How is Startup America Coming Along?

On January 31st, 2011, the White House announced Startup America, a public/private initiative to rally efforts to accelerate high-growth entrepreneurship in the U.S. by expanding access to capital, creating a national network for entrepreneurship education, enhancing the commercialization of federally-funded innovations and getting rid of tax and paperwork barriers for startups. Given the importance of new firms to America’s economy and the national urgency to create jobs, I take a look this week at what Washington accomplished—leading up to the summer break—in response to the President’s call for action.

[More]

Time for a New 'Pessimism Index'?
At the beginning of 2011, PDE checked in on the monthly Small Business Optimism Index to find that small business owners were “stubbornly cautious.” Fast-forward to the midpoint of the year--in the dog days of summer—and the feelings haven’t seemed to change at all. [More]

Study Says NY Top State for Entrepreneurship
New York came out on top of a new State Entrepreneurship Index developed by economists at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. The study combines five key components -- a state's percentage growth and per capita growth in business establishments, its business formation rate, the number of patents per thousand residents and gross receipts of sole proprietorships and partnerships per capita -- to build its state-by-state rankings. [More]

A Look Back at Innovation Daily
Each day, Innovation Daily checks the pulse of global innovation-- courtesy of Innovation America. Here, we take a look at a handful of relevant stories it compiled last week: [More]

This Week in Entrepreneurship Policy
The U.S. Congress is currently observing the typical August / Summer recess. They are scheduled to return to Washington on Tuesday, September 6, following the Labor Day holiday. [More]