When you look at ecosystems in nature, like the rainforest, for example, it’s not all tall trees but a variety of different species that come together to create a bigger landscape. The same goes for our regional ecosystems. It takes every one of every size to come together and win as a whole. This week, season 2, episode 5 of Entrepreneurship on the RISE Podcast, is about the value of variety in ecosystem building.

RISE Collaborative strives to create a more inclusive and vibrant regional economy in which makers, entrepreneurs, innovators, and service providers interact organically and collaboratively. Our mission is to enhance equity and access to entrepreneurship and innovation for people who have been underserved based on geographic location (anyone who lives, works, or owns a business in Southern Virginia), and for people who have been underrepresented based on race, gender, religion, or other factors. We are doing this by creating regionally-relevant incubator services and accelerator programs that can be accessed at many locations across our service area.

In this episode of Entrepreneurship on the RISE Podcast, Jacob and Lauren, joined by their guest Eric Weissmann, Executive Director of NEXT, are sharing the importance of having variety and diversity in all areas of an ecosystem and how we can adopt this community mindset to put our efforts together and make our ecosystem successful for the benefit of all participants. 

Some of the talking points discussed in this episode include:

• Using a campaign mentality to break your goals down into milestones, so you’re focusing your energy in the right places and avoiding getting stuck in activity vs. productivity.  
• How ecosystem building is like chili- everyone uses different recipes and ingredients, but we still get to the same outcome at the end of the day.
• How Eric’s work as a bridge spanner is focused on educating people that when they work together, everyone wins. 
• Highlighting the smaller companies that, as a whole, contribute quite significantly to the GDP of the country and have an impact on ecosystem development. 
• The importance of diversity (in all areas) as we enter into this new age of lifestyle expectations. 
• The game of business attraction to a region shifting to talent attraction. 

Thank you for listening! If you enjoyed this episode, take a screenshot of the episode to post in your stories and tag us!  And don’t forget to follow, rate, and review the podcast and tell me your key takeaways!

Learn more about RISE Collaborative at https://sovarise.com/ 

CONNECT WITH ERIC WEISSMANN:

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LINKS MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE: 

Team of Teams  by General Stanley McChrystal