Great to see more and more voices the likes of Thomas Friedman (NY Times article yesterday) helping to more effectively illuminate the role of entrepreneurial America in getting things back on track. Wait, no, maybe that’s the wrong figure of speech … it’s not that we need to get back on the same old track, but rather we need to blaze new trails and interconnect millions of tiny tracks. A topic for a longer discussion, for sure.
Now, Friedman’s model would need some tweaking of course. We know that. He knows that. It’s largely written in chalk to make a point. And I’m not suggesting baby-out-with-bathwater regarding the current stimulus plan. But the driving premise is compelling and necessary: entrepreneurs, many of whom will be former c-level execs forced into such roles, comprise the beating heart of what is, can and should be next for our economy.
Here’s a link to the article: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/22/opinion/22friedman.html?_r=2
Excerpt: “Bailing out the losers is not how we got rich as a country, and it is not how we’ll get out of this crisis … You want to spend $20 billion of taxpayer money creating jobs? Fine. Call up the top 20 venture capital firms in America, which are short of cash today because their partners — university endowments and pension funds — are tapped out, and make them this offer: The U.S. Treasury will give you each up to $1 billion to fund the best venture capital ideas that have come your way. If they go bust, we all lose. If any of them turns out to be the next Microsoft or Intel, taxpayers will give you 20 percent of the investors’ upside and keep 80 percent for themselves.”
“As we invest taxpayer money, let’s do it with an eye to starting a new generation of biotech, info-tech, nanotech and clean-tech companies, with real innovators, real 21st-century jobs and potentially real profits for taxpayers. Our motto should be, “Start-ups, not bailouts: nurture the next Google, don’t nurse the old G.M.’s.”
Posted by: Colin Mangham