When Big and Small Make Great with Brad Feld

OutsideVoices with Mark Bidwell

This week we are joined by entrepreneur, author and venture capitalist, Brad Feld. Brad is a co-founder of Techstars, a platform for startups to access funding and entrepreneurial networking, and is also the co-founder of venture capital firm, Foundry Group. Brad is the author of several books on startups as well as an entrepreneurial advice blog. He sits on the board of several technology startups and was an early investor in Fitbit, Zynga, and Harmonix.

What Was Covered

• How startup ecosystems have changed – and become more democratized – in the 30 years in which Brad has been active within them
• How digitization of production, distribution, customer relationships, etc., is making strategic “moats” much more penetrable than they were before
• How diversity of an ecosystem builds resilience but how our biases (both conscious and unconscious) make this difficult for us

Key Takeaways and Learnings

• Those large organizations that are extracting greatest benefit from startup ecosystems are doing so not through control (typical of a hierarchy) but through engagement and feeding back learning into their own institution – creating high levels of “return on learning”
• This large company engagement with entrepreneurs also builds loyalty, so that as startups grow they can become a positive weapon rather than a threat
• Great innovation leaders combine continua practical skills development (getting good at your work) with endless and radical self-inquiry (embracing lifelong learning and exploration)

Resources and Links Mentioned in this Podcast

• Brad's blogs Feld Thoughts and Venture Deals
• Get in touch with Brad on Twitter, LinkedIn and via email
• The companies co-founded by Brad Feld: Foundry Group, Techstars, Mobius Venture Capital
• The companies Brad invested in: Uber, Fitbit, Zynga, Harmonix
• Other mentions: Kauffman Foundation, Cox Enterprises, Amazon, Target, Metro, Barclays, Cedars-Sinai, Rover, Reboot.io
• Brad Feld's books
• The Ideal Financial Reporting Tempo for a VC-Backed Company, blog post published on Feld Thoughts (January 2017)
• Poor Charlie's Almanack: The Wit and Wisdom of Charles T. Munger, edited by Peter D. Kaufman
• Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap and Others Don't, a book by Jim Collins