MIX Baltimore: Scaling Without Leaving
MIX, hosted at the impressive 4MLK, is designed to break down silos across Baltimore’s innovation ecosystem. Each month brings together entrepreneurs, researchers, civic leaders, and creatives around a rotating theme. This session asked how local innovators build nationally significant impact while staying rooted in the region.
The other featured innovators brought perspectives from across sectors. Terrance Smith, Baltimore City’s Chief Innovation Officer, came to Baltimore from Mobile, Alabama and spoke about how the people closest to the problem are most likely to solve it. That same principle came up months earlier in a conversation with Francesca Ioffreda, Maryland’s Chief Innovation Officer, reinforcing how often this truth surfaces in different contexts. Gaia, a local muralist and MICA professor, talked about drawing inspiration from Baltimore while expanding her work globally. Mandy Snyder, with Baltimore Homecoming, and Ken Malone, with Early Charm Ventures, also shared their approaches to building from this city.
Baltimore shaped how we built EcoMap. Less venture capital density meant focusing on sustainability over hype, building products that deliver value from day one. The city’s fragmentation – assets spread across neighborhoods and institutions that don’t naturally connect – directly informed how we think about ecosystem intelligence.
We solve local problems first, then scale them. Geography became an advantage, like proximity to state government and federal agencies, access to diverse regional economies, and costs that make building sustainable businesses possible. Our team is here. Our first customers were here. Success stays in Baltimore’s economy.
During the small-group discussions, the questions pushed beyond individual companies to broader community impact. How do we activate this approach for Main Street organizations? How does staying rooted support workforce development efforts at institutions like the YMCA?
Ken Malone spoke about Early Charm Venures’ office location and how they engage the community and local educational institutions through internships and other programs. Being rooted requires intentional connection to the neighborhoods and institutions around you.
Transient businesses optimize for exits and relocations. Home-grown businesses build for the long view, hiring locally, reinvesting in community, shaping how the region evolves over time.
LISC Convening: Relationships in Action
The next day shifted to a national audience. LISC‘s Business Development Officers work across the country supporting economic development through local organizations. The session focused on how technology activates the relationships that already exist in ecosystems.
BDOs are in the relationship business. They connect entrepreneurs to resources, organizations to each other, and communities to opportunity. But those relationships only drive impact when they’re visible, coordinated, and put to work.
The challenge is familiar. Support is happening, referrals are being made, and partners are collaborating. But too often those relationships live in individual inboxes and scattered spreadsheets. Hard to see who’s serving whom, where referrals are going, or what’s working across a region.
Technology doesn’t replace relationships. It makes them actionable. Modern platforms create a shared view of networks, track referrals across partners, and show where connections are strong and where gaps exist. They make consistent reporting possible and turn relationship data into decisions.
I shared examples from Kansas and Oregon. Kansas used EcoMap ERM to connect small businesses with global sporting events procurement opportunities, turning a bid board into a relationship network. Oregon built statewide coordination across regional hubs, making referral pathways visible for the first time.
The discussion surfaced questions familiar to anyone doing this work. How do you better engage partners? How do you develop memorandums of understanding or standard operating procedures that actually get used? The group’s answer was straightforward. Build those documents with partners, not for them.
Another question came up about leveraging human ingenuity alongside AI to produce better solutions. That balance is what we aim for at EcoMap. Technology isn’t a silver bullet, but it can help customers operate more efficiently and scale their impact effectively. Our product is designed to give people a way to use their ingenuity with technology, supporting their stakeholders, not replacing their judgment.
LISC partnered with EcoMap to help their consultants become experts in BDO networks and resources across ecosystems, whether or not they have physical presence there. We mapped hundreds of organizations and resources from Philadelphia to LA to Atlanta. The goal is moving beyond information sharing toward actual collaboration.
What Connected Both Conversations
The same themes surfaced in both rooms despite different audiences. Everyone is curious about the benefits and risks of AI. Everyone is looking to partner, but making that partnership work remains a challenge.
Both conversations reinforced that infrastructure matters as much as programs. Whether you’re building a company or coordinating entrepreneur support, the systems you build today determine how well everything works tomorrow.
The ecosystems that move fastest aren’t starting from scratch. They’re connecting what they already have and making those connections easier to see, strengthen, and scale.
Frequently Asked Questions
How can a company scale nationally while staying rooted in one city?
Scale doesn’t require relocation. It requires building systems that serve more customers while maintaining a core team and operations in your home region. EcoMap serves ecosystems across 30+ states while keeping our headquarters, core team, and operations in Baltimore. Technology enables national reach, but place still provides competitive advantages like lower costs, proximity to government agencies, and embedded community relationships.
What does it mean for technology to make relationships actionable in ecosystems?
Most ecosystems already have strong relationships between organizations, but those connections often stay invisible in individual email inboxes or disconnected spreadsheets. Technology makes relationships actionable by creating a shared view of networks, tracking referrals between partners, identifying gaps in coordination, and enabling consistent reporting across regions. The goal is to turn relationship data into decisions that strengthen the ecosystem.
What’s the difference between transient businesses and home-grown businesses?
Transient businesses optimize for exits and relocations, extracting value from a region until better opportunities emerge elsewhere. Home-grown businesses build for the long view, hiring locally, reinvesting in community, and shaping how the region evolves over time. The difference shows up in where jobs are created, how contracts are distributed, and whether success compounds locally or leaves.
Why do ecosystems need digital infrastructure in addition to programs?
Programs create opportunities, but infrastructure determines whether people can actually access them. Without shared systems, entrepreneurs struggle to find resources, support organizations can’t coordinate referrals, and regions can’t demonstrate impact to funders. Digital infrastructure connects what already exists, making collaboration easier and support more visible. States like Kansas and Oregon are investing in this infrastructure because it helps existing programs work better.
How does LISC use EcoMap to support Business Development Officers?
LISC partnered with EcoMap to map hundreds of organizations and resources across ecosystems from Philadelphia to Los Angeles to Atlanta. This allows their consultants to be experts in BDO networks and resources even in cities where they don’t have physical presence. The mapped data surfaces key players and offerings so everyone in these ecosystems has access to comprehensive information, with the goal of moving beyond information sharing toward actual collaboration.
