Investment attraction
Test the regional strengths behind the pitch. Use the economic profile, mapped institutions, talent evidence, and ecosystem gaps to prepare for site-selector and investor conversations.
For Economic Development Officers
Economic development research workspace
Economic development intelligence for the whole ecosystem
Connect investment attraction, business retention and expansion, entrepreneurship and startup support, workforce development, and strategic planning in one evidence base. Start with a locally tailored analysis, then bring government, universities, investors, employers, and community partners into the same regional picture.
35-dimension scorecard
Regional institutions mapped
Shared evidence base
Field validation in Lethbridge County found the diagnostic closely matched a $100K government study and surfaced an angel investment gap the study missed.
Start with your perspective
Build the first analysis in five minutes.
Choose a place and your role. The diagnostic configures its questions around the institutions and conditions in that ecosystem.
No account to start10 tailored questionsSave 2 reports free
Get the complete USD $499/year workspace One ecosystem, analyzed together
Turn different vantage points into a shared analysis
The economic development perspective is one part of the evidence. Ecosystem Navigator brings it together with the people who experience the ecosystem differently, then gives the group a structured analysis to investigate and revisit.
01
Individual analysis
Run a locally tailored diagnostic from your own vantage point. The free version takes 10 questions and about five minutes.
02
Group exercise
Invite people who see the ecosystem from different angles. Everyone answers the same question spine independently.
03
Shared analysis
Compare where perspectives align, where they diverge, and which constraints or priorities recur across the group.
04
Deeper investigation
Use Explore and five Deep Dive modules to test what the first analysis puts on the table.
05
Repeated measurement
Repeat a fixed exercise to see what changed, what held, and where the next round of work should begin.
The EDO work map
One platform across the work your economic development team already owns
Each function sees one part of the regional economy. Ecosystem Navigator connects them so a prospect brief, a business visit, a startup program, a workforce partnership, and the next strategy update build on the same evidence.
Business retention and expansion
See whether local firms can reach talent, research, capital, suppliers, and decision-makers. Repeated diagnostics show which conditions are improving and which constraints persist.
Entrepreneurship and startup support
Assess the path from ideas to viable companies: commercialization, founder support, mentors, early customers, growth capital, and whether successful ventures reinvest locally.
Workforce development
Connect employer demand with colleges, universities, training programs, attraction efforts, and retention. Identify where the talent pipeline loses people or misses industry needs.
Strategic planning
Turn individual perspectives into a shared analysis, investigate the biggest disagreements, set priorities, and repeat the same exercise to measure movement over time.
Sound Familiar?
These are the questions that keep EDO directors up at night. The diagnostic tells you where you actually stand.
"We invest in talent — then they leave."
Brain drain isn't a marketing problem. The diagnostic reveals whether your ecosystem has the knowledge systems, capital access, and employer base to retain graduates — or if you're subsidizing talent for other regions.
"Our CEDS looks great. Nothing's changed."
The strategy-execution gap is usually a coordination gap. The diagnostic shows which actors aren't connected and where your brokering efforts will have the most systemic impact.
"We can't articulate our differentiation to site selectors."
If you struggle to explain why a company should locate here over the next county, the ecosystem lacks a clear identity. The diagnostic identifies what actually differentiates your region — and what doesn't.
"The board wants ROI on our incentive spending."
Incentive packages are one tool. This diagnostic scores the entire ecosystem — are those investments creating conditions for compounding growth, or one-off wins?
What You Get From the Platform
The first report is useful on its own. The platform becomes more valuable as more perspectives enter the same evidence base.
Localized Baseline
Scores across 35 strategic dimensions, using questions configured around your region's actual institutions, programs, and assets.
Session Diagnostics
Invite other stakeholders to answer the same question spine so you can see consensus, variance, and role-specific blind spots.
Evidence Base
Each run adds answers, scores, assets, recommendations, and citations to a reusable record of what your ecosystem is showing over time.
Decision Outputs
Board-ready reports, share links, PDF export, stakeholder briefs, and recommendations framed around actions your organization can broker.
Not Another Survey. Not ChatGPT.
Activity reports count prospect meetings and jobs announced. This tells you whether the ecosystem producing those outcomes is healthy.
What annual reports tell your board
- Prospect meetings held: 127
- New jobs announced: 340
- BRE visits completed: 89
- Investment attracted: $12M
What this diagnostic tells you
- “Phase II→III is the bottleneck — ideas and talent are entering the ecosystem, but conversion to new ventures is stalling. Three accelerators within 40km aren’t connected to the university pipeline.”
- “Your workforce pipeline scores 3.8 but capital access scores 1.9 — talent is staying, but has nowhere local to deploy.”
- “FDI operates as an enclave — no local supply chain integration. Consider supplier development program with...”
Questions from EDO Directors
How is this different from our CEDS process?▾
A CEDS takes months and costs tens of thousands of dollars. This diagnostic takes 5 minutes and gives you a structured, scored baseline your CEDS process can build on. Use it to identify gaps before you convene stakeholders, or to validate whether your current strategy addresses the right bottlenecks. Many EDOs run the diagnostic annually to track progress between full CEDS cycles.
Will the questions make sense for economic development?▾
The questions cover talent pipelines, capital access, cluster strength, institutional coordination, BRE dynamics, FDI integration, workforce readiness, and more. Each question is localized to your region — referencing your actual institutions, accelerators, and economic development organizations. You're rating the ecosystem you work in every day.
Can I share this with my board or council?▾
Absolutely. The report includes a shareable link, PDF export, and structured visualizations (scorecard, VIC diagram, asset map) designed for board presentations. The language is professional and evidence-based — not academic. It translates complex ecosystem dynamics into the format board members and elected officials expect.
How is this different from asking ChatGPT about our region?▾
ChatGPT gives you plausible-sounding generalities. This diagnostic uses a proprietary research framework (LINK) built on corporate strategy theory, Harvard/MIT Economic Complexity research, and insights from 50+ ecosystem leader interviews. Every question is localized to your specific region. The output is a structured, scored analysis — not a prose summary.
What does the free version include?▾
The free report includes an executive summary, Virtuous Innovation Cycle (VIC) diagnosis, innovation asset map of your region's institutions, ecosystem scorecard across 35 strategic dimensions, and a prioritized action plan with 100+ research citations. Pro users can unlock deep-dive modules for granular analysis of each strategic dimension.
Can other stakeholders in my region run the diagnostic too?▾
Yes — and they should. Session diagnostics let your university VP Research, local government, investor community, and nonprofit partners answer the same question spine from their own perspective. You get a shared analysis of the same ecosystem: where people agree, where they diverge, and which blind spots matter most for strategy.
Five Minutes. Your Ecosystem. Your Evidence Base.
You already know your region has potential. Find out if the ecosystem supporting it is working.
Get your region's report — free
No account required · Results in 60 seconds · Share with your board