Small Town Entrepreneurship
I love this post by Brad Feld. It is well written and to the point regarding his recent day trip to speak with local business owners in Fairbanks, Alaska. While I comprehend his final recommendations for boosting entrepreneurship within the community, the town may always have a hard time keeping solid future business mavens around. I just wanted to jot down a couple of reasons why I think this is.
For the record, I have never been to Fairbanks — I’m sure it’s a lovely town. I did some digging and found that it has the following stats:
- It has 29, 954 active residents
- It was founded in 1902 and subsequently incorporated in 1903
- There is still gold to be found in the hills of
- It has a great climate
Overall, it sounds like a great place to visit. I’m not sure if I’ll ever get to Alaska, but if I do, I may make it a point to travel to this city. But, I digress.
I grew up in a small town myself. It was much smaller than Fairbanks, but I know the problems about being somewhere that isn’t exactly a "hot spot". In short, it is tough to keep publicly recognized talent (especially in Business) around when in order to become publicly recognized you need to be somewhere that can happen. A quick look to Brad proves this - one of the most famous VC’s around, hails from Fairbanks, yet does not actively practice investing there, and writes this:
"While I don’t expect I’ll be doing any investments in Fairbanks any time soon, it was fun to explore entrepreneurship in a town like Fairbanks."
Honesty — I love it. I’m not sure why, but I got the impression he was taken on the town, all expenses paid, trying to get him clicking with something local. Hey — it would be good for the town to have a nationally recognized investor in there putting some good coin into on of their businesses. It doesn’t hurt the PR machine either that he’s a local. In addition, such a thing may make the University of Fairbanks graduates think about sticking around to and start their careers.
If I ever get the stature that Brad has, especially in a field I perceive to be so far out of my reach it’s not even funny, would I go back to good ole Bolton and look at some small businesses to invest in? No way. I say that with the kindest heart, but to be honest, I spent 19 years there and I only go back for family. I would never want to have any sort of work tying me there.
I can’t speak for Brad, but I feel I’ve kinda "graduated" from where I grew up, which allows me to move on with my life. I still know plenty of people living with their parents in the same houses we played in as kids, and got in to trouble in as teenagers. Now I travel to the downtown core of Toronto everyday to work. I wouldn’t want it any other way.
I really believe you need to be in a major town, or close to one, to get things going. That’s where the resources are, and while great talent can be found anywhere, it may be easier to locate in New York, Chicago, and yes, even Toronto.
However, I’m a long way off from being able to start my own business, so what do I know? I’m just a lucky kid with a blog. My two pennies.
August 28th, 2005 at 2:40 am
I’m glad you liked the post - thanks for the kind words. It was a fun day and I hope I captured the spirit of it in what I wrote.
I have two clarifications that I think are important ones.
1. The trip wasn’t “all expenses paid.” While I did get a free lunch out of it (I think my sandwitch was about $10), I covered all my expenses (flight, hotel, taxi, etc.) The folks in Fairbanks were not “wooing me” - I think - as you rightly observe - they saw this as a chance for some local buzz around having a national VC visit. However, I do want to be really clear on the money, especially given that I observed that Charlie Walker - who pulled things together - is currently in the middle of a messy “conflict of interest” thing.
2. I’m not from Fairbanks - my wife Amy is. I’m from - in Amy’s words - the third largest state (Texas) -> if you cut Alaska in two, then Texas becomes #3.
Finally - I agree with your general conclusion - it’s much harder to create a sustainable entrepreneurial community in Fairbanks than it is in a major city - smaller towns have different dynamics and different opportunities. I haven’t thought about it hard enough to have a clear point of view, but yesterday’s trip gave me more data to roll around in my head.
Again - thanks for the nice words - it’s fun that stuff like this that I write is enjoyed by people I’ve never met.
August 28th, 2005 at 11:58 am
Thanks for the comment on the post! My sincerest apologies on the inaccuracies.
There may be the opportunity for places like Fairbanks to have a “mini-vc” community. However, towns and villages should probably stick to the out-of-town banks for their capital. I’d imagine they would want to ensure the “everybody knows everybody’s business” culture doesn’t get in the way of making some serious profit.