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

We’ve all heard the buzzwords that seem to anchor startup culture today — radical candor, radical thinking, even radical compassion. These phrases challenge us to stretch our emotional and intellectual muscles in ways that feel big, bold, and probably uncomfortable. But there’s one "radical" I don't think I have ever heard: radical collaboration.

And I don’t mean just being a team player at the ecosystem meeting or showing up for the occasional brainstorming session. I mean the kind of collaboration where you give so much of yourself to help someone else win that it elevates collaboration to a whole new level. The kind that feels almost too generous, too time-consuming, too trusting. That’s when you know you’re onto something radical.

Years ago, when I was helping build the startup ecosystem in Durham, NC, I got connected to a woman who was running the local chamber of commerce. Now if anyone in my current tribe ever asked if I would work with someone from the chamber, I would have laughed out loud. But during this time she and I collaborated on a new event. My accelerator partner and I brought our accelerator demo day. She brought her annual state of the city event. We both had access to a different set of resources but when we added them together, we created something much bigger than any one of us could have imagined. 

So, we co-hosted. She brought the space and grassroots energy; I brought structure and speakers. We gave each other equal billing, split everything down the middle, and decided no one "owned" the event. We never created a separate entity, we just trusted each other as we brought others into the fold. That act of shared leadership ended up becoming one of the most impactful startup events in the region — and it only happened because we leaned hard into collaboration, not credit.

Radical collaboration means removing ego from the equation. It’s when you don’t worry about who gets the glory, as long as the community wins. That is true topophilia!

We teach founders to be bold thinkers, clear communicators, and empathetic leaders. But maybe we also need to teach everyone to be radical collaborators — people willing to bet on someone else’s success with the same energy they bring to their own.

Because here’s the truth: no startup community thrives without visible and authentic collaboration. And if you’re still playing it safe, partnering only when it benefits you, you’re not really collaborating — you’re a poser collaborator.

So what if your legacy wasn’t about the organization you run, but the startups you helped others build? What if being a radical collaborator became your organization and your city's unfair advantage?

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