Global Entrepreneurship Week, the worldwide celebration of innovation, imagination and creativity, will be held Nov. 14 - 20, 2011. Some 123 countries have signed up to participate, and all 50 U.S. states are joining the effort. Participants of the fourth annual Week will:
• Realize their potential as entrepreneurs and innovators.
• Join millions of people around the world in a growing movement to generate new ideas and seek better ways of doing things.
• Participate in a host of activities that include virtual and face-to-face events, large-scale competitions and intimate networking gatherings.
To learn more or to join this global initiative of entrepreneurship, which was co-founded by the Kauffman Foundation, visit http://www.gewusa.org/.
Startup Expansion and Investment Act
KANSAS CITY, Mo., Sept. 26, 2011 – Rep. Ben Quayle from Arizona’s third district recently introduced H.R. 2941, the Startup Expansion and Investment Act, which will allow shareholders of public companies with market valuations below $1 billion to opt out of regulations within section 404 for the first 10 years after going public. The costs for complying with the requirements of this section of Sarbanes-Oxley can exceed $1 million for new companies and can cost them up to $20 million in loss of valuation.
The idea embodied in this legislation is consistent with a proposal in the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation’s Startup Act of 2011, a set of non-partisan ideas to jump-start the ailing U.S. economy and increase job creation by accelerating the growth of startups and young businesses.
The Foundation’s Startup Act, based on its extensive research, focuses attention on the central role that high-growth startups must play to assure continued U.S. economic strength. The benefits of startups are well-established: Virtually all of the growth in U.S. jobs has been driven by the formation of firms less than five years old, and these new firms have been disproportionately responsible for commercializing the cutting-edge innovations that characterize modern life.
“I believe this bill is an important step as we try to increase the number of companies that go public in the United States,” said Robert Litan, vice president for research and policy at the Kauffman Foundation. “ The ability to raise capital in public markets will be essential as new companies create the jobs required to put Americans back to work.”
US Global Scholars
A world-class opportunity awaits U.S. college graduates with innovative ideas for a new business. The Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation is expanding its successful Global Scholars Program to include up to 10 recent graduates from U.S. colleges and universities who will join Scholars from around the world.
During the first five years of the Global Scholars Program, Kauffman hosted students sponsored by governments and organizations from five countries representing 11 nationalities. In 2012, the expanded Program will enable selected U.S. Scholars to learn and network with an international group of fellow aspiring entrepreneurs.
“It is essential that countries seek to educate global citizens whose vision, knowledge and reach extend beyond their own national boundaries,” said Wendy E.F. Torrance, Global Scholars Program director. “By inviting U.S. Scholars into this Program, we can engage our next generation of entrepreneurial talent at a global level.”
The Global Scholars Program is now accepting applications from outstanding U.S. college students or recent graduates with business ideas in the science, technology and engineering fields who are U.S. citizens or legal U.S. residents. Applications can be submitted at www.kauffman.org/USglobalscholars, and must be completed by Oct. 17, 2011. The U.S. Scholars will be selected in November 2011 and will begin the six-month Program in January 2012.
The participants will ultimately develop their entrepreneurial skills, ideas, competencies, and capabilities to start a business.
The START UP Act
Achieving a strong, sustained U.S. recovery will require more high-growth companies, a continuing stream of new ideas capable of being commercialized, fewer roadblocks to launch and grow startups, and low-cost capital available to finance them. To facilitate these outcomes, the Kauffman Foundation proposes the Startup Act: a narrowly targeted, but comprehensive bill aimed at jump-starting the U.S. economy through more successful startups.
Welcome New Founders to the United States Who Could Build Scale Companies
• Entrepreneurs’ visas
• Green cards with diplomas for STEM degrees
Finance Scale Firms and Their Growth
• Facilitate early stage financing of startups
– Capital gains tax exemptions for long-held startup investments
– Tax incentives for startup operating capital
• Facilitate access to public markets
• Shareholders of companies with market cap below $1 billion opt-in under Sarbanes-Oxley Act
Accelerate the Formation and Commercialization of New Ideas
• Differential patent fees to reduce the patent backlog
• Licensing freedom for academic innovators
Remove Barriers to Formation and Growth of Scale Businesses
• Automatic ten-year sunsets for all major rules
• New common sense standards for regulations (cost-benefit test, and options chosen should be the most cost-effective of alternatives available)
• Assessments of state/local startup and business policies (Department of Commerce would provide data to permit others to conduct Doing Business type assessments of states/major cities)
For more information please click here to read the PDF.
Recent Research Papers
Overcoming The Gender Gap: Women Entrepreneurs
Overcoming The Gender Gap: Women Entrepreneurs
Women who are capable of starting growth companies that serve global markets may be the nation's secret weapon for achieving sustained economic growth.
Research shows that startup companies – particularly high-growth startups – are the most fruitful source of new U.S. jobs and offer the economy's best hope for recovery. However, despite the fact that about 46 percent of the workforce and more than 50 percent of college students are female, and that women have risen to top positions in corporate and university hierarchies, they represent only about 35 percent of startup business owners. Their firms also tend to experience less growth and prosperity than do firms started by men.
"Overcoming the Gender Gap: Women Entrepreneurs as Economic Drivers," a new paper from the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation, explores the reasons behind lower business startup rates among women and proposes actions that would help to realize the promise of female entrepreneurs in escalating the economy.
Rules for Growth: A collection of essays promoting innovation and growth through legal reform.
The United States economy is struggling to recover from its worst economic downturn since the Great Depression. After several huge doses of conventional macroeconomic stimulus — deficit-spending and monetary stimulus — policymakers are understandably eager to find innovative no-cost ways of sustaining growth both in the short and long runs.
In response to this challenge, the Kauffman Foundation convened a number of America's leading legal scholars and social scientists during the summer of 2010 to present and discuss their ideas for changing legal rules and policies to promote innovation and accelerate U.S. economic growth. This meeting led to the publication of Rules for Growth, a comprehensive and groundbreaking volume of essays prescribing a new set of growth-promoting policies for policymakers, legal scholars, economists, and business men and women. Some of the top Rules include:
* Reforming U.S. immigration laws so that more high-skilled immigrants can launch businesses in the United States.
* Improving university technology licensing practices so university-generated innovation is more quickly and efficiently commercialized.
* Overhauling local zoning rules to facilitate the formation of innovative companies.
* Urging judges to take a more expansive view of flexible business contracts that are increasingly used by innovative firms. Read more.
Rules for Growth is published by the Kauffman Foundation and is available for free download at www.kauffman.org/rulesforgrowth.
Follow the conversation on Twitter at #RulesforGrowth.
Startup Foundation Initiative
(KANSAS CITY, Mo.), Sept. 27, 2011 - Startup Weekend, a global grassroots network of entrepreneurs and leaders, today announced an initiative in partnership with the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation that will lead to the creation of vibrant startup communities in cities across the nation. Called the Startup Foundation, the program is a grassroots initiative that helps cities build and establish ecosystems that will support more high-growth entrepreneurs, startups, and ultimately, jobs.
"We know from our experiences with local Startup Weekends that entrepreneurship is best supported at the grassroots level," said Marc Nager, CEO of Startup Weekend. "The Startup Foundation will ensure that community leaders across the country have a sustainable platform for which to effect real change within their local communities."
Startup Weekends are events in cities around the world where aspiring founders and startup supporters meet to share ideas, form teams, build products and launch companies. With funding from the Kauffman Foundation, the Startup Foundation will focus on researching and mapping the ecosystems of participating cities to identify influential leaders, programs and gaps in community resources; supporting local initiatives that drive the creation of more entrepreneurs, startups, and jobs; and raising funds for local entrepreneurship support initiatives.
The Startup Foundation currently has eight pilot member cities: Boston; Des Moines; Detroit; Las Vegas; Los Angeles; New York City; Seattle; and Sao Paulo, Brazil. Foundation co-founders in each city are mapping their local entrepreneurial ecosystem and interviewing community leaders.
The Startup Foundation already has hosted local startup summits in its eight pilot cities to bring leadership together to discuss their visions for entrepreneurial ecosystems and to identify opportunities and obstacles. These summits have led to the launch of more than 40 new initiatives that directly address community needs and are estimated to support more than 7,200 entrepreneurs, 840 startup teams and 800 jobs.
Startup Weekend also named its board of directors consisting of these entrepreneurship leaders: Carl Schramm, president and CEO of the Kauffman Foundation; Steve Blank, serial entrepreneur, author and entrepreneurship lecturer at U.C. Berkeley and Stanford University; Greg Gottesman, managing director at Madrona Venture Group; Brad Feld, co-founder of TechStars and managing director of the Foundry Group; Laura McKnight, president and CEO of the Greater Kansas City Community Foundation; and Nick Seguin, manager of entrepreneurship at the Kauffman Foundation.
To join the Startup Foundation initiative, a city leader must apply and be accepted to the program. This leader will manage the Startup Foundation's local activities and be required to raise $100,000 in capital dedicated completely to local operations and initiatives. At least 10 additional cities are expected to join the Startup Foundation in the next year.
For more information about the Startup Foundation, to get involved or to contribute to ongoing initiatives, visit here: http://StartupFDN.org/
STARTUP America Partnership
The Startup America Partnership is a coordinated public/private effort that brings together an alliance of the country’s most innovative entrepreneurs, corporations, universities, foundations, and other leaders, who work in concert with a wide-range of federal agencies to dramatically increase the prevalence and success of American entrepreneurs.
This mission to promote entrepreneurship is a core component of President Obama’s National Innovation Strategy for achieving sustainable growth and quality jobs. Not only do startups bring a wealth of transformative innovation to market, they also have generated all net job creation over the past three decades. For more information about the Startup America Partnership and to see a full list of partner commitments, visit startupamericapartnership.org and follow the Partnership on twitter.com/startupamerica and facebook.com/startupamerica.
As part of the Greater Kansas City Chamber of Commerce's "Big 5" initiative announced in September to propel the region forward and create new jobs, area leaders have declared that Kansas City should be "America's Most Entrepreneurial City." That pla
There's no question that startups need money to grow. But although there is not more capital available to new companies, the sources of capital—from personal savings to loan programs to crowdfunding platforms—abound despite the economic downturn.
Startup WeekendTM has announced its Global Startup Battle winner, Awesome Ship. The competition, designed to foster friendly competition and community awareness among the global Startup Weekend community, kicked off one week ago. Fifty winning teams
The Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation announced today that nominations are currently being accepted for the Kauffman Junior Faculty Fellowship in Entrepreneurship Research (KJFF). The Kauffman Foundation will award up to seven Junior Faculty Fellowshi
Startup Weekend will be hosting an online Global Startup Battle (www.globalstartupbattle.com) designed to foster friendly competition and community awareness among the global Startup Weekend community.
The Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation is a private, nonpartisan foundation that works to further understand the phenomenon of entrepreneurship, to advance entrepreneurship education and training efforts, to promote entrepreneurship-friendly policies, and to better facilitate the commercialization of new technologies by entrepreneurs and others, which have great promise for improving the economic welfare of our nation.
