If you’re trying start a business, navigate the myriad resources available, or develop your business model in Fort Worth, Marco Johnson is the guy and Sparkyard is the platform. As the Ecosystem Network Builder at Sparkyard, the University of North Texas Health Science Center’s (UNTHSC) online resource center for entrepreneurs, his job is to connect people starting businesses with the tools they need for success.

Marco’s work in a nutshell? Business wayfinder. His toolbox includes assets created for Sparkyard as well as the vast network of resources he has been mapping. There’s a small number of local ecosystem builders who have been screaming about the need to support home grown entrepreneurship in Fort Worth and Marco is one of them. Sparkyard was developed by UNTHSC in collaboration with the City of Fort Worth and Texas Christian University (who are both summit sponsors) to connect entrepreneurs to the right resource at the right time. This free portal works to decode the Fort Worth entrepreneurial ecosystem and also collect and report on data to inform ecosystem needs as a whole. 

“We’re the 13th largest city in the U.S., however, our entrepreneurial ecosystem is highly underdeveloped. We don’t see the level of entrepreneurial activity for a city of our size, meaning we don’t have many people starting companies here. Part of the issue may be support for new companies. While Fort Worth has many resources that cater to entrepreneurs and business owners, the resource landscape is generally fragmented, siloed, and resources don’t communicate well with each other. Furthermore, entrepreneurs don’t have a simple “roadmap” to follow that helps them launch or grow their company,” says Marco. 

That’s where Sparkyard comes in. Launched in 2019, Sparkyard offers a number of easy tools to help navigate the entrepreneurial landscape in Fort Worth (in addition to the one on one support offered by Marco).

The Sparkyard Growth Circuit

  • The Growth Circuit is a tool to determine the types of resources that are available and what types of assistance you might need depending on your company type and stage 

  • The Spark Plan is where entrepreneurs provide information about their business to the Sparkyard team through an online form and get a customized plan that addresses their specific needs and offers introductions to resource providers.

  • The Resource Navigator is a comprehensive database of local organizations that provide resources and tools to assist entrepreneurs in establishing and growing their businesses.

Behind the scenes, the online tool has a really powerful backend with a CRM and data analytics tool that provides insights about the needs of entrepreneurs in the ecosystem. UNTHSC licenses this technology platform from SourceLink. 

“Starting a company is hard. In some cases, one of the hardest things a person will do in their lives. It's difficult and lonely and there's no roadmap for it. Sparkyard was created to be an antidote to all of those things. To let people know that there are resources out there that can help them - particularly the free ones. And to also connect them with other entrepreneurs so they know they're not alone and that other people are going through what they're going through. That's the primary mission of Sparkyard. Secondarily, we're here to break down the silos between the resource partners because that just happens to be the nature of how it is here in Fort Worth,” explains Marco.

There’s also an advocacy piece to Marco’s work. 

“We do a lot of data research that calls out the nature of our ecosystem and how we perform compared to the other four largest cities in Texas, which are Houston, San Antonio, Austin, and Dallas. Fort Worth is the kind of the little sibling compared to all of those, but we're still the 13th largest in the country,” says Marco.

Going from humanitarian work to ecosystem builder

Marco came to this work after over 20 years of working in international development.

“I did a variety of things overseas from humanitarian refugee work to microfinance, to agricultural development, to private equity. I lived mostly in developing countries that had experienced  a recent conflict or disaster. After being chased out of yet another country by unfriendly authorities I finally got burned out. I was like, okay, I'm too old for this. I need to settle down. So I came back to the States and reconnected with a friend of mine from my MBA program who was based here in Fort Worth. There was an opportunity for a job at a foundation that he was working at that does economic development and works with entrepreneurs,” says Marco.

After getting the job and really digging into the work, a lightbulb went off: the common thread that weaves all of his experiences together is a focus on helping people overcome challenges so they can sustainably build (or rebuild) their lives and communities. And everyone knows entrepreneurs are problem solvers. That’s when Marco realized he’s actually been supporting entrepreneurs for 25 years. 

“Fostering entrepreneurship is universally recognized as a highly effective way to help people take control of their lives, address critical issues in their community, and achieve their ambitions. I’ve taken the lessons I’ve learned overseas and brought them with me to North Texas.”

Getting the most out of SCN

Both Marco Johnson and Cameron Cushman (our other summit host) have really been taking advantage of the resources available to SCN Members. They both took the Ecosystem Health Challenge last year and Marco went through the Map What Matters Challenge this Spring. 

“The Ecosystem Health Challenge was hugely helpful. I remember looking at it and going, yeah, this looks interesting but I wonder if this will be too basic. I was probably a little too big for my britches because when we got into it within the first 15 minutes, Tom Chapman (Chapman and Company is also a Summit sponsor) totally blew the lid off everything I thought I knew. Those courses were transformational for me and I continue to have my mind expanded by Tom to this day,” says Marco. 

The knowledge gained from the challenge actually helped the Sparkyard team when applying for a grant designed to fund the buildout of their resources and tools. 

“I'd say one of the biggest manifestations was that during COVID we applied for an EDA grant, outlining 10 different activities that we would do for Sparkyard. Several of those were really things that came to us while going through the Ecosystem Health Challenge. Going through those sessions with Cameron would knock loose all of these ideas and we'd go, wouldn't it be cool if we could do this or that? We didn't have the time or the funds or the expertise for it, so we wrote it it into the grant, which we won. Now, we're working with Tom and another organization on an ecosystem dashboard that is gonna track 30 or 40 entrepreneurial ecosystem metrics. That will be a really important resource for all sorts of different stakeholders. Nobody is doing this in Fort Worth and hardly anyone is talking about it. So this was empty space that was well within our mission to take on,” says Marco.

The Map What Matters Challenge was a helpful exercise in seeing how the resource landscape had changed during Covid. Marco started with a Customer Journey Map he created back in 2019 that he added ESOs to once he completed the mapping exercise.

“One of the things that we’ve done with our mapping is the creation a map of the entrepreneurial journey (the Growth Circuit), which has been useful to explain the entrepreneurial journey to folks. Then, we took that same circuit and inserted our resource partners at the points where they help. These are both static assets but we got some grant money from EDA and we’re working on a digital version of that set to launch in October 2022,” says Marco.

Read more about lessons learned during that challenge here.

Developing an underdeveloped ecosystem

The Fort Worth ecosystem is still coming into its own. It’s the reason the tools being developed at Sparkyard are so important. Despite losing folks to Dallas and Austin, one of the strengths in Fort Worth is their willingness to help. 

The Techstars Physical Health For Worth Accelerator team. The team includes all three of our Summit hosts: Marco Johnson, Kendel Rogers, and Cameron Cushman, as well as SCN founding member and past board chair, Trey Bowles.

“Even though our ecosystem is undeveloped, people really want to help, they just don't always know the best way to do it. But if you ask a question and you reach out, people usually are really good about engaging with you and trying to get you to the right place. Hopefully a lot of those people are using Sparkyard,” says Marco.

In Fort Worth, it’s not about getting that next big exit. The ecosystem is not laser focused on tech startups. 

“People here are much more passionate about the concept and the company itself and not looking necessarily for a quick exit but to pursue something that is making a difference,” says Marco

While the spirit of support is alive and well, the ecosystem struggles with lack of access to capital and lack of well developed resources. 

“From a very high level, there’s a lack of awareness from citizens and the city alike on how entrepreneurship is important, why entrepreneurship is important for our city that is growing so quickly and why homegrown entrepreneurs are so much more important to economic development than attracting the next Amazon HQ. People here tend to focus more on those kinds of initiatives and less on helping who's already here,” explains Marco.

What excites him about Summit

“I think we're all really excited just to show people Fort Worth and bring them to the Stockyards area. It's kind of a tourist trap, but it's also really cool. We have this daily Longhorn cattle drive - the only place in the world where this happens twice a day, every day. The “drovers” that drive the cattle come from all different backgrounds:  vaqueros (Mexican-American), African Americans, women, etc.  Just being a part of that, plugging into the energy down there in the Stockyards district is gonna be really, really cool. I think most people will come to Fort Worth with some preconceived notions and we are just looking forward to blowing those preconceived notions out of the water and showing the best parts of what we have here in our community.” 

Why are you a part of SCN?

“It's family. It's the only organization I know of that is comprised of like-minded people who are also working on 20-year plans to develop their local economy. This whole phenomenon of ecosystem building is relatively new and most people look at you like you have a third eye when you try to tell them you’re an entrepreneurial ecosystem builder. To be able to talk to a group of people who know the struggles, the terminology, and what we're all trying to achieve is great.”

Get to know Marco and the HSC Next team more at the Fort Worth Summit October 17-19! Explore the agenda and get your ticket here.