A comprehensive startup database can help you to allocate resources better, improve information flow, foster collaboration, and drive innovation. Additionally, it is a way to showcase resources and opportunities available in your ecosystem to entrepreneurs and startups interested in relocation or building a business overseas. This is an essential part of building a thriving startup ecosystem. In this article, you can learn about the components, advantages, and promotional value of building a startup ecosystem database.
Why Should You Build a Startup Ecosystem Database?
Startup Ecosystem Database can bring several benefits to your location. From proving business intelligence to boosting the attractiveness of your ecosystem, below are our top reasons for choosing to map your startup scene:
1. It is an important business intelligence tool
You can use it to better understand your ecosystem by having a bird’s eye view of startups and other stakeholders. This way, you can identify opportunities and trends to make informed decisions on supporting your ecosystem’s growth. Furthermore, you can utilize your resources effectively, as you will be able to see what is missing from your ecosystem. For example, if you do not have an accelerator in your ecosystem, you can launch or incentivize the private sector to launch one.
2. It is a Networking tool
Each ecosystem stakeholder is interdependent with each other, and synergies between them can bring even more benefits to the ecosystem. This synergy can be between two startups and other ecosystem stakeholders. A database is a helpful tool for seeing the potential collaboration opportunities between each player. For instance, a venture capital firm planning to invest in health tech startups can directly filter the startups in the ecosystem based on their preference.
3. It helps position your ecosystem
A database can also help you to position your ecosystem. Mapping your ecosystem puts you in the perfect position to make an internal analysis of your startup ecosystem. This analysis can include research on startups based on industry, category (unicorns and exits), and ecosystem stakeholders. Considering other competitive ecosystems are doing the same thing, you can also do an external analysis based on your peers’ offers to startups and investors. Some variables to check with the peer ecosystems can be the number of startups, the amount of investment, or the number of other ecosystem stakeholders in their ecosystem
If you are interested in a detailed analysis of your and your peer’s startup ecosystem, StartupBlink’s Health Check enables you to see overperforming and underperforming areas of your ecosystem, as well as the preferred peers.
Are you interested in having a Startup Ecosystem Health Check for your ecosystem?
4. It is a great promotional guide
A database is a good promotional guide to showcase the opportunities in your ecosystem to startups and investors. When a startup decides where to build or relocate offices, it looks at the current resources available in an ecosystem. If your ecosystem database has accelerators/incubators, coworking spaces, and support organizations, these are great promotional elements to highlight.
Furthermore, unicorns and exits attract entrepreneurs as well as t investors to your location. This promotes global talent to relocate into your ecosystem because you have a wide range of opportunities for them.
How to build a database for your startup ecosystem?
Showcase your Startups
While building a database for your startup ecosystem, several stakeholders should be included. The first group of stakeholders is startups. You can categorize them based on their stages, such as exits and unicorns. This categorization will also highlight the success stories of your ecosystem and prove to investors that startups in your area have the potential to scale up and become billion-dollar companies.
The Accelerating Force
The second and third group is accelerators and incubators. They provide mentorship and in some cases, funding to startups; hence they are an essential part of startup growth in the ecosystem. Their visibility would make your ecosystem more attractive for startups because it shows that it can offer a wide variety of resources to grow.
Meeting Points: Coworking Spaces
Coworking Spaces are the fourth component of your startup ecosystem database. The early-stage startups in particular have small teams, and shared office spaces will help them network and share the costs. Make sure your entrepreneurs know the spaces where they can meet, work, and network. By mapping your coworking spaces, you are helping your ecosystem realize that there are flexible environments from which they can grow and expand their businesses.
Startup Support is Always Worth Mentioning
Startup Support Organizations are public or private institutions that provide startup training, mentorship, and guidance. It is important to map the relevant support organizations to increase visibility and strengthen the community in your ecosystem. These organizations can be either public (municipalities, city offices, government agencies for startups), NGOs, or private firms that offer support to entrepreneurs or other stakeholders.
Funding for Startups to Grow
The last ecosystem stakeholder that needs to be on your database is investors, such as venture capitalists or angel investors. Some ecosystems’ public sector is also involved in financing startups with grants or low-interest/no-interest loans which also counts among your ecosystems investors. When you include investors in your startup ecosystem database, you can easily track investment trends in your ecosystem.
Bonus:
- Map your leaders: people who influence the ecosystem or can be mentors within the startup community.
- Map your universities, IT parks, and R&D centers (connect the talent to the entrepreneurs).
Use your database to generate content and become a think tank for your ecosystem with blogs, the latest news, and legislation updates.
StartupBlink’s Ecosystem Portals are a great way to attract investors and startups, as they act like a knowledge base for your ecosystem. Additionally, they can be a lead generation tool so that you can build numerous connections with people interested in your ecosystem.
These are all-in-one portals that present all the information relevant to your ecosystem, such as:
- Startups with additional categories such as unicorns, exits, and pantheons, as well as the industries.
- Other ecosystem stakeholders (support organizations, coworking spaces, accelerators/incubators, and leaders).
- Resources available (startup visa, startup tax, incentives, grant programs, etc.)
- Latest News, Milestones Achieved, Legislation Updates, Blog Relevant to the Ecosystem.
- Rankings of your ecosystem based on StartupBlink’s latest rankings.
