1. Study undertaken by INNOVATHLON Consulting
100 interviews 3 months in Europe & North America
March 2013
Contact
ENTREPRENEURIAL ECOSYSTEMS
AT THE DIGITAL AGE
Vincent PRETET
vincent.pretet@innovathlon.fr
+33 6 83 32 96 94
innovathlon
9 Rue André Darbon
33000 Bordeaux, France

2. ENTREPRENEURIAL ecosystem:
the pillars
Maximizing ideas sharing. Transferring
pieces of information, best practices,
ideas within and in between companies.
Fostering workforce turnover and building
upon creation-destruction-reconfiguration
cycles of companies.
SPREADING
IDEAS
HUMAN RESOURCES
Entrepreneurs
Talented workforce
2 behaviors to foster
ECOSYSTEM FEEDERS
Investors
1
KEY SUCCESS FACTORS
Service Providers
Large companies
attitude
entrepreneurs give first
before taking
collaboration
being partners
rather than competitors
Associations
An entrepreneurial ecosystem should be :
Public Organizations
Entrepreneur driven
Long term committed (20+ years)
Inclusive to anyone who wants
to contribute
2 types of companies
Telecom
gathering
people
StartUp WeekEnds, Digital Festivals,
MeetUps, meetings… all events
contribute to keep the ecosystem
running, to shed a light on what
happens. They have a profound impact
on the ecosystem since they create
opportunities for meeting people.
High Growth Companies are easily scalable: they employ
a numerous workforce and have a broad geographical reach.
They attract venture capital and constitute the shining part
of the ecosystem.
UNIVERSITIES & LABS
Academics & Scientists
Students & Graduates
Intellectual Property (IP)
Local Companies are not scalable but still profitable.
They are much more deeply locally rooted and contribute
significantly to the success of the former, through their
velocity and their expertize.
Study by INNOVATHLON Consulting - 2013
Real Estate
Transportation
ENTREPRENEURIAL ECOSYSTEM AT THE DIGITAL AGE
infrastructures

3. integrated Ecosystem:
the example of chicago
DIGITAL ECOSYSTEMS
AT global scale
IDEA WORTH SPREADING 1
1
1
1
The entrepreneurial ecosystem dynamics does
1
1
not depend on the number of1 inhabitants
1
1
1
1 but on the entrepreneurial density.
1
An initiative led by entrepreneurs for
entrepreneurs. This place inherits from
two symbols: it is named 1871 after
the entrepreneurial rebirth of Chicago
following the great fire of 1871; it is
located in the Merchandise Mart, the
heart of Chicago’s trade economy.
1
1
square feet of open space located in
the very center of Chicago.
250
StartUps hosted there 9 months after
the launch of 1871.com
1
Universities fostering ideas sharing
between, entreprenerus, academics
and students.
2
StartUps Accelerators : TechStars
for high growth companies and
SocialEngine for social businesses.
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
Number of inhabitants
1
Silicon Valley
Tel Aviv
Los Angeles
Seattle
New York City
Boston
London
Toronto
Vancouver
Chicago
1
Paris
Sydney
Sao Paulo
Moscow
Berlin
Singapore
Melbourne
Bangalore
Digital ecosystems ranked
by increasing dynamics
Santiago
Big coworking space split into two
parts: open and private.
1
1
Source: StartUp Ecosystem Report 2012, telefonica.
1
4
1
1
1
1
5
1
1
1
Venture Capital Companies having an
office on site.
1
1
1
Study by INNOVATHLON Consulting - 2013
+750
people working with passion on a daily
basis.
1
ENTREPRENEURIAL ECOSYSTEM AT THE DIGITAL AGE
50,000

4. STARTING a BUSINESS
AT THE LEAN STARTUP ERA
STARTUPS ACCELERATORS
AND THE HUMAN CAPITAL LEVERAGE
NEW sources
OF FINANCIAL capital
Starting a business in the web or digital sector requires a much
lower amount of seed-investment than in the past. This is the
context of Lean StartUp:
For more than 7 years companies have been committed to
the acceleration of StartUps development. TechStars and
Y-Combinator are forefront examples of such companies built
by entrepreneurs for entrepreneurs:
Financial capital is a scarce resource. Having access to it is
difficult, everywhere, even in the Silicon Valley where there is
a fierce competition between StartUps.
Identify a “burning need”
Build in short runs with existing
and accessible technologies
Launch a Minimum Viable Product (MVP)
Measure the impact on Users
Analyze impacts’ data
MVP
Refine by iterations
ATTRACTING INVESTORS
DURING BEAUTY CONTESTS
SwitchPitch®
Large companies explain the (non core business) need they
would like StartUps to fix. They then enter into long-term
commercial relationships.
$$$
cing
Eq u
it y
I nv
INVESTING BIG MONEY
DemoDay and Pitch
The force behind Accelerators:
human capital injection leverages
the financial investment.
500 investors
gathered for the DemoDay
es
t
en
measure
n
na
Fi
tm
DATA
Fund raising
for local companies
INJECTING HUMAN CAPITAL
Accelerators’ Managers
Network of Mentors
-
refine
New sources for raising financial capital:
Crowdfunding platforms for small equity investments;
Prefinancing platforms such as KickStarter where customers
pay before having their service or product been produced.
Customers
Venture
Capital
Crowdfunding
Business
Angels
Pitch
StartUps explain their unique solution to a «burning need»,
burning enough to create value, and seek for investors to
scale it more broadly.
Fund raising
for high growth companies
Study by INNOVATHLON Consulting - 2013
INVESTING SMALL MONEY
1 competition every 6 months
1 to 5% of teams selected
$25k to $50k invested for 5 to 15% equity
ENTREPRENEURIAL ECOSYSTEM AT THE DIGITAL AGE
build
Prod
uct
Pr
e
IDEA