In our course we have gone on trips to Detroit, Chicago, and Grand Rapids, as well as a short trip to Starting Gate in downtown Kalamazoo. Our most recent meeting actually took place on campus believe it or not! Our most recent meeting was on Friday, February 27 at the Lee Honors College. In this meeting we discussed books that we chose to read, how the books have related to previous trips, and how they will relate to future trips.

All of the students in the class had the opportunity to choose one of the three assigned books. The three books were Startup Communities by Brad Feld, Rise of The Creative Class by Richard Florida, and The Rainforest by Victor Hwang and Greg Horowitt. Each student wrote and created a video summary of the book that they chose to read.  The first book that we discussed in class was Startup Communities.

Startup Communities, written by Brad Feld, analyzes the strategies, dynamics, and long term viewpoints necessary to build a sustainable startup community. As a class we felt that Feld’s analysis was based heavily on the Boulder Thesis. The class’s interpretation of Feld’s presentation of the Boulder Thesis included four main components. The four components of the Boulder Thesis include leaders and feeders, long term plans, inclusiveness and events that engage community.

Leaders and feeders is a dynamic of a startup community because it describes the relationship between the entrepreneur, leader, and the rest of the community, feeders. Long term plans of a startup community will reveal the community’s long term viewpoint and will thus shed light on the region’s startup success. Inclusiveness and events that engage the community are considered strategies of a startup community because they promote diversity. Diversity, whether viewed physically or immaterially, in the startup community, is used to increase the amount of resources necessary to solve tasks relevant to the community. Other elements that we discussed from Startup Communities were accepting failure and non-zero-sum gains.

As our class approaches the trips to Boulder, Colorado and Austin, Texas during spring break, we must reflect on these assigned books. Specifically we must focus on how these books have related to our past trips; how they will impact our future experiences and the roles they play in our individual understandings of efficient start up communities.