guest post by Stewart Youngblood
I will never forget the moment back in 2009 when I first stepped foot into CoHabitat, the only coworking space at that time in Dallas. This converted 100 year-old house didn’t look like much from the outside, but it proved to be one of the most important inflection points of Dallas’ now thriving startup ecosystem.
Dallas is considered to now be one of the hottest startup ecosystems in the United States. It has seen enormous growth in the number of active startups, a growing amount of mature startups exiting, and a large increase in overall resources for entrepreneurs (accelerators, incubators, funding groups, technical meetups, and more).
When combined with Austin and Houston’s respective startup scenes, it is clear that the State of Texas is doing something right. I believe that Texas is a microcosm for the United States as a whole. There are specific reasons that Texas and the United States are successfully building startup ecosystems, despite having to deal with very large geographical distances. Even though our state stretches farther than from Berlin to London (790 miles vs 682 miles), we’ve been able to cultivate an amazing environment for startups (and business in general, which is a key element).
This cohesive ecosystem exists only because of groundwork laid in years past by a number of public and private interests. Entrepreneurs have always been the backbone of any major progress, and many Texan entrepreneurs (both in tech and non-tech industries) blazed paths years ago that directly influence where we are today. Governments at all levels (local, state, national), but especially within the State of Texas, provided the best possible regulatory environment for new businesses to thrive.
These interactions between macro-and micro-level economic conditions must be understood in order to glean true insight as to the secret sauce of a successful “cohesive identity” for an ecosystem. I am excited to explore in my keynote what I believe is the right mix of variables that will lead to success for Europe as one single entity.
See you in Athens on June 27th!
Follow me: @stewyoungblood on Twitter
