A field-shaping approach from the architect of ESHIP Communities

Who We Are

WayBuilders is a social enterprise that leverages innovative educational experiences to transform how entrepreneurial ecosystems are built, supported, and sustained.

We’re not here to fix broken systems — we’re here to help you build better ones.

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What we do

Through training, immersive experiences, and strategic tools, we help ecosystem building pracitioners, communities, and philanthropic funders design more inclusive, connected, and resilient entrepreneurial ecosystems.

Our programs — the WayBuilders Academy, WayBuilders Week, and WayBuilder Communities— support builders, communities, and funders alike.

Together, they create the shared practice, language, and accountability this work has long deserved.

Two people talking in a room with professional lighting and equipment, one man with a beard wearing a sleeveless pink hoodie, and a woman with short curly hair wearing hoop earrings and a striped dress with a beige cardigan.

What makes us different

Entrepreneurial ecosystem building has been practiced everywhere, but rarely taught through a shared, formal curriculum. We aim to create and share the first widely recognized framework for practitioners in our field.

WayBuilders is a field-shaping methodology — born from codified learnings and lived practice in 40+ communities. It wasn’t developed in an office. Every element has been co-designed, deployed, and tested with builders, leaders, and entrepreneurs who’ve been doing this work long before it had a name.

We provide the structure, tools, and training to sustain this work as a profession. Our approach delivers strategy without detachment, support without saviorism, and metrics that measure meaning — not just output.

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What we believe

We believe:

  1. Entrepreneurial ecosystem builders are essential infrastructure for the thriving economies of today and tomorrow.

  2. Ecosystem builders are multitalented, multifaceted professionals—deserving of training, compensation, and support equal to the complexity of their work.

  3. Culture is strategy—and relationships are paramount.

  4. The way we build is just as important as what we build.

  5. When built a better way, entrepreneurial ecosystems are inherently accessible, inclusive, diverse, equitable, and rooted in belonging.

Close-up of green bamboo stalks in a bamboo forest with sunlight filtering through leaves.

We believe in building better by design.

Let us be very clear:

Access, belonging, diversity, equity, and inclusion are not initiatives — they are infrastructure.

A smiling African American woman with short curly hair wearing a brown sweater and red beaded necklace, sitting on a wooden chair in a cozy room with wooden shelves and green plants.

Our Chief WayBuilder

Fay Horwitt is a nationally recognized ecosystem builder, strategist, and thought leader with over 15 years of experience advancing equitable entrepreneurship. She is the former President & CEO of Forward Cities, where she stewarded the organization to the forefront of the the field. Fay currently serves as the inaugural Field Builder-in-Residence for ESHIP Alliance and served as the lead architect and program designer for ESHIP Communities, the field’s first national community lab for entrepreneurial ecosystem building.

Fay has collaborated with many of the nation’s leading field-building organizations—including InBIA, Startup Champions Network, Main Street America, EcoMap Technologies, and Lemelson Foundation and Kauffman Foundation. She has brought her unique insights and perspectives as a keynote speaker and panelist for key industry conferences including the ESHIP Summit, eBuilders, SCN Summit, IEDC Annual Conference, NC IDEA Summit, Entrepreneurship Funders Network, and many more.

Through WayBuilders, Fay continues to equip and elevate a new generation of change agents building a better way for entreprneeurs across the nation.

Let’s Partner.

This work is bigger than any one of us—and it starts with connection. Ready to build better with us?