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

We throw around big words in this game and quietly assume we all mean the same thing. Spoiler: we don’t. And when the words matter — like when you’re designing programs, deploying capital, or setting strategy — different meanings equal future pain.

Here’s how this usually plays out.

You’re in a room talking about “entrepreneurs.”

Economic development folks nod. University folks nod. The local banker nods. The startup founder in the hoodie nods. Same nod. But completely different movies are playing in each person’s head.

• One person is picturing a solo attorney hanging out a shingle.

• Someone else is thinking “venture-backed software founder.”

• Another is seeing a food truck.

• Someone maybe has “side-hustle Etsy seller” in mind.

• The startup community nerd (this is me, by the way) is silently thinking “innovation-driven, scalable, maybe venture-backable tech company.”

Same word. Totally different assumptions about risk, growth, capital, support, and timelines.

Let’s poke the bear: the word entrepreneur.

Is this person an entrepreneur?

A lawyer who leaves a big firm, starts a solo practice, and over time grows it to 10 lawyers and a support staff.

Most people will tell you, “Sure.”

But what about this person?

That same lawyer on Day 1, alone in a tiny office with zero clients, a laptop, and a logo her cousin designed.

Entrepreneur yet? Some people say yes, some say “not really, not until there’s staff, real revenue, a ‘business.’”

Now let’s switch it up:

A new vibe-coding software developer building a hockey stats app for his beer-league buddies.

Same app, but now the target market is every ice hockey player on the planet.

How about someone starting a PR agency with two clients and a big network?

There is always the person who has a dream about a BBQ (the southern version) food truck that he would park outside breweries on weekends.

Are these all entrepreneurs?

Some of you instinctively said “yes to all.” Others mentally sorted them:

• “That one is just a freelancer.”

• “That’s a lifestyle business.”

• “That one could be a high-growth startup.”

• “That’s a small business, not a startup.”

None of those are wrong as long as you’re explicit about it. The danger is when we pretend we all mean the same thing and then design “entrepreneurship” strategies and programs on top of all of those movies.

Let’s rewind those examples and look at them through a practical lens: what they actually need from a community or an economic development program.

1. That lawyer on Day 1

• Needs: low-cost space, basic bookkeeping/legal setup, first clients, confidence, maybe a peer group of solo professionals.

• You drop this person into a “scale to $100M” cohort, and they’re just going to quietly never come back.

2. The growing law practice (now 10+ people)

• Needs: local talent pipeline, small-business finance, HR help, succession planning, maybe a bigger office.

• Probably not looking for a startup accelerator, pitch competition, or angel round.

3. Hockey app for buddies

• Needs: honestly, maybe nothing beyond a weekend and a six-pack. This might just be a fun project. That’s okay.

• Call this “maker energy.” It’s valuable, but very different from someone trying to build a company.

4. Hockey app for all players

• Now you’ve shifted into a potentially scalable tech play. Needs: customer discovery, product testing, maybe growth marketing, maybe eventually capital.

• Same codebase, same founder, totally different ambition. Turns out ambition matters.

5. PR agency founder

• Needs: sales skills, repeatable processes, hiring, pricing, managing client churn.

• Classic services business. Highly entrepreneurial, very low odds of venture scale. And that is fine and probable.

6. Food truck owner

• Needs: permits, locations, cash-flow management, maybe a path to a second truck or a brick-and-mortar location.

• More operational headaches than cap table headaches.

If you’re an economic development leader and you put all of these humans into one “Entrepreneur Bootcamp,” here’s what happens:

• Half of them check out because it’s too basic.

• A quarter feel overwhelmed because it’s way too advanced.

• A few polite ones say “thanks” and never show up again.

• You report “30 entrepreneurs served” to your board, and your community quietly loses an opportunity.

Same label. Completely different journeys.

Economic development is increasingly built on a belief (which I share) that entrepreneurship is the engine of job growth and innovation. But here’s the brutal truth:

The same program cannot effectively serve the solo attorney, the food truck owner, the PR agency founder, and the hockey app builder. Their goals, constraints, and success metrics are just too different.

I’m not arguing for a 50-page taxonomy of entrepreneur types that no one reads or can effectively use. I’m arguing for shared, simple language that you align on before you spend a dollar or launch a program.

Try something like this for your community:

1. Innovation-Driven Startups

   • Goal: rapid growth, new markets, often tech-enabled, sometimes venture-backed.

   • Example: hockey app for all players, not just your buddies.

2. Growth-Minded Small Businesses

   • Goal: build a stable, growing company, but not chasing unicorn-scale.

   • Example: law practice growing from 1 to 10+ staff; successful food truck expanding to multiple units.

3. Solo Professionals / Freelancers / Micro-businesses

   • Goal: independence, flexibility, solid income, maybe modest growth.

   • Example: PR consultant with a couple of clients; solo attorney who wants to stay solo.

Now when someone in your community says, “We need to help entrepreneurs,” you can calmly ask, “Which kind?”

That one follow-up question can save you months of wheel-spinning and more importantly not piss off ⅔ of your “entrepreneurs.”

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