Launching Waco, one resource at a time!
Economic Development Solid Gold Neighbor
by Jeremy Vickers, Associate Vice President, External Affairs
An ecosystem is a living, breathing, dependent collaboration where no one person, organization, or municipality drives its existence. Much like in the animal or plant world, an ecosystem thrives on order and harmony, so too does an entrepreneurial ecosystem. When you imagine, in your mind’s eye, what an entrepreneurial ecosystem is, my hope is that you imagine a spider web of connectivity, designed with constant intersections, and something that is sticky enough that things attach. Imagine the spider is the entrepreneur and the intersections are designed to capture its prey, what it needs to survive, or what we would call resources.Entrepreneurs, like all living and breathing things, need certain resources to survive and thrive. The breadth of the resources necessary for an entrepreneur to survive, however, cannot be handled by just one person or organization. It is often said in the entrepreneurial world that a founder of a new business needs to know how to do about fifty things well in order to successfully launch a startup, however, the average entrepreneur possess the knowledge and skill to execute three to five of those necessary items. Therefore, an entrepreneur needs an ecosystem around him or her to supplement, complement, and fill the gaps. Enter LaunchWaco.com!
LaunchWaco is a new digital resource designed to support entrepreneurs, startups, and small business owners in the greater Waco area. It is a content platform built out of a collaboration between Startup Waco and Baylor University. This thought leadership platform offers a place for entrepreneurs, executives and business leaders of all industries to share their insights through a curated series of content pieces, all of which are designed to benefit the next generation of entrepreneurs. In addition, LaunchWaco has organized and maintains listing of local and national resources that entrepreneurs need to reduce their knowledge gaps.
What makes this partnership unique is that it is built upon a model of collaboration, shared ownership, and shared success. The local and national resource database was organized and prepared in a Spring 2020 course by recent Baylor Graduate Rachael Boyt. In addition, students from the Entrepreneurship program helped to write a few of the curated educational pieces through a Fall 2019 course. On an ongoing basis, Baylor’s Office of External Affairs will partner with the Entrepreneurship department and local business owners to expand the educational content pieces, while Startup Waco will help identify entrepreneur profiles and resources to grow the database.
Each week, new resources will be launched for better expand the knowledge and skills base for future and current entrepreneurs. Visit www.launchwaco.com and share this tool with your network!