The Right Resources Are Key to Growing Entrepreneurial Ecosystems

One of the more pressing issues for communities that have built emerging entrepreneurial ecosystems is how they can better support growth stage companies. There are many cities and regional hubs around the U.S. that are producing some great companies, with smart founders and talented employees, but without the right resources (outside capital, peer-to-peer mentoring, a national network) these companies will have trouble getting to that next level of expansion and success.

[Editor’s note: To tap the wisdom of our distinguished group of Xconomists, we asked a few of them to answer this question heading into 2016: “What is the most pressing issue for innovation communities in 2016?” You can see other questions and answers here.]

Author: Joan Siefert Rose

Joan Siefert Rose joined the Council for Entrepreneurial Development (CED) in August 2008 as president. Her responsibilities include overseeing programming and services, fundraising, strategic planning, and community outreach for the nation’s oldest and largest entrepreneurial support organization. Rose led a strategic initiative to reorganize and rebrand CED, which coincided with the organization’s birthday in 2009. She has formed alliances with regional entrepreneurial and economic 25th development groups, including partnerships with the entrepreneurship programs at UNC, Duke, NC State and NC Central. Rose spent more than 30 years in broadcasting as a radio manager, journalist, and talk show host, winning both the DuPont-Columbia award and the George Foster Peabody award, broadcast journalism’s top honors. She served as general manager of North Carolina Public Radio in Chapel Hill for 7 years prior to joining CED, and previously held positions at commercial and public radio stations in Raleigh, Charlotte, Detroit, and Ann Arbor, Michigan. She also worked for several years in health care planning and marketing. Rose has an undergraduate degree from Middlebury College in Vermont, and a Masters of Public Health from the University of Michigan.