Industry ecosystems or clusters are the network of organizations – including suppliers, research and academic institutions, distributors, customers, competitors, government agencies and so on – involved in the delivery of a specific product or service through both competition and cooperation. The idea is that each business in the “ecosystem” affects and is affected by the others, creating a constantly evolving relationship in which each business must be flexible and adaptable in order to survive, as in a biological ecosystem.

Probably the most familiar ecosystems to physician entrepreneurs and other sick care stakeholders are digital health, bioscience and care delivery i.e. healthcare ecosystems.

Ecosystems have different processes, structure, outcomes and life cycles, but there are several things that differentiate one from the other and might satisfy the needs of end users more than another. They include:

1. Leadership
2. Culture
3. Focus
4. Life cycle stage
5. Mission
6. User friendly-ness
7. FOMA (fear of missing out) attractiveness
8. Brand equity and reputation
9. Cost
10. Value

In addition, there are meta-ecosystems i.e. ecosystems of ecosytems. Sick care, for example, is a system of systems that connect to other social systems that are social determinants of health. The include homelessness, food insecurity, income inequities, violence, domestic violence and low education. That’s why changing sick care is such a wicked problem

Almost every major city has some kind of innovation or entrepreneurial ecosystem. They can be as small as a floor on a WeWork, or as extensive as Silicon Valley. An entrepreneur’s most valuable asset is her time, so be careful where you spend it in your ecosystem to find where you can kiss the most frogs.