{"version":"1.0","type":"rich","provider_name":"Acast","provider_url":"https://acast.com","height":250,"width":700,"html":"<iframe src=\"https://embed.acast.com/$/60d3a6034fea16001989ee68/6a3d6103cb67fc75ea88f709?\" frameBorder=\"0\" width=\"700\" height=\"250\"></iframe>","title":"Founders First, Always","thumbnail_width":200,"thumbnail_height":200,"thumbnail_url":"https://open-images.acast.com/shows/60d3a6034fea16001989ee68/1782407408049-3907a9f7-7f62-4c49-b4f0-54212972d5b7.jpeg?height=200","description":"<p>In this episode of Your Startup Community, Chris Heivly breaks down the first principle of the Boulder Thesis: entrepreneurs must lead the startup community.</p><p><br></p><p>It sounds simple. It is not.</p><p><br></p><p>Chris unpacks why governments, universities, and economic developers, no matter how well-resourced or well-intentioned, cannot substitute for founder-led leadership. Drawing from his own experience in rooms full of civic planners without a single current founder present, he makes the case that startup communities are living systems, not strategic plans.</p><p><br></p><p>Because you can remove friction. You can create the conditions for collisions. But you cannot engineer entrepreneurial energy from a conference room.</p><p>The goal is not a managed community. It is a community where founders are heard, elevated, and in the room.</p><p><br></p>","author_name":"Techstars"}