By Chris Heivly, Managing Director at Build The Fort and Startup Community EIR @ Techstars

In every city, entrepreneurial support organizations (ESOs) share a common goal: fostering a thriving entrepreneurial ecosystem. Yet, if you’ve worked in or around these groups, you’ve probably noticed something ironic — they rarely collaborate effectively if at all. ESO collaboration is a pipe dream and ESOs don't play nice together.

Instead of working as a united front, ESOs often operate in silos, duplicating efforts and competing for limited resources, like mentors, funding, and founder attention. This competition creates inefficiencies, dilutes impact, and, worst of all, leaves the very founders they aim to support stuck navigating a fragmented clique-like ecosystem.

In all of this ESO infighting, something really, really important happens — the founders disengage. 

They simply do not have time to figure out who to work with and when.

So, why does this happen, and — more importantly — how can we fix it?

At the root of the issue is the traditional management structure of these organizations. Many ESOs are tied to government entities, universities, or large nonprofits, which tend to prioritize their own mandates and metrics over ecosystem-wide outcomes.

This inward focus is compounded by competition for funding. When resources are scarce, it’s easy for ESOs to see each other as rivals rather than allies, even though their missions are aligned.

And let’s be honest: collaboration is hard. It requires time, trust, and the willingness to share credit for successes. ESO leaders are incentivized to win, not collaborate, and thus most ESOs simply don’t prioritize it.

The truth is, you can’t just ask ESOs to work together and hope for the best. What you can do is align their incentives by going straight to their funders.

Here’s the secret: most ESOs rely on external funding — whether from government grants, corporate sponsors, or philanthropic organizations. And those funders are motivated by one thing: community impact.

By showing funders that collaboration between ESOs will lead to greater impact — more startups launched, more jobs created, more economic growth — you can create a powerful incentive for these organizations to work together.

When approaching funders, focus on the tangible benefits of collaboration:

1. Efficiency – Highlight how collaboration reduces duplication of efforts. For example, instead of three ESOs running overlapping accelerator programs, they could combine resources to create one flagship program with better outcomes.

2. Founder Support – Show how a unified ecosystem simplifies the founder journey. Entrepreneurs are more likely to succeed when they can easily navigate resources without falling through the cracks.

3. Measurable Results – Explain that coordinated efforts allow for better tracking and reporting of ecosystem-wide impact, giving funders clearer evidence of ROI.

Imagine if ESOs in your city shared a central database to track founder progress, making it easier to connect entrepreneurs to the right resources at the right time. Or if they co-hosted events to pool their networks and amplify their reach.

Collaboration doesn’t mean every ESO has to do everything together. It’s about identifying complementary strengths and leveraging them to create a seamless experience for founders.

Collaboration isn’t just a nice-to-have — it’s essential for building a truly effective startup ecosystem. By engaging funders and demonstrating the value of working together, we can create the incentives ESOs need to break out of their silos and start collaborating for real.

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