At the start of this year, I made a commitment. Not to a metric or a milestone, but to a direction. I said we would be measured by what we build together in 2026.
Last week in Chicago, at the InBIA Annual Conference, we saw early proof that this is not just an idea. It is in motion.
Across the conference, SourceLink affiliates, partners, and friends stepped onto stages and carried the work forward. Not in theory, but in practice. They shared what they are building, what they are learning, and what it takes to strengthen entrepreneurial ecosystems in real communities.
In West Virginia, Amber Ravenscroft and Tara St. Clair reminded us that ecosystem strength begins with relationships. Their work through the West Virginia Entrepreneurial Ecosystem which ultimately helped propel West Virginia BusinessLink showed how consistent engagement sharpens clarity. Organizations did not just collaborate more. They began to understand and articulate their own value more precisely. That is a quiet shift with long-term consequences.
Lynnette White-Colin of the Aya Foundation pushed deeper, showing what it looks like to design capital systems around entrepreneurs rather than forcing entrepreneurs to conform to broken systems that deploy capital. Trust, coalition, and intentional structure were not side notes. They were the mechanism. Alongside her, Tarsha Hearns shared the real work of moving capital into the hands of business owners who have been overlooked for far too long. Not symbolic progress. Actual movement.
Klassi Duncan, the Center for Entrepreneurship & Innovation (CEI) at the Urban League of Louisiana brought something equally important. Candor. Her session on sustainability and resilience did not hide the strain that comes with this work. She named it, navigated it, and showed that endurance is not about avoiding difficulty but moving through it without losing direction.
Becca Castro, of KCSourceLink, demonstrated what it means to meet entrepreneurs where they are. Not where systems expect them to be. Her work with navigators, including culturally aligned leadership like a Spanish-speaking navigator launching a Spanish 1 Million Cups chapter, showed how access expands when representation is intentional.
And then there was a moment that stood apart.
The Julius Morgan Diversity and Inclusion Award was presented to the National Urban League for their leadership in building inclusive entrepreneurial ecosystems through their Entrepreneurship Center network. For more than 20 years, SourceLink has partnered with the National Urban League’s Entrepreneurship Centers and nominated them for this well-deserved award. Watching that recognition happen was not a personal milestone. It was a signal. The work matters, and it is being seen. That matters more than we sometimes admit. Many of the people doing the hardest work in this field are doing it without recognition. I am not interested in letting that continue.
Which is why, when I took the stage to talk about scaling ecosystem impact through national networks, I showed our network. The number of SourceLink affiliates present, available, and actively contributing. Then I presented something else. The broader landscape of national partners and peers. Organizations like IEDC, WayBuilders, Mashup Labs, Main Street America, and others who can bring world-class capabilities into our local ecosystem work.
I chose to name them. To elevate them. To make it clear that the future of this work is not built in isolation.
Because if we are serious about building ecosystems that last, we have to move beyond ownership and toward shared advancement. Strength is not measured by how much we hold, but by how much we connect, amplify, and unlock in others.
There is a word for what this week represented. It is convergence.
People, ideas, and efforts aligning in a way that suggests something larger is forming beneath the surface.
We are not at the finish line.
And we are not staying quiet.
We are building this field together.
