Hello Reader,

In 2017, two men walked into a selection interview for the first entrepreneurial support program I ever launched. It was at a Richmond coworking space and they came straight from their day jobs. Jeff Beck was a counselor for families of children with autism. Adam Dreyfus ran a nonprofit educational center serving the same community. They had an idea for a tech startup, and they - literally - sketched it out on the back of a napkin.

And yet.

At the end of the week, they won the pitch competition at Richmond's Main Street Station. Larkin Garbee and I had raised a whopping $400 in seed capital for the idea that the community found most compelling. Larkin showered the Jeff with Monopoly money.

AnswersNow was becoming a reality.

Fast forward to 2025: AnswersNow provided direct support to a thousand families across seven states. In early 2026, they raised $40 million to double their clinical staff and expand access to behavioral health services for families navigating life with a child on the autism spectrum. All of it traces back to a conversation in a coworking space in Richmond, Virginia.

This is what I mean when I say ecosystem building is infrastructure.

Jeff and Adam succeeded because at a crucial moment, they were met by a community that took them seriously: a program that gave them skills and a stage, mentors who connected them to the right people, and an ecosystem culture that placed the needs of founders ahead of any organization's agenda.

That's one story in my book among 50 others like it, from Puerto Rico to Nebraska to Australia. And you can be part of bringing these stories into the world:

Campaign update

Yesterday afternoon, we hit the minimum funding goal 🎉

With three days to go, we're at $12,438 thanks to 114 backers who believed in this book before it even existed in its final form!

I want you to know how much that means to me! Many of you showed up with generosity and goodwill, spreading the word to your networks and getting others on board.

THANK YOU!

Now, we could all exhale together and rest on our laurels, but have you met me?! Resting on laurels is not on the menu!

Here is where I want to go over the next three days:

$12,000 covers the hard production cost. What it doesn't cover is the work of getting this book into the hands of the people who need it most. (Remember we used to think 'Build [Write] it and they will come.'? Doesn't work that way anymore, if it ever did.)

That takes resources I don't yet have. A $15,000 finish changes that. It gives me the margin to do at least one of the following well: record an audiobook to make the content more accessible, host a launch event worthy of the community that made the book possible, and/or invest in a marketing push that gets the book past my immediate network and into the regions where ecosystem builders are working without this kind of practitioner resource.

I haven't decided yet which of those I will do, simply because I want to make that decision based on what's actually possible rather than what sounds good right now. (They all sound good right now!)

What I can tell you is that every dollar above $12,000 goes directly toward that goal: more practitioners, more regions, more of this field seeing itself documented and taken seriously.

If you have been waiting to back or to share, the next three days are the time to do it! The campaign closes June 19, 2026.

From the Field: Ecosystems don't have a chief marketing officer

Last week, Technical.ly published an article making the case that ecosystems need intentional storytelling infrastructure, and they used my work as the frame for that argument. I'm stunned and grateful. Read for yourself.

If you've ever tried to explain to a funder or a city council member why a coffee introduction you made eighteen months ago matters, that piece will feel familiar. Here's how Chris Wink, CEO at Technical.ly, describes my book in that context:

Cecilia Wessinger, one of the book's early readers, wrote:

Andy Stoll, who has been in this field even longer than me, put it this way:

If any of that rings true, this book is for you. My goal is to document what we already know and to give you language for the parts that still need explaining:

The manuscript is in its final editing round now. Once it's done, it goes into layout and design!

Featured event:

Startup Champions Network Summit in Richmond, VA (Sep 29-Oct 1)

In September, Startup Champions Network is convening in Richmond. It's the city where I watched Larkin Garbee run startup events that built the relational infrastructure for an entire ecosystem. The same city where Jeff and Adam walked in with a startup idea sketched on the back of a napkin. The same city where I first understood what ecosystem building actually was.

Get your ticket by June 19. Yes, it's the same day the Kickstarter campaign closes. Serendipity much?

! If you join us in Richmond, I would love to invite you to for a private dinner for all the backers of It Takes a Valley.

Bookish

I've accidentally been on a young-adulthood-to-not-so-young-adulthood-in-New-York-City reading binge where side characters end up in Montclair, New Jersey (a strange parallel, agreed?). Here's what I've been reading these last few weeks:

• ​This Time Tomorrow, Emma Straub. I loved this narrative fiction about a daughter and her relationship to her dying father. It sounds dark but it's really more fantastical than anything: What are all the roads we didn't take in life? How would life be different if we had made different choices on a specific day in the past? This one was hard to put down.
• ​So old, so young, Grant Ginder. I've been looking forward to this since October last year! A group of college-aged friends enter real-life and we come along in four-year milestones. We watch them grow up, grow apart, grow old and young at the same time. I loved it.
• ​Dear Writer, Maggie Smith. This one is a great companion for any writer, not something I read cover to cover in one go. If you're writing anything, keep this on your bedside table for a daily insight or affirmation ;)

Shen-Anika-ns

As my writing and editing phase comes to an end, here are three things that helped me write consistently over the last three years:

• Write longhand and make it fun. Sure, I could scribble on a legal pad with pencil. It would cost me $3 in supplies and get the job done. But investing in a decent notebook and pens that feel good in my hand (since I'm writing 90 minutes to three hours a day) makes a difference!
• Treat writing like your job. I committed to heading to my local coffeeshop, buying a proper cup of coffee, putting on my headphones and writing from 8 until 11.30 most days. I could have made coffee at home and saved hundreds of dollars. But Millennial that I am, I'm better able to focus in a semi-busy environment that at home where I'll inadvertently do laundry, and prep meals and look for answers inside the fridge (where they rarely are). Bonus points for supporting a local business.
• Find a playlist that helps you focus. I created two playlists that helped me get into the writing zone the moment I heard the first song.
  • I listened to modern classical music on repeat.
  • This upbeat playlist got me through the toughest starring-at-the-screen days.

I'll be back in once the campaign closes! Thank you to all of you who have been along for the ride!

In camaraderie,

Anika

P.S. Missed my last newsletter? Check out the previous issues of Impact Curator.