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Obama & Entrepreneurship

Below are links to articles and posts about The President Elect and entrepreneurship:  Good analysis and well worth the read:

Obama Ran a capitalist campaign, Will he grasp the lessons from his campaign as he crafts policy?

Mark Cuban’s take

Sramana Mitra on Stimulus for entrepreneurs and asking Obama to Listen to entrepreneurs

Preelection take on the effect of Obama’s Tax plan on Small Business from Conservative Heritage Foundation

Texas Startup Blog on American Entrepreneurship

 

UPDATE: Kauffman Foundation open letter to the President-Elect

Kentucky Highlands Gets a million

Kentucky Highlands Investment corp has received a million dollars to build a business incubator in London, KY. The money is courtesy of US Rep. Hal Rogers who is a main funding source, securing federal dollars for KHIC. In fact when writing this post I discovered that Rogers has recently secured an additional $10 million in new markets tax credit authority for KHIC in addition to the million above,.

Joe the Plumber

The only thing I know for sure in this election is that Barack Obama, John McCain and all of the pundits discussing Joe the Plumber know absolutely nothing about small business, how taxes impact small business and why it matters.

Blog Action Day

Today is Blog action day. The topic is poverty. To help fight global poverty, how about providing a loan to an entrepreneur in the developing world. The tech site Techcrunch has a fund raising team set up on kiva.org. You can make a loan to entrepreneur anywhere in the world. Often just $20 can make a difference. Remember, this is a loan that could be paid back so it is not just charity it is business. I think we ought to apply this type of lesson to fighting poverty in our own country as well. Many in appalachia in Kentucky could use a small loan to get an independent business off the ground.

UPDATE:  I know Prosper.com operates in the US but I am looking for site geared to small entrepreneurs in porr communities around the country, providing “extreme micro-loans”

Bluegrass Entrepreneurial Environment Study

The University of Kentucky, Commerce Lexington and the city of Lexington had this study performed.  The study interviewed a set of handpicked companies and had an additonal questionnaire filled out by a larger group of companies.  The study uncovered some interesting demographic data on high-tech startups in this area and also identified the areas with which the bluegrass region has an advantage.  First on that list is quality of Life, second is cost of doing business is low.  A few of the negatives espoused, I think, are just old stereotypes of Lexington that reality would refute.  Many here bemoan a lack of arts events and culture but many entrepreneurs who have relocated to Lexington list this as one of the strengths of the area.  I think this reflects the bias that local people often hold.  The grass must be greener eslewhere.  

The real negative in the study were the recommendations and action items.  No mention was given on supporting grass roots efforts, or the use of technology, blogging, twitter, co-working, etc.  I think this proves my point that large beaurocracies and governments cannot effectively create an entrepreneurial culture.  They can help create an environment favorable to entrepreneurism but without grass roots efforts like those of the Spring Stage Network & Kentucky Startup Blog, and other catalysts within the community, the culture will not develop.

If you would like to read the full report, This are the links to the presentation, company profiles, and the data.

No Startup Culture in Kentucky?

A lot has been written lately about how cities like Boulder Colorado became start-up meccas and entrepreneurial hot-spots.  The key to this happening in a new city has a lot to do with grass roots efforts and little do with government intervention or economic development.  In Boulder, efforts by entrepreneurs, VC’s and others who wanted to live in Boulder but were passionate about start-ups started meeting, gathering and talking and importantly, Blogging.  From these efforts came Tech Cocktail, Start-up Weekend and eventually Techstars.  It was not an overnight revolution but a gradual transformation.  

In Kentucky’s main two cities, Lexington & Louisville, some of the basic building blocks are in place:

1. Large Tech/Biotech Companies located in each city (Lexmark, Exstream Software(HP), IBM, Geek Squad, Hosting.com, Humana,)
2. Research Universities: University of Kentucky, University of Louisville

The 3rd and probably most important criteria is a place where people want to live.  This is the thrust of the arguments made by Dr. Richard Florida.  This is where a state like Kentucky, especially in the cities of Louisville & Lexington,  get a bad wrap.  People move to Boulder in part because they want to Live in Boulder. Kentucky’s reputation as a backward state or the fact it is more conservative than San Francisco or Cambridge, MA gives people a false impression that all the people here are uneducated, bigoted, backwater hillbillies.  Of course this is not the case.  

Kentucky rates high on all ranks of quality of life and Lexington& Louisville are each ranked in the among the most educated cities.

An example proving my point is the start-up I work with Transposagen.  The founder, Dr. Eric Ostertag, has relocated his company from Philadelphia to Lexington. What first attracted him was grant funding but as he investigated Kentucky and Lexington, He realized many of his preconceived notions were in fact myths.  He liked the quality of Life, cleanliness of the city, nightlife, Arts and cost of living.  Lexington, Kentucky beat Philadelphia Pennsylvania hands down.

What is to be learned?  It is important for the government, Chambers of Commerce, Universities etc to be supportive of entrepreneurship and start-up culture but they need to realize that they cannot legislate, dictate or control it into existence.  It is necessary for grass roots groups to meet, grow and form ideas that can percolate upward.  What is more important for governments, Universities and economic development groups is to focus on developing quality of life factors, an educated workforce and to spread the message outside the borders of why Kentucky is a great place to live and work. 

Selling Kentucky is not explaining why we are the next Silicon Valley, Alley, Holler or Boulder, Colorado.  It is important to focus on what sets Kentucky apart.  We are never going to offer exactly what another city or state offers and that is the point:  We offer what others don’t or can’t, our competitive advantage.

In the end if smart, creative people want to live here then a smart, creative  entrepreneurial culture will develop.

kentucky entrepreneurship

As an advocate for building a strong entrepreneurial ecosystem in Kentucky, The following report issued by the Mountain Associaition for Community Economic Developmentis no surprise to me. Kentucky’s economic development efforts at the state level are stuck in the past. One of the things that the MACED report does not address is whether government intervention is the best way to stimulate entrepreneurial development. The state has many initiatives that have had only a modicum of success. I have focused on working with those to create grass roots efforts, start-up weekends, entrepreneurial coaching etc. I do think the state should spend more of it’s resources on stimulating entrepreneurial growth and less on trying to attract large manufacturers with large tax breaks. In the end these types of policies have only lead to states under cutting one another to the point where as soon as the required time is spent the company picks up and moves to another state for their next round of incentives.
I don’t agree with everything that MACED advocates but I do think they are right to shine a light on the problem and hopefully this can lead to engagement and further conversation.

Kentucky Green

I write this blog to highlight the interesting happenings in Kentucky entrepreneurship, especially the high tech side. Most people, both inside and outside the state, are not aware of the interesting companies and pockets of innovation in a state like Kentucky. One area, however, where I think the state has missed an opportunity is in alternative fuels and technology. Kentucky was well positioned to be a leader in this area. Kentucky is a state with an abundance of coal as well as some oil and natural gas. You might think this would be a negative but what it means is that we have a lot of engineering talent and market experience in the energy sector. The University of Kentucky has an applied energy research program focused on these very areas and a shared reserach agreement with Oak ridge national labs. However at the state level, we have focused on giving large subsidies to large companies like Peabody coal for coal gasification, clean coal and coal liquefaction. While these technologies may have a role to play, our dollars would have been better spent supporting startups and commercializing technologies on the cutting edge of green technology.
Some recent progress has been made. In addition to the state matching SBIR program, the state through KSTC has initiated a grant and investment program focused on green fuels. Alltech, a local biotech company focused on animal health, nutrition and performance received a $30 million grant from the DOE to develop a rural community Bio-refinery.

Green Mart?

Wal-Mart often gets beat up over squeezing their suppliers and not being environmentally friendly enough. A blurb in Fortune highlights how this can be a misconception. Wal-Mart worked with General Mills to shrink the size of its’ cereal boxes. (No more empty space) This cuts costs for the supplier and allows the savings to be passed on to Wal-Mart and its’ customers, but as important this saved 445 tons of paper and eliminated 500 truck trips to supply Wal-Mart. Being “green” can be good business but In too many cases the facts surrounding a company are ignored because it doesn’t fit with pre-conceived notions or gets in the way of a good story or political agenda.

Oil as a Utility?

 I am not often for government regulation or fooling around with markets but I think a case can be made for regulating the Oil & Gasoline industry as a utility in this country. 

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