Episode 09 - Building Innovation Bridges: From EIR to Accelerator Architect - EIR Live

Episode Transcript
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John Lynn (00:00):
So there was corporate fatigue from those
innovation models and a lot ofthem with the pandemic were
swept away because it was it wasan easy way to just wind back
those those investments. Nowwhat happened, I believe, and
this is my own opinion, is inthe pandemic we saw, well,

(00:27):
shoot, if we get hit by adisaster, we're making our own
masks, we're making our own handsanitizer, we're figuring out
everything as a community.There's not an economic player
that's going to solve this forus. We might get a check from
the president, who knows? Soentrepreneurship now really big

(00:48):
part of creating a sustainableeconomy at municipal local level
in addition to institutionallevels, corporate levels and
elsewhere.

Ilya Tabakh (00:57):
Welcome to EIR Live, where we dive into the
lives and lessons ofentrepreneurs and residents. I'm
Ilya Tabakh, together with mycohost Terence Bohr, ready to
bring you closer to theheartbeat of the innovation
entrepreneurial spirit. Everyepisode, we explore the real
stories behind the ideas,successes, setbacks, and
everything in between. Foreveryone from aspiring EIRs to

(01:19):
seasoned pros, EIR Live is yourgateway to the depth of the
entrepreneurial journey andbringing innovative insights
into the broader world. Checkout the full details in the
episode description.
Subscribe to stay updated andjoin us as we uncover what it
takes to transform visions intoventures. Welcome aboard. Let's
grow together.

Terrance Orr (01:41):
Alright. We're back with another episode of EIR
Live with John Lin, the man, themyth, the legend, and Forex EIR.
Thank you so much, John, forjoining us on the on the podcast
today. There's so much that Icould spend an hour on John's
intro, but, you know, I won't dohim justice, but his career has
had sort of multiple multiplechapters in it. You know,

(02:04):
there's this this founder of theaccelerator program and the
innovation initiatives that Johnhas worked on.
There's the multiple concurrentEIR roles that he's held along
the way and created along theway. There's his experience
working with governments,corporations, and everything in
between. But there's so muchmore that John can share about
his background that I won't beable to share about his

(02:26):
background. John, could youplease introduce yourself to our
audience to give your yourbackground justice that it
deserves?

John Lynn (02:32):
Well, I think you did a good job, there, Terrance, and
and thanks to both you and Ilyaand your team for making me a
part of the conversation today.Proud to be here. Yeah,
entrepreneur in residence roleshave been an important part of
how my business has sort ofbegun to install functions that
support entrepreneurship withincorporations, governments and

(02:55):
universities. And so it's a rolethat's really important not just
to how I individually becomevaluable to entrepreneurs, but
how our company sort ofaccomplishes its mission around
building accelerators whereverthey can be built. And so my
name is John Lynn.
I am the co founder of QuayAcceleration. We build startup
accelerators as a service. Lastyear, we built 14 startup

(03:19):
accelerators with 12 differentclients for over 120 businesses.
These accelerators focused insome cases or many cases on
digital technologies on the weband in mobile, but also included
companies coming in to open upThe US market from the
international scene, as well asretail companies, opening up
their first retail, brick andmortar in the city of Manhattan,

(03:43):
which was sort of the firstfirst program of its kind. So we
really believe in howaccelerators can organically
provide access toentrepreneurship and support in
any situation.
And, you know, we do that withgovernments, with corporations
and investor groups,universities. So that's the top

(04:06):
level about what we do, whereI'm coming from here.

All right. I'm going dig in a little bit more,
right? Because a little part ofyour journey, John, is sort of
this you you had thisinternational experience. Right?
And I'm I'm gonna get it getinto it, right, which is you had
this unexpected pivot, right,and some of the international
work you did in Japan, right,that that we talked about, early
on in in your career.

(04:28):
I wanted to I'm going way back,man. You know, I I think what we
found is that there's alwaysinfrastructure under the
entrepreneurs and residents thatwe've brought onto the show.
They're doing incredible thingsnow, but there's always
something that started them onthis journey, along the way. And
one of the pivotal stories thatyou shared with us early on in
in in the prep was around sortof your experience in in Japan.

(04:50):
Could could you share thatexperience Yeah.
Sure. With that with thataudience around your first
startup experience there?

John Lynn (04:55):
You know, I only recently realized that that
experience was my first startupexperience. But here's here's
the story because it was a lifechanging kind of moment. Yeah.
You know, I graduated as aliterature major in 02/2008
from, you know, top 10university, a national
university, WashingtonUniversity in St. Louis, and
really was looking at zeroprospects coming out of college

(05:20):
and had no intention of becomingan entrepreneur or a founder.
You know, at that point, I was aliterature major. I wanted to be
a writer, best case scenario,but was really gonna figure it
out. And so I ended up, youknow, working with one of the
presidential campaigns thatyear, learning a lot about
community organization, ended upgoing back to my old job in high

(05:45):
school teaching tennis,delivering Chinese food, really
not where I wanted to be, Andsaved up a little bit of money
and went to Japan where, youknow, my best friend was from.
Went there to see kind of escapethings, but also see the cherry
blossom kind of season, havethat experience. Got there

(06:05):
early.
Ended up having to travel fromTokyo Seventeen Hours south to
the southern tip of Japan,Nagasaki, and stayed at a hostel
there. The owners offered me ajob when they heard kind of
about where I was and mybackground with Japan. And they
had just started this hostel. Itwas one of the first hostels in
Nagasaki. Nagasaki obviously hasa complicated history with, you

(06:29):
know, the West, given the of wayWorld War II ended.
And so this was a pretty newthing that was happening in
Nagasaki that I got to be a partof. And not just having this
international opening to thatcity, but having an American, on
staff was kind of a big deal. Sothe media in Nagasaki took
notice. I was on the news. Theydid a whole sort of bio on me.

(06:52):
I got fan mail to

the

John Lynn (06:56):
hostel. But, you know, it taught me a lot of the
skills or kind of refined someof the abilities that I had that
have led me to not justentrepreneurship, but but to
acceleration. And, you know,coming into that situation, I
had zero relationships in Japangenerally, but especially in

(07:16):
that city and began to seeopportunities in the hostel. So,
you know, there were Nagasaki ispretty much a flyover. Like,
people will come, go to the bombmuseum and then get out.
I saw an opportunity to showthem more of Nagasaki, which
often included going out anddrinking a lot and waking up

(07:36):
late the next day so that, youknow, they were buying another
night at the at the hostel. Andso once the the owners kind of
saw this opportunity, weorganized more of Nagasaki
around the hostel and, you know,really kind of changed the way
the business worked. So I wasable to build community. I was
able to impact the business. Andnow looking back at that
experience sixteen years later,it's kind of, yeah, my first

(07:58):
startup experience, like yousaid before.
And so that really kind of gotme more interested in business
experimenting with, you know,being a broker. When I got back
to Manhattan, I built a milliondollar portfolio at a brokerage
within one year, had my ownassociate team. I was 26. And
then eventually started my myfirst tech company, got to an

(08:19):
accelerator.

Man, what a story, man. Talk about adaptability.
Talk about taking the lead. Talkabout, I'll just do it now. Why
not?
I don't have much to lose. Andthey were startup founders
themselves starting this newhostel that you are basically a
early employee of helping themsort of grow it as a early stage
operator and being involvedthere. I'm more curious about

(08:43):
the community principles thatyou learned, you know, during
that time that translated overto the accelerator methodology
and some of the work that you dotoday that informed some of some
of that work. Could you talktalk to us a little bit about
that or if it did, at all?

John Lynn (09:00):
It did. It did. And that, you know, it was that
experience combined with myexperience on the Obama
campaign, that really havestayed central to the way that
we architect entrepreneurialecosystems, but at our
accelerators, but also how Iindividually operate my day to

(09:20):
day life as an entrepreneur. Andthe the most important principle
there is this concept aroundsustainable self interest.
Community organizing principle.
And what it says is selfishnessand selflessness equally poor

(09:42):
foundations for a community.They're both one way
relationships. In selfishness,there's a taker and only a
taker. In selflessness, there'sa giver and only a giver. And
neither of those one wayrelationships can actually
create a dynamic, a give andtake.
And that's what greatcommunities are built on. When

(10:03):
you can give a little bit, youcan get a little bit and an
ecosystem begins to take place.So sure, that was part of what I
was doing day to day inNagasaki, trying to meet more of
the businesses and organizationsthere to bring them closer to
the hostel and get our visitorsmore engaged with the city
quickly. But it's, you know,essentially the same function.

(10:25):
When I came into the Bostonecosystem where I went through
an accelerator and, built myfirst company, got my first VC
check, it was all about goingout to the different categories
of stakeholders in theecosystem, getting to know
getting to know individualactors at those organizations,

(10:46):
and then finding out two thingsin each of those conversations.
Number one, what they needed.What is the give I can make?
Now, I was in a situation whereI wasn't coming from, you know,
a ton of savings that I'd madeor, there wasn't a lot of

(11:07):
bandwidth for me to be thinkinga lot about other anything else
other than how I was going topay my bills. But making room
for that immediately changed thenature of the conversations that
I was having. And then alsobeing clear about, you know,
what my goals were and howsomebody could help.
And that ended up being reallyimportant once I started working

(11:28):
at Techstars. So in 2014Techstars was launching its
first one of its firstaccelerator programs in New York
City. I was wrapping up one ofmy ventures, decided to go onto
the accelerator side this time.And when I was in the program,
TechStars was actually launchingits first branded venture fund.

(11:49):
So the first Techstars venturefund.
I was an associate, so maybe oneof the most junior people on on
staff. And the founders, DavidCohen, and, one of one of the
managing partners, Mark Solon,based in Colorado and Wyoming,
respectively, came to the NewYork program to talk to the
founders about fundraising. Theywere talking about all the

(12:10):
different techniques that theyused to be compelling to
investors and, to make the rightstory for a fundraise. And the
number one thing that they kindof advised was it doesn't matter
if you're talking to abillionaire and you're not, or
if you're talking to a serialfounder and you're a first time
founder, or if you're talking tosomeone who's well known in the

(12:31):
media and you're not, everyconversation that you're having
is a conversation that can be anequal conversation if you wanted
to. And so your challenge is tofind out how you can help these
individuals and then and thenmake it happen.
And I found that inspiring. Igot into a conversation with one

(12:52):
of the founders of Priceline.comwho's based in in New York. He
started his own incubator, Mike.And, you know, they were looking
for a way into 500 startups, YCombinator and Techstars. And so
I was able to broker a 7 figurecheck from this wealthy founder

(13:17):
into the Techstars venture fund,build a relationship with both.
And that was really a techniqueI learned in Nagasaki. So that's
that I think is the the corething that we build our
ecosystems around, but that alsohas driven my progress as an
entrepreneur.

Yeah. What's is there's a classical experiment
in network engineering wherethey introduce three types of
nodes. One is selfless, one isselfish, and one's fair. And
what happens is first theselfless ones die, then the
selfish ones die, and then thefair ones stabilize the network.

(13:53):
And you know, in networkengineering, it's a much reduced
thing that the whole process is,will you send a message for me?
I can send a message for you.And so the selfless ones will
just always send a message. Theselfish ones will never send a
message on somebody else'sbehalf. And the fair ones just
remember that, hey, you send amessage for me last time. I owe

(14:14):
you.
Reciprocity. And so it'sinteresting. This is actually
when I did a pretty deep diveinto kind of sociology and how
humans cooperate, it was funnyhow some of these network
things. So it's awesome that youfound it in practice live. One
thing I wanted to draw attentionto quickly is I think, you know,
kind of the literature majorgives you a pretty good exposure

(14:35):
to narrative.
And I've seen one of the andeven in our early conversation
here, there's sort of a goodsort of focus on what happened.
Right. And I think that in a lotof innovation ecosystems and
accelerators and things likethat, part of the challenge is
what's the story? Where are wegoing? And then how does that
narrative get supported by thethings that we're doing?

(14:56):
Things like that. So I justwanted to kind of call that out
early. I love the foundationalpieces because kind of narrative
community, really peoplenetwork. And one of my biggest
disappointments, just anotherthing that caught my ear is as a
recovering technologist, thebest technologies don't always
win. And often it's the peoplenetwork and process that bring

(15:20):
things over the top.
And I love that that's kind ofwhere the foundation for you
started, or at least in kind ofour discussion here.

John Lynn (15:27):
Yeah, let me jump in on both of those really quickly
because they are reallyimportant takeaways, I think,
for any listener here thinkingabout becoming an EIR or getting
assistance for themselves as anentrepreneur through an EIR. The
stories are important becausethe way that key milestones
occur for every founder isdifferent. And what I mean by

(15:52):
that is the way that one founderfinds their co founder is
different than any other cofounders find each other. The
way that, you know, one founderfinds their first investor or
their first VC check isdifferent than the way anyone
else had done it before, right?So hearing these stories about
how somebody tactically achievedthat milestone, like the kind of
relationships that they wereplaying off of, the kinds of

(16:15):
traction and value that theywere envisioning and were able
to talk about, you know, muchmore important to pay attention
to than when did somebody startthe company, when did they get
their check, who is it from andhow much.
Data points don't tell you a lotabout actually making it happen.
So the narrative is a reallyimportant part of think, what

(16:38):
you get in accelerator and whatan EIR provides, in consultation
to the ecosystems they supportand the entrepreneurs that they
work with.

I'm going to double down on this because I
think storytelling is asuperpower. I talk about this
all the time, that there's adirect correlation between
storytelling and how well youtell stories, to get people to
move in the right direction.There's a little bit of investor
psychology in this too. But I dothink there's an unspoken
connection, John, between youryour English sort of background,
the things that you've done, andthat ability that gives you the

(17:07):
ability to tell stories in anarrative that, like Ilya said,
that others, you might not evenknow is a superpower of yours
because you're it's naturalpotentially at this point to
you. You know, I'm curious toknow how you use the power of
narrative and storytelling toland your first VC check-in
Boston.
Can you tell us about thatexperience for our audience?

John Lynn (17:27):
High level, would say, as an innovator, that
storytelling is importantbecause you're doing something
new for the first time. And sothe only way you're going to get
somebody you're not going to getanybody to trust you. You're
just going to get them to beinspired by you. And that is a
different game, a differentconversation than applying to a

(17:50):
university, applying to a job,applying to a bank for a check.
So more on that later.
But in terms of how we got thisfirst VC check from an
accelerator in Boston, I hadmoved to Boston in 2013 to
pursue my progress as anentrepreneur. I was still

(18:11):
working on my first venture. Andas soon as I got on the ground,
I was in this boot camp calledStartup Institute. Sixty other
entrepreneurs or people thatwanted to work with
entrepreneurs in this program,eight week program. And we got
connected with a fundedentrepreneur from Techstars
during the program.
His name is Chris Howard, stillin touch today. He was building

(18:34):
a company called TheBoot. Andthe first meeting that we had
with him, he was like, you know,I'm supposed to give you all a
project that you can use to sellyourselves as good members of a
startup team, get hired. But Iknow that you're really here
because you want to beentrepreneurs. So what do you
say we start a company?

(18:55):
We were all in for that. So hesaid, you know, you can use our
resources, you can use ourspace, you can use our team, you
can get my network, but it'sthis opportunity is now in your
hands. Good luck. And we endedup building a company called
Curativity, which was a solutionto the publishing industry's
challenges regarding the slushpile. Slush pile is the number

(19:18):
of unsolicited manuscripts thatare given to publishers and,
literary agents every year.
In The US, it's about 3,000,000manuscripts that get sent
unasked for to these to thesepublishing houses causes a huge
problem because sometimes HarryPotter is in that slush pile.
And so they've got to find a wayto navigate the slush pile, see

(19:40):
if there is a great win inthere. We created a mobile app
that allowed publishers to shareexcerpts of unsolicited
manuscripts to an audience ofreaders that was tagged as
interested in that genre. Andthey would be able to quickly be
able to get, data feedback frompotential readers, potential

(20:01):
buyers of that manuscript ifthey decided to publish it as
opposed to trusting a firstyear, month intern to read the
first chapter and make thatdecision. And we got good
connections with some reallylegacy publishers and

(20:22):
professionals in publishing onthe advisory board.
We got some partnerships set upwith reader communities from
other startups that were in thespace. And we made an MVP. We
had an engineer, but we didn'thave the resources to make a
full full MVP. So we created astack of index cards that had

(20:44):
the drawing of a mobile screenon each one. And then we asked
people to swipe through theindex cards as though they were
swiping through a screen.
And we would watch them do this,take some data down, and we took
the data to BetaSpring was thename of the accelerator. They're
one of the first eightaccelerators in the history of

(21:04):
the space, led by Alan Tare andMelissa Weathers who are still
working together at REV UP andto approach the acceleration.
And we got the offer. Now, offerdidn't stick. So we got a little

(21:24):
bit further in the negotiationand one of my co founders, we
had three co founders, pulledout of the project.
And she was this brilliant womanfrom MIT architecture who was
transitioning into tech kind ofat the same time. And they said,

(21:46):
well, you know, she was the realreason that we were interested
in the venture. And if she's notthere, then we're not here
either. And so we lost thatopportunity. That was also a
valuable aspect of theexperience.

Just before we move on there, you mentioned it a
little bit earlier, sort of theEIR, but ultimately somebody
that has experience doing stuff.One of my favorite things is
actually like talking tofounders as a debrief on what
happened. And the story isalways so much different than
like the story that wascaptured, you know, success or

(22:21):
failure, like the real view ofhow it went down and sort of the
muscle memory and the lessonslearned are just so much
different in that. And it justit strikes me that there's
probably so much stuff thathappened in that experience. The
other thing is I love thehustle, right?
Startups are all about sort ofasymmetric warfare, right? And

(22:43):
so finding analog functionalprototype to get traction and
that kind of thing is those arelike the signals that I'm always
looking out for this team, thisgroup, this individual, they're
going to make it happen. Youknow, even if they have no
supplies, no food, no sleepingbag, they're still going to
climb the mountain. And it'sreally cool to sort of hear that

(23:04):
story because, you know, everylike entrepreneur or like every
entrepreneur that really buckleddown and did it has some of
these. I think that's the musclememory to dig into and sort of
additional texture that's reallyvaluable.

Man, as a product person, I'm such a fan of you
using index cards to do an MVPto collect data. I just think
that's that's genius. And I Iyou talk to some founders and
they want things to be always beperfect. And it's sort of like,
it's not gonna be perfect, guys.Like, there people are gonna
throw up all over this.
Okay? That's that's okay. Youneed to put it out in the market
to get some feedback. And, Ilove that you guys are like,

(23:41):
look. We can't afford it.
Go get the note cards. We betterbecome good artists and let's
draw.

John Lynn (23:45):
You you know, and I I you know, I'm a professor of
entrepreneurship now at a fewuniversities. Just had class
last night and on to the talkingto my students about this and
said like, I was introducing theconcept of an MVP. And I was
like, this sounds like a reallygood idea because it's cheaper,
right? Yes, partially. The realreason that this is something

(24:07):
that's good to a good method fordeveloping product, developing a
solution for customers becauseit's more fair for your
customer.
Right? This is going to come ata lower cost of time and risk
and money to them. And they'regoing to have influence on what
it becomes. So put forward thesmall thing first because even

(24:27):
though it's dysfunctional andugly, ultimately going to have a
much higher return for your foryour customer who, you know, if
you're if you're the right kindof entrepreneur you care about,
you know, first.

And those people become your early adopters and
evangelists. They're reachingout to you become early pilots.
You know, it's a lot of thingsthat those people are along for
the journey. Like you said, youdon't really have much to give
them, John, but inspiration of Ithink there's something here. I
think I can solve your problem.
If you believe me, you know,give me your time and let me
learn from you, and I'll shapethe product in a way or the
solution in a way that thatserves you well. And and I think

(25:01):
that's that's what greatentrepreneurs do. Now I there's
there's another interestingpoint in sort of your your
evolution. I I wanna talk aboutsort of you had an experience
there, I think, with KJ Singh,at Techstars. I I love that you
also mentioned Beta Spring.
It's been at least nine yearssince I heard the words Beta

(25:23):
Spring and Rev Up. I'm a I usedto live in Rhode Island for
seven years, so I know BetaSpring very well. You know, I
know of Melissa Winter Wintersas well, and she she did great
work in in that area. So shoutout to, to you for bringing for
bringing those those folks upbecause, they they've been doing
great work under the radar for avery long time. So you have an
experience with KJ Singh at atTechstars that, you know, could

(25:47):
you tell us a little bit moreabout like, you know, the
influence there and theexperience there with Techstars
and, you know, I want you todive a little bit more into
that.

John Lynn (25:56):
So if you're going to ask about it, Terrance, there's
a certain moment I've got toshare in terms of how the
Techstars, my Techstarsexperience came together. You
know, at the same time that Iwas wrapping up Curativity, I
had also gotten an offer to joina business school. I thought I
could maybe continue buildingthe venture from there. It
didn't work out. So I wasthinking about, you know, what's

(26:18):
next?
A couple of friends were tryingto get me to go out to San
Francisco. But one of mychildhood friends, Wani Lee,
founder of Elloria, which isbased in New York now, super
successful ecom and brick andmortar perfume company here,
said, you know, I'm applying toTechstars. They're a great team.
They're looking to grow. Let meconnect you with them.

(26:40):
So I started the interviewprocess with Techstars. A few
weeks in, I had to go back up toBoston to kind of close-up, have
a last conversation with thedean of the business school I
was at. Train ride in the middleof the winter ended up breaking
down twice. Trains and winter donot mix very well. And so it was

(27:00):
a 12 train ride from New YorkCity up to Boston.
It's usually a four hour ridefor anybody who hasn't done it
before. So the next day I hadthis rough conversation with the
dean. I was kind of dejectedwalking back to the train to go
back down to New York again. AndKJ, who was the director of
Techstars at that at that time,gave me a call, asked me

how

John Lynn (27:19):
the the trip went. And I said, well, it's pretty
rough. Had this train breakdown,it was twelve hours. He said,
well, I have more bad news foryou. We're giving you the
position at Techstars, so yougot to take that train ride back
down to New York and join ushere.
We've got this program startingin about six weeks. And so that
was that was kind of how thatthat opportunity started and

(27:43):
really set me on the path thatI'm on now and acceleration.

Awesome, man. Well, talk to us about the money
moment is what I'm going to callit. The moment. Talk to us about
one, hearing about the EIR rolefor the first time. Right?
Talk to us about how you landedthat role for the first time.
And then we'll pause there andthen we'll get into a bunch of

(28:06):
other things.

John Lynn (28:07):
So my start with the EIR role came at on the heels of
like a big loss. And what hadhappened in 2015, I had set up
this nonprofit called the NewYork City Innovation Collective.
It's supposed to be anassociation of accelerators in
New York City. By the end of thefirst year, we had almost 100

(28:28):
programs associated as members.But I was 27 at the time.
Everyone else who was involvedwas had been in accelerators
since the beginning and had beenserial entrepreneurs. And so
there was some discomfort withme continuing to be the
chairperson once I becamesuccessful. I disagreed. I

(28:51):
thought I had gotten the thingsset up and growing so I should
remain the chairperson and atthe end of twenty seventeen was
voted out. And then I decided toleave the organization entirely
after that.
And so I was kind of at groundzero and but had all this great
track record and accelerationand working with startups and

(29:14):
founders behind me I knew Iwanted to continue building
accelerators as a service. Andso went back to some of the
universities, some of thecorporations that I had worked
with and said, you know, I wannaI want to continue to provide
value to you. And one of theways that I think we can prove

(29:34):
out that your university or yourcorporation should have an
entrepreneurial ecosystem aroundit is through just some
individual progress. Let's letme come in as an EIR, see how I
can help individuals in yourecosystem. I can do that through
advisory.
I can do that through teaching.I can do that through
connecting. And if we prove itout, all I want from you is some

(29:58):
assurance that we'll we'llexplore a bigger budget for an
accelerator. And so that's howthe sort of my first first roles
at Pace University's engineeringschool, at SAP, at Hackathon
Capital came together in 2017,'20 '18, and they really became

(30:19):
the foundation for, you know,the portfolio that we now have
in accelerators.

Incredible. And I'm I'm curious to know what
what what was the moment inthose conversations, John? What
was the secret sauce that youhad with them that said, yeah,
sure. We'll was it the trial runperiod? Was it sure we'll give
them three months, three monthcontract or something as a EIR.
Let's see how how it goes. Andif it goes well, we'll just keep
extending the thing. And I'mjust curious to know what what

(30:47):
what did you say to them, youknow, for our audience if you
can teach them something. What'sthe tip that you can give
somebody that is it because youalready had the credibility
along the way and you were justpackaging all of that up to say,
hey. I can add value to you.
Or did you notice that they hada problem at the time, these
places that you had, you know,did work with already, and you
knew that you could solve thatproblem for them with the

(31:10):
network and the experience thatyou had already?

John Lynn (31:12):
It's not a situation where there's a clear entry
point. So, I mean, you mightfind EIR roles available on
LinkedIn, you know, differentorganizations, but it's going to
work differently almost everytime you engage with it, right?
So when I was coming in, I wasreally looking in these

(31:35):
conversations for motivation.What what is this person or this
group trying to prove abouttheir role in entrepreneurship?
Because especially ten yearsago, it was a it was a huge part
of it was on everybody's mind,right?
No matter who you were. Tech wasa big employer, especially in

(32:00):
New York. More student interest,more degrees in technology and
entrepreneurship. So everybodyhad to have this answer. If
you're a corporation, you had toshow that you had some
activities in innovation, right?
So at the end of theconversation, maybe it was with
a director or managing directoror a dean or a CEO and say,

(32:22):
well, I know this is a priorityfor you. I know this is
something that you want tosucceed in. How are you making
that happen right now? And is itworking? They may not have
described themselves ascommitted to making
entrepreneurship work in theirsituation.
But by providing that label, wecould now build a story

(32:44):
together. Okay, now my challengeis your challenge. We are trying
to make a bigger place forentrepreneurship, for
technology, for innovation.Here's some of the things that
are going on right now. Here'swhere they're not working.
Let's take a step back. Let'scool down, work more closely
together, start having somecommunity level conversations

(33:09):
with individuals that have beentouched by your current efforts.
And then let's see how we canserve them on a one to one
basis. Can we make a goodconnection for them? Can we
connect them with the rightskill?
Can we, you know, find them thefirst customer, the first
investor? And once we startnotching wins, we can see

(33:29):
whether there's progress andsomething to build on in a
bigger way. And so was thosewere kinds of the pressure
points that I set up in thoseconversations to say, Okay,
well, you're committed to this,right? And here's where it's not
working, right? And this wouldbe cheaper to do, right?

(33:49):
And that's that's kind of howhow I got those first
opportunities and, you know,like they were all smaller
financial opportunities thanwhat I had been working with as
a salary or paying myself as afounder. But, you know, if
you're sometimes you have totake that step back and we're
down.

A few comments here, and I'm gonna pass it over
to to to Ilya, which one, I Iremember, thinking that, oh,
we're the first batch of EIRshere at, at SAP when I got there
in in in in 2019, and only tofind John a couple of months
later, I think, because he wasrunning CELA at the time and

(34:32):
also was the founding EIR atWeave, I think, at the at the
time. And I I was in their theirmentor network. And I and I
looked up John's profile and Iwas like, this guy's been doing
this four years, five yearsprior before I even got here.
And it wasn't even called SAP,dot I o at the time. It was
called SAP Labs.
And, you know, you were actuallyone of the early, early EIRs

(34:55):
there before they actuallyformalized the the program,
really. And, you know, so Johnis a OG in the in in in a lot of
these spaces in terms of beingthe founding founding EIR. I
think there's also something tobe said about you, basically
raising your hand and shootingyour shot and going back to the
people and go, hey. You'recommitted to this. I wanna help

(35:17):
you, you know, actually drivethis forward.
And and I think that resonatedwell, with a lot of people, for
you to land your first EIR gate.But I'm gonna pass it over to
Ilya now because I think he'sitching to ask you, a few other
questions.

No, I got all kinds of questions. The thing I really
like about the way you'redescribing kind of the role of
the EIR as opposed to like maybea mentor is that you're, you
know, kind of have a mind ofreally the way that we open this
episode, right? What's thebenefit to you? Right? How do
you win?
And really sort of in some casesmaybe being a step or two in

(35:52):
that thought process from, youknow, kind of your partner
organization and then sort ofsetting the table for that to be
successful. You know, and wewere kind of talking before we
started in kind of our preconversations, how the EIR can
be a really interesting sort ofgateway, you know, to get into
an accelerator, get into thekind of the ecosystem

(36:13):
infrastructure. But I love kindof the way that you were
describing your view on EIR.That's maybe different than a
consultant or mentor or sort ofother words and kind of terms
that are used to. Can you talkabout that a little bit more?
And then I'd love to sort ofdive in and kind of talk about
where that leads and sort of themeat of your work today.

John Lynn (36:36):
Yeah. And I mean, the conversation that I just laid
out for you is, I think, justthe version of the conversation
that led to what most peoplewould call an EIR position.
Every one of the EIR positions Ihad had a different kind of
structure and intent to it,right? So with the pace, it was

(37:01):
more about mentorship, right?Working with their engineering
students to actually help themunderstand how to build products
that could get investorinterest.
With Weave, it was about workingwith the startups that were
coming into The U. S. Market andgetting them connected to
investors and customers. So itwas less of a mentor role, more
of a developmental role. WithAkathon, it was sort of the

(37:26):
reverse, trying to get people togo from the international market
into the Chinese market.
And with SAP, you know, that wasreally about helping them prove
out their validity as anecosystem. And that was with, I
think it's called SAP Nextgen.Yeah. Led by Ann Rosenberg and

(37:47):
Ben Christensen. And so that wasmore about, you know, how can we
how can we show that we'veinvested in entrepreneurs in New
York and so we had Terrance,you're right.
The company at that time wascalled Sella. And so we had
Sella based at SAP Nextgen inthe 40 Eighth Floor Of Town
Hudson Yards where SAPConnection was based. And so it
was an excellent setting for usto show that we were able to

(38:12):
curry interest with a hugeinstitution and for them to show
that they're really committed toNew York and entrepreneurship.
So I hope those descriptionsmake it clear how different
these roles were in their intentand kind of the landscapes
involved moving into them.

And I think, you know, when Terrance and I have
been talking generally, how doyou be an effective entrepreneur
in residence? Some of the thingswe talk about is you have to
know what your secret sauce is,what you bring to the table, and
be able to describe it to folksthat may not necessarily have
firsthand experience with that.But then, you know, the org, the
residents has to do a lot ofwork, right? What role does
innovation play in theirsuccess? Right?

(38:52):
How they can kind of partnerwith your secret sauce, you
know, and it seems like at leastin some ways, I hear you kind of
describing that, you know, howdoes this make you successful?
Ultimately, how do you win? Andthen here are kind of skill sets
and backgrounds, whether it'scommunity, ecosystem,
accelerator, being able to startnew things that I can sort of

(39:13):
bring to the table in a waythat's additive to both. And
that's kind of cool to talkthrough. You've had a lot of
different experiences withdifferent types of, as you
described, corporations,universities.
One of the challenges I've seenfrom working with corporates and
maybe public entities, it'sthere's not a lot of folks that

(39:35):
have started new things, but inmany cases, they sort of want to
do new things. Can you talk alittle bit about how you kind of
help them think about that andsort of take the step from
curious to trying it to beingsuccessful?

John Lynn (39:50):
So is this in terms of conversations with government
officials or corporateexecutives that are trying to
support more entrepreneurs orsupport more innovation in their
corporation? Or is it abouthelping them exit those settings
and become entrepreneurs?

Yeah, know. It's former. I think the become
entrepreneurs sort of happensorganically, I've seen.
Sometimes they need a little bitof support, but being able to be
successful in that sort oftraditional context is the one
where I think a lot ofaccelerators and innovation
ecosystem programming and thingslike that can make a difference

(40:27):
if you sort of design itcorrectly. I know you had a lot
a lot of experience there.

John Lynn (40:31):
So I wanted to dig into that. Well, to be honest,
Ilya, I mean, it's a really goodquestion because there's two
clear categories for how I'veexperienced this. One is
somebody who thinks they knowwhat they're doing and one is
somebody who really wants to besuccessful. And the category one
can usually be, you know, maybesomebody with a little bit more

(40:52):
experience or who has pitchedsomething very specific to the
executive team and gotten a bigbudget around something specific
that they need to makesuccessful. And, you know, the
writing is already on the wallfor whether for that, whether
it's going to be successful orThere's not a lot there's not a
lot of partnership available.
And so that's just gonna be whatit's gonna be. On the other

(41:13):
hand, you have somebody whomaybe has the the motivation,
the intention, the inspirationto create ecosystem, to create
entrepreneurship or innovationin a setting where it doesn't
exist yet. And that's where Ithink we, you know, not just me
as an individual, but, you know,my co founder, our team have
kind of figured out somethingspecial is, well, we know that

(41:37):
this is possible to buildanywhere. So the question is,
where do we start and what do weprove so that we can open up the
next step? And finding thatconversation where you've got
the right person there who'slike willing to have those
conversations with you, willingto then get maybe the rest of
their team bought in, ready toadd some dollar signs to the

(42:03):
conversation without feelinglike they're sacrificing too
much of their cache.
And then to get somebody else tosign the dotted line and be
responsible for the success ofthis thing, that's a tough
person to find. But I think it'sreally important to the way that
our engagements and our impacthave grown, you know, from a

(42:24):
starting point, whether it's anEIR title or some other pilot
into a full accelerator or afull platform play.

I wanna double down on this because I I wanna
talk about how that how that ledyou to the word the the the word
the work that you're doingtoday, you know, with Quay
Acceleration. Right? Because I Iwas thrilled. I got this email
about, you know, the otherorganization and we've coming
together to form this powerhouseorganization. I was like, two
good people who already had twogreat organizations.

(42:53):
Now they're bringing themtogether. And then I've had the
privilege to work on both sidesof the organization, I can I can
say that because I'veexperienced you two in different
ways? And and now you're workingon this new thing, and you've
been helping governments, localgovernments, and and others, you
know, find their way in thisworld through the accelerator
methodology and method. Can youtalk to us about the work you're

(43:13):
doing today and what you do withthose sort of people?

John Lynn (43:16):
Yeah, sure. The essential offering is the same.
We are designing, launching andthen operating an accelerator
program for startups. Now, whathas changed where you're right,
Terrance, governments havebecome a bigger part of the
equation is kind of thedifference between pre pandemic

(43:38):
and post pandemicentrepreneurial ecosystems.
Before the pandemic, it was theheyday of corporate innovation.
Techstars raised $40,000,000 notto be an investor, but to be a
service provider to build thosewith corporations, right?
Silicon Valley Bank was the thefunder. Plug and play had taken

(44:02):
its kind of co work VCaccelerator trilogy into the
international market with somesuccess. Heavily, heavily
corporate subsidized. Both ofthose models, you know, really
not not a thing today.
And so there was corporatefatigue from those innovation
models, and a lot of them withthe pandemic were swept away

(44:25):
because it was it was an easyway to just wind back those
those investments. Now,happened, I believe, and this is
my own opinion, is in thepandemic, we saw, well, shoot,

(44:46):
if we get hit by a disaster,we're making our own masks.
We're making our own handsanitizer. We're figuring out
everything as a community.There's not an economic player
that's going to solve this forus.
We might get a check from thepresident, who knows? So
entrepreneurship now really bigpart of creating a sustainable

(45:07):
economy at a municipal locallevel, in addition to
institutional levels, corporatelevels and elsewhere. And as
entrepreneurship really got tobe taken seriously as something
that communities need, It'sworked well because those

(45:28):
entrepreneurs were there alreadydoing the work and there was
just no interest from the powersthat be in supporting them. And
so now we're seeing moreopenness from government
officials to be like, hey, youknow what? I thought that we
were gonna be a, enterprise SaaSecosystem and we were gonna own
that in, you know, Ann Arbor,Michigan.

(45:50):
But I'm actually gonna put theentrepreneurs first now and say,
hey, you all take the ballforward. We're coming in behind
you with an accelerator and, weknow one of you is going to
figure out where we should go asa community. So that's, I think,
the conditions of theenvironment that have led to
this new direction for us. Butsince 2021, it's really been a

(46:14):
focus. I think about 80% of ourengagements are domestic or
international governments, splitpretty evenly between those.
And, and it's and it's wherewe're going for sure because I
think every time we set up anaccelerator in one of these
situations, it's it is set. It'sgenuinely setting up an

(46:34):
accelerator in a in a placethat's never been before. And
that's that's kind of really,really the most exciting part of
our mission.

Incredible. And I got to assume that, you know, a
bigger part of this too is jobcreation, right? Lifting the
ecosystem sort of and otherthings in these rural parts of
the areas that you're goinginto. I grew up in the low
country of South Carolina. Theyprobably don't know what an
accelerator is in the area thatI grew up in.
If I go back home and I startthat, it'll be the first of its
kind. Right? And I I I like thatbecause it exposes people to

(47:05):
something that wouldn't havebeen a path for them before. It
exposes them to a network ofpeople that they wouldn't have
had before and so on and soforth. So I really do like the
work that you're doing in insort of the local ecosystems.
And, and I think it's, it'sinteresting because most people
look at government as slowmovers. They don't wanna do
anything interesting orinnovative, and you're finding a

(47:25):
way to tap into sort of theselocal governments and ecosystems
where, you know, there could bevalue added by bringing the
right methodology, the rightpeople, the right networks to
help them grow those ecosystems.So that's super interesting.

John Lynn (47:39):
I wish I could say it that well, man. Well done.

Know, from my experience, in order for this to
be done well, it's really hardwork and it's sort of a long
journey. And even like theaccelerator thing I've seen and
sat in rooms where folks weredeciding, you know, do I buy or
do I build? And building isharder. But if you sort of stay
the course, it also becomes amuch more kind of tailored thing

(48:06):
where you can bring to the tableyour own view on, you know, back
to that self interest, you know,how do you sort of win and also
get the folks you're workingwith to win? And I've seen that
play out well and poorly in sortof municipal and regional kind
of programs, as well as kind ofcorporate and others.

(48:27):
Because it's always easier tosay, hey, want to this thing's
proven, it's turnkey, it's easy.But anytime it's turnkey and
easy and you don't sort ofconnect the dots and the really
important parts. And a lot oftimes you just don't understand
where they are because you justhaven't thought about it deeply.
You know, the real programs overa long enough period of time are
just hard. And but but they'refruitful.

John Lynn (48:49):
So because there's a big difference between, you
know, something that's easy andsomething that's efficient. And
I think people see they become apart of accelerators, they
become a part of incubators, andthey were like, wow, that was
close to magic. What happenedfor those founders and for that
ecosystem? I know a bunch ofpeople. I've got a lot of
content that I can put forward.

(49:10):
It's easy and they're different,right? We know a lot of products
that are efficient, but youknow, the foundation that has
been set up to support thatefficiency is not easy to
construct. And it's the samething with accelerators, even
though it's not a digital orhardware technology.

Yeah, absolutely. I know that there's probably
another hour or two we can keeptalking to you about these
topics as we're really gettinginto sort of the meat of some of
my favorite topics as well. ButI think maybe in the interest of
getting everybody on with theirday, I think what is maybe just
kind of to finish this thoughtout an ideal either kind of EIR

(49:51):
type role or ultimately likeaccelerator platform transition?

John Lynn (49:56):
I think, yes, this is a good question, Elia. Thank
you. It's a great place to tofinish your conversation as
well. Yeah, I think we shouldisolate the EIR function as its
own thing here, right? It's ithas a particular value in the
way that we build our business,but it is its own thing.
And I think there are specificconditions that should be built
around it in order for it towhere it can be sustainable. And

(50:16):
it's that combination Imentioned I mentioned before. A
good EIR position should haveadvisory. Right. It should have
development where you're makingconnections and introductions on
behalf of a founder.
And it's got also mentorshipwhere, you know, we're not just

(50:39):
talking about how to how tobuild the venture, but you know,
sort of how to manage therelationships and life around
it. And if you've got those, youknow, that teaching aspect, that
development aspect, thatcoaching aspect, then I think
it's hard not to be able tomeasure the impact. And it's
hard not to know who's the rightperson to

do No, that's awesome. And I guess the final
question before we let you go,you know, we're kind of building
a network of EIRs and have hadsome pretty cool episodes and
other folks. Is there somethingthat the EIR Live Network can do
to sort of support your work or,you know, kind of highlight the
things that you're working on?

John Lynn (51:20):
Well, I mean, let's let's bring the let's keep the
EIR and accelerator worlds closetogether. If you're building a
network in a book of EIR's, letus bring our network of
accelerators closer to it. Andjust keep telling each other's
story. I mean, you know,entrepreneurship is something a
lot of people are interested in,but there's not one one answer

(51:44):
for how it should benefitcommunities or any organization.
We're figuring it out together.
So let's keep that up.

And John, I'm an ecosystem builder just like you,
my friend. And, you saidsomething that really touched me
in the in the in the last timewe had it. You said next time
you talk to an entrepreneur,don't give them your ideas. Give
them your network. Can you endon why is that important?
And I'm gonna let you go.

John Lynn (52:05):
No. It's it's a big part of, I think, what people
sign up for when they want tobecome a mentor or when they
want to be an EIR, when theywant to be an adviser to to a
startup. And at the end of theday, you know, if you knew what
you were talking about as anoperator, you would be the
entrepreneur and you would havebeen successful at it. So let's

(52:27):
focus on what the entrepreneuryou're working with needs, which
is access. They need a solutionor an opportunity to the
problem, the problems thatthey're facing or the chances
that they have today.
And if you're not giving themthe access to the person that
can write that check, the personthat can join them on their
journey as a Co founder or theperson that can build their
product, then you're not doingthe most important thing that

(52:48):
you can be for them.

I think it's time to end on that note. Thank you,
John. It's been a privilege for,just to hang out with you, man,
and to learn a lot about yourexperience, your Oh, man. This
is gonna be a good episode forpeople to listen to. Thank you
for the time.

John Lynn (53:01):
Thank you.

Amazing. Thank you. Thanks, John.

Manilya, I got to tell you, I really enjoyed this
episode, because it was theepitome of EIR as translator.
But also, you know, John reallyunderscored the EIR role as a
channel, right? And as amechanism to help people build a
platform for innovation, growth,and transforming themselves. And

(53:25):
on top of that, you can tellthroughout this episode that
John is really a deep sort of,like, like, proponent and and a
student of people and culture.You know, thinking about his
experiences in in Japan, how hetranslated those community
principles and things to The USmarket, the work that he's done
with international startupsentering The US market.

(53:46):
So really understanding thepeople and the culture and how
you can bring those two thingstogether in a very unique way to
compete to have an unfairadvantage and to build a
platform for ecosystems tothrive. And and I think that's
sort of the the foundation thatthat all great ecosystems need.
And John really, you know, gaveus a masterclass on on those two

(54:08):
topics. What do you think?

Yeah, man. I agree. What's what's interesting to me
is innovation is a people sport.Right? And for me, it's always
been people process andtechnology of some sort, but
it's not normally the technologythat's the game changer.
I joke that maybe if you havequantum fusion, something that's
10 times or 100 times betterthan everything else. But I

(54:31):
think if you're good at thepeople part, and I think John is
exemplary, right? Sort of thecombination of narrative and
culture and sort of translation,as you pointed out, I think gets
you most of the way there, thenchances are you're a lot more
successful, right? Because youcan get the people to sort of
buy in and row in the samedirection. And it's amazing how

(54:55):
much further you can go.
I think the other thing thatstuck out to me was that he was
very intentional about what thatjourney looks like as a
continuum, right? As opposed to,hey, snapshot, what do we need
to do today and for the next sixmonths? He's sort of thinking
about, how do I get you to sortof understand your own

(55:16):
situation? Maybe bring onthrough a pilot or a short
experience or by placing an EIRin your sort of organization or
in your orbit to help you sortof move along. But ultimately,
you know, how can we build theinnovation platform that you
need to reach the goals that youwant?

(55:38):
And I think that, you know,essentially aiming for self
actualization is sort of the, Iguess this is like the
innovation equivalent of teach aperson to fish versus giving
them a fish. You know, I thinkthat that real kind of self
actualization view for theorganizations that he serves is

(56:00):
the thing that, you know, kindof jumped out. I mean, I think
people that generally have thatview on how can I enable you to
be successful in achieving thethings that you aspire to
accomplish, that's going to be awinner for me, you know, nine
times out of 10? And so thatkind of stuck with me as we were

(56:21):
talking to John in thisconversation. But lots of stuff,
you know, I wish we had anotherhour.
Absolutely. We had to sort ofbutton it up toward the end and
maybe, you know, we'll have anopportunity to dig in in a
LinkedIn live or some otherformat. But I think there's a
lot more sort of goodness thereto dig into.

100 man. Well said. Thanks for joining us on
EIR Live. We hope today'sepisode offered you valuable
insights into theentrepreneurial journey.
Remember to subscribe so youdon't miss out on future
episodes and check out thedescription for more details.
Do you have questions orsuggestions? Please reach out to
us. Connect with us on socialmedia. We really value your

(57:00):
input. Catch us next time formore inspiring stories and
strategies.
Keep pushing boundaries andmaking your mark on the world.
I'm Terrance Orr with my goals,Ilya Tabakh signing off. Let's
keep building.

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Episode 09 - Building Innovation Bridges: From EIR to Accelerator Architect

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.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}Episode 09 - Building Innovation Bridges: From EIR to Accelerator Architect