The Startup Community Way – Table of Contents

My new book with Ian Hathaway, The Startup Community Way, comes out on 7/28. We’ve begun the pre-order campaign. Since every author loves pre-orders, so if you want to do something that will make me smile today, pre-order your copy here.

To give you a sense of the book, the following is the Table of Contents, in detail.

CHAPTER ONE: Introduction

– The Next Generation

– Our Approach

– A Deeper Motivation

– The Boulder Thesis

– Startup Communities are Complex Adaptive Systems

– Where We Were in 2012

– Where We are Now in 2020

– Using Complexity Theory to Explain Startup Communities

– Evolving the Boulder Thesis to the Startup Community Way

PART I: INTRODUCTION TO STARTUP COMMUNITIES

CHAPTER TWO: Why Startup Communities Exist

– What Entrepreneurs Do

– The External Environment Networks over Hierarchies

– Networks of Trust

– Density and Agglomeration Quality of Place

CHAPTER THREE: The Actors

– Leaders, Feeders, and Instigators

– Actors

CHAPTER FOUR: The Factors

– The Seven Capitals

– Factors

CHAPTER FIVE: Startup Communities versus Entrepreneurial Ecosystems

– Entrepreneurial Ecosystems

– Alignment of Actors

– Different, but Mutually Reinforcing, Purpose

– Systems within Systems

– Entrepreneurial Success

– Community/Ecosystem Fit

PART II: STARTUP COMMUNITIES AS COMPLEX SYSTEMS

CHAPTER SIX: Putting the System Back into Ecosystem

– Introduction to Systems

– The Whole System

– Simple, Complicated, and Complex Activities

– Moving from Activities to Systems

CHAPTER SEVEN: Unpredictable Creativity

– Emergence

– Synergies and Nonlinearity

– Self-Organization

– Dynamism

– The Study of Interactions

CHAPTER EIGHT: The Myth of Quantity

– More of Everything

– Outliers, Not Averages

– Entrepreneurial Recycling

– Leaders as Supernodes

CHAPTER NINE: The Illusion of Control

– Not Controllable

– Not Fully Knowable

– Feedbacks and Contagion

– Getting Unstuck

– Letting Go

CHAPTER TEN: The Absence of a Blueprint

– Initial Conditions and Basins of Attraction

– The Narrative Fallacy

– Building on Strengths and Learning from Failures

– Cultivating Topophilia

CHAPTER ELEVEN: The Measurement Trap

– The Fundamental Measurement Problem

– Actor and Factor Models: A Categorical Approach

– Standardized Metrics Models: A Comparative Approach

– Network Models: A Relational Approach

– Dynamic Models: An Evolutionary Approach

– Cultural-Social Models: A Behavioral Approach

– Logic Models: A Causal Approach

– Agent-Based Models: A Simulation Approach

– Applying the Different Models

PART III: FROM THE BOULDER THESIS TO THE STARTUP COMMUNITY WAY

CHAPTER TWELVE: Simplifying Complexity

– The Boulder Thesis

– The Rainforest

– Applying Systems Thinking

– Looking Deeply

– Leverage Points

CHAPTER THIRTEEN: Leadership is Key

– Be a Mentor

– Entrepreneurs as Role Models

– Key Leadership Characteristics

CHAPTER FOURTEEN: Think in Generations

– Progress is Uneven and Often Feels Slow

– The Endless Long-Term Game

CHAPTER FIFTEEN: Diversity is a Feature, Not a Bug

– Cultivate Diversity

– Embracing Diversity

– Think Broadly about Entrepreneurship

CHAPTER SIXTEEN: Be Active, Not Passive

– Self-Similarity and Replication

– Don’t Wait or Ask Permission

– Play a Positive-Sum Game

– Continuously and Actively Engage

PART IV: CONCLUSION

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN: Conclusion

– Reflections

– Summary of the Book

– Final Thoughts

Remember – it’s pre-order time! And, the Startup Community community is now over 2,000 people and very vibrant so jump in.