Sunday, May 31, 2009

Entrepreneurship is More than Just Tech Companies

David Berg provided me with an interesting piece on entrepreneurship and the government from Nextgov.com. The article described the Obama administrations interest in startup companies and the technology that often times jumps out of these entrepreneurial ventures.

The Obama administration is reviewing the government procurement process to better position innovative startup companies to compete for technology contracts, said Vivek Kundra, the federal chief information officer, on Tuesday.

Kundra made the announcement at a business conference in Washington hosted by the Mid-Atlantic Venture Association, which represents professionals from private equity and venture capital firms that together manage more than $100 billion in capital.

"We're looking at the procurement process to make sure we're able to tap into some of the best ideas. We cannot continue to spend billions of dollars on IT projects that haven't produced the dividends we've been looking for," Kundra said in his speech. "The federal government can lead when it comes to innovation."

Government officials are "very early" in the process of improving the procurement system to bring in promising VC-backed technologies, Kundra told Nextgov after his speech.

While I of course, applaud anything the administration is doing that helps entrepreneurial companies, Washington might also want to think of the literally thousands and thousands of non-tech companies that are in need of better access to capital, lower tax rates, and other support that will help them launch and grow businesses that will employ many people providing that wonderful trickledown effect. Tech and the VC companies get the attention, but it’s wise to remember that VC companies invest in only around 3500 (mostly tech) deals each year.

Saturday, May 9, 2009

A Time for Entrepreneurship

Very nice piece of inspirational video on entrepreneurship that comes to us from grasshopper.com. Thanks to Jeff Cornwall and of Belmont University and his blog, The Entrepreneurial Mind for posting.