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Technical.ly
05-07-2025
- Business
- Technical.ly
All the things Americans do agree about
Despite political dysfunction and rapid swings in national mood, Americans retain a strong belief in bottom-up power and their ability to shape society, a sentiment that fuels optimism even in difficult times. While the US produces a disproportionate global share of top researchers and maintains trade surpluses in high-value services, the country is capable of both exceptional good and deep missteps — and progress depends on coalition-building and sustained civic engagement. Entrepreneurship is increasingly viewed as a unifying force that transcends political divides, offering practical solutions to economic and social challenges and garnering bipartisan policy interest. Karl Marx and Abraham Lincoln exchanged letters. In early 1865, Marx wrote to congratulate Lincoln on his reelection. 'The workingmen of Europe feel sure that,' Marx wrote, 'as the American War of Independence initiated a new era of ascendancy for the middle class, so the American Antislavery War will do for the working class.' Lincoln was no communist. But he famously sought out competing perspectives and built coalitions to advance his causes. Marx thought of the Union as a force for progress. It's again a complicated time to be American: 3 in 5 report a high-degree of pride in nationality. It's the lowest overall score in the 25 years of Gallup's survey, but, like with so many issues, our feelings range widely by political affiliation. We're swapping national myth for tribal myth. We squandered post-Cold War global hegemony with financial indiscretion and foreign entanglements. Our unregulated information sector undermined local news, amplifying polarization. Yet the American project remains fundamentally valuable: more than any other country over the last century, we've been a net force for democracy, peace and economic prosperity — because most voters have wanted it. 'America is a country where power flows from the bottom up. People feel like they own the country, unlike almost anywhere else on Earth,' said Victor Hwang, the founder-CEO of pro-entrepreneurship advocacy group Right to Start. He's one of my cohosts for our monthly Builders Live podcast. 'Long-term optimism comes from our narrative of shareholder activism,' Hwang said. So many interests want to divide us. At the risk of sounding naive, Hwang says we need to focus more on what we agree on. 'Americans believe deeply in their power to shape society.' America's complex modern moment Hwang is a son of Chinese immigrants who grew up in Middle America. He's taken a series of cross-country roadtrips in recent years, alongside international travel. He spoke to me last month in the middle of the night from a hotel lobby in Japan's Osaka. He's celebrating July 4 with family, taking in a Dodgers baseball game and fireworks. It's a small respite before he continues his policy work, and supporting America the Entrepreneurial — a year-long campaign to engage 250,000 Americans in starting new businesses in time for next year's 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence. Despite uneven national identity, three-quarters of Americans have a positive view of the Fourth of July holiday, according to a poll from last year, including majorities run across the political spectrum. I agree with them, even if that comes with an awareness of the holiday's complexity. I also have a positive association with Juneteenth, which serves as a powerful reminder of how the American promise has always been justice delayed — which is to say justice denied. The newsroom looks over the spot where the Declaration was signed, and first read publicly, in both English and German. I bicycle past daily, and I've decided my discomfort with the holiday is part of the point. I am a proud American, which is exactly why I have expectations that can be missed. Think of the good. America's innovations in science, technology, and culture continue to profoundly shape the world. With just 4% of the population, the United States hosts almost 40% of the world's 'highly-cited researchers,' a proxy for impact. Meanwhile, for all the talk of a global trade imbalance for goods, Americans have a trade surplus in services, including law, technology and all those international students at our universities. Like it or not, the American economy and military have underwritten relative peace and prosperity around the world for most of the last 80 years. That's why politically-charged gutting of American science research is frustrating. That's why videos of masked ICE agents rounding up American citizens is gut-wrenching. That's why the genuine fear I hear from friends is alarming. 'As a woman in Alabama preparing to give birth, I'm acutely aware of the backslide in healthcare and women's rights,' said Maria Underwood, another podcast cohost who is TechBirmingham chair and an Alabama native expecting her second child. Yet she too holds a kind of hope. 'Optimism comes from seeing people actively working to push against this,' Underwood said. 'I see people organizing more than ever, building companies, solving real problems.' What do Americans agree about? My passion for journalism is rooted in this belief: To love a thing is to do so even while understanding the worst of it. My personal philosophy opposes any concentration of power — corporate, government, or otherwise. Coalition building, for me, means focusing more on what we agree on, rather than what we disagree about. That's how I understand longterm political change is made. Americans are a 'thermostatic electorate,' to use a political science term, meaning that we tend to throw out each successful political movement — which routinely overestimates the depth of their support. Famously, a 1969 book called 'The Emerging Republican Majority' was responded with a 2002 book called 'The Emerging Democratic Majority,' which was fulfilled by an Obama-era that was followed by a Trump era. The president's political party almost always loses midterm elections, and yet somehow each cycle we treat it as a surprise. Lately the concern is all this is swinging back and forth harder and faster. The rise of ' two-year presidencies ' has introduced a move-fast-and-break-things style of governance. A constitutional scholar warned last fall that ' the regulatory pendulum ' is operating more like a bullwhip: Business leaders and advocates push harder with each cycle. Consumer confidence, economic certainty and the general national mood appear to switch even more dramatically than before. If your preferred national political party is in office, you think things are getting better. If they're out of power, you think things are getting worse. Entrepreneurship is a tool for coalition building Entrepreneurship still promises a kind of salve. Hwang reminds that polling for new and small business looks sky-high among Americans across the political spectrum. Here it helps to remember the 'horseshoe theory of politics,' which depicts the American electorate as bent in a half-circle so that the two extremes of the political spectrum begin to reach agreement, in their desire for destruction and disagreement. In his 2021 book ' The Story Paradox,' professor Jonathan Gottschall argues that Americans are locked in a battle between two competing myths, that the country is either uniquely exceptional or uniquely terrible. Rather, it's something in between: a reigning superpower capable of great good that also takes far-reaching missteps. 'The data would tell you, if you turn off Fox News or MSNBC and focus only on economic numbers, we're in a good economic environment, surprisingly perhaps, and it's improving,' said podcast cohost Brian Brackeen, the entrepreneur turned venture capitalist. The American economy remains the world's best, made so by a pro-entrepreneur commitment to the rule of law, Brackeen said. 'I would love to see raised expectations across the country, because that would come from a greater hope of what's possible.' Brian Brackeen, Lightship Capital As one of the country's few Black venture capitalists leading his own fund, Brackeen is not naive to structural racism or corrosive polarization. His grandfather, who died in 2002, was an influential social activist and pastor who helped launch one of the country's first Black-owned banks. That inspired Brackeen's own career journey. 'It's in my blood to serve people through finance and community organization,' Brackeen said. 'I would love to see raised expectations across the country, because that would come from a greater hope of what's possible.' Entrepreneurship, perhaps more than any other force, embodies this duality. It solves problems big and small, creates jobs and drives economic mobility. Policymakers across the political spectrum are increasingly turning to entrepreneurship as a strategy for unity and prosperity. As we celebrate July 4, reflecting on our nation's complicated past and uncertain future, I find optimism in the entrepreneurial spirit. The inspiration I've always taken from Lincoln, who exchanged letters with everyone from Karl Marx and abolitionists to confederate generals, is that we are not defined by any one correspondence but by their sum and the actions we take. Nothing is more effective than a leader who can balance perspective to get the best outcome for the most people — and therefore nothing is more dangerous to those who oppose that. Marx's letter got to Lincoln just a few months before the end of the Civil War. The Union held. A few days after, Lincoln was assassinated, another mark in the long violent struggle to fulfill the American promise. I celebrate this uneven, inconsistent and incomplete journey.
Technical.ly
08-06-2025
- Business
- Technical.ly
How local governments can back the entrepreneurs building their regions' futures
Entrepreneurship is increasingly viewed as the most dependable source of broad-based economic gains. Nearly all net new jobs come from new companies and a 1% rise in entrepreneurial activity correlates with a 2% decline in poverty. Post-pandemic growth — led by women, particularly women of color — shows investments in 'inclusive entrepreneurship' worked, but systemic barriers to capital, networks and opportunity still limit would-be founders. A policy 'field guide' recommends redirecting 5% of procurement to firms under five years old, eliminating early registration fees, reforming noncompetes, strengthening libraries as entrepreneurial hubs, designating a clear entrepreneurship leader and elevating existing ecosystem efforts rather than duplicating them. Entrepreneurship can sound like rich people's problems. In certain settings, talking about business starts and business growth all sounds like the cavorting of the well to do. A growing coalition says that's all wrong. 'Entrepreneurship is not just about starting companies,' said Victor Hwang. 'It's about enabling people to solve problems in their communities with innovation and drive.' Hwang refined his bookish charm and pro-entrepreneurship pitch while an executive at the Kansas City-based Kauffman Foundation, which is widely credited for advancing the research and the field of new-business support. This work now gets called ecosystem building, or place-based, entrepreneur-led economic development. Hwang's policy-focused Right to Start nonprofit has just kicked off a national campaign called America the Entrepreneurial, to put entrepreneurs at the center of next year's 250th anniversary of the founding of the United States. Hwang is also among my co-hosts of Builders Live, a monthly podcast on ecosystem building. Ahead of the Global Entrepreneurship Congress, in our most recent episode, alongside investor Brian Brackeen, we checked in on the most surefire policies Right to Start recommends for state and local officials. Entrepreneurship is not a distraction from well-rounded and inclusive economic policy. It's increasingly recognized as the most dependable source of gains, including the following: Nearly all net new jobs come from new companies Every 1% increase in entrepreneurial activity in a county correlates with a 2% decline in poverty — and average household income increased by $500 41% of Americans say they'd launch a business if they could, but just 2% actually do One key input of economic mobility is access to information about the programs and resources (a role we at Technically play) Investments into what has been called 'inclusive entrepreneurship' in the 2000s and 2010s worked. Entrepreneurship has popped post-pandemic, led by women, especially women of color, but barriers remain. 'The reason I founded Right to Start was to change the narrative and the policies that limit entrepreneurship in this country,' Hwang said. A checklist for policymakers to support entrepreneurship Though more is to come, his Right to Start launched ' field guides ' for policymakers, at the local, state and federal levels. A few of their most common recommendations, mixed with a couple from own reporting: 5% to start: 'Dedicate a small percentage of current funding to new entrepreneurs and young businesses, and track the impact…Redirect 5% of government procurement dollars to businesses under 5 years old.' Identify an entrepreneurship leader: This could be an existing lead (like a commerce director), provided they truly prioritize entrepreneurship. Zero barriers to launch: ' Reduce or eliminate registration costs and fees for new businesses in their critical early years,' relying financially on more established firms. Separate new business from small, medium and large businesses: They need different things, and it is the 'new' that create the most positive economic outcomes. Easy access: 'Strengthen local libraries as hubs of knowledge and digital tools for entrepreneurs.' Noncompete reform: 'Unleash entrepreneurs who want to create new jobs by freeing them from unfair bans and noncompete restrictions.' Support existing efforts: Most states and regions have existing 'ecosystem building' efforts. Rather than recreate them, elevate and redirect residents there. This mirrors advice we've given mayors in the past. To support entrepreneurship: Remove barriers, invest in workforce, celebrate homegrown solutions and amplify the priority. (We've made more general tech policy recommendations too) Entrepreneurs start alone, but don't grow without help Many of these steps are intentionally modest. Hwang, though, has a far more ambitious plan: for entrepreneurship to be at the very center of all economic policy. Brackeen, managing partner of Lightship Capital, echoed that idea. 'The barriers that exist for entrepreneurs, especially those from underrepresented communities, are systemic, and we need systemic change,' Brackeen said. 'It's not about handouts. It's about access — access to capital, access to networks and access to opportunity.' The best economic policy doesn't pick industries, it supports entrepreneurs. Entrepreneurs don't pick places to start businesses, they pick places to live and then start businesses there. The ' Ecosystem Stack ' prioritizes both lifestyle issues (like housing) and amplifying these successes. This works. According to new analysis, regions with a dedicated news outlet covering startups earn 60% more media coverage and, over a decade, grow their ecosystems twice as fast as similar peers. The takeaway? Entrepreneurs may start alone, but their companies don't grow that way. Policy, platforms and narrative all shape what happens next. 'If we want more startups,' Hwang said, 'we need to fix the system so it doesn't favor big businesses at the expense of new ones.'
Technical.ly
05-06-2025
- Business
- Technical.ly
Startup leaders kick off national ‘America the Entrepreneurial' campaign
A new initiative rooted in the aspirational goals of the Declaration of Independence places entrepreneurs at the forefront of the country's semiquincentennial celebration. In 1893, the United States was in the midst of an economic depression that contrasted gaudy, gilded-era wealth with struggling labor. Emerging communications technology mesmerized and threatened jobs, powering an insurgent populist political movement. Americans debated over the country's global role and confronted the vile stain of racial inequity, just a generation removed from a Civil War. That summer, New England professor Katharine Lee Bates took a wagon trip up Pike's Peak in Colorado. So moved by the view, and overcome by a sense of ideals amid a storm of unease, Bates wrote what would later become an enduring patriotic ballad: 'O beautiful for spacious skies / For amber waves of grain / For purple mountain majesties / Above the fruited plain!' This July 4 will mark 130 years since 'America the Beautiful' was first published. Right to Start founder Victor Hwang has another anniversary on his mind: To mark next year's 250th anniversary of the American Revolution, his national nonprofit launched on Thursday a new campaign: America the Entrepreneurial. 'The country we are in is different than the country we are told we are,' said Hwang, drawing from three cross-country road trips visiting entrepreneurs. (No bus was involved) 'It's a more hopeful one. More need that chance.' The campaign was announced in a crowded rooftop bar near the Indianapolis Convention Center, where Global Entrepreneurship Congress is being held in the United States for the first time since its founding in 2009. (Full disclosure, this reporter had four arancini and an extra shrimp cocktail.) Like Hwang's Right to Start, GEC is part of a suite of initiatives spun out of the Kansas City-based Kauffman Foundation, which funded a generation of pro-entrepreneurship research. Hwang was once a Kauffman vice president credited with championing much of 'field building' for what insiders call 'entrepreneurial ecosystem building.' Now he leads Right to Start, which is guiding policymakers on entrepreneurship-boosting policy — and moonlights as a podcast host. Hwang developed the new initiative with his board member and former White House policy advisor John Bridgeland, and it will be led by Right to Start's COO Kim Lane. 'America was made by builders, dreamers, and risk-takers,' Hwang said. 'Yet today we have a system that too often works against entrepreneurs.' The campaign outlines three key actions: Creating a level playing field: Tackling outdated regulations, inequitable access to capital, and procurement rules favoring large incumbents. Spreading entrepreneurial knowledge: Offering nationwide access to skills training, practical education, and community networks. Supporting entrepreneurial households: Advocating policies that ease healthcare, childcare, and financial burdens for entrepreneurs and their families. 'The most courageous startup the world has ever seen' To be clear, entrepreneurship is already booming in the United States, at least compared to pre-pandemic trends. That boom in business starts is being led by women, especially women of color. But Hwang, like his tribe of Kauffman-affiliated spinouts, thinks in terms of a much more sustained and complete change of economic development and policymaking at all levels. Sounds like a revolution. 'In 1776, America didn't just declare independence,' Hwang is credited with saying in a followup press release. 'America launched the most courageous startup the world has ever seen — a country conceived and dedicated to the promise of opportunity, enterprise, and self-determination.' The 'America the Entrepreneurial' campaign plans to mobilize more than 250,000 Americans in coalitions spanning all 50 states by the end of 2026. Engagement will be facilitated through local events, storytelling initiatives and a comprehensive toolkit available through the campaign's website, per the group. For Hwang, this initiative builds on decades of foundational work advocating entrepreneurship and ecosystem-building. He routinely cites two cornerstone bits of research: that new business drives all net new jobs and that every 1% increase in entrepreneurial activity in a state correlates with a 2% decline in poverty. 'This is effectively saying the whole country, all of society, should care about entrepreneurship and be involved in it,' Hwang told before the launch. 'We've been missing that message because it's effectively been a conversation amongst ourselves.' Entrepreneurship, Hwang argues, is more than just economic activity — it is central to America's identity and future. I've spoken with Hwang about 'America the Entrepreneurial' a half dozen times in the last couple months. Each time he says the name with an uplifting tone, raising his hand to match. At the launch he joked that he hears music when he does. 'If you want a strong America, you have to have strong entrepreneurship,' Hwang said. 'When the entrepreneurial spirit thrives, America thrives.'More details about the campaign are available at americatheentrepreneurial.o rg.
Technical.ly
04-05-2025
- Business
- Technical.ly
When do direct flights boost economic output (and venture capital deals)?
Though the US already has more liquid capital than any other country, regions short on institutional money still chase outside investors with tactics like subsidizing direct flights and flying in VCs for 1:1 meetings. Research does show startups gain measurable innovation advantages (more patents and citations) when direct flights link them to VC centers — with effects far stronger on international routes than domestic ones. So yes, ecosystem leaders should invite investors and host meet-and-greets, but not universally fixate on capital, because entrepreneurs need many resources, including quality of life. → Read on for details and join Chris Wink's weekly newsletter for more Pressed to choose between being a home for investors and entrepreneurs, choose the entrepreneurs every time. Venture capitalists are bankers with better branding. So forgive me for raising my eyebrows whenever I hear an economic development leader tell me they're working on attracting more capital to their region — or that an entrepreneur thinks her hometown just 'needs more capital.' Everybody says this everywhere. The United States has more liquid capital markets than any other country on the planet. We also have more airports than anywhere else. Stop complaining. Still, I admit research shows there are cases where that is sound economic development strategy. So when is it smart for regional economic development groups to chase venture capitalists? And what does it have to do with direct flights? 'Venture capitalists monitor their investments closely,' said Brian Brackeen, the Lightship Capital general partner whose Black Tech Week event series in Cincinnati matches startups directly with VC investors and corporate clients. 'Founders think constantly about capital. They prefer not to, but they have to.' Brackeen was my foil on this topic in the last Builders Live podcast alongside our cohosts Victor Hwang of Right to Start and Maria Underwood, an ecosystem builder turned startup COO from Birmingham, Alabama. Our conversation veered into the role of local events to bring in outside investors — the topic of a separate future story — but our original debate centered on when local ecosystems chasing outside capital made sense. Brackeen assured me that no 'sensible' local economic leader is expecting to attract a top-tier investment firm to open an office in their city or state on a whim. Most US regions are without much institutional capital. Local rich grandees might be angel investors, but can often be unsavvy, or at least limited in their checkbooks. Many economic leaders want to create ties to bigger pools of money to accelerate homegrown inventors — and limit departures for bigger investment hubs. Air travel is often regarded as an economic salve for such far-flung places. One signature initiative from Jobs Ohio, the liquor-tax funded, state economic development powerhouse, is its ' air service restoration program,' in which it effectively subsidizes direct flights from its airports to major financial centers at up to $10 million annually. Northwest Arkansas's entrepreneur support organization is organizing a VC immersion program, in which it flies in investors for 1:1 meetings with inventors. Ecosystem organizer Serafina Lalany posted a video of her team happily distributing posters of the campaign. 'Bringing investors to your city works,' said Underwood, who led efforts to integrate investor pitches into Birmingham's upcoming Sloss Tech event. 'We bring VCs who've never been to Birmingham to meet our founders. It's economical and effective.' Research backs her up, to a point. Startups gain measurable innovation advantages when connected by direct flights to venture capitalists, according to a 2016 MIT paper, with a 3.1% increase in patent filings and a 5.8% increase in patent citations. Interestingly, US communities don't benefit from new direct flights anywhere near as much as international cities do, at least according to a 2018 paper. Foreign cities with new direct flights to Silicon Valley saw an additional $23 million in VC funding over the next year. Any connection between big enough domestic and foreign hubs did the trick. With each newly introduced direct route between a U.S. and Chinese city increased annual M&A transaction volumes by approximately $50 million, according to a 2021 paper. Domestic cities didn't see the same boost. 'For companies farther away, particularly internationally, direct flights matter immensely,' wrote Waters. This advantage is magnified by geographical distance and cultural barriers. Selling bits of an early-stage private company for infusions of cash is always tricky, especially for first-time founders and in untested markets. Network effect is real, and local organizers can change that. Invite investors to your annual events and organize meet-and-greets, but ecosystem leaders ought not universally fixate on venture capital. Entrepreneurs need many resources. As Hwang put it: 'Making connections for entrepreneurs will make good things happen in lots of unexpected ways.'
