Paige Finn DohertyFounding Partner, Behind Genius · Founding Partner at Behind Genius Ventures

what ingredients can you impact as an investor to build a local ecosystem?

17 Nov 2023 · 1 min

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In a brief conversational exchange, Speaker B offers practical guidance for investors aiming to nurture a local pre‑seed and seed‑stage startup ecosystem, using San Diego as an example. The core recommendation is to assemble a small, high‑quality group of 10–20 individuals who are interested in founding companies. The investor should tap into the region’s strong university talent pool and existing tech community to identify these people. By selecting a cohort with shared interests and goals, the investor can create an MVP‑style community that serves as the foundation for a thriving ecosystem, reducing the need for a large population base.

Chapters

What do you believe are the ingredients that you can impact as an investor to build a local ecosystem around like pre-seed and seed stage startups?
Yeah, well, if I were you in San Diego, I think you need 2 things. You know, the first thing is choose a small group of people, high quality people that are interested in starting companies, right? So you need to be able to find those people. I think Luckily in San Diego you have great universities, there is a tech scene, right? It's not San Francisco, but you don't need thousands of people. You can get a group of 10, 20 people max to be part of this, you know, MVP-like community, right? And just by choosing the initial cohort to be folks that have things in common and goals in common, it's half of the battle, right?