Data and Survey Outputs with Explanation

Governor's Office of State Planning and Budgeting
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Colorado Startup Value
Survey
Startup Ecosystems and
the Concept of Community Value
Governor’s Office of State Planning and Budgeting
Laura Blomquist
Spencer Imel

Let’s Start With Some Questions
• What does a startup "ecosystem" have to do with the success rate of
entrepreneurs?
• How do community members get successful entrepreneurs to start their next
business in the same place?
• What makes people talk about your startup community when they travel and
recommend it as an ideal place to start a business?
– The Startup Value Survey explored the link between these questions and the satisfaction levels of
entrepreneurs with regard to their community.
– We set out to determine whether changes in the level of satisfaction among entrepreneurs made a
difference in whether or not they would promote their community to colleagues and contacts.
– The data we collected shows the relationship between satisfaction and community growth – as it
turns out, these two things are closely related...

Worth/Value
What I get
What I give
Growth & Development
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• To understand what drives entrepreneurs' satisfaction with their community, we explored
how they conceptualize the value they receive by being there.
• There are certain benefits of being an entrepreneur in a particular community, and there
are certain costs that are associated with being there. In order to get the benefits, an
entrepreneur must pay out the costs. So the question we explored was “How much do you
see the benefits of your community as being worth the costs?”
• The very basic relationship looks something like this - we call it a "Value Tree."

Value Tree for Entrepreneurs
Local Atmosphere
Availability of Talent
Networks
Worth/Value
What I need
Access to Capital
What I give
Institutions
Government-related Costs
Business Costs
Personal Costs
Community’s Growth
& Development
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• We asked entrepreneurs themselves
to brainstorm lists of everything that
makes up the "what I get" side of the
value tree and the "what I give" side of
the value tree.
• After dozens of interviews with
folks from many different
backgrounds in Colorado's startup
ecosystem, we had built a long list of
items that entrepreneurs get as well as
a long list of costs that entrepreneurs
pay in order to run their startup in a
community.
• We combined similar items from the
lists down into the categories seen
here.

The Survey
• We built a short online survey around the components of the value tree.
• We asked entrepreneurs to rate their overall satisfaction with each attribute on a scale
of 1 (not at all satisfied) to 10 (completely satisfied).
• We asked them to provide ratings for each branch of the value tree, including the
overall sum of "all the things you get from your community," and the overall sum of
"all the things you give to your community."
• We also asked entrepreneurs to rate the overall value of being a startup in their area,
questioning, "Considering all that you get and all that you give, how 'worth it' is
starting a business in your community?”
• We had two distribution methods:
– Network Distribution: Trade Associations across industries, co-working spaces,
accelerators, incubators, community members and leaders sent out the link to the
survey.
– Secretary of State Office: Businesses that registered for or renewed their
business license in the last two weeks of December 2013 were invited to take the
survey.

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We got two sets of data:
• The scores represent how Colorado's startup
communities are performing when it comes to
satisfying entrepreneurs on each of these
attributes.
•Using a simple mathematical technique, called
linear regression, we estimated the importance
of each branch of the value tree relative to the
importance of the other branches.
In doing this, we were able to:
• Assess which parts of the value proposition
make the biggest difference to entrepreneurs'
satisfaction simply by determining which ones
are more systematically associated with satisfied
entrepreneurs.
• Gather information about the importance of
each attribute that was not subject to the strong
opinion or unique experience of any one startup
- these conclusions are born of data collected
from nearly 800 entrepreneurs throughout
Colorado and a growing number of
entrepreneurs across the United States.
Attribute
Impact
Weight
Colorado
Score
Score Among
Colorado
Promoters
Network for Startups 38% 7.0 8.4
Availability of Talent 6% 6.1 7.1
Access to Capital 11% 4.7 5.3
Local Atmosphere 29% 8.3 9.3
Institutions 15% 6.0 6.9
"What I Get" 100% 7.0 8.1
Business Costs 52% 6.0 6.4
Government-Related Costs 18% 5.2 5.8
Personal Costs 30% 6.0 6.6
"What I Pay" 100% 6.3 7.0
What I Get 71% 7.0 8.1
What I Pay 29% 6.3 7.0
Overall Value 7.8 9.1
50%
45%
39%
Percent of respondents that would startup in Colorado
again
Percent of respondents that would recommend Colorado
for startups
Percent of Respondents that are Colorado Promoters
Network Distribution
Colorado Companies (348 Responses)
What Startups Get
What Startups Pay
Overall Value
Colorado Promoters

What do the scores mean?
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0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
70%
80%
90%
100%
10987654321
PercentColoradoPromoters
Value Score
The online survey asked two additional questions that
helped determine a connection between entrepreneurial
satisfaction, and the growth of the startup community.
1) If you decide to start another business, how likely
are you to select this same location again?
2) If an associate or friend wants to start a new
business, how willing are you to recommend they
do so in this area?
We determined how many of the entrepreneurs that took
the survey would be likely to do things that promote their
community as a great place for startups.
The data set shows what percentage of entrepreneurs gave
either a 9 or 10 to represent their likelihood of starting
another company in the same place, as well as the
percentage of entrepreneurs that gave either a 9 or 10 to
represent their likelihood of recommending their
community to others.
We also determined how many people would do both of
these things - they are the ones that would put both their
own success and their reputation on the line to promote
their community. We refer to these people as "dual
promoters." The data shows us how much value a
community must offer to produce more dual promoters.
This chart is called "the slippery slope" because of its shape and its meaning. The
slippery slope diagram tells us this: "of the entrepreneurs that gave each rating for
overall community value, what percentage of them were dual promoters?".
• Of all the "people" that gave a value score of 10, about 75 percent of them were
dual promoters.
• Of all the people that gave a value score of 8, about 30 percent of them were dual
promoters.
• The data in this chart help answer a very important question about value in startup
communities, "How good is good?" More dual promoters are likely a key component
to driving ecosystem growth - the slippery slope tells community leaders what value
score they need to achieve in order to make more of their entrepreneurs into
promoters of the community.
The Slippery Slope

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Attribute
Tech
Impact
Weight
Tech Score
Non-Tech
Impact Weight
Non-Tech
Score
Network for Startups 36% 8.1 37% 6.7
Availability of Talent 2% 6.5 8% 6.0
Access to Capital 11% 5.0 12% 4.6
Local Atmosphere 44% 9.0 26% 8.1
Institutions 7% 5.9 18% 6.0
"What I Get" 100% 7.9 100% 6.8
Business Costs 50% 6.5 50% 5.9
Government-Related Costs 5% 5.6 25% 5.1
Personal Costs 45% 6.0 25% 6.0
"What I Pay" 100% 6.7 100% 6.1
What I Get 86% 7.9 65% 6.8
What I Pay 14% 6.7 35% 6.1
Overall Value 100% 8.4 100% 7.6
Network Distribution
Overall Value
What Startups Get
What Startups Pay
• We were curious about the tech sector because it is growing so quickly in Colorado. Since
we had enough responses to run the regressions, we compared tech to non-tech startups.
• Interestingly enough, the tech sector had different scores and impact weights.

•Denver Metro area not including Boulder
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Average Scores Across Regions
Attribute
Impact
Weight
Colorado
Average
Score
Score Among
Colorado
Promoters
Denver* Boulder Ft. Collins
Southern
Colorado
Western
Slope
What Startups Get
Network for Startups 38% 7.0 8.4 6.9 8.5 7.2 5.2 6.3
Availability of Talent 6% 6.1 7.1 6.5 6.8 6.7 4.8 4.9
Access to Capital 11% 4.7 5.3 4.3 5.5 4.5 3.8 5.2
Local Atmosphere 29% 8.3 9.3 8.5 9.3 8.9 6.9 7.3
Institutions 15% 6.0 6.9 5.8 6.7 7.8 4.8 5.2
"What I Get" 100% 7.0 8.1 7.0 8.2 7.6 5.4 6.4
What Startups Pay
Business Costs 52% 6.0 6.4 6.3 5.8 6.0 5.8 5.8
Government-
Related Costs
18% 5.2 5.8 5.3 5.7 6.0 4.4 4.7
Personal Costs 30% 6.0 6.6 6.2 5.1 6.1 6.5 6.1
"What I Pay" 100% 6.3 7.0 6.5 6.0 6.4 5.9 5.9
Overall Value
What I Get 71% 7.0 8.1 7.0 8.2 7.6 5.9 6.4
What I Pay 29% 6.3 7.0 6.5 6.0 6.4 5.9 5.9
Value 100% 7.8 9.1 7.8 8.3 8.1 6.5 7.5

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Average Scores Across Industries
Attribute
Impact
Weight
Colorado
Average Score
Score
Among
Colorado
Promoters
Bioscience
Creative
Industries
Energy and
Natural
Resources
Financial
Services
Health and
Wellness
Information
and
Technology
What Startups Get
Network for
Startups
38% 7.0 8.4 6.3 7.2 6.3 6.0 7.3 8.1
Availability of
Talent
6% 6.1 7.1 6.3 6.0 5.5 5.7 6.1 6.5
Access to Capital 11% 4.7 5.3 4.2 5.0 3.6 3.5 4.5 5.0
Local Atmosphere 29% 8.3 9.3 8.5 8.1 7.9 7.5 8.6 9.0
Institutions 15% 6.0 6.9 6.6 5.6 6.2 5.8 5.7 5.9
"What I Get" 1.0 7.0 8.1 6.6 7.2 7.0 6.1 6.9 7.9
What Startups Pay
Business Costs 52% 6.0 6.4 5.9 6.0 4.8 5.3 5.7 6.5
Government-
Related Costs
18% 5.2 5.8 5.8 4.9 4.0 4.4 5.2 5.6
Personal Costs 30% 6.0 6.6 5.7 5.9 5.4 4.9 6.2 6.0
"What I Pay" 1.0 6.3 7.0 6.1 6.1 5.7 5.6 6.1 6.7
Overall Value
What I Get 71% 7.0 8.1 6.6 7.2 7.0 6.1 6.9 7.9
What I Pay 29% 6.3 7.0 6.1 6.1 5.7 5.6 6.1 6.7
Value 7.3 7.7 7.4 6.4 8.0 8.4

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Attribute
Impact
Weight
Colorado
Score
Score Among
Colorado
Promoters
Network for Startups 28% 5.8 7.3
Availability of Talent 16% 6.4 7.8
Access to Capital 10% 4.6 5.5
Local Atmosphere 29% 7.6 9.1
Institutions 17% 5.7 7.2
"What I Get" 100% 6.3 8.2
Business Costs 29% 5.4 6.5
Government-Related Costs 32% 5 6.4
Personal Costs 39% 5.5 6.7
"What I Pay" 100% 5.7 7.2
What I Get 55% 6.3 8.2
What I Pay 45% 5.7 7.2
Overall Value 100% 7.1 9.2
33%
25%
23%
Percent of respondents that would startup in Colorado
Percent of respondents that would recommend Colorado
for startups
Percent of Respondents that are Colorado Promoters
Secretary of State Distribution Channel
(448 Responses)
What Startups Get
What Startups Pay
Overall Value
Colorado Promoters
• Surveys were also offered to
businesses that registered for, or
renewed, their business license in the
last two weeks of December 2013.
•This data is limited to those
respondents that indicated their
business was less than 4 years old.
• There are differences in the impact
weights for “What I Get” and “What
I Pay”
•But similarly with the network
distribution list, the Network for
Startup and Local Atmosphere
Attributes still have the highest
impact weights.

Key Findings in Colorado
• When entrepreneurs assess the value of being located in a particular
community, they generally place about 70% of the weight on the
benefits of their community, leaving only about 30% of the weight on
the costs.
• Among all the benefits, entrepreneurs appear to be the most
concerned with Networks and their Local Atmosphere. Together, these
two things comprise about 70% of all consideration given to benefits.
• There is a wide range of satisfaction among entrepreneurs in various
industries and areas in Colorado.
– The highest levels of satisfaction were found in Boulder and Ft. Collins,
followed by Denver.
– The top performing industries were Technology, and Health & Wellness.

What’s Next
We are working with are partners across the United States to
collect data from startup communities. As the surveys outside
of Colorado still are active, we have not yet analyzed the data
so it is not too late to join us!
If you would like to participate in the survey and collect data
on your community, please contact us!
- What you do -
• Send us an email
•Engage your community and send out the survey link
•Give us your feedback - you are a part of the startup
community and the data belongs to you so help us understand
and use the data
- What we do -
Send you a customized survey link for your community
Once the data is collected, we will create a profile for your
community and be able to determine what is important to
your entrepreneurs
Provide your community the anonymized responses of the
survey
To participate please contact:
Laura Blomquist: Laura.Blomquist@state.co.us
or
Spencer Imel: Spencer.Imel@state.co.us

Data and Survey Outputs with Explanation

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Data and Survey Outputs with Explanation