Entrepreneur Ecosystems Strategies should not blindly follow others' successes but shake the given strengths of their ecosystems. In my work in economic development, sharing “best practices” of other entrepreneur ecosystem actions is a typical tool to help guide new funding decisions. This is because many funding organizations like governments, foundations, donors, and other ecosystem actors like to follow a known success story.
Singapore is an ecosystem success story copied often, which frustrates me more than Silicon Valley copycats! Silicon Valley has no political border or entity that governs it, so finding one organization or activity critical to its success is impossible. The lessons of the region are also very fuzzy; in AnnaLee Saxenian's book "Regional Advantage," she points to Silicon Valley's advantage coming from its "decentralized but cooperative industrial system." Ask any economic development agency to implement a decentralized and cooperative system, and they will develop a centralized agency.
Singapore is a country with a political border and concrete policies and activities that can be duplicated. The country ranks top 10 in almost every ecosystem, innovation, or competitiveness ranking. With such success, many economic development experts will google the country's policies and easily find many enterprise-focused agencies. The Singaporean government provides an impressive amount of funding that includes; enterprise grants, subsidized loans, tax incentives, advisory services, and workforce training. These activities are easy to understand, and many countries have copied similar activities. Just studying and copying Singapore’s subsidized financing and advisory services miss a more profound understanding of Singapore's success. Their success is driven by long-term investment in education, aggressive immigration and FDI policies, or government transparency and stability. These policies are more complicated and politically sensitive for ecosystem actors to implement[1].
The better solution for building a thriving entrepreneur ecosystem in your region is to leverage its strengths. Every great ecosystem leans into its strengths to build up long-term success. Singapore has leveraged its diverse talent, transparency, regional connections, and the rule of law to be a regional hub for multinational corporations. These strengths have led to an attractive regional place for International Founders to start their businesses. The UK focuses on the strength of its universities and public research centers to develop game-changing medicines and technologies. Cairo has taken advantage of its university system to produce talented and affordable engineers connected to one of the largest markets in Africa and the Middle East. In contrast, Silicon Valley's openness, ease of connecting, and large amount of early-stage capital continue to be critical to its success.
We should all learn from other entrepreneur ecosystems, but more critical is leaning into an ecosystem's strength and shaking what its momma gave them!
[1] I talked about the Hard Things of building an ecosystem at a Startup Thailand 2016 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qdd8zY6zO_U&t=1s
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