GEN Global Assembly Interactive Workshop: Activating Entrepreneurial Potential in Every Community

Session Description 

In most entrepreneurial ecosystems, it is the grassroots startup community organizations that are on the front line when inspiring more people from their community to explore their entrepreneurial potential. Startup events, support organization chapters, and local hubs all need more demand from more citizens with an entrepreneurial mindset.

Expert facilitators will show how embracing everyday entrepreneurs can drive local demand and sustainable economic growth.  This workshop will offer:

• A discussion on how cultivating entrepreneurial thinking empowers individuals to recognize and pursue opportunities, fostering innovation and resilience in any community.  
• A review of actionable steps for creating pathways that enable ordinary citizens to thrive through entrepreneurship.  The workshop will walk participants through the narratives for reaching everyday entrepreneurs, empowering urban, suburban, and rural communities.  
• A guide for community leaders on concrete steps to implement mindset-based entrepreneurial development strategies for unlocking the entrepreneurial potential of ordinary people.

About the GEN Global Assembly

The GEN Global Assembly (GGA) brings together diverse experts and practitioners from around the world to brainstorm strategies and learn skills for strengthening the global entrepreneurial ecosystem. To kick off the GEC, the immersive GGA workshops will provide the tools and insights to help us build thriving entrepreneurial ecosystems together around the 2025 themes, including "The World Needs More Entrepreneurs."

The World Needs More Entrepreneurs

The world needs more individuals experimenting, launching, and scaling ventures. This track will focus on how to inspire more people to take this path, thereby increasing the number of people using entrepreneurial support organizations (ESOs) and getting started. 

Session Recap

(AI-generated session recap made available by Google NotebookLM)

This session, led by Gary Shoeniger, Founder and CEO of the Entrepreneurial Learning Initiative (ELI), and Thom Ruhe, President and CEO of the NC Idea Foundation, challenged traditional views of entrepreneurship and ecosystem development. They shared insights from decades of work supporting everyday entrepreneurs and revealed compelling data demonstrating the economic and developmental impact of investing in overlooked communities and individuals. The discussion highlighted a "gaping hole" in current understanding and discourse around entrepreneurial ecosystems, arguing that focusing solely on high-tech, venture-backed startups misses the vast majority of potential.

Outline
Here are the main areas discussed in this session:
• The Problem: High-level funding cuts and a "blood bath" in research funding, alongside a lack of understanding of how science works.
• Gary's Journey and the Ice House Origin: Over 30 years of research into how underdogs win and everyday entrepreneurs succeed. Deconstructing the entrepreneurial mindset through hundreds of interviews. The story of Clifton Talbert and the influence of his uncle Cleave at the Ice House. Partnering with Thom Ruhe at the Kaufman Foundation to develop the Ice House Entrepreneurship program/curriculum.
• The Ice House Program's Impact: The unexpected, widespread adoption of the program across various demographics and settings (middle school to post-doc, re-entry programs). Its use for purposes beyond starting businesses, such as student engagement, success, and workforce development. Compelling data on student persistence rates using the program. Its success in changing the mindset of city government workers.
• Critique of Traditional Ecosystems: The disconnect between entrepreneurial education/support and the reality of everyday entrepreneurs (not writing business plans, lack of resources). The prevalent myths and misperceptions that constrain understanding. The tendency for ecosystems to be over-influenced by the "capital stack" and focus primarily on tech transfer, government, and venture capitalists, ignoring the majority.
• NC Idea Foundation's Evolution: Transitioning from a traditional technology-based economic development (T-Bed) model, which historically favored white males in major metro areas, to an "equity first" approach focused on finding potential in overlooked places.
• The NC Idea Portfolio Strategy: Implementing a layered approach starting with the Ice House mindset program as a universal "front porch". Developing the Ecosystem and Engage grant programs to build capacity and identify partners, particularly in historically underserved groups. Creating the Micro grant program ($10k) to reach even earlier stage ventures, which significantly increased diversity and served as a pipeline for Seed grants. The Seed grant program ($50k) as the original foundation for high-growth, high-impact companies.
• Economic Impact: Presenting data from North Carolina showing startup trends above the national average. Highlighting the NC Secretary of State report indicating that helping just 5% of nascent firms reach a six-figure revenue adds $1.5 to $2 billion to the state's economy in Year 1, which is additive annually. Comparing this impact and cost-per-job favorably to large corporate tax incentives.
• Developmental Impact: Emphasizing that supporting entrepreneurs cultivates individual resilience, employability, adaptability, and contributes to human flourishing, regardless of whether a business is started.
• Challenges and Advice: Discussing the difficulty of aligning with traditional state economic development structures. Sharing the "secret" to success: qualified people and sufficient funding. Advising against blindly adopting outside models or franchises and encouraging communities to identify their own needs and solutions. Highlighting the importance of programmatic support (like the NC Idea Labs program) for early-stage ventures. Mentioning the value of programs like I-Corps within the ecosystem.

Notable Quotes
• "The entrepreneurial spirit is the human spirit. It ain't just in some of us. It's in all of us and it's our job as ecosystem partners to... recognize that potential."
• "What Ice House really exposed is a vast, vast reservoir of untapped human potential that's lying dormant in people and places that are being overlooked or ignored."
• "This is economic opportunity hiding in plain sight."

Key Takeaways
• Potential is Ubiquitous: Entrepreneurial potential is a fundamental human trait, present in everyone, not limited to a select few with specific backgrounds or ideas.
• Inclusivity Drives Impact: Deliberately shifting focus and resources to historically underserved groups and overlooked communities unlocks significant economic potential and creates more equitable outcomes.
• Everyday Entrepreneurs Matter: Supporting everyday, Main Street entrepreneurs has a massive collective economic impact that can rival or exceed that of recruiting large companies, often at a much lower cost.
• Mindset is Foundational: Cultivating an entrepreneurial mindset through programs like Ice House serves as a crucial "front porch", activating individuals and preparing them for future engagement in the ecosystem, whether or not they start a business.
• Build Your Own Playbook: Avoid prescriptive, outside models. Instead, focus on understanding the unique needs of your community, support local partners, iterate based on what works, and trust that the power to build your ecosystem lies within.

Resources Mentioned
• Ice House Entrepreneurship Program: Curriculum/program developed by ELI (Entrepreneurial Learning Initiative).
• Who Owns the Ice House? Eight life lessons from an unlikely entrepreneur: Book by Clifton L. Taulbert and Gary Schoeniger.
• The Entrepreneurial Mindset Advantage: New book by Gary Schoeniger.
• NC Idea Foundation (NCIA): An Organization in North Carolina discussed extensively as an example of an equity-first ecosystem builder.
• Kaufman Foundation: Provided original funding for the Ice House program.
• NC Secretary of State office: Source of data on North Carolina startup numbers and self-sufficiency report.
• Human Flourishing program at Harvard: Current collaborator on research into the developmental impact of supporting entrepreneurs.
• NCIA Labs program: Mandatory support program for NC Idea Micro grant recipients focused on customer discovery.
• I-Corps program: NSF program focused on customer discovery.

Action Items
While not framed as explicit calls to action for the audience, the speakers highlighted steps they are taking and encouraged similar approaches:
• Interview entrepreneurs in your own community to understand their reality.
• Examine your own ecosystem's programs and criteria for selection bias.
• Challenge assumptions about where entrepreneurial talent resides.
• Consider the return on investment of ecosystem support for everyday entrepreneurs compared to large corporate incentives.
• Ask critical questions when evaluating external ecosystem models or franchises: "What are they going to do for you that you can't do for yourself?"
• Find partners who share a belief in the potential of ordinary people and work collaboratively.
• (For attendees) Engage with the speakers: Gary Schoeninger mentioned a book talk the following morning, and both welcomed further conversation.