Let’s Make More Pies… Together
Updated: Aug 31, 2021
We recently read the Medium article, Building Something Big, In the Middle of Somewhere Small, and were immediately grateful for it. As one of the many local startups that dreams of one day joining the ranks of successful start-ups in our community like Flywheel, Buildertrend, and Hudl, we appreciated the acknowledgment that our hill to climb is a bit steeper than if we were building a company in a bigger city on the coast with greater resources.
The author, Karen Borchert, former COO at Flywheel explores lessons of scarcity that we face by not being a “prime relocation destination”. We don’t argue the lack of investment dollars, mentors, talent, and other resources (real or perceived). And while we commend the mindset and ability to turn scarcity into opportunity, as co-founders at the beginning of our start-up story, we choose to work in an abundant mindset.
Here’s why:
Throughout history we’ve seen scarcity destroy ecosystems. It drives anxiety, fear, extreme competition, and a belief that only a select few can win. As co-founders of a company creating a new market in the future of work, we are focused on maximizing resources and unlocking the untapped potential that comes with sharing. Believing that there are only enough resources for a limited number of entrepreneurial success stories or “pies,” we will never reach our full potential as a business or community. We must maximize and share our resources, not only to get a piece of the pie, but to create MORE pies.
We don't just believe in the abundant untapped potential in our local community, we have experienced it. Over the past two years of Job Share Connect, we have been overwhelmed with the abundance we have received from the community around us. As we’ve worked with talent, we’ve seen untapped potential, transferable skills, and an in-demand workforce that can be leveraged across our ecosystem by creating non-traditional paths. The collective energy, talents, and support we see daily gives us confidence that we have all the ingredients right here to create something big enough to not only feed our local entrepreneurial ecosystem, but to attract people to Nebraska to co-create and contribute to our surplus.
Any successful community is built on giving as well as receiving, which is why we have committed ourselves, even in this early stage of our business, to pull others along with us. We want to contribute in a way that has more impact and makes us all stronger. We joined forces with a few like-minded entrepreneurs to connect, inspire, engage and share resources to keep building our community by starting:
W.I.N.E - Women In New Endeavors (email us if you want to join our SLACK channel)
And
Forward.Co - a group to connect start-up founders, corporations and thought leaders committed to creating practical solutions for the new workplace.
As we close out this year, we’d like to send out our heartfelt gratitude to those who have shared their insights, feedback, resources, presentation stages, funds, and audiences to share our vision. Each of these has been exactly what we needed, when we needed it most. We will continue to support, connect, and find new ways to build for this community. Because as we look to 2021 - we are hungry for so much more and welcome others to join us.
Our Abundant Startup Community:
Disrupt HR - Omaha Nebraska Tech Collaborative
University of Nebraska Lincoln - Center for Entrepreneurship
University of Nebraska Omaha - Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship