Let’s think about redefining entrepreneurship
By Gary Trauner
When most of us think of entrepreneurism, we think of certain defining traits of an organization or venture, among them: scalability, rapid growth, and big financial rewards. Historically, Silicon Couloir has focused on supporting such scalable ventures. However, over time, our organization has come to recognize that entrepreneurism comes in all shapes, sizes and forms.
Most people who study entrepreneurship would agree on a basic historical definition of that term. It is the act of creating a business or businesses while bearing the risks with the hope of making a profit. Merriam Webster’s definition is “one who organizes, manages, and assumes the risks of a business or enterprise.”
Yet in recent years that historical view of entrepreneurship has — with increasing frequency and emphasis — been viewed as outdated and limiting. Alternative definitions have begun to be offered by various organizations. To wit:
• Professor Howard Stevenson, the “godfather” of entrepreneurship studies at Harvard Business School, succinctly defines it as “entrepreneurship is the pursuit of opportunity beyond resources controlled.”
• Babson Business School has broadened its view to “entrepreneurship is a way of thinking. It’s a mindset that is opportunity obsessed, holistic in approach and leadership balanced. This new definition of entrepreneurship is about innovation; about seeing problems as opportunities; and about changing the world.”
• Stanford differentiates between different kinds of entrepreneurship, from social entrepreneurs looking to solve world problems to scalable start-up entrepreneurs seeking to grow a venture into an investible entity to “intrapreneurs,” individuals who act “as internal entrepreneurs who work within the structures of an established company (they are the hardworking individuals who constantly find ways to innovate and improve their roles, the quality of work, and sometimes their entire entity).”
In addition, there seem to be several attributes that are universally associated with entrepreneurship, including: job creation, innovation, risktaking, creating change, creating value, and, yes, giving back to society through their venture creation.
Silicon Couloir, with its focus on the Teton region, and in line with its nonprofit service mission, has recently broadened and adapted its view of what entrepreneurship means in our neck of the woods. Simply put, if people are risking their time, capital and energy to start and build an organization, we believe they may fit into a broader view of entrepreneurship.
The Teton region is full of small businesses started by individuals who took enormous risk and invested their own capital to build a successful enterprise. We believe those individuals (and people acting as a team) who create small businesses that are unlikely to scale beyond our region also fit within our definition of entrepreneurship. This might entail a former athlete who starts a training gym, or a former outdoor gear employee who branches out into her own clothing accessories venture. These “localpreneurs” take risk, lead organizations, create jobs and encounter many, if not all, of the same issues that a more traditionally defined entrepreneur who is endeavoring to build a more scalable venture might face. Additionally, an entire industry has grown up in the Teton region around nonprofit organizations seeking to support worthy causes. In fact, Teton County has the highest per capita charitable giving of any county in the country, resulting in somewhere north of 200 local and regional nonprofit organizations promoting their respective missions.
Silicon Couloir views founders and executive directors of these nonprofits as mission-driven entrepreneurs in their own right. Again, they build organizations, create jobs, take risks, create change and contribute to society.
As in any endeavor, organization or community, keeping an open mind, being open to new ideas and holding a willingness to question preconceived ideas is a prerequisite for longterm success. Given this expanded definition of entrepreneurship, Silicon Couloir has actively moved to provide support for these additional categories of entrepreneurs. We recently commenced a pilot project within its TEAMS mentoring program for nonprofit organizations.
Silicon Couloir has accepted small businesspeople and those looking to start a more local endeavor into its recent Start-Up Success educational programming, and we welcome entrepreneurial focused folks of all stripes to attend our monthly Chance Meetings networking events.
In a society in which the private sector, whether one likes it or not, is perhaps the key force in shaping our economy and our culture, supporting entrepreneurs — whatever shape and size they may come in — is a vital endeavor. Combined with Silicon Couloir’s principle of “doing good by doing well and doing well by doing good,” this support is critical to the “success” and “health” of our community, region and country.
Finally, in the spirit of broadening our reach, Start-Up Success 2023 is accepting applications for its spring offering (April 14 through May 21) at SiliconCouloir.com/start-up.