The Coral Reef Effect: How Communities Create Vibrant Startup Ecosystems | Ilker Akansel Loop Summit

Now we get to tie out this APAC segment with understanding the ecosystem at play. So Ilka, I'm really excited because today we get to learn from you understanding how do you actually create a vibrant, a successful, impactful ecosystem, especially in the startup space. It's such a nuanced industry. And for anyone who also hasn't met Ilka before. i have the pleasure of explaining a little bit about about what he does because he is the founder and also a community strategist and he's the co-founder of talentled.com co he's a strategy consultant he's been helping multiple companies build community but he special specializes in two very complementary areas which is building tech and innovation ecosystems and then establishing talent communities i know that you led volunteers like in london for the 2012 olympics which is just phenomenal and i'm just so pumped for you to take the stage and share all of your secrets because that's what we do here at loot we share the we share the secrets so ilka are you ready to share some secrets with us well i think i am and it's so cool to be able to close this section not from australia but somewhere else so it's um playing to you at the wonderful connective nature of this event which is just absolutely great and i'm so pleased and i'm so honored to be part of this wonderful group from afar and i would like to thank you and everyone else who asked me to join and I really cannot be more excited to tell you more about what I've prepared which is hopefully it will be significant it will be a lot and thank you for the wonderful introduction as well oh I'm just so grateful to have you here everyone in Australia is like when are we hearing from Ilka we have 274 people here live right now so Ilka please take us away and enjoy Fantastic. So cool. So here I am and, you know, really wonderfully introduced by Paz and my reputation precedes me, hopefully in a good way. And here's me just, you know, doing the deed with regards to with regards to presentations and everything. So hopefully once I share this, then you will be able to, you know, just, you know, see everything on the screen and hopefully. That will be just moving once I get going. So as Paz has been saying, I am doing community consultancy based in Europe. And for a little bit of a change, I'm not actually based in the UK, in Cambridge, where I usually am. I am actually based in Istanbul, in Turkey, where my home is my... hometown is my family is so it is so fitting that i'm just making this connection where two continents meet because basically in reality this is also what i'm doing figuratively as well between europe or let's say the old continent with oceania And of course, with the Asia Pacific. So it's just wonderful. So my talk is titled Coral Reef Effect, How Communities Create Vibrant Startup Ecosystems. So I work in the intersection of startup ecosystems and communities. So it's a bit of an interesting niche, I hope, to everyone. And that's what I wanted to talk about today with a little bit of an Australian twist, of course, as you can imagine. So hopefully it's moving and I can see it already has. And please, in the meantime, if you have any questions, thoughts, anything else, just fire them away in the public chat. And just before I start, it's a bit of a sorry if you hear any kind of airplane noise in the background, because wonderfully I grew up in a flight path. You might be able to just, you know, hear faintly some things in the background, but that's not the concept today. It is the coral reef and it is the startup ecosystems. so coral reef it is because you know it just you know made you know no sense not to include it it is one of the seven natural wonders of the world that is the perfect example of what an ecosystem is and it is one of the wonderful things about australia the the great barrier reef which is what you're actually seeing on the screen and the coral reefs are perfect examples of ecosystems and interestingly enough in the only until recently this terminology this concept was actually used in the business context how soon well basically this soon so that's the first bit the we're talking about entrepreneurial ecosystems and startup communities and just you know by defining it I can give you a bit more about the time when it was actually used so again it was defined as a concept in the but it's only been used in is a business concept and it was a community of organisms and its environment functioning as an ecological unit and that's the definition of an ecosystem and it was deemed that it was very similar to what we're actually seeing today in the business concept context because especially this in this day and age the network of businesses whether are connected to that are connected to each other just like an ecological ecosystem through some interdependent parts, it was actually decided to refer to this kind of structure as an ecosystem. So just best to start the conversation today. by defining what an ecosystem is in that context. So if you look at it that way, this is what we are actually referring to when you are hearing or when we're involved in any kind of ecosystem related conversation around us, whether it's businesses, startups or anything else. So it's important to look at it this way because everything that I will try and say today will be around connecting community building to that. And it is umbilically connected. It is very closely connected. and hopefully by the time i'm done with my talk you will be able to make that strong connection yourself as well and hopefully you'll be involved in some kind of interesting efforts around it as well so when you look at it ecosystems when i was just trying to when i got fascinated by this connection i was trying to just connect the the community building to this concept for the first time in my own domain anyway i came across two authors brad feld and ian hathaway so they wrote a couple of books around it and in their book titled start the startup community way in 2020 they actually tried to define this the entrepreneurial ecosystems and startup communities so starting with the two different concepts here so an entrepreneurial ecosystem just like an ecological system that I've just talked about, is an adaptive, interconnected, and most importantly, highly localized system that is self-organizing, self-governing, and self-sustaining with all these entrepreneurial components that you actually have. And a startup community, or let's say a startup community within this large entrepreneurial ecosystem, is basically is the group of people that through their interactions, attitudes, interests, goals, and sense of purpose, basically, they are who are fundamentally committed to helping entrepreneurs succeed. So we're talking about the system, we're talking about the bigger picture, which is the basically entrepreneurial ecosystem. And we have the group of people, which of course, you know, you may be able to just, you know, just just connected to the archetypal community that are within the system that are trying to make this environment succeed so There are some differences between the two. So an entrepreneurial ecosystem is actually something that is top-down, so it is somehow mandated, it is somehow created for this, perhaps artificially in many cases, whereas the startup communities are a bottom-up phenomenon. Basically, those are created by the people on the ground and then they start to propagate, they start to form what's around them. So it's important to make that distinction. This is what Threl and Hathaway are doing. Of course, there's a 1001 way of defining an ecosystem, but this is what we're going to basically just, you know, follow through. So Carl Nathaway, this is hopefully will be interesting to you. They tried to define basically the ecosystem through seven interesting capitals. So we are talking about, you know, things like, as you can see on. You have things like the network capital, the institutional capital, physical capital, social capital, and of course, things like human capital and institutional capital and the financial capital. So we're talking about seven different capitals that constitute an entrepreneurship ecosystem. So this is fundamental to the conversation because you might actually already you know guess that I'm going to be connecting all this to various community building things. so um this is another thing that i wanted to to talk about from another book that brad felt himself actually wrote it's called startup communities building an entrepreneurial ecosystem in new city in 2012 so eight years before the book that i talked about and he dissected the um uh the work and success that was going in boulder in colorado in the u.s and he came up with what we call a boulder thesis so These are some interesting attributes to the community that he observes over there and the success of the community in relation to the success that this place. has actually gathered. So he came up with the Boulder thesis. So four things. He said that in order for any other place, just like Boulder to be successful, there are four things that he's observed that must be done in the sense that the entrepreneurs in this place must lead the startup community. So it's not on anyone else or any kind of artificial leader. And these leaders must have a long-term commitment. And the startup community must be inclusive of anyone who wants to participate in it. This is quite important. like you know some new founder comes in they get overpowered by the people who've been there for a long time or so this inclusivity and this sort of equal sort of voice bus is very very important on that one and of course the startup community must have continual activities that engage the entire entrepreneurial stack so this is important because it's like a lot of artificial uh entrepreneurial ecosystem efforts that we see they don't have this kind of longevity they just you know start with things and just you know it doesn't doesn't really really work so they also identified that there are three startup personas in an entrepreneurial ecosystem and these are leaders feeders and instigators so the leaders are the entrepreneurs and those are the people who actually just you know bring the the kind of the entrepreneurial ecosystem forward and they have a deep understanding of the challenges and the opportunities in building businesses in that ecosystem the feeders are all the mechanisms all the um that are all the organizations that are actually feeding that are actually supporting these leaders and of course you have the instigators the instigators maybe you know in your own ecosystem you might be able to figure out those are the sorts of people the selfless people the connectors the people behind the scenes who absolutely love to make the system tick, make the system work. So if you look at it like this, these are essential components of a startup community, of some kind of an entrepreneurial ecosystem. Basically, if you look at it like this, if you look at it from a community lens, you can really see that there are a lot of things that you can do as a community builder to actually to keep the system going or keep the system succeeding even further. So I can see from the comments that just people are really sort of just a few light bulbs are actually going on. And therefore, hopefully, I will be able to just get you to connect community building even further to the success of this ecosystem. Thanks to, of course, these people who have actually laid the ground in getting us to understand these kinds of ecosystem structures more. So this is my take on this thing. We are talking about the startup communities and looking at the bolder thesis, I would like to say most definitely that, you know, the identifying and encouraging community leaders who are the entrepreneurs must be central to any kind of community building or community prolonging work that you might have in an ecosystem. and of course ensuring them to have long-term commitments ensuring that this community is safe welcoming and inclusive and of course planning for sustainable community engagement making sure that the feeders are well connected are well feeding the community so to speak and of course community instigators are well supported they're happy they have the opportunities basically to be able to instigate to be able to get the community to to go further and of course having these startup communities intentional and not just talking about everything, anything, but all the conversations are centered around the success of the startup communities are central. When you look at it like this, it's common sense. Any community builder is probably going to be planning for this kind of thing. But it is so refreshing to see what we understand in the community world and what Brad felt and Hathaway have actually just designed coinciding. Anyway. let's go to the second act so you have the 101 on entrepreneurship ecosystems and the success factors involving startup communities and entrepreneurship ecosystems let's go a little bit around the world because i am just somewhere else so it's only fitting that you know i tell a little bit more about the entrepreneurship ecosystems and there's nowhere better to start than the bay area itself of course is the number one ecosystem in the world. It is wonderful because it's all, so to speak, just like the Great Barrier Reef, it's all natural, it's formed by itself. And, you know, most components are basically, they've been there for some time. And of course, just, you know, with billions and billions of value. is the first thing that comes to our minds. It is the North Star for all kinds of ecosystem work that is actually going on around. And when you look at it, when you look at the seven capitals, so Gary Fowler actually put together this piece, which coincides so well with Feldman Hathaway's thinking. So there's a culture of innovation and risk taking, which was one of the capitals of success in the Silicon Valley. There's lots and lots of venture capital, as you know. The talent concentration is superb, is second to none. There are lots of success stories. This is super important. And perhaps it could be something that, you know, we might already start thinking about in Australia. And of course, there is a super top of the world kind of network over there. You can actually just connect with everyone. Everybody's so keen to be able to connect with each other and then basically contribute to each other's success in a way. and of course there are world-class universities like stanford like you know all sorts of you know different berkeley and so there are lots of you know interesting schools top of the world kind of schools that are actually contributing to this ecosystem and of course there are supportive infrastructure and policies around california around the bay area so as you can see if you dissect it this way again not something that we don't exactly don't know but if you look at it this way it actually gives us a great basis to be able to support them with communities so going back to europe because i know that well and you know i'm somewhere in this picture normally so we have uh what they call uh well there's there's a million ways of you know just you know calling what's actually happening around the world in relation to Palo Alto, which is where the valley is, or which is part of the valley. We call this in Europe, the new Palo Alto Science Supercluster. Basically, we're just within four hours commuting distance, all these sort of clusters that you have here, the ones in the UK. in France, in the Netherlands, and in all sorts of other places. So it is true, the geographical proximity is just great because we're able to connect these ecosystems there. And only collectively, of course, we stand the chance to be able to be, let's say, remotely as successful as the actual Palo Alto itself. So that's what we call it. out of here this is somewhere that i know well because it is home it's only 150 000 people but it is punching well above its weight it's got a value of 191 billion for a small town it is just crazy but it is what it is we have loads of interesting entrepreneurship activities it's not just university it's not just you know one couple of companies it basically is 18 percent of the total value of uk tech which is just mad for a small town london's around 60 but london is a worldwide brand cambridge perhaps you didn't know it is actually one of the biggest entrepreneurial ecosystems in europe if not the world in its own class it actually produced more unicorns per capita than anywhere else in the world a little bit older this this is from 2024 but it is um you know still there i think we're either number one or number two when this was drawn we were actually producing more unicorns per capita than the valley itself as well And of course, as a deep tech hub, which is what Cambridge is about, it ranks number three globally behind the US counterparts. We're talking about Greater Boston. And just basically after that, we are just number three, which again, for a small town is just madness. There are factors of the Cambridge cluster. So enough about boasting about around Cambridge. This is about Australia. This is what is important to know. So again, this is another article from and I've put together with the seven, let's say, capitals that we actually have. So in the human intellectual capital, the proximity to university is just key. It is what this town is about. Financially, we've historically had really good access to it. to venture capital and all kinds of financial opportunities thanks to the work of the people around there. Institutionally, it's been very supportive. So Cambridge has been really very well supported as an ecosystem by the government and of course, you know, by all the institutions around cultural and network. There's a collaborative culture and physically there's a lot of infrastructure resources. There are 36 research parks around Cambridge for a small town is a lot. But that means that, you know, the infrastructure. becomes one of the advantages of the ecosystem. If you look at it like this, perhaps you've already started, you know, just applying this to your own ecosystem because it's the success breed success. What this is about is like, you know, if you have a successful startup, it basically starts just going around. It starts providing a talent flywheel and a capital flywheel. It attracts more talent, it attracts more capital. So it is imperative that if there's a successful startup or a set of startups, so to speak. Those are nurtured because they're just bringing more than their startup. They're affecting the entire ecosystem. And of course, there's another one, Skype. Maybe you have already used it back in the early 2000s. I have quite a lot. But they had actually loads and loads of alumni in Europe once they started as a company, as a successful startup in the thousands. And of course, we're talking about... you know just over 9 000 well nearly 9 000 companies have been initiated after this sort of wave of the success in 2000s so as you can see it is just creating this sort of you know wave effect this ripple effect basically across an ecosystem so that's why um it is perhaps important to be able to contribute to it as an even as a community builder this is me the seven capitals if there's anything if there's like you know one thing that you know you take away from this event uh from this conversation is this basically this is my take on you know what kind of communities that you can possibly build um don't worry if you are keen on this and you can't wait for any kind of recording if there's going to be any um in the end i'm going to have a bit of a surprise for you to be able to reach these what i've just already already said but you can actually build talent communities to connect the uh to facilitate the home capital you can get some research communities going on around i guess this is already connected with you as a professional on the funding communities it makes a lot of sense to put together communities of of um stakeholders across the funding mechanism institutional relationship facilitate the conversations around institutions paving the way for your startup success get some hyper localized communities you can even put together communities for or just single building floor whatever culture champion there's a culture of risk taking there's a culture of success in startups rituals why not put together communities where these are discussed these are promoted in some ways and of course social and networking is what the australians do well and that's why we're going to come to a moment speaking of australia here we are SWATing the startup ecosystem in Australia. SWAT, as you might know, remember, it is strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. This is from the latest Deal Room report, which is an ecosystem intelligence agency, which is something that an organization that I really, really like to follow. I've put together this SWAT for you for Australia. So this is where hopefully it makes a lot of sense if you're just connecting from there, which I presume you are predominantly. we have some strengths weaknesses opportunities and threats um let's go around them we are talking about massive growth capital efficiency and the weaknesses we have some underfunding we have some distribution issues and on some opportunities we have some outlier found founders and strong investments while in the first bit um things that are a little bit traditional and the success culture barriers perhaps you already uh have uh guessed some of the things that i've been talking about of course it's not an exhaustive list but let's you know have this list within the conversation that we already have now so um it is a massively growing ecosystem uh it generated 360 billion dollars in value it's up six and a half percent six and a half times since 2018 which is just absolutely um just really massive growth and um basically it just makes it globally uh number two in terms of the ecosystem value growth since 2020 and as you know it's been um it's not been plain sailing around the world so having this kind of growth uh for australia as an ecosystem is a great success so i think that this is something that we can uh you know we can instigate you know through the use of communities so that's a bit of a strength that we can actually just you know talk a little bit about what's another strength that australia has is the building big with little resources. So what it is about is basically, even though it actually had less than 34 billion in VC money since 2020, it's actually It has actually built all these wonderful companies, including all these wonderful startups, wonderful success stories like Canva and Atlassian that you actually can see over here. So Australia is very good at being efficient with capital. And of course, it is number one in unicorn creation per dollar invested. It is the top ecosystem, as you can actually see. So this is a really, really important thing that we should be building on as a strength. And perhaps communities could be the key to keep this going and keep this making it, keep this, you know, getting stronger even further. What's the weakness? It's an underfunded startup ecosystem. So there hasn't been that much funding compared to all the other ecosystems. So this could present a problem. So it's a bit of a weakness. So there must be something about that one. And certainly the uneven distribution of tech focus as well. As you know, the large parts of the country is... There's a lot of concentration in one part. There's less concentration in the others. So we're talking about, you know, just, you know, places like New South Wales, Queensland and Victoria, just basically getting the big part of, you know, just investment basically over here. So that's a bit of an uneven distribution. Hopefully some of the events that I've talked about is going to resolve this in a way, but this sort of uneven distribution could be a bit of a problem when you're talking about like a big entire growth of the country in a way. what's an opportunity there's a lot of strong capital flow overs from overseas so compared to the other ecosystems there's a lot of capital that's going coming from abroad so i can already see some community work being able to just you know capitalize on this but certainly it's higher than both the united states in europe as you can see there's a lot of capital that's actually flowing from overseas in that regard and that's an interesting opportunity to bank on even more and It's also a place where there's a lot of outlier founders basically have been here. What's an outlier founder is basically the founder that is extraordinary, just gone all the way to places like the US to be able to get the company to succeed. Australia is a bit of a factory in this one, so there's a lot of interesting success stories in that regard. And certainly the universities are helping out as well. They're some of the top universities in the world in some respects. And certainly... but their their alumni are just you know a wonderful source of outlier founders so we can already maybe perhaps support that with communities and it is also a maturing startup ecosystem so there's been a lot of companies that exit there are a lot of companies that are waiting to exit and of course a lot of companies that are up and coming so if you look at it like this already um an ecosystem connecting all that kind of thing is just is it could be a very good advantage and of course we have a bit of a threat bit which is the traditional tech investment focus trends. This trend is quite interesting. So as you can see, from the pre-boom, in the boom, and the post-boom, when you look at it like this, there's been a lot of shift in the industry. So traditionally, it's now going into energy, health, and media while the world is actually investing in places like AI. And also, it's taking the foot off the gas from Twintech as well. So lots of interesting changes over here, and perhaps this might actually result in a bit of a boat being missed. And of course, if you're Australian, I don't know very well, but, you know, I'm looking from afar. There's this concept called the tall poppy syndrome, which is basically people talking. excessively in some ways just like they would do in the United States perhaps in some kind of success because it's part of the culture in that way is not very well received in Australia perhaps it's called the tall poppy syndrome it's not about just success but it is the way it is actually being portrayed but it might actually be harming some of the startup storytelling so this is from the innovation arts.com if you don't know it I'm not going to go a lot of into detail but culturally there are some barriers as well in terms of the founders being able to tell being able to basically connect with getting people to connect with the success stories of the startups what can we do very very quickly this hopefully you will like on the strengths you can actually put together some go-to-market and growth maximization communities for yourself this is my suggestions you can do some other things as well um also communities on sharing efficiency stories so that other other startups can actually do this on the strengths is that on the weaknesses put together communities around funding around finance and make sure the inter-regional connections are massive or just you know better In terms of the outlier founders, basically get outlier founders to connect with each other and of course with the ecosystem. On the investment, you can get some strong overseas investments and communities basically to mitigate that, sorry, to use that opportunity to the maximum. And of course, on the threats, you can actually put together communities around AI and other underfunded or under-focused areas. And of course, you can put together communities to make success storytelling and repositioning better. And just, you know, looking at this. but just recapping the seven capitals this is my take on this thing basically loads of different things you can do this is the similar recommendations but laid out in a different way with seven capitals these are the things that you can do basically um the bottom line of all these suggestions that that i've put together for across for australia is to be able to connect them just you you're talking about a startup the founder becoming an investor or just you know being able to connect with the talent around them and of course connect with the institutional players that they have around so accelerating a little bit Because this is one final thing that I wanted to talk about. Brisbane 2032. Paz said that I worked for London Olympic Games, which means that, you know, I'm able to tell you a little bit more about the opportunity that Brisbane 2032 Summer Olympic Games can actually bring as a closing conversation. Why is it important? It's a massive, big, massive thing for community building. It was the most followed, you know, games ever. This is Paris 2024 last year and I was there. The energy was just crazy. And if you look at the statistics over here, one thing you can take away from this is like from 2020, we are talking about 290% increase in engagement. And there's an athlete community that's already put together by the IOC. And already this is actually just going around in Queensland. There's a talent search. for new athletes like this the olympic sports talent identification program and it's already yielding results they've already identified 200 346 talents for the future superstars and this is what i leave you with you can actually put together some athlete talent communities some olympic brand and fan communities and olympic startup communities basically connecting athlete founders with the olympic opportunity if you're in brisbane if you're in australia and so those are the things that you can do because why we will be nothing without a community and this is my final surprise if you want to read more about the things that i've just put together this is what you can actually use to be able to get this presentation it's all yours if you have any questions hit me up thank you very much and i hope you liked what you saw Of course we did, Ilka. That was absolutely awesome and just so cool to see. I guess I like how all the pillars come together. Myself and Maddie here have been listening in intently, taking notes, which is just very exciting. And we've got actually some questions here for you, Ilka. So we've got about... 10 to 15 minutes left and so if anyone here wants to ask Ilka a question you can post in the Q&A box not in the chat in the Q&A box which would be amazing but Ilka are you ready for some Q&A because we've got some questions here I am let's go amazing amazing well Ilka we've got a question here from Enos and she is asking she's curious to know more about what makes Australia good at building efficiently like is Australia just better at building communities in the ecosystem or what kind of factors come into play there well there's I mean there's a lot of factors that are actually there so it's it's about i guess you know the concentration it comes to a number of different factors um so it could be around concentration it could be about the ecosystem at the moment especially when where those startups are just being so efficient and of course these success stories being being put together by very very efficient very very enthusiastic startup entrepreneurs and leaders like you know we're talking about kanban atlassian So those are, you know, just in a major brand in their own right. So they've been very much successful. Actually, it's somehow its sort of weakness has become its... sort of asset in that regard because when you look at it like this we're talking about an ecosystem that is still relatively quite big and it is an entire continent but the number of let's say successful global startups is just a certain number of them unlike you know some other other continents where there's been a lot so that might actually just you know mean that you know the people who've been put together these kind these kinds of startups they've been really really diligent with the way that the growth trajectory for these startups have actually been so that might be the reason why it's been it's actually been efficient so again you just got to look at the individual success stories in that regard but it is a good thing to know to to to do because you know be these outlier leaders these outlier founders have actually created the bloopers and this is what i wanted to just you know under underline that this blueprint has to be told more has to be distributed more so that other startups can actually do the same thing as well 100 and it comes down to also trends and what we've seen in the past and we have a question here about what does the future hold you know based on the knowledge that you have and the studies that you have like where is the industry going and what are you kind of seeing in terms of the trends and what the future holds Well, in terms of the trend and what the future, well, basically, so we live in a very different time. So I think, you know, my connection or my reference to just. some things being too traditional, too safe in a way, could be a hint of, you know, to my answer. So when I started my career a long, long time ago, it was about, it wasn't about foundership. It was about just, you know, working in an international company, just becoming some kind of just a manager of sorts, and then basically retiring. But the world is very different. And I think it's Daniel Presley, who's from Australia. He's a guy that I follow so much. entrepreneur and also an enabler and investor. It is say that, you know, we live in a very exciting time, despite everything that is happening around us, because it is the time for affordable sort of micro businesses in some ways. So in my time, when you wanted to become a founder, basically, you just had to pay a lot of money for the infrastructure because cloud computing didn't exist. But now today, you can actually start an AI company, you can start a technology company with zero investment, nearly. all you need is a good idea and an execution so this kind of sort of affordable sort of startup structure has never happened in this in this sort of fashion so this is what the industry is but that also requires a culture shift and this is also what we're wrestling in the year in Europe as well in the sense that you know what we're talking about it's important to go to the definition of startup a startup is something is a small idea that you know can actually be replicated can actually be scaled very very quickly and we're missing that kind of definition in a more traditional place and I think that Australia is also trying to shed this skin in some respects and this is what I felt around sort of overcoming the tall poppy syndrome or just you know focusing on other let's say things like you know AI and you know fintech still even with the trends and community could be a key in that one so those are the things so this is what the future holds important to to catch the times if you like and I think that you know also just the final thing that I've shared the Olympic opportunity has actually changed a lot of things in the UK since 2012 and it is changing a lot of things around this is also what's happening in Paris as well since last year they've been crowned as one of the innovation whatever the innovation capital in Europe just passing London which was unthinkable quite you know until quite recent so those are the things that I'm saying so I take these opportunities to be able to conform to be able to just sort of just get up get up on the wave as you like if you're in australia and that's what the future holds i think well it's in such a different landscape now right as you say there's ai there's tech things are changing we're in a completely different era and there are so many other variables at play so i love how you've kind of highlighted that and it just makes so much sense we've got time for a couple more questions before the apac segment ends of loop ilka oh my god i mean london's just waking up right now i mean what time is it for you over in england i'm in istanbul so 9 39 so that'd be 7 39 a very a very nice and crisp sort of um british morning but you know we will see we'll we'll wait for our for our friends to tell you know how they're feeling over in europe just pop over to istanbul go over to spain you know when i went to london it was just a short 27 hour flight i think technology this is also interesting so i think i think it is now qantas and a couple of other you know providers that are now just trying with the sort of non-stop flights around the world this is going to change a lot of things on the entrepreneurship as well so better connection is always going to be beneficial so if you're going to be making it easy even with this huge distances for australia to connect using technology in transport and other things, it's even going to make an effect. So there's nothing that is off limits in contribution to the startup and ecosystem success. I love it, Ilka. We could sit here for another nine hours of the rest of Loop and keep chatting, but we have got to wrap it in just a moment. So, Ilka, the final question is, if you had your career again and you were going to build a successful startup ecosystem, what do you think is the first thing that you really need to get right? So if you had your time again, you were going to build a startup ecosystem, you had, you know, clean slate, what would you do as the first really important step? Funnily enough, I love the question. I love the closing question because it's exactly what my... consultancy does at this moment and i'm working with different you know ecosystem players or ecosystem let's say leaders so to speak around the world so well i guess the first thing it's not surprising is to set a direction intention and a strategy so basically just saying that you know or thinking about doing something is is okay it's great but to put together a strategy around how to do it first is i think it's crucial so this is also what's happening with a lot of community work as well it also means that you know just people are just building a community and then they say well i'll just you know put an intention to put a direction to it once the community has started you and i know well that you know it doesn't work that way so i guess that um you know the best thing to do is to put together just look at the strengths of this particular ecosystem every ecosystem can stand for a bit of a niche or a number of niches and every place has got this kind of let's say call it an unfair advantage which i think australia has as well in some good respects so putting that direction together and then basically building an ecosystem strategy around it is absolutely key so this is common sense what i just said but you know as a strategy consultant i see a lot of things happening the other way so it's i have a duty to underline that the mechanism goes this way If you do it like this, I always say this, everything that you do in an ecosystem as somebody who's shaping it, every single thing that you do, every event that you put together, every person that you call to an event, and every kind of activity that you design must actually serve that intention, purpose, and strategy. Again, very common sense, but it's important to remind ourselves because it just happens otherwise in a lot of places. And I wish all the best to wonderful Australia, which I've never been, but I would love to come. Okay, you have to come and visit us. I mean, there's a lot of us over here and it's a great country. So Ilka, thank you so much for closing the APAC segment of Loop. We've done part one in the US time zone with Beth McIntyre from CMX. We are just wrapping now part two, which has been with myself, Paz Mazarski for APAC and Ilka as our closing speaker, right? You know what they say about leaving the last speaker. And of course, we're now about to segue into... the european time zone for the last eight hours of loop so ilka thank you so much for being our closing speaker for this segment i've been dying to get you in as a speaker so all of apac can listen to you so this has been amazing we've had 275 people stay online and absorb all of your knowledge and we've had over 1022 people rsvp so far for loop and they'll all be getting the recording so ilka thank you so much enjoy the rest of your day in istanbul i'll see you later in australia thanks so much

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_________
Ilker Akansel, founder and community strategist at TalentLed.co, reveals how startup ecosystems mirror natural coral reefs, thriving through bottom-up community building rather than top-down mandates. Drawing insights from Cambridge's unicorn-per-capita success and Australia's capital-efficient ecosystem, Ilker shares a framework for community managers to understand their strategic role in building self-sustaining startup communities.
In this session Ilker shares: 
✅ The Boulder Thesis: Four principles for building successful startup communities (entrepreneurs must lead, commit long-term, stay inclusive, run continual activities) 
✅ The Seven Capitals framework: Network, institutional, physical, social, human, cultural, and financial capital that fuel ecosystems 
✅ Leaders, Feeders, and Instigators: The three personas in every thriving startup community (and why Instigators are the selfless connectors who make systems tick) 
✅ Australia's ecosystem SWOT: Massive growth (6.5x since 2018), #1 in unicorn creation per dollar invested, and strategic opportunities 
✅ The success flywheel: How nurturing successful startups creates talent and capital flywheels that attract more of both 
✅ Community strategy essentials: Setting direction, intention, and strategy first before building anything
🎯 KEY TAKEAWAY: Every single thing you do (every event, every connection, every design) must serve your ecosystem's core intention, purpose, and strategy.
TIMESTAMPS 
00:00 - Introduction: Connecting continents through community 
04:04 - What is an ecosystem? From coral reefs to startups 
07:32 - Defining entrepreneurial ecosystems vs startup communities 
09:55 - The seven capitals of entrepreneurship ecosystems 
12:25 - The Boulder Thesis: Four principles for startup community success 
13:51 - Leaders, Feeders, and Instigators: The three startup personas 
17:21 - Bay Area success factors: Culture, capital, talent, and networks 
19:25 - Europe's "New Palo Alto" Science Supercluster 
20:29 - Cambridge case study: Unicorns per capita and deep tech dominance 
25:02 - Community types you can build across the seven capitals 
25:40 - SWOTting Australia's startup ecosystem 
33:49 - Brisbane 2032: The Olympic opportunity for community building 
35:37 - Q&A: 

Resources Mentioned:
🔗 The Startup Community Way (2020) - Brad Feld and Ian Hathaway's framework for entrepreneurial ecosystems 
🔗 Startup Communities: Building an Entrepreneurial Ecosystem in Your City (2012) - Brad Feld's Boulder Thesis 



About the Speaker:
Ilker is a strategy consultant who helps organisations unlock the power of community building. He specialises in two complementary areas: building technology and innovation ecosystems and establishing talent communities.

His passion for community management began while leading volunteers at the London 2012 Olympics, an experience that underscored the impact of collective passion. Since 2020, he has advised diverse clients worldwide on their community strategies.

You can learn more about his community strategy and ecosystem building services at ilkerakansel.com. For specialised support in building talent communities, he is also the co-founder of TalentLed, the world's first startup exclusively focused on this domain, at talentled.co.

About Loop Summit: Loop is a 24-hour global community summit hosted by CMX, Led by Community, and The Community Collective.