Once again I find the need to repost a blog entry by Paul Graham and his recent rant about what it takes to be a good startup founder. I do this not just for the sake of my workshop participants, but also as part of my ongoing quest to reshape the economic mindset in Tampa.

Paul sums up nicely the big difference between good founders and bad founders. Good founders are relentlessly resourceful, they make things happen and push forward even when circumstances are not always in their favor.  Not all good founders are successful, but at least they try and when the market smacks them down, they rethink, regroup and try again. Bad founders are the other half that show up looking for money without ever having tried to build or test their idea. Bad founders are not resourceful, not in touch with the needs of their customers and to paraphrase Paul, hapless whiners who are waiting for something to happen.

My parallel for this rant is the current state of economic development in Tampa (and other similar cities). Are we being relentlessly resourceful in our thinking and actions, or are we hapless and waiting for something to happen? When I spoke at the Hillsborough County Commission’s Jobs Task Force meeting last Friday, I used the term hand-me-down companies to describe the current  economic development strategy. This after listening to the executive director of the Comittee of 100 describe their very predictable agenda for attracting more business to the Tampa area. While I am sure they would not describe their wonderful marketing brochures and lovely visit Florida commercials as hapless, someone needs to explain to me why this model of relocation-based economic development is still the main focus of our job creation efforts?

Let me take a stab at explaining the cycle our tax dollars are funding:

• Relentlessly Resourceful founders start company “NewCo-A” in City “X”
• They grow – city X is recognized as NewCo-A world HQ
• The founders exit the company with lots of cash & stock
• NewCo-A grows more and looks to expand
• Core functions look to expand in cities with good technical talent (scientists, programmers, etc.)
• Non-core functions (call centers, warehouse, manufacturing, etc.) expand to cities with lowest cost of operations
• Tampa pays NewCo-A wads of cash & tax incentives to relocate a non-core operation (~100 jobs)
• NewCo-A discovers cure for the common cold – CNBC interviews CEO with skyline of City X in background
• The Relentlessly Resourceful founders get bored snowboarding and start NewCo-B in City X
• USF graduates in engineering, science and business move to City X to work for NewCo-B
• Liberal arts majors get jobs at local NewCo-A call center
• Tax incentives run out and call center moves to Indonesia

Until local government and community leaders embrace the fact that small businesses are the real high growth, new job creation mechanism that will lift us out of the current economic situation, we are doomed to repeat this unsuccessful cycle of relocation-based “growth”. We need to shift the mindset (& investments) from the artificial metrics of job relocation to something more meaningful like new company origination. Create a local economy that supports the founders of new ventures, embrace the fact that risk takers are the creators of wealth and grass roots economic stimulus, without them we are just a stop over for companies looking for cheap land and government funded hand-outs. Want to improve Tampa’s image and economic results, then “Open for Business” needs to be focused inward to help our local workforce become the next generation of cool new companies. Once we stop begging for hand-me-downs and create a successful track record, then maybe companies and college grads from City X will move here on their own.