Silicon Valley Venture Firm Announces the
World’s First Course on Designing Innovation Ecosystems
Los Altos Hills, California – November 13, 2012 – T2 Venture Capital (T2VC), a Silicon Valley venture firm, announces Rainforest Architects, the world’s first course designed to teach people how to build innovation ecosystems. Rainforest Architects delivers a unique learning experience—combined with practical tools—to help participants develop skills for constructing entire communities that generate high levels of innovation and productivity. Participants will learn:
• What makes ecosystems like Silicon Valley function? • How do you design and build such ecosystems in the real world? • Which practical tools and leadership skills are necessary?
The first Rainforest Architects workshop is in Silicon Valley, January 9 – 11, 2013.
“People around the world look to Silicon Valley as the world’s most powerful ecosystem for nurturing innovation, but they always wonder how they can build similar ecosystems elsewhere,” according to Greg Horowitt, Managing Director of T2VC. “Rainforest Architects provides professional training on how to replicate that magic, how to create that kind of highly productive environment.”
Ade Mabogunje, of Stanford’s Center for Design Research and one of the co-developers of the program, says: “What often surprises people is that Silicon Valley is not really a specific place. It is a mindset. In Rainforest Architects, we seek to penetrate that mindset, deconstruct it, and then teach people how to reconstruct it in their own networks, wherever they happen to be.”
The “Rainforest” framework—developed by T2VC over the past decade—helps people understand, design, and foster their own communities to generate high levels of innovation. It starts with the fundamental assumption that human ecosystems are like biological systems: the mere presence of basic elements is not enough. It is the dynamic interactions between all of the elements in a complex system that drive productivity. Thus, “Rainforests” are socio-biological networks of human relationships that can take many forms, whether they are economic regions, academic institutions, or large corporations.
Rainforest Architects is a series of progressively specialized workshops that feature leading thinkers and doers sharing their insights on how to build innovation ecosystems. The course is designed to be highly immersive and experiential, stretching beyond a traditional classroom format to provide participants a unique, memorable learning experience. The program starts with the first workshop: a unique, intensive, intimate, personalized workshop that covers the full spectrum of cutting-edge Rainforest ideas and practice. Subsequent workshops and practices will delve even further, to help participants achieve deeper levels of expertise, knowledge, skill, and insight.
More details about the program and registration can be found at: www.t2vc.com/rainforest-architects
About T2VC
T2 Venture Capital is a unique Silicon Valley venture firm that both grows startups and designs innovative ecosystems to nurture startups. T2VC invests capital and time in technology startups with great promise. Unique among venture firms, however, T2VC leverages the practical knowhow of company-building to advise clients on designing ecosystems, shaping innovation policy, structuring entrepreneurial capital, and creating programs to catalyze growth. For more information about T2VC, visit www.t2vc.com or contact Susan Brooksbank of T2VC at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..
