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Remembering Rule of Law in Honduras

In this era of sophisticated public policy around enabling high-growth entrepreneurship, governments should be mindful to not forget the basics. A survey conducted last November in Honduras found that gang violence was forcing the closure of 1600 companies across the country. This is a good reminder that supporting startups to scale up in this part of the world must include deep institutional reforms to strengthen the rule of law and the judicial system.

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Posted by: Jonathan Ortmans

on May 20, 2013

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Startup Global

Thousands of people from 135 countries have already confirmed their participation for next month’s week-long Global Entrepreneurship Congress (GEC) and festival in Rio de Janeiro. As chair of the GEC for the past few years, I have witnessed the emergence of this global platform for collaboration among entrepreneurs, their investors and national leaders held outside the United States. So what happens at the GEC?

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Posted by: Jonathan Ortmans

on February 25, 2013

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Category:  General 

Gulf States Focus on New Starts

At the Global Entrepreneurial Summit (GES) in Dubai last week, it was clear to me that there is a new level of engagement in developing more entrepreneurial economies at the highest levels of government in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region. The summit, a collaboration between the U.A.E. Prime Minister’s office and the Obama Administration, was an effort to leverage U.S. strengths in high growth entrepreneurship. Now that the summit is over, we take a look at the challenges before policymakers in the region in making the path easier for even more nascent entrepreneurs to succeed in the future.

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Posted by: Jonathan Ortmans

on December 17, 2012

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Category:  Global 

We Still Need a Startup Nation Movement

A recent blog by Dan Isenberg from Babson College argues that there has been too much focus on startups around the world and that “infinitely more important is to embed scale-up.” Of course, Dan has a point in that I frequently hear leaders outside the United States lament their lack of billion dollars firms, but I think we are far from the point when we can stop advocating for better support for new starts. Not only is most of the world still focused on size not age of firms—talking “SMEs”—but we still do not know enough about the science of startups and how to best support those that want to scale. As with kids—to play along with Isenberg’s analogy—we have to help firms start better if they are to scale later in life and now is not the time to pull back the throttle on legitimizing founders and startups as a centrepiece of that economy policy.

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Posted by: Jonathan Ortmans

on December 03, 2012

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Category:  Global 

Combing the World for Cleantech Entrepreneurs

This year has brought a lot of productive give-and-take of ideas on clean energy innovation by people around the world who saw opportunity rather than doom in the combination of environmental and financial challenges. Last May, for example, I joined over 140 participants from all...

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Posted by: Jonathan Ortmans

on July 25, 2010

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Category:  Energy  Environment 

Business Incubators and Job Creation

A House Committee on Small Business hearing earlier this week covered the topic of "Business Incubators and Their Role in Job Creation." Testifying before the committee was Dr. Robert Strom, Director of Research & Policy at the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation, who called the newfound... [More]

Posted by: Mark Marich

on March 19, 2010

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Category:  Capitol Hill 

A Note on Bayh-Dole

Last week PDE posted a note about an idea to improve the effectiveness of university technology transfer in the U.S. There seems to have been some confusion following this about the nature of the breakthrough idea to improve the U.S. model for commercialization of university-developed technologies. In... [More]

Posted by: Jonathan Ortmans

on February 22, 2010

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Category:  Technology Transfer 

The Untapped Potential of Research Universities

Everyone surely owns an innovative product that has its roots in a university lab, or knows someone that has benefited from the presence of start-ups that formed through the dissemination of knowledge and technologies from the university to the marketplace. Universities have been the lifeblood... [More]

Posted by: Jonathan Ortmans

on February 15, 2010

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Category:  Technology Transfer 

Hotspots for Cleantech

As everyone continues to look to cleantech as a hot industry for the coming year, what are the best places to be to capitalize on the trend? A recent post from the Cleantech Group ranked the top universities, while an earlier post looked at the... [More]

Posted by: Mark Marich

on January 11, 2010

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Category:  Energy  Environment  Technology Transfer 

BYU Recognized for Commercialization Efforts

Brigham Young University was recently recognized in a BusinessWeek story as an "entrepreneur factory." According to the Association ofUniversity Technology Managers (AUTM), BYU now ranks first in the country inthe number of startups, licenses, and patent applications per research dollarspent. The private Mormon university has... [More]

Posted by: Mark Marich

on January 11, 2010

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