Ashvegas reader to Asheville’s Pam Lewis: Start your own organization aimed at helping entrepreneurs

Here’s a thoughtful comment from an Ashvegas reader regarding the recent controversy over Pam Lewis and her ouster from the Asheville Chamber of Commerce. The writer is Rob Zazueta of techknowme.com. Zazueta a former full-time programmer who shifted his focus to helping small business owners and marketing professionals grow their businesses online:

In my experience, traditional chambers of commerce do not do much to help truly innovative entrepreneurs flourish. They have often had to find their own way through things and their own communities, largely because they start off not big enough for chambers to care too much, nor do they fit well in the traditional industry boxes identified by most chambers.

Pam, this puts you in a very unique position to continue reaching out to these entrepreneurs who have otherwise fallen through the cracks. You’ve built such good will and strong support on AVL that I’d hate to see you go. Instead, form something like an E-Chamber focused on the types of entrepreneurs the traditional chamber does little to support. Work from home folks, small technology outfits, ecommerce retailers and other could benefit from your connections to local co-working spaces, entrepreneurial organizations and, of course, your own amazing evangelism on their behalf. While I believe strongly that you’d make this work anywhere, I also believe Asheville is a place just ripe for an entrepreneurial explosion. You are now in a position to do it on your own terms, your way. This is the kind of thing any EDC that actually cares about true economic development should welcome with open arms rather than feel threatened by.