Arizona Has the Pieces. Now We Connect Them.

By: Kyle Macdonald, COO of Silicon Oasis

I spend a lot of time thinking about why certain places become places where people build things.

Why Silicon Valley? Why Austin? Why Boston?

It’s easy to point to venture capital. Or universities. Or talent. Or some government program that worked.

But none of those things exist on their own.

It’s the ecosystem.

Paul O’Brien recently wrote about this in It’s the Ecosystem, Stupid. His argument got me thinking about Arizona and, more specifically, why we started calling this place the Silicon Oasis.

Arizona has a lot of the pieces already.

We have founders building companies. We have ASU and U of A producing talent and research. We have major corporations. We have investors. We have accelerators, economic development organizations and experienced operators who have built and sold companies.

And we have geography on our side.

Phoenix and Tucson are about 100 miles apart. Flagstaff is a couple hours north. California is next door. We're connected to Mexico. And within the Phoenix metro itself, you can move between universities, corporate headquarters, startups, investors and some of the largest technology investments happening in the country.

So I don't think our challenge is creating an ecosystem from scratch.

It's connecting it.

That's what we're trying to do with Silicon Oasis.

Silicon Oasis isn't supposed to be another startup organization competing for its little piece of the map. The idea is bigger than that.

It's a mission that everyone can participate in.

If you're a founder, build here.

If you're an investor, look at Arizona companies.

If you've built a company before, help someone doing it for the first time.

If you're at a corporation, buy from startups here.

If you're at a university, help research become companies.

If you're in government, remove friction.

And if you simply care about Arizona, tell the stories of the people building here.

That's the ecosystem.

And that's also why we need to get better about what we measure.

Another packed event is nice. Another accelerator cohort is nice. Another announcement is nice.

But what happened afterward?

Did the founder meet an investor? Did they find a customer? Did they hire someone? Did they raise their next round? Did an Arizona founder have an exit and then put that money back into another Arizona company?

That's what matters.

We talk a lot about Arizona needing more venture capital. We do.

But capital follows belief.

People invest where they believe companies can win. And belief gets built one company, one investment, one introduction and one story at a time.

That's what I want Silicon Oasis to help create.

Not an organization that owns Arizona's startup ecosystem.

A banner that connects it.

Phoenix. Tucson. Flagstaff. Our universities. Our corporations. Our investors. Our founders. And everyone in between.

Silicon Oasis isn't a building. It isn't an accelerator. It isn't an event.

It's Arizona.

And anyone who wants to help build it has a role.