The author’s take that the recently unveiled Startup America is “dead on arrival” makes for insightful reading regardless of where one is on the development scale.
What we agree with is that without the active participation of operating entrepreneurs at the policy level, all these good intentioned policies are DOA:
‘Go take a look at any of the government organizations talking about entrepreneurship and see how many of its leaders or staff actually started a company or a venture firm. Or had to make a payroll with no money in the bank. We’re trying to kick-start a national initiative on startups, entrepreneurs and innovation with academics, economists and large company executives. Great for policy papers, but probably not optimal for making change.’
The reason why entrepreneurs and not just solely technocrats and academics have to be involved is because they are living the life cycles of growing their enterprises from idea to impact. This article states that these entrepreneurs who ‘actually have started, built and grown companies and/or venture firms’ deserve to be involved at the top level (in this case the White House), and that ‘next time the talent shows up for a Startup America initiative, they ought to be getting offices not sound bites.’
We couldn’t have said it better!
