In the Season 1 finale of Ecosystem, Scale!, Aaron Taylor sits down with Andy Stoll, founding Executive Director of the ESHIP Alliance, for a wide-angle conversation about the emergence of entrepreneurial ecosystem building as a field of practice.

Over the past two decades, ecosystem builders across the country have been quietly working to strengthen the environments where founders turn ideas into reality. What began as scattered community efforts is now beginning to organize into something larger: a professional field with its own practices, leadership models, and support structures.

Andy offers an eagle-eye view of this movement zooming out to examine the national landscape of ecosystem building while also reflecting on the culture, relationships, and leadership required to make these communities thrive in practice.

At its core, ecosystem building is a team sport a collaborative effort to move knowledge and resources from the people who have them to the entrepreneurs who need them at the right moment.

This conversation closes the first season of Ecosystem, Scale! by zooming out to ask a bigger question:

What happens when the builders themselves begin to organize into a field?

About Our Speaker

Andy Stoll is a serial social entrepreneur and the founding Executive Director of the ESHIP Alliance, a national initiative working to advance entrepreneurial ecosystem building as a recognized profession and coordinated field. Over the past two decades, Andy has co-founded multiple social change organizations and helped pioneer community-driven approaches to entrepreneurship, innovation, and economic development.

Previously, Andy served as a Senior Program Officer at the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation, where he helped advance entrepreneur-led economic development and ecosystem building as an emerging practice. His work focuses on participatory, network-based approaches to social change that combine entrepreneurship, storytelling, culture-building, and community leadership.

Andy is a sought-after speaker and facilitator who has appeared at SXSW, TEDx events, universities, and conferences around the world, and his work has been featured in The New York Times, The Washington Post, and The Wall Street Journal.

Connect with him here: linkedin.com/in/andystoll

Resources:

https://www.kauffman.org/ecosystem-playbook-draft-3/eship-goals/

https://eship-commons.mn.co/spaces/18645947/feed

https://www.startupchampions.co/

https://www.seedthesouth.com/

$50 off code for Seed the South Capital Summit: STS26-CEDAR-50

In this episode of Ecosystem, Scale!, Aaron Taylor is joined by Amy Beaird for a deep dive into the tools, language, and systems thinking shaping the future of ecosystem architecture.

Drawing on her background in engineering and decades of startup R&D leadership, Amy brings a practical lens to one of the field’s biggest challenges: making the invisible work of ecosystem-building visible, measurable, and defensible. Together, they explore the concept of signals — evidence of strategic progress that shows when ecosystems are moving beyond activity toward real capability and alignment.

The conversation unpacks how frameworks like the Ecosystem Edge scorecard help regions understand their stage of development, align stakeholders, and communicate long-term value to funders and partners. Amy also shares insights on governance, shared leadership, diverse funding strategies, and the ongoing tension between organic emergence and intentional architecture.

This episode is for ecosystem builders, funders, institutional leaders, and practitioners who want to move from reactive programming to durable systems — and who are looking for practical ways to strengthen alignment, storytelling, and long-term sustainability in their communities.

About the Speaker

Amy Beaird is a systems-oriented ecosystem builder and co-founder of Ecosystem Edge. With a career spanning engineering, startup R&D leadership, and regional ecosystem strategy, she focuses on developing practical tools and frameworks that help practitioners measure progress, align stakeholders, and build sustainable innovation infrastructure. Amy is also an active contributor to the broader field through initiatives like the ESHIP Alliance and her work supporting regional innovation strategies across the country.

Connect with her here: linkedin.com/in/abeaird

Resources

https://ecosystem-edge.com/

https://engine.xyz/

https://eship-commons.mn.co/spaces/18645947/feed

In this episode of Ecosystem, Scale!, Aaron sits down with Jess Edwards for a conversation that explores how relationships, trust, and lived experience shape the way innovation ecosystems actually function for sustainable ecosystem design.

Jess shares insights from her work across multiple communities, offering a “tour-guide” perspective on how ecosystems evolve, what strong social capital looks like in practice, and why sustainability requires more than programs and new funding cycles. Together, they examine how ecosystems move from connections to structure — and how intentional design can turn momentum into lasting impact.

This conversation is especially relevant for ecosystem builders, funders, and community leaders seeking to better understand how human relationships become the infrastructure that allows innovation to thrive over time.

About the Speaker

Jess Edwards is a project-based innovation ecosystem builder and systems thinker known for her work connecting entrepreneurs to the resources, relationships, and opportunities they need to grow. She has been recognized for her ability to build and leverage relational (social) capital to strengthen entrepreneurial communities and increase ecosystem interconnectedness across the globe.

Connect with her here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/edwardsja/

Resources:

https://www.jessedwards.com/

https://www.socialcapitalresearch.com/

https://www.socialcapitalresearch.com/?s=entrepreneurship

In this episode of Ecosystem, Scale!, Aaron Taylor is joined by Antoine Woods, Senior Lead on Chick-fil-A’s external R&D and innovation team, and Terrance Orr, founder of Next Anomaly Group and entrepreneur-in-residence.

Together, they lift the corporate veil to explore how large organizations actually engage with innovation ecosystems — and what must be true before community-corporate partnerships and founder–corporate partnerships can succeed. The conversation reveals strategic insights like how innovation functions inside corporates, the structure and constraints of corporate innovation teams, why readiness matters more than access or logos, and why founders should always be compensated for pilots and proofs of concept.

This episode is essential for founders, ecosystem builders, and corporate leaders seeking more aligned and sustainable approaches to corporate–startup collaboration.

About Our Speakers

Antoine Woods a global innovation leader at Chick-fil-A, serving as a Senior Lead on the company’s external R&D and innovation team — where he identifies and partners with startups to solve core business challenges. A former programmer, entrepreneur, and venture partner, Antoine brings deep experience in startup ecosystems, founder support, and cross-sector innovation. He is known for bridging founder mindset with corporate strategy and for championing relationships that deposit more into people than they withdraw.

Connect with him here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/antoinewoodsjr/

Terrance Orr is the founder and CEO of Next Anomaly Group, an investment, advisory, and ecosystem development firm focused on helping founders, family offices, and corporates navigate innovation and venture strategy. A seasoned ecosystem builder, corporate innovation advisor, and co-host of the EIR Live podcast, Terrance has advised startup leaders, corporate innovation teams, and investors on building ventures, strategic partnerships, and entrepreneurial capacity across industries and geographies.

Connect with him here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/terranceorr/

Resources:

https://www.linkedin.com/company/next-anomaly/

https://podcast.eir.live/

https://engage.vc/

https://joinhomegrown.com/

In this episode of Ecosystem, Scale!, Aaron is joined by Mike Green and Johnathan Holifield for a timely conversation on economic development, innovation, and equity.

They unpack the history and limits of “big game” economic development—strategies that prioritize national competitiveness and large-scale growth—while confronting a persistent reality: many communities, particularly Black America, remain disconnected from the modern innovation economy.

Introducing the framework of inclusive competitiveness, Mike and Johnathan challenge how success is defined and measured, and offer new ways to think about ecosystem design, connectivity, and long-term impact.

This episode is essential listening for ecosystem builders, economic developers, founders, and policymakers working to build innovation systems that are not only competitive—but inclusive by design.

About the Speakers

Mike Green is a cultural economist, consultant, and strategist focused on inclusive competitiveness and systemic equity within economic and innovation ecosystems. He has served as Chief Strategist at the National Institute for Inclusive Competitiveness and is co-founder of Common Ground Conversations on Race in America, a paradigm-shifting process that helps institutional and community leaders build shared understanding and productive dialogue across divides. Mike has worked extensively on designing strategies that address entrenched racial and economic disparities and has co-authored a playbook for improving diversity and inclusion in entrepreneurship centers. HBCU Making and Innovation Initiative

Connect with him here: linkedin.com/in/amikegreen2

Johnathan Holifield is an ecosystem-builder, attorney, author, and architect of the Inclusive Competitiveness framework — a strategy that links economic inclusion, innovation, and national competitiveness. He has brought this vision to life through roles spanning public policy, regional economic strategy, and venture formation, including serving as Executive Director of the White House Initiative on HBCUs and co-founding ScaleUp Partners, a consultancy advancing competitive, equitable economic systems. His book The Future Economy and Inclusive Competitiveness reframes how we think about economic development and innovation as tools for broad-based prosperity.

Connect with him here: linkedin.com/in/thetrimtabber

Resources:

https://www.mckinsey.com/industries/public-sector/our-insights/the-economic-impact-of-closing-the-racial-wealth-gap

https://commongroundconversations.com/

https://www.amazon.com/Future-Economy-Inclusive-Competitiveness-Demographic/dp/0692877703

Higher education is often described as an anchor institution in innovation ecosystems—but what does that really mean in practice?

In this episode of Ecosystem, Scale!, Aaron Taylor is joined by Almesha Campbell, Vice President for Research and Economic Development at Jackson State University, and Jim Woodell, Founder of Venn Collaborative and co-creator of the CCube framework, for a comprehensive, real-world conversation about the evolving role of universities in startup communities and regional innovation ecosystems.

Together, they share how higher education institutions can move beyond symbolic participation to become active, trusted contributors to ecosystem growth. The conversation examines the language gaps, cultural barriers, and internal flows that often slow collaboration—while also highlighting the immense and underutilized assets universities bring to founders, entrepreneurs, and communities.

Key themes include:

• What it truly means for universities to function as anchor institutions
• Why transparency, trust, and shared language matter more than programs alone
• How structured conversations can unlock collaboration across silos
• The shift from transactional partnerships to sustained, network-based ecosystems
• Why a “boundaryless mindset” is essential for long-term ecosystem resilience

This episode is essential listening for founders, ecosystem builders, higher education leaders, economic developers, and policymakers seeking to better understand how universities fit into the broader innovation landscape—and how to engage them more effectively.

Rather than offering quick fixes, this conversation invites listeners to rethink collaboration as a shared responsibility built on relationships, contribution, and intentional design.

About the Speakers

Almesha Campbell is the immediate past Chairwoman of AUTM and Vice President for Research and Economic Development at Jackson State University, where she bridges research, innovation, and community impact. With deep experience in advancing institutional collaboration and inclusive ecosystem engagement, Almesha focuses on aligning university assets—talent, research, and infrastructure—with regional innovation priorities and community needs.

Connect with her here: linkedin.com/in/almeshalcampbell

Jim Woodell Jim Woodell is the founder of Venn Collaborative, a partnership-focused consultancy that helps universities and ecosystem stakeholders improve collaboration with external partners for economic and community impact. He co-developed the CCube structured conversation framework to support alignment, shared language, and actionable strategy across diverse ecosystem actors.

Connect with him here: https://linktr.ee/JimWoodell

Resources:

https://www.ccube.tools/

https://www.ptie.org/

https://autm.net/

In this episode, Aaron Taylor sits down with Himalaya Rao-Potlapally, a venture capitalist, ecosystem-builder, and advocate for inclusive finance, to explore what it means to fund founders differently.

Himalaya shares her journey from social work to venture capital, revealing how necessity-driven entrepreneurship shaped her approach to investing and community impact. Together, Aaron and Himalaya unpack the limits of traditional VC culture and discuss alternative funding models that honor organic growth and broaden who benefits from innovation.

They also highlight the importance of trust-based relationships and redefining success on founders’ own terms. This conversation invites listeners to look beyond venture capital toward a more restorative, human-centered vision of funding entrepreneurship.

Resources & Mentions

• BFM Fund — investing in exceptional Black-led startups
• VC Partners Fund — supporting diverse innovation leaders
• Restorative Finance Academy — launching in 2026, featuring macroeconomic training, solidarity-economy education, and alternative-finance design
• https://vilcap.com/our-tools

About Himalaya Rao-Potlapally

Himalaya Rao-Potlapally is a managing partner, investor, and ecosystem strategist whose work bridges venture capital, impact investing, and economic development. She advocates for restorative finance and equitable wealth creation through community-anchored entrepreneurship. Connect with her here, linkedin.com/in/himalayarao

In this episode of Ecosystem, Scale!, Aaron Taylor sits down with Chris Heivly — Managing Director of Build the Fort, co-founder of MapQuest, former Techstars Exec, investor and startup community-builder — to break down what it really takes to lead a founder-first startup ecosystem.

Chris argues that thriving innovation communities aren’t built through hierarchy, big budgets, or recycled playbooks from Silicon Valley — they’re built through trust, connection, and relentless service to founders. He shares how ecosystem builders can earn credibility, avoid the trap of copying other cities, and focus on the simple, repeatable actions that grow real startup momentum.

This conversation is a masterclass in ecosystem leadership mindset — practical, honest, and rooted in decades of experience.

🔗 Learn More

Explore Chris’s work, books, and thought leadership at https://heivly.com — a must-follow resource for anyone serious about startup community building.