Publisher's Synopsis
As we progress further into the information age technology, online businesses, e-commerce and innovation play an increasingly larger impact on economic growth, social development and the personal lives of human beings throughout the world.As we progress further into the information age technology, online businesses, e-commerce and innovation play an increasingly larger impact on economic growth, social development and the personal lives of human beings throughout the world. Tech entrepreneurship provides the propulsion for such progress. As individual nations and international organizations increasingly recognize and embrace the vital importance entrepreneurship and innovation has become the need for greater understanding and focused study on the development of start-up ecosystems supportive of tech entrepreneurs has urgently assumed greater proportions. This is the first book to treat the topic of start-up ecosystem development from both an academic and practical perspective. The book will commence with an introduction to the Vibrancy Rating, a qualitative methodology to evaluate and track the progress of the development of local start-up ecosystems. The existing methodologies that rate start-up ecosystems are primarily quantitative, thus, only record current status and results. They do not offer a proper conceptual framework nor actionable information to assist the various participants in a start-up community to make informed decisions throughout the stages of development a local start-up ecosystem progresses through. To illustrate the methodology a narrative of the untold story of the development of the Thai start-up ecosystem will be presented. In 2008 when the author decided to make Thailand his home there was no start-up community. Now it has rapidly developed into one of the most vibrant start-up communities in the world. Thailand is rated #1 globally in social media usage and the top global destination for digital nomads. It is a global leader in women and social entrepreneurship. Thailand is renowned for its vast network of well-designed and vibrant co-working spaces and is positioned in the heart of ASEAN, the fastest growing region in the world. It has become the preferred launching pad for the biggest global e-commerce players targeting the Southeast Asian market and is leading the way in ASEAN in developing crowd funding regulations. The book reveals how this happened since the very beginning from the perspective of an observer and participant. The book finishes with a review of the proper roles of each start-up participant during each development stage. Start-up participants include entrepreneurs, early-stage investors, media, start-up organizations, universities, corporations and government. The review is intended to answer the following question: How can each start-up community member optimally contribute to and benefit from the start-up community in which it is based? The final chapter of the book will present the Innovative Venture policy proposal for governments to consider in support of the development of their local start-up ecosystem. The Innovative Venture is a designation granted to a start-up venture for successfully demonstrating that they would be introducing an innovation to the local economy whether it be an innovative technology, business model or process. It is structured as both a regulatory and branding vehicle that serves as a drop box for specific regulatory relief and incentives to be enjoyed by both founders and investors of local start-ups. The government may also market their Innovative Venture program both domestically and abroad to attract new participants to the local start-up ecosystem. For the first time start-up ecosystems can now be properly evaluated and compared by all the major start-up community players so they may optimally contribute and benefit.