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Techpreneurship: Wisdom of the Crowd
Jeff Amerine
Techpreneurship, with Jeff Amerine
(Jeff Amerine is an IA advisor, entrepreneurship educator, and officer with the University of Arkansas Technology Licensing Office. Each Thursday, his Techpreneurship blog will appear in INOV8. Drop him a line in comments.)
Folks, this week I decided to do something entirely different. The proliferation of social media has created an amazing way to do polling, focus groups, and in general to tap the “wisdom of the crowd.”
So this week, in a completely unscientific way, I decided to pose some discussion points I’d like all of you to consider. Take a look at the points below that relate to creating a sustainable environment for business creation, and let me know what you think the priorities should be:
- The federal government needs to provide more incentives for new business creation.
- The federal government needs to increase the H1B Visa program so the U.S. can attract and retain the best and brightest from around the world.
- Venture-capital firms should be excluded from pending taxation changes for carried interest that are aimed at hedge-fund managers.
- Corporate-tax rates should be lowered to attract new businesses to the U.S.
- Technology commercialization should be streamlined in U.S. universities and federal labs to promote faster business creation.
- Large companies should develop a culture that nurtures and encourages managerial and technical talent to strike out on their own to create new businesses.
- Angel networks that invest in high-risk ventures should receive state and federal incentives.
- Federal and state governments should provide both “carrot and stick” incentives to steer new business creation in a direction they think best serves the common good.
- Solving the “health-care cost issue” will help foster new business creation.
- As techpreneurs, we need to treat our careers as our own personal firm. We are the CEO of our own destiny, and we should expect nothing other than what we can create through our own wit and hard work.
I am taking no position on any of these points. I am very interested in learning from the “wisdom of the crowd.”
Please let me know what you think, and don’t hesitate to offer up your ideas for how we create a sustainable environment for new business creation….
Tom
You get to the heart of the matter in your thoughtful assessment. How the public/private interface works will continue to be central to setting a solid foundation for business creation, attraction, and retention.
Those global economies that understand that new business creation is really the key to job creation will flourish and grow in my view. A priority in the discussion should be removing the friction points that restrict germination and growth through rational means we can afford.
Even with all of that, nothing replaces the imagination and tenacity of determined entrepreneurs. They tend to succeed regardless, and the markets reward the scarred survivors.
Public/private partnerships, if done well, can increase the size of the funnel, and through the law of large numbers more good companies will inevitably survive and flourish.
Jeff
Your tantalizing list of priorities reminds me of Christmas morning. So many gifts, which one do I open first? And will the one I open spoil or enhance my interest in all the others?
So instead I searched your priorities for themes. The over riding theme (seven of your priorities) is a more active role for government – provide more incentives, reduce taxes, take steps to attract talent, streamline processes, etc.)
On the private sector side, I see only two: Corporations should spin off more innovations (truly unique for Arkansas), and techpreneurs should suck it up and be ready to go it alone.
High on my list of needs for building a sustainable environment for business creation would be an indepth discussion by all parties that gets to the proper relationship (or maybe detente is the better word) needed between government and private business. Within a strong, functioning capitalistic system each has duties or actions to perform and responsibilities to meet.