Students select 1 of the following 3 books to read for this course.  Each student will finish reading their respective book during the first month of the course, and will be able to discuss the book’s main points with their colleagues and the people they meet with during the trips.  The three books are:

• Startup Communities, by Brad Feld (2012)
• The Rise of the Creative Class – Revisited, by Richard Florida (2014)
• The Rainforest, by Victor Hwang and Greg Horowitt (2012)

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Startup Communities: Building an Entrepreneurial Ecosystem in Your City

Author: Brad Feld | Publisher: John Wiley & Son | Year: 2012

About the Book (from the book’s summary on Amazon.com)

“Startup communities” are popping up everywhere, from cities all over the United States like Boulder, Boston, New York, Seattle, and Omaha to countries like Iceland. These entrepreneurial ecosystems are driving innovation, new business creation, and job growth. Startup Communities documents the strategy, dynamics, tactics, and long-term perspective required for building communities of entrepreneurs who can feed off of each other’s talent, creativity, and support. So if you think Silicon Valley is the only place to start your next venture, think again. These days, great business ideas can come from anywhere, and this audiobook is the smart wake-up call you’ve been waiting for. Based on more than twenty years of Boulder-based entrepreneur-turned-venture-capitalist Brad Feld’s experience, as well as contributions from entrepreneurs in Boulder and other innovative startup communities — this reliable resource skillfully explores what it takes to create a startup community in any city, at any time. With this audiobook as your guide, you’ll gain valuable insights into building a more vibrant startup community, as you discover how to increase the breadth and depth of the entrepreneurial ecosystem by multiplying connections among entrepreneurs and mentors, improving access to entrepreneurial education, creating events and activities that activate all the participants in the startup community, and much more. Along the way, Feld details the critical principles for forming a sustainable startup community, and discusses the various tactics you need to put around them. You’ll become familiar with the idea that in order for a community to grow both deep and wide — and to enhance its entrepreneurial density — entrepreneurs must lead the charge themselves. You’ll also see how developing a long-term commitment to the startup community is the only way to realistically become a leader of it. Feld continues the conversation by discussing how an openness to include anyone who is interested in joining the startup community — from students, researchers, and professors to corporate employees, lawyers, government, and investors — is critical. He also reveals how there has to be activities and events in the startup community that engage everyone in it from top to bottom. So, whether it be accelerators, meetups, or startup weekends, you have to create things that involve everyone. You can have a sustainable startup community in virtually any city in the world. But you need to know what it takes to really make this happen — understanding everything from the problems that may arise to the power of the community. Engaging and informative, this practical guide not only shows you how startup communities work, it also shows you how you can make them work anywhere.

Book summaries and videos:

• Alexis Lenderman: Lenderman – Book Summary – Feld | Video
• Josie Marshall: Marshallj – Book Summary – Feld | Video
• Kaitlin Marshall: Marshallk – Book Summary – Feld | Video

 

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The Rise of the Creative Class–Revisited: 10th Anniversary Edition–Revised and Expanded

Author: Richard Florida | Publisher: Basic Books | Year: 2014

About the Book (from the book’s summary on Amazon.com)

Initially published in 2002, The Rise of the Creative Class quickly achieved classic status for its identification of forces then only beginning to reshape our economy, geography, and workplace. Weaving story-telling with original research, Richard Florida identified a fundamental shift linking a host of seemingly unrelated changes in American society: the growing importance of creativity in people’s work lives and the emergence of a class of people unified by their engagement in creative work. Millions of us were beginning to work and live much as creative types like artists and scientists always had, Florida observed, and this Creative Class was determining how the workplace was organized, what companies would prosper or go bankrupt, and even which cities would thrive. In The Rise of the Creative Class Revisited, Florida further refines his occupational, demographic, psychological, and economic profile of the Creative Class, incorporates a decade of research, and adds five new chapters covering the global effects of the Creative Class and exploring the factors that shape “quality of place” in our changing cities and suburbs.

Book summaries and videos:

• Simbarashe Chirara: Chirara – Book Summary – Florida | Video
• Elyse Hogan: Hogan – Book Summary – Florida | Video
• M.M.: MM – Book Summary – Florida | Video

 

 

 

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The Rainforest: The Secret to Building the Next Silicon Valley

Author: Victor Hwang and Greg Horowitt | Publisher: Regenwald | Year: 2012

About the Book (from the book’s summary on Amazon.com)

What makes places like Silicon Valley tick? Can we replicate that magic in other places? How do you foster innovation in your own networks? Discover the answers in this groundbreaking book from two of the world’s leading experts at the intersection of venture capital and global development. Victor W. Hwang and Greg Horowitt propose a radical new theory to explain the nature of innovation ecosystems: human networks that generate extraordinary creativity and output. They argue that free market thinking fails to consider the impact of human nature on the innovation process. This ambitious work challenges the basic assumptions that economists have held for over a century. The authors argue that such ecosystems – what they call Rainforests – can only thrive when certain cultural behaviors unlock human potential. People in Rainforests belong to “tribes of trust” and follow a secret unwritten code: the Rules of the Rainforest. The theory of the Rainforest is influenced by several breakthrough ideas in academia, including insights on sociobiology from Harvard, economic transactions from the University of Chicago, design theory from Stanford, and the latest research in neuroscience and social network theory, among others. With an unorthodox and entertaining narrative, the book reveals the mysterious mechanisms of Rainforests. Furthermore, the authors provide practical tools for readers to design, build, and sustain new innovation ecosystems. The Rainforest will transform the way you think about technology, business, and leadership.

Book summaries and videos:

• Ethan Archer: Archer – Book Summary – Hwang-Horowitt | Video
• Eric Carlo: Carlo – Book Summary – Hwang-Horowitt | Video
• Jill Puckett: Puckett – Book Summary – Hwang-Horowitt | Video
• Adam Roth: Roth – Book Summary – Hwang-Horowitt | Video