“Giving before you get” is the key to startup community success

I don’t entertain the “where’s the next Silicon Valley” conversation. It’s irrelevant, everywhere is different, with different strengths and weaknesses. London, Berlin, Paris, Amsterdam and Dublin all have a certain set of parameters and a certain situation that makes them function in their own individual way. However, there are lessons to be learned from super-successful startup hubs like San Francisco, Boston and Boulder.

One of the most powerful attributes to emulate is an environment of “pay it forward” or “give before you get”. If you’re not familiar with this terminology, it’s simply about spending time helping others to the best of your ability for no immediate personal gain in return. If you think that sounds altruistic, it’s not, you will get things in return, but there’s no definition or expectation of what that will be.

A community that is collaborative and actively seeks to help all its members is a far stronger community than a group of people that are simply getting on with their own business. Think of it as a network effect. This can apply to how you behave at networking events, your willingness to make intros or how open you are to random encounters. Doing these things impacts your personal and company reputation even if you don’t realise it.

You may equate this to playing a mental game of who you owe favours to, or who owes you. In fact, this approach belies expectation and that’s not what it is. As Brad Feld describes so well in Startup Communities, everyone can be a winner, it’s not a zero sum game. The impact on the community as a whole, as a result of the majority of people actively helping each other has a compounding effect — it’s whole becomes greater than the sum of its parts.

If we make London one of the most welcoming, helpful startup environments in the world, we’re going to have an impact far greater than the individual instances of help. Imagine it: we all start to give a little bit back, the reputation of London grows, it attracts more talent, which increases the quality and volume of startups, which attracts more investors, increases the likelihood of exits, whereby London founders then become able to invest back into the ecosystem and it continues to grow.

You’re too busy with your startup to help others? Wrong! You just don’t see it as a priority. We’re all busy, but the community will get stronger as a whole if you take out an hour a week or an afternoon a month to help others. This ethos needs work, cognisance of the benefits, fostering and that’s everyone’s responsibility – including yours.

You’re new to the ecosystem, haven’t worked in a startup before so can’t possibly help? Wrong! You don’t need to help by solving someone’s complex technical problem or by introducing them to the perfect investor, there’s a huge amount to be said for just listening, or being a regular consumer and giving feedback on a product. Often you can help someone solve their own problem, in having to explain it to you, they find the answer themselves – but you need to be there in order for this to happen!

So the next time you’re at an event, discuss someone else’s challenges and actively seek to help them. Or when you get that random email asking for an intro or an hour of your time, don’t just hit the delete button, find a way to help – take some time to invest back into the ecosystem that you live in.