The Groundbreakers
Local economic intelligence — from diagnostic to decision in minutes, not months.
A structured expert diagnostic for local economies, built on economic complexity research, adapted business strategy theory, and synthesis of 50+ executive interviews. Turn what your team knows about your region into rigorous, actionable evidence.
And every diagnostic you run layers into your region's evidence base — longitudinal history, stakeholder variance, peer signal. The longer you use it, the more irreplaceable it becomes.
Sample output — real diagnostic
Jupiter
Florida, United States
What stands out: Jupiter's path to a more complex economy lies in leveraging its existing high-quality research to seed new, non-adjacent industries. Smaller regions like Jupiter have a structural advantage: tighter networks and easier access to leadership.
What your report includes
- VIC cycle diagnosis — where innovation flows and where it stalls
- Innovation asset map of your real institutions
- Prioritized recommendations with research citations
- Phase-by-phase analysis with your actual scores
- PDF export — board-ready, branded layout
- Shareable cards & report link for your team
PROGo deeper with Pro
15 tailored questions, strategic deep dives, stakeholder briefs, evidence synthesis, and AI Q&A — from $299/yr.
10 questions · 5 minutes · No account required
Every Question Is Configured for Your Region
Before you answer a single question, we scan your region's actual institutions, programs, and assets — so every question maps to real conditions on the ground, not generic placeholders.
“How quickly do ecosystem leaders adapt their innovation strategies in response to major market shifts?”
“How quickly do leaders at the MetroHartford Alliance, the City of Hartford, and academic institutions like UConn Hartford and the University of Hartford adapt their innovation strategies in response to major market shifts or unexpected events affecting the Hartford area?”
Every question references your actual institutions so your answers — and your report — reflect reality, not generalities.
What Practitioners Are Saying
From economic development professionals using the diagnostic.
“You get a lot of these reports that come out from various entities and they're so generic that they could have written them about nine-tenths of Western Canada. But the Ecosystem Navigator from the Groundbreakers was clearly very local. There were enough tangible, specific things that I recognize to go, 'Oh yes, this actually knows our region'.”
“I compared it against the 100+ pages we got from a $100,000 regional impact study the provincial government paid for. The Groundbreakers Ecosystem Navigator generated very comparable outputs, found many of the same issues... but yours actually added the additional piece, identifying the need for angel investment to help move the ecosystem forward, which was a clear gap in the original study. From a value-added perspective, yours had more powerful, actionable insights than this third-party report.”
“I found the report would be a good way to ground us all, to say, 'Okay, here are some of the objective things that are necessary to move the ecosystem forward'. It would give us a common language and a common way to talk about it ... because the university is obviously going to approach it from an academic perspective, someone from a private sector company, they're going to come at it from a very different perspective. The report, in my mind, could be like a convener... a way of getting everybody on the same page in a discussion document.”
From First Click to Actionable Strategy
A starting point for your next strategy conversation.
Answer 10 Questions
Rate your region across key ecosystem dimensions. Questions are tailored to your locality using real-time data about your area's institutions and programs.
5 minutes · No account needed
Get Your Report
Your responses are analyzed against the LINK framework — producing scores, a VIC diagnosis, mapped assets, and prioritized recommendations backed by academic research.
Instant · Shareable · Exportable as PDF
Share with Your Team
Send the report link to colleagues across government, university, and investment roles. Invite them to run their own diagnostic for a multi-perspective view of your ecosystem.
Each perspective gets role-specific recommendations
Real Diagnostics. Real Regions.
Every report is configured for a specific place.
Click any card to explore the full interactive report.
Jupiter
Florida, United States
Economic DevelopmentExplore full report
Fairbanks
Alaska, United States
Economic DevelopmentExplore full report
Yarmouth
Nova Scotia, Canada
Economic DevelopmentExplore full report
Reims
Grand Est, France
Economic DevelopmentExplore full report
Thompson
Manitoba, Canada
Economic DevelopmentExplore full report
Lethbridge County
Alberta, Canada
Economic DevelopmentExplore full report
Each report is a complete ecosystem analysis. Click any card to explore.
Built on Research, Not Guesswork
The LINK framework synthesizes corporate strategy theory, economic complexity research from Harvard and MIT, and insights from 50+ interviews with innovation ecosystem leaders.
Economic Complexity
Measures how diverse and sophisticated your region's productive capabilities are — a predictor of future growth. Pioneered at Harvard and MIT.
50+ Practitioner Interviews
The framework is grounded in conversations with innovation ecosystem CEOs, EDOs, and university leaders across 6 countries.
Frequently Asked Questions
What do I get in the report?▾
How is this different from ChatGPT?▾
Who is this for?▾
How long does it take?▾
Can I use this for grant applications?▾
Five Minutes. One Diagnostic. Your Region.
See your scores, your gaps, and what to prioritize — then share the link with your team.
No account needed · Takes 5 minutes · Pro deep dives available after your free report