Cameron Cushman has been spreading the gospel of entrepreneurship since he worked for the federal government in 2006. This longtime ecosystem builder was one before it was a thing and has been involved in Startup Champions Network since the Startup America days.
Cameron is on our Summit Host team and is working side by side with fellow committee members Marco Johnson and Kendel Rogers to create a unique, Fort Worth experience for attendees. Cameron is a movement maker, who started on the path to ecosystem building while working in the George W. Bush administration in partnership with the Kauffman Foundation on the “Program for Entrepreneurial Growth.” The program supported entrepreneurs in Brazil, Russia, India, and China with mentorship and resources. After working side by side with Tom Rhue at Kauffman, he was offered a job there to be the Chief of Staff to the President and CEO at the time, Carl Schramm. Cameron was considering graduate school, but when Schramm assured him that he would learn way more at the Kauffman Foundation than he would in grad school, he was all in.
“He was absolutely right,” says Cameron.
Cameron at Kauffman Foundation Circa 2013
The work Cameron did in his five years at the Kauffman Foundation really solidified his passion for entrepreneurial ecosystem building - a term that had not yet been coined. You know that popular entrepreneurship event we all know and love called 1 Million Cups? Cameron started that in 2012.
“1 Million Cups was built on this idea that if you don't know who the entrepreneurs are in your local community, then you can’t help them. And so all we did was just invite two entrepreneurs into the Kauffman Foundation to share their stories with whoever showed up that day. We gave them coffee and it turned into a thing,” says Cameron.
1 Million Cups is in its 10th year and is run in 123 communities across the nation. It’s one of the key programs any ecosystem can implement to bring entrepreneurs together to support each other. AND to help ecosystem builders get to know the entrepreneurs in the community.
“If you don’t know who the entrepreneurs are in your local community, then you don’t know how to help them.”
That’s not all Cameron did while at Kauffman.
“I really loved my time at the Kauffman Foundation and was doing ecosystem building work in the Kansas City area before anybody really called it that. Google Fiber was new to Kansas City so there was all this buzz and excitement around what we called the Kansas City Startup Village. There were probably 20 to 30 different companies all operating in about a six or seven block radius in this area that had just gotten the fastest internet in the world. And everybody took notice. It put Kansas City on the map. It was really fun to work on that initiative and try to make that vision a reality,” says Cameron.
Starting a Movement in Fort Worth
In 2013, Cameron moved back to his hometown of Fort Worth eager to grow an entrepreneurial ecosystem there.
“When I got to Fort Worth, I just kept saying ‘I want to build Fort Worth.’ I wanted to bring some of the things I was doing in Kansas City to Fort Worth. People looked at me like I was crazy. They had no idea what I was talking about. They had no idea why we needed this and they would literally say things to me like, ‘I don't think Fort Worth needs that.’ And I'd say, yes, it does. Every community needs this,” Cameron says.
After trying to start a business and then spending three years as a volunteer ecosystem builder, Cameron landed a gig at the University of North Texas Health Science Center.
“UNT’s President was passionate about supporting entrepreneurship in Fort Worth because he knew the value it brought to the local economy. He saw that the city of Fort Worth wasn't doing as good of a job as he thought it should be. And I don't mean the government necessarily. I just mean everybody in the city that includes nonprofits, ESOs, others. He thought we could bolster those efforts,” explains Cameron.
And so HSC Next was born.
Supporting what’s next in Fort Worth
HSC Next supports two types of innovators: early stage biotech companies and citizens who have ideas for solving problems in the health sciences field. HSC believes that everyone can be an innovator, not just researchers or clinicians.
Through the Innovation Challenge, Fort Worth citizens can either help solve a current challenge in the world of health science or submit their idea to solve a challenge they see in the field. The program offers feedback and coaching and then a chance to enter a pitch competition.
For innovators in the field, they offer Innovation Labs, which seek to eliminate barriers for growing biotech companies by providing lab access, as well as office and admin support.
“Some of our people focus internally on companies incubating in our labs and using our resources. We've got about eight companies on our campus right now. My team, the innovation ecosystem team, is very focused on the external community. How do we help Fort Worth and Tarrant County companies do the things that startups do for our communities, like create jobs for people, build wealth for society, and bring new innovations to market that we didn't even know we needed? These companies have the potential to help people live better lives, solve problems, cure diseases… that's where I get excited about our work. We get to help our local ecosystem, and our local entrepreneurs do all of those things,” says Cameron.
HSC Next was branded as such from the idea that they are trying to create “what's next” for their ecosystem.
Other initiatives Cameron and his team have been working on are bringing Global Entrepreneurship Week (GEW) and a new Techstars accelerator to Fort Worth. In its third yearGEW 2020 event was completely virtual due to COVID-19., It became the largest GEW event held in the United States with 93 sessions and 140 speakers. GEW Fort Worth was #1 again in 2021with 135 sessions and over 4,700 attendees. The Techstars Physical Health Fort Worth Accelerator just launched and is the world's first accelerator focused on physical health.
Uncovering Innovation in Fort Worth
From big biotech exits to inventions like the ice cream drumstick to major companies like Radio Shack and Mucinex, Fort Worth has had no shortage of innovators. But there are so many more entrepreneurs who have gone unnoticed or who need to be discovered. Cameron takes pride in bringing those innovators to the forefront.
“Fort Worth has this history of innovation, but somewhere along the way in the last, probably 15- 20 years, we've lost our mojo. A lot of what I try to do is just energize the community and talk about the importance of entrepreneurship. It's not just about big companies. It's about the little guy. It's about finding and funding the new business startups and getting our philanthropic community engaged. We've had six big biotech exits over the last six or seven years and even people in Fort Worth don't know those stories.
Again, if you don't know who the entrepreneurs are in your local community, then you don't know how to help them. I think Fort Worth is kind of this like sleeping giant in the state of Texas. There's a lot of things working in our favor, we've just gotta put it all together and make some of this startup activity happen in a bigger and more meaningful way,” says Cameron.
One of those ways is through programs and events. Another is through the Innovate Fort Worth podcast. Taking a cue from the well known show, How I Built This, Cameron set out to interview entrepreneurs and innovators both within HSC Next and in the local ecosystem. The show shines a light on the entrepreneurs in the region so that the community could come together and support them.
Cameron interviews Dr. Michael Williams, the Chancellor of the University of North Texas System (and formerly President of HSC)
“There are so many cool stories that never end up in the newspaper. The podcast is a great way to shine a light on the cool stuff that is happening in Fort Worth. We had the founder of Mucinex on the show pretty early on. We just had the CEO of Solo Stove, and the most recent episode was this guy that literally sold the world's first digital ad. It has been really fun because these entrepreneurs are doing so many amazing things and nobody in the city knows about it. So we're able to kind of play pied piper to lead people towards them.
It has also created a database for us of really cool entrepreneurs. When the media calls or an investor is looking for a deal in a specific industry, we say, oh yeah, here are three people who are working on this. Listen to episodes 15, 27 and 34 and let me know if you want a connection,” explains Cameron.
Uncovering hidden innovation through metrics
Spreading the word about entrepreneurs in your ecosystem through storytelling is powerful. But so is uncovering the metrics and health of your ecosystem. Cameron and his team went through SCN’s Ecosystem Health Challenge last year and had quite a few aha moments.
“We just learned so much from Tom Chapman like how to think about data and how to think about your ecosystem,” says Cameron. He also noted that bringing in his peers on sessions was eye opening when it came to seeing how they interpreted the content. “It forced us to have conversations in our own community.”
One of the biggest aha moments for Cameron was learning about what Tom called “cool jobs” and location quotients. “Figuring out your location quotient shows where you have a concentration of certain kinds of jobs. And that tells you where you have a concentration of expertise, of labor, and of companies that are hiring that kind of person. And so the thesis here, if you extrapolated it out, is to identify the kind of startup ecosystem you need to build because those people are already there,” explains Cameron.
Going through that activity uncovered a field new to them: computer system design.
Making a Movement: The Fort Worth Summit
The Fort Worth Summit will be hosted in the Stockyards - which was the first center of commerce in the city. Cameron is excited to show the rich cultural history of Fort Worth while also showcasing its innovation ecosystem.
“Fort Worth has traditionally been where the west begins. It's the city of cowboys and culture. We have the National Cowgirl Hall of Fame, we have the Cowboys of Color Rodeo, we have Mariachi bands and rich Hispanic heritage here... The Juneteenth holiday was also founded here, and its founder, Opal Lee, will hopefully join us and talk about creating how she created a movement.
I really want folks to think about the theme that we've chosen: Making a Movement and how entrepreneurial community building is still at the beginning stages of a movement. Nobody knows what it is. Nobody knows how to do it. How do we make it more of a movement? We're going to highlight two things in particular: The 10 year anniversary of 1 Million Cups and how that event turned into a movement; and, with the help of the ‘Grandmother of Juneteenth,’ how that became a movement that was finally declared a National holiday this year.”