Ecosystem

Ecosystem:

Ecosystems develop generally towards increased productivity and biomass, a decreased productivity/biomass ratio, and tighter nutrient cycles. These broad–scale trends are still lacking an explanation in terms of underlying ecological processes. Here I present a simple ecosystem model to show that resource competition between organisms in a material cycle (within–cycle competition) can explain successional and evolutionary changes in functional properties of ecosystems. Competition between organisms that are involved in spatially distinct cycles (between–cycle competition) constitutes another selective force that may lead to more productive and more closed ecosystems. However, these changes in ecosystem properties are only the indirect result of selection for different functional or demographic traits in the organisms involved. Within–cycle competition maximizes resource–use intensity, while between–cycle competition maximizes the basic reproductive rate. Therefore, the two levels of competition may operate in partly contradictory directions, a complication that is ignored by holistic ‘maximum principles’ in ecology.

Ecosystem Mapping And Development

A startup ecosystem is formed by entrepreneurial talent, Business Creators and businesses at various development phases, combined with various types of public, private and NGO Support Provider organizations typically in a city region, interacting as an organic system to create new business and innovative companies. Different Support Providers focus on different parts of the ecosystem, business vertical and/or businesses at their specific development phases.

It’s extremely helpful to maintain a general sense of the types of key actor segments and organizations, their position in the ecosystem and regards to Business Creation and startup development, along with understanding their main function in the ecosystem context. At the same time the ecosystem is in constant change, where entirely new organizations & services emerge and others are ended.

Core purpose of ecosystems is to produce and attract entrepreneurial talent and new ideas in growing volume to build growing businesses. For those new to any ecosystem in any role; talent, business creators, support providers, ecosystem developers or international contacts – simply trying to get some sense and more holistic mental picture about different organizations, available services and services relevancy & availability by reading about websites and directories is extremely challenging and time consuming.

From ecosystem perspective, key focus areas are:

Formation – is about inspiring and attracting new talent and providing access to entrepreneurial education, ideas and knowledge to help build the right mindset, understanding and abilities for the journey ahead, typical issues to avoid or solve, what steps to take in what order and about available support along the way.

Validation – is where the support focus shift to initial product development, strengthening core team via mentoring or new team members, supporting team and product validation and customer development.

At Growth – focus becomes mostly about additional resourcing, understanding growth KPI’s, creating processes for scaling various business operations, improving financials and help expand business internationally.