I’m excited to share a new-ish podcast I have been working on with Techstars over the last 7 months. Last week we dropped the 10th episode of the rebooted Your Startup Community. I have been doing startup community/ecosystem work now for over 17 years in Raleigh-Durham, NC and throughout the world since 2017.
Over that time I got a chance to talk to people like you about the challenges, the wins & losses and hopefully stumble on some best practices. I write about those every week first on Techstars website and soon followed on my own website with a weekly email option.
But I still feel like there is more to say and in a different manner. Hence us bringing back the podcast.
For those of you who follow the work, you might remember that I created a podcast back in 2021 that was very elaborate. Those 8 episodes of the podcast series (35-40 minutes), which included Brad Feld, Ian Hathaway, and a few great guests go pretty deep on what we thought were important then. It’s a fun compare-and-contrast with what we thought mattered then—and what we know matters now.
This current version of the podcast is intentionally short: 14–16 minutes per episode, one topic at a time, no filler. Think of it like a strong cup of coffee for ecosystem builders—quick hit, clear takeaway, then back to building.
And yes: I’m genuinely proud of this show. Not in a “look at me” way—more in a “wow, we actually made something useful and consistent” way. Which is why I waited until #10 was live before sharing.
These episodes (and the ones that follow – I have a list of over 100 topics) are about pulling the best of that earlier work forward—without pretending that you and the practice of community building has not evolved. What still holds up? What needs to evolve? What should a community builder stop doing immediately? And what’s the simplest next step a city can take to become more economically viable through entrepreneurship?
You can find it under the Your Startup Community podcast title wherever you get your podcasts. If you care about startup communities, ecosystems, entrepreneurship, or the economic future of your city, I’d love for you to give these a listen and share it with someone who’s doing the work.