. Startups with low-connected founders have, on average, lower employment than startups that are better connected. A higher number of local relationships correlates to higher sales.?

Global connections accelerate founders' experience. Tapping into a worldwide fabric of ideas, talent, capital, and know-how leads to faster revenue growth and accelerates ecosystem development. More globally connected startups become scale-ups faster by growing their global market reach from the very start.

In a nutshell, Silicon Valley has grown as the epicenter of startup ecosystems worldwide thanks to an abundance mindset, translated into a culture of openness and collaboration. Even though its culture has changed over time, its influence has spread worldwide, inspiring places like Stockholm - which boasts the highest number of unicorns per capita in the world after Silicon Valley, according to a 2015 Wharton University study. With this success linked to an abundance mindset, it should not come as a surprise that some of the largest startup communities in the world, such as Techstars and Startup Grind, highlight "Give First" and "Give > Take" among their core values.?

The Abundance Mindset in Practice

Practicing Gratitude and Welcoming Impermanence

What does it take for you to give first??

A safe space. A sense of belonging. It takes people feeling glad to be part of something (humility). Feeling welcome, accepted, seen, and cared for as you are (authenticity) makes it easier for anyone to share anything. It requires people to feel that what is good for the whole is also good for them. All of these are prerequisites for people to feel abundant.

But as a community builder, you can't expect those prerequisites to be present. When starting a community, you must be the one to set the tone. Start by giving first.

I believe that most people are intrinsically abundance-minded, and it is just a matter of activating it. But we're often born into circumstances where we don't get to practice it. How do we start trusting if we're born and raised in a context where we don't feel safe around others? What worked for me was to stand on the shoulders of giants; to be around abundance-minded people. It doesn't necessarily mean hanging out with them in the same room—it could even be reading about them, listening to interviews, or connecting with their way of thinking through other means. The more you incorporate the mindset of abundance, the harder it gets to settle for scarcity.

Abundance is our original place. At the very beginning, our species survived thanks to belonging to communities where sharing (food, knowledge, and shelter) came as an advantage. Unfortunately, most civilizations grew apart and developed cultures where not everyone felt included on the same playing field. Still, at our core, we are wired to belong. It feels good to trust others. It feels good to feel at home with others and receive their gratitude when we give them something.

While working at Startup Genome, I had the opportunity to visit and research various startup ecosystems renowned for outstanding performance. I tried to decode the mindset and culture behind them. Stockholm stood as a favorite.

Not due to the city's fantastic unicorn per capita rate but because of the values they share. In several interviews, I found cohesion when asking local founders, VCs, and ecosystem builders about what makes that rate happen. I could sum it up in what they call the "IKEA's mindset," which is largely spread and known to influence most Swedish startups, from Skype to Spotify. It states, "if I can create a great product, at an affordable price, to solve a problem for millions of people around the world, why wouldn't I?" Many people explain the success of Stockholm by looking at its size and pointing out the obvious: due to a small market, Swedish founders had no option but to reach out to a global audience to grow. That's true, and even the Swedes would agree by sharing that their ancestors had made them predetermined to explore the world—from the Vikings to Ericsson, some would say. But there are other small markets worldwide that do not perform the same. There is more to Stockholm than that. That IKEA's mindset creates a great business model that builds global businesses. It starts with trying to help everyone, solving a problem for as many people as possible instead of maximizing profits on every transaction. And that creates positive outcomes for everyone involved.?

Abundance Daily

The idea that I can grow by adding value to others is an excellent example of an abundance mindset. Here's a list of other ways abundance-minded people think and act:

• Being grateful for what you have and welcoming it while being aware of impermanence. Trusting and being open to new circumstances.
• Staying humble and recognizing that "this too shall pass," understanding that it applies to everything - scarce and abundant moments.
• Knowing that the more you give to others, the more you get. But you must contribute with a genuine desire to add value and trust that your inputs will provide positive outcomes without expecting anything specific in return.

Cultivating an abundance mindset comes with practice. Sticking to it with discipline and relentlessness is fundamental as a community leader. Over time, your community activates a virtuous giving cycle that validates the benefits of giving first, making it easier for all individuals to act abundantly and counterintuitive to do otherwise.

Originally published on my Substack