Why Innovators Need Community

By Jill Fuss, Managing Director of the Activate Berkeley Community

Jill Fuss
Managing Director, Activate Berkeley Community

Without a community to back them up, founders are much less likely to succeed. This can negatively impact everything from their mental health to technical development (if you're not talking to people, then you might be building the wrong thing, for example). 

At Activate, we talk about the four key components of a successful startup: technology, team, market, and finance. Community is essential to each of these: no matter which component a fellow is struggling with, there’s likely a person in our community who can help. This is why bringing people together to leverage the diversity of their experiences is a key part of our support for our fellows.

I’ve experienced the community aspect of Activate from two perspectives: first, as a fellow in Cohort 2018 in the Activate Berkeley Community and then as its managing director.

When I was a fellow, Activate had one location (with its second, Activate Boston, launching at the end of my fellowship), and I was one of only 13 fellows in my cohort. Naturally, the community was small and close—we even pledged our lives to one another on a piece of paper lost years ago. I felt like I had found my people in this group of scientists and engineers who were starting companies with aspirations for global impact.

Now, four more geographic communities and several cohorts later, Activate is still known for its supportive network and close-knit feeling. Community is one of the top benefits that Activate Fellows cite.

Jill Fuss (far left) with the Activate Berkeley Community team and fellows in Cohorts 2022 and 2023.

In 2022, I rejoined Activate as the Managing Director of the Activate Berkeley Community. In this role, one of the biggest and most visible impacts of community I’ve witnessed is getting questions answered quickly. I’ve seen our fellows ask a question in Slack and have five responses pour in immediately. Likewise, once connected to the right person, our founders can solve a problem in a 15-minute call, rather than struggle for six months with it. All of those small interactions add up, and  might allow them to bring their solution to market a year faster, two years faster, or four years faster. That's a big, big difference.

Our focus on community goes back to the very beginning. One of the founding components of the Activate program is the concept of “collisions,” or interactions between fellows and the many investors, industry experts, service providers, and others that comprise our network. In Berkeley, our fellows may connect with Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory scientists and engineers with deep technical, computational, or modeling expertise through our partnership with the Cyclotron Road program.

The idea is that you can’t predict exactly which collisions are going to lead to something bigger, but increasing the number of collisions increases the chances. I think the term “collision” was originally a particle accelerator joke, but as a biochemist, it makes sense to me: if you increase the concentration, you’re more likely to have productive interactions.

Quality is also critical, so we bring together the best people we can. In the Activate Berkeley Community, that looks like bringing in visitors to meet one-on-one with our fellows on local programming days or having informal social hours. Through these curated yet random-ish collisions, fellows find advisors and investors, or discuss their IP strategy, for example. This kind of access to experts and industry insiders can be game-changing for early-stage founders.

Just like in particle physics or chemistry, our collisions are not one-way interactions. When I was an Activate Fellow, I learned one of my most valued lessons on community. At the end of a very helpful meeting with an executive at a big company, I asked, “Why do you take these meetings?” He told me, “I like to give back, but what you may not realize is that I get something out of these meetings, too. It keeps me fresh and in the know about issues startups are facing.”

Until then, I hadn’t considered that I was actually bringing something to the conversation as an early-stage science entrepreneur. Now, as a managing director, I tell fellows not to feel bad about asking for someone’s time because the other person might be getting something out of it, too. For example, when our fellows have quarterly meetings and invite a few advisors, the advisors get to meet each other, and that's a benefit. People enjoy building up their networks. Anytime people can have meaningful interactions, it’s valuable to them, too.

This is definitely true of the pay-it-forward culture of the Bay Area, which has shaped the Activate Berkeley Community, Activate’s original model for community-building. So many people here have started companies and received a lot of help along the way. Our alumni are wonderful examples of this. They know the value of the help they’ve received, and they give back to the community by speaking at our local programming or mentoring our current fellows.

Building connections between peers is equally important. I know Activate is succeeding in community-building when I see fellows huddled up on a Thursday afternoon, taking time out of their day to help each other. When I notice fellows showing up for each other consistently and investing time into one another, I know what we are doing is working.

The pandemic posed a challenge, particularly by limiting the opportunity for random in-person collisions. But it also expanded our community by making it easier and less awkward to have a meeting with someone anywhere. In a hybrid or even virtual context, we can still cultivate community if we are intentional. For example, Activate Anywhere has figured out how to build a strong and supportive community almost completely virtually.

Science entrepreneurs need community to succeed, and we all need science entrepreneurs to solve today’s urgent global challenges and solve them fast. We don't have a lot of time to solve issues like climate change, and every year we save deploying technologies that could help mitigate climate change has a huge impact. Thank you to our Activate community for giving your time and helping our fellows. In this way, we can all build toward a better future for everyone.