2023 is going to be an exciting year for Startup Champions Network as new leadership steps into their roles on the Board. Mark Lawrence has taken the reins, transitioning from the role of Treasurer and head of the Finance Committee to Board Chair. Mark’s goals for the organization are centered around problems we all face as ecosystem builders - including him.
“My challenges are often centered around effectively communicating the value of ecosystem building and its role in community transformation and why you should fund it. Depending on the stakeholder I’m talking to, it’s hard to get buy-in to the systems level view, and convey how it effectively delivers meaningful outcomes over time - because ecosystem building outcomes cannot be delivered immediately.”
Mark is the Founder/Managing Partner of Inncuvate, a full stack entrepreneurship led economic empowerment platform based in Largo, Maryland. He has been leading inclusive entrepreneurial ecosystem building projects for 10+ years.
“We sit at the intersection of community development, venture development, and economic development. We specialize in creating purpose-built programs and places in underrepresented communities that attract the best talent and encourage collaboration, innovation, entrepreneurship, and the commercialization of new ideas,” he says.
Inccuvate is working on several projects in the DC/Baltimore area:
Inncuvate Venture Studios, which focuses on changing the model for capacity building and development of tech companies founded by people of color by intentionally designing and deploying venture studios that focus on place based economic and community development.
The Manufacturing Innovation HUB Co-Op (MiHUB) is an industry sector solution to provide more access, education, opportunities and shared infrastructure to increase the success of minority manufacturers in the advanced manufacturing industry.
The INNOHUB at Prince George Community College (PGCC) provides a physical and virtual space where students, faculty, businesses, and the community collaborate to solve problems, generate new ideas, and improve existing processes, services, and products.
Mark’s challenges are what fuels his vision for SCN. His main focus over the next five years is simple: Sustainability of ecosystem building as a profession.
“In addition to highlighting and amplifying the work in local ecosystems, we need to make entrepreneurial ecosystem building as a profession part of the mainstream. We also need to recognize and celebrate more people who have taken the leap to make this their life’s work. Which is where SCN helps,” he explains.
As the new Board Chair, Mark has set the following priorities for the organization:
Embracing and Harnessing the Network
“We will be leaning into culture development, increasing membership, and improving the member experience so that we can better serve members and continue putting on great summits. We will also offer more opportunities for member connection points within our peer to peer learning network so that members can continue to learn from each other. We’ve revamped our membership committee to be a six month commitment, asking members to recruit from their ecosystems to strengthen our network, and then roll off. The membership committee is an ever evolving committee that will offer a connection to fellow members and an opportunity to engage your own ecosystem.”
Building Capacity
“We remain a mostly volunteer-led organization, but have invested in association management group to ensure we can continue offering summits, additional programming, and new challenges. We’re also looking at increasing partnerships. A lot has changed by way of ecosystem building support since SCN’s founding 10 years ago. We’re looking at new ways to partner with fellow organizations so that we can leverage what each organization does best in order to collectively grow the profession into a sustainable one.”
Advocacy and Storytelling
“The best way to spread the value proposition of ecosystem building is to advocate for ecosystem building and increase the reach of success stories from ecosystem builders across the country. We will support advocacy efforts through our Policy Summit in June, a special purpose summit around financial resources for entrepreneurs and ecosystem builders. We are also developing additional storytelling pieces across SCN platforms.”
Focus on the things we do well
“We will continue to host our bi-annual summits to offer education, case studies, and connections. We will continue to weave ICU (InterCultural Unity) elements into the SCN experience to really lean into our culture of belonging.”
“Our true impact lies within amplifying and supporting our members’ passions and affiliations.”
Policy Summit: June 7-8, Washington, D.C.
Mark and the SCN Board of Directors will be our “Summit Host” for the upcoming Policy Summit in June, and they are putting together something different than traditional summits as a way to lean into policy and advocacy.
“We know that policy and advocacy is very important for ecosystem builders and we know that federal, state, and local governments need insights to help shape policies that support the work and the focus on entrepreneurship. DC is the heart of policy and advocacy from a federal level, which is why we are piloting a different summit model to dive into those topics. During the Policy Summit, we will learn about legislation and advocacy work around entrepreneurship and entrepreneurship support. We will also bring administration and government officials, as well as local ecosystem builders to the table for discussion. We'll have some core elements of the traditional summit (like Roses & Thorns), but we will be focused on advocacy and policy opportunities that will help make this work sustainable,” explains Mark.
Our lineup of guest speakers include representatives from Right to Start, U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA), The Startup Act, and more. Stay tuned for registration and agenda details.
Mark Lawrence has been a part of SCN since 2018 and joined the board in 2019. We are very excited to have him as our Board Chair and look forward to seeing how his leadership pushes the needle for creating sustainability of ecosystem building as a profession.
“We look forward to the leadership of our regional colleague, Mark Lawrence, as he takes on the role of stewarding SCN into our next stage of development.”