What does it mean to think of a city like a startup?
Cities have a lot of the same challenges startups have – and these challenges are primarily driven by the ability to attract talent. How do we attract top talent not only to live in our city, but more importantly to run our city? How do we do more with less in this capital constrained environment? What are the essential features of our product (in this case, the city itself)?
When we think of cities as startups – scrappy companies with limited resources and even less time – it drives a sense of focus and forces creativity. We often think of constraints as barriers to creativity – in fact, it’s the opposite. Constraints (like no budget) help us define the problem, required outcome, and narrow the field of potential solutions. The challenge then for established organizations like cities is to embrace creative (and cheap) experiments. You have to have a “Why not? Let’s try it” kind of attitude, which can be difficult in a political environment.
Potentially a third way cities can act like startups is through empowerment. Entrepreneurs are by definition empowered – they strike out on their own and make things happen. Cities need find ways to empower citizens to act for the good of the community – making information, resources, publicity, etc. – available to these independent agents who decide “I’m going to do something about this neighborhood.”
How would you apply this construct to Cincinnati?
We apply these startup constructs – focus, creativity and empowerment – constantly in Cincinnati without even knowing it. Soapbox itself is a great example. How do you change the tone of media coverage in a City? Create a new media outlet on a shoestring budget. How do you drive awareness of innovation and entrepreneurship across the region and identify quality startups for local investors? Do a prize competition like Cincinnati Innovates that encourages entrepreneurs to identify themselves.
Both of these problems were narrowly defined, challenged with scarce resources, and ultimately found a creative solution.
Why is this important to the future of cities? Of Cincinnati?
When I think of cities in the developed world, like Cincinnati, I think of an aging actress. Our populations will continue to shrink just based on birth and death rates and immigration. We are all in a race to remain relevant.
So we need to stay fit as cities. We need to age with grace. Think Demi Moore or Madonna. Raw food diet, yoga everyday… you get the picture.
For Cincinnati, improving the quality of our local education is first and foremost. That is our inner fountain of youth.
And if we want to remain relevant on the world stage, we’ll need to recruit world-class research talent to enrich the pipeline of companies that will attract investment and grow into our next Fortune 500s.
In both of these cases, we need to focus, indulge in creative cheap experiments, and empower our citizens to act independently for the greater good.
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