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03.11

White House and Industry Leaders Partner to Promote Entrepreneurship

By IEEE-USA Staff

On 31 January, President Obama announced the “Start-up America” campaign, a public-private partnership to celebrate, inspire and accelerate high-growth entrepreneurship throughout the United States.

AOL co-founder Steve Case agreed to chair the partnership and Carl Schramm, President and CEO of the Kaufman Foundation, was also highlighted as a founding board member.

The Startup America Partnership describes itself as a private, non-profit entity dedicated to increasing the number of new high-growth firms that are creating economic growth, innovation and quality jobs; celebrating and honoring entrepreneurship as a core American value and source of competitive advantage; and inspiring and empowering an ever-greater diversity of communities and individuals to build great American companies.

To kick-start the campaign, the White House announced a series of 27 public and private commitments organized around advancing five key goals:

1. Expanding capital access for high-growth start-up ventures

2. Expanding entrepreneurship education and mentorship

3. Strengthening commercialization of federal R&D

4. Identifying and removing barriers and obstacles to high-growth start-ups

5. Expanding collaborations between large companies and start-ups

Among the White House commitments, the President pledged a $2 Billion investment through the Small Business Administration to support impact investing and early-stage seed financing.  Tax breaks were also proposed for small business capital gains and to encourage start-ups in lower-income communities.

Private sector commitments include a pledge of $200 million by Intel to support U.S. start-ups, a pledge of $150 million by IBM to fund programs that promote entrepreneurship and new business opportunities, a pledge by HP to expand its HP Learning Initiative for Entrepreneurs in the United States, and Facebook’s support for “Startup Days,” a new series of 12 to 15 events around the country designed to provide entrepreneurs with access to expertise, resources and engineers to help accelerate their businesses. 

For more information on the Start-Up American partnership, see: http://www.startupamericapartnership.org/ 

A Fact Sheet on the Start-Up America initiative, including a full listing of the 27 commitments is available online at http://www.whitehouse.gov/startup-america-fact-sheet.

Outreach Efforts Underway

The White House has agreed to a number of outreach activities to help support the Start-Up American initiative.  In March, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner will convene a summit on access to capital for small and entrepreneurial businesses with participation from entrepreneurs, investors and policy makers.

Economic advisors from President Barack Obama’s administration and representatives from the U.S. Small Business Administration also kicked off an eight-city “Startup America” tour in Durham, North Carolina on 3 March, meeting with local businesses and entrepreneurs to find out how the government can help them create more jobs and revive the economy.  A similar meeting is scheduled for 12 March in Austin, Texas, with future stops planned in Boston, Atlanta, Pittsburgh, Minneapolis and Boulder, Colorado.

New Council on Jobs and Competitiveness

On 21 January, President Obama announced the formation of the President’s Council on Jobs and Competitiveness, chaired by Jeff Immelt, CEO and chair of General Electric.  The Council replaces the President’s Economic Recovery Advisory Board (PERAB), whose two-year mandate expired on 6 February.  Whereas PERAB, chaired by Paul Volcker, was focused on measures to respond to the economic crisis, the new Jobs and Competitiveness Council is taking a broader look at new ways to encourage the private sector to hire and invest in American competitiveness.

The Council will provide non-partisan advice to the President on continuing to strengthen the Nation's economy and ensure the competitiveness of the United States, as well as on ways to create jobs, opportunity and prosperity for the American people.  In addition to soliciting ideas from across the country, the Council will recommend policies and provide analysis and information regarding the economy and the competitiveness of U.S. industry and the American labor force.

Council members include AOL co-founder Steve Case, Xerox CEO Ursula Burns, American Express CEO Kenneth Chebault, Kleiner-Perkins partner John Doerr, TIAA-CREF President Roger Ferguson, labor leader Joseph Hanson, NextEra Energy CEO Lewis Hay, Southwest Airlines President Gary Kelly, Dupont CEO Ellen Kullman, Intel CEO Paul Otellini, Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg, and members from academia, small business and other organizations.

The Council held its first meeting on 24 Feb., where members engaged the President and Secretary of Commerce Gary Locke on ways to promote growth by investing in American business.  The discussion highlighted three related needs: 

• helping entrepreneurs obtain financing

• building a skilled workforce

• promoting U.S. exports across the globe

The Council and its work can be tracked online at:  http://www.whitehouse.gov/administration/advisory-boards/jobs-council

TechStars Network Launched

In conjunction with the Start-Up America call-to-action, TechStars CEO Brad Feld announced the TechStars Network, an affiliation of TechStars-like programs across the country.  TechStars is a mentorship-driven seed stage investment program, which runs a three-month-long program in Boston (Mass.), Boulder (Colo.), New York City (N.Y.) and Seattle (Wash.) once each year. From hundreds of applicants, they select up to ten aspiring entrepreneurial ventures per city, provide them $18,000 in seed funding and three months of mentorship and an opportunity to pitch their businesses to angel investors and venture capitalists.

The TechStars Network brings together similar local and regional entrepreneurship programs around a shared goal of putting 5,000 experienced mentors to work with 6,000 entrepreneurs to create 25,000 new jobs by 2015.

For more information on the Network, see: http://www.techstars.org/network/

Entrepreneurial Assistance Online

Also aligned with the Start-Up America initiative, the United States Center for Entrepreneurship, founded by serial entrepreneur and Mimeo.com founder David H. Meadows, launched a new website on 23 Feb. to assist entrepreneurs via one-to-one expert advice, connections to capital, step-by-step online education and special events. 

In announcing the site, Mr. Meadows said, “America must return to our spirit of innovation and inspiration in the new world economy. We must be citizens of the world and think of products and services that can span the globe.”  Read more at:  http://www.USentrepreneur.com.

Comments may be submitted to todaysengineer@ieee.org.