The importance of an effective entrepreneurial ecosystem and culture has been a topic of conversation that we have had as a community for a long-time, but Dan believes the journey has been disjointed.  Observing there is not an overarching goal or strategy that propels our culture or projects forward, his goal with Start Fort Wayne is to collaboratively build a cohesive vision and provide a goal-oriented structure to the community.  He sees the role of Start Fort Wayne as that of a connector, making sure we have the right relationships, funders and funding sources, and connections with related businesses that do things that Start Fort Wayne doesn’t do.

 

He wants to get people to start thinking differently about entrepreneurship support.  He wants to build upon the current funding sources by developing potential investors through financial education and mentoring opportunities, incentivizing a new breed of local investors who are more likely to embrace the risk/reward relationship of entrepreneurship.

 

Dan is concerned for the long-term future of Fort Wayne, as a high percentage of our major employers are corporations that are in the later stages of their life cycle.  We need to have a community-wide understanding of the types of businesses that are needed to create long-term wealth creation and economic growth in our community going forward, coupled with an ecosystem that facilitates the development of these businesses.  To this end, Start Fort Wayne serves as an advocate for the realignment of long-standing policies and priorities.

 

To gage our success, we should be asking ourselves:

are we effectively building trust and relationships…

are we effectively connecting people and investors...

are we effectively building leadership within our community…

…to generate the next generation of businesses and entrepreneurships that become large employers that drive community growth?

 

 

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