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What 81% of Ecosystems Are Missing + Guide to Federal Funding in FY2026
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"The measure of intelligence is the ability to change." — Albert Einstein Welcome to the first Ecosystem Edge of 2026. To kick-start the new year, we're not making predictions. We're naming patterns. Last fall, we ran our Ecosystem Edge Scorecard with 21 ecosystem builders across the country. We asked them to assess their relationships across nine partner types and four phases of ecosystem development. No fancy software, just honest self-assessment using colored discs on a grid. The patterns that emerged? They're shaping how we're thinking about 2026. The 81% Problem Here's the number that keeps coming back: 81% of the ecosystem builders we assessed showed significant gaps in corporate engagement. Not "room for improvement" gaps - gaping holes! Red on the scorecard. Stuck at the first phase of development (Engage), or not started at all. These weren't underperforming ecosystems. Many had strong foundations: deep university relationships, active investor networks, thriving startup communities. The ESO-Startup-Investor trifecta showed up as a bright spot across nearly every assessment. That's the engine most people who identify as ecosystem builders know how to build. But Corporates? Totally different story. When we dug into why, the answers clustered around three themes:
The result? Founders build products without industry insight. Corporates miss the startups solving problems they didn't know they had. And ecosystem builders keep measuring success by activities that don't actually move the needle and are transactional at best. The Other Gaps Corporate engagement wasn't the only pattern. Three other partner types showed up consistently in the red:
What the Strong Ecosystems had in Common Here's what surprised us: the ecosystems that performed well didn't just have one or two strong partner types. They had developed capacity across the entire matrix. Not perfectly. Not equally. But intentionally. They'd moved beyond the comfortable triad of ESOs, startups, and investors. They'd built relationships with corporate partners, trade associations, and capital sources that most ecosystems ignore. They'd progressed those relationships past Engage into Discover and beyond—actually learning what partners need and when, not just exchanging referrals. The strong ones treated partnership development as infrastructure, not accident. What This Means for 2026 If you're an ecosystem builder reading this, here's what we'd suggest:
The ecosystems that thrive in 2026 won't be the ones that do more 'busy work'. They'll be the ones that see their partnership landscape clearly and act on what they find. One More Thing We're booking half-day workshops for ecosystem leadership teams ready to run their own scorecard assessment. If your team is ready to see where you actually stand—not where you hope or think you stand—reply to this email. And if you know an ecosystem builder who'd benefit from this newsletter, please forward it along. We're trying to reach the people doing this work in the trenches. The Future Of Ecosystem Building with Anika HornOur Co-Founder Featured in "The Future of Ecosystem Building" Series Anika Horn recently sat down with our Co-Founder Dr. Amy Beaird for her Builder Deep Dive series—a partnership with EcoMap Technologies exploring what's next for ecosystem building. The conversation traces Amy's shift from operator to architect. "I've spent years running the machine—running it, fixing it, funding it. Now I'm focused on redesigning how it works." Anika explores Amy's journey through her role as the Chief Strategy Officer at the Florida High Tech Corridor, The Builder Platform working with nine NSF Regional Innovation Engines, and the problems Ecosystem Edge is solving.
Funding Opportunities for Ecosystem BuildersCongress just approved a mini-bus that covers many ecosystem building programs. If you are trying to make sense of the federal landscape, read our guide. Federal Funding In 2026: What Ecosystem Builders Need to Know Now
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Ecosystem Edge
Join readers of Ecosystem Edge for tips, strategies, and resources to launch, grow, and sustain your innovation ecosystem.
A stack is layers. A braid creates traction. The tensile strength of a rope doesn’t come from any single strand—it comes from how the strands pull together, reinforcing one another. That’s what a healthy innovation ecosystem looks like. Startups The Proof Strand The strand everyone calls the output - and almost no one treats as a contributor. Ask an ecosystem what it’s building for, and the answer is usually some version of “successful startups.” Fair enough - the whole braid is designed to...
A stack is layers. A braid creates traction. The tensile strength of a rope doesn’t come from any single strand—it comes from how the strands pull together, reinforcing one another. That’s what a healthy innovation ecosystem looks like. Government Organizations The Infrastructure Strand The strand that sets the conditions everything else runs on — usually without anyone noticing, until it breaks. Most ecosystem builders think about Government in one of two modes: as a source of grant money,...
A stack is layers. A braid creates traction. The tensile strength of a rope doesn’t come from any single strand—it comes from how the strands pull together, reinforcing one another. That’s what a healthy innovation ecosystem looks like. The Market Validation Strand The strand that delivers what no grant can replicate, and the one most likely to be missing. Here is a finding that stops rooms cold. Across more than 40 scorecard sessions, when ecosystem builders rate their connection to...