In the Spring of 2011, I had the pleasure of meeting Andy Stoll at a series of conferences between the two weekends of Jazz Fest. We sat at the same table during the Second Line conference and chatted a little about things happening in New Orleans. He also stuck around for Launch Fest, chatted with Chris Schultz and other local influencers, and seemed to get a good handle on what we were doing here to make entrepreneurship a priority.
Andy recently completed a 4-year solo, independent trip around-the-world through 40 countries in Asia, Africa, Europe, The Middle East, Australia, Oceania and The Americas in an effort to better understand how people live in the world, experiencing everything from life in a rural mud hut village in Africa to working in a dress factory in Bangkok for 60 cents-an-hour (Read more at noboundaries.org). Along the way he explored entrepreneurial opportunities and studied communities, education systems, economies, cultures, media industries and people.
Andy Stoll is a forward-thinking nomad taking the Silicon Prairie by storm.
As typical of modern social connections, after the conference we started following each other on the twitters. What I’ve learned via twitter about Andy is that he is an excellent Spotify playlist-creator, has been busy speaking at high profile events, and as a native Iowan is promoting the start-up scene associated with The Silicon Prairie (a regional organization that in many ways inspired the creation of the publication you’re reading right now).
Andy recently founded Seed Here, a social good startup company designed to connect and grow the entrepreneurial ecosystem and creative communities in Iowa and across The Silicon Prairie. He’s also working on a reality-based around-the-world travel show for a major network and is serving in advisory roles with a number of startups.
Today, Andy presented at the Startup America Regional Summit in Nashville along with Amanda Styron of Seed Here. The presentation (created using Prezi), is titled, ” Building Ecosystems Off The Beaten Path: Lessons from New Orleans, Omaha & Cedar Rapids.” I very curiously clicked through and the Prezi is embedded here for your viewing pleasure (click through using the forward arrow at the bottom):
Building A Startup Culture on Prezi
The lessons from New Orleans section is probably what would stand out for many in the local community. There isn’t much to argue about here:
A section of the presentation tited, "Building Ecosystems Off The Beaten Path: Lessons from New Orleans, Omaha and Cedar Rapids." Click for larger version.
If you are an entrepreneur or interested in building an entrepreneurial community, I encourage you to follow Andy on twitter, check out Seed Here, and read about the great things happening on The Silicon Prairie.
**Note from Andy: For further reading on Omaha, check out “Building An Entrepreneurial Ecosystem: Lessons from Omaha” by Tom Chapman– might be helpful to those who are building entrepreneurial communities across the country.
Do you have other ideas about what makes an entrepreneurial ecosystem complete? What can we do to further support idea creation, risk-taking, failure, and growth? Let us know in the comments!