Comments on: Governments & Startups Just Don’t Mix

By: Today’s Links January 31, 2011 | Information Architecture Blog

Today’s Links January 31, 2011 | Information Architecture Blog — Sat, 19 Mar 2011 03:33:44 +0000

[...] entrepreneurs, and announced MassChallenge as a partner in the new Startup America …Governments and Startups Just Don't MixGigaOmAOL's Case to Lead White House Startup Campaign With Support From IBM, HPBloombergFormer [...]

By: Obama to Silicon Valley: Can I Get a Side of Innovation Please?: Apple News, Tips and Reviews «

Fri, 18 Feb 2011 16:44:41 +0000

[...] house indicates that Obama is keen to learn from the startup economy (something made plain with the Startup America initiative), as well as from large, established tech [...]

By: Startup America：美國展現出對新創企業的眷顧 - Inside

Startup America：美國展現出對新創企業的眷顧 - Inside — Wed, 09 Feb 2011 07:46:55 +0000

[...] 美國聯邦科技長Aneesh Chopra幫techcrunch寫了一篇文章也是關於這項Startup America的計畫）。但是，Gigaom的Stacey Higginbotham寫了一篇文章 ‘政府與新創企業家就是不能結合’ （Governments & Startups Just Don’t Mix）。當中就有提到企業家跟政府對於新創企業的出發點從一開始就不一樣，怎麼可能理想的合作。 [...]

By: Stacey Higginbotham

Stacey Higginbotham — Thu, 03 Feb 2011 16:45:32 +0000

Good luck, Adam. I’m a huge proponent of entrepreneurs and creating a culture where everyone has the information and educational resources to try starting a business. I hope the government’s agenda and the entrepreneurial agenda can match up in enough places to make this program really work.

By: Adam (from Artists & Instigators)

Adam (from Artists & Instigators) — Thu, 03 Feb 2011 16:35:50 +0000

(Full disclosure: I am a team member of one of StartUp America’s corporate partners, Artists & Instigators.)

I want to compliment Stacey on bringing up a very important aspect of this partnership: execution. We’ve all seen government partnerships fail. So it’s reasonable to be sufficiently leery – but not at the expense of not trying.

The opportunity, as in life, is what we make of it.

This isn’t about government and startups. This isn’t about technology. This is about leading and communicating the pathway to the future. Education, competitiveness, opportunity – these are the foundations of American values, and worthwhile goals on which to activate. For the private sector, for the public sector, and especially for the government.

What we need to do is believe that change is possible. Then be relentless in making it so. The culture of skepticism is paralyzing.

By: Dominiek ter Heide

Dominiek ter Heide — Tue, 01 Feb 2011 17:36:33 +0000

I think the best thing governments can do is stay clear of entrepreneurship or make investments attractive.

What you see in Europe here is that many entrepreneurs and investors pursue ‘startups’ that essentially grow and sustain by either a direct or indirect form of Government subsidies.

By: Brant

Brant — Tue, 01 Feb 2011 07:37:15 +0000

Most of these received incredible amounts of money (firearms? please) or international protectionist regulation (agriculture, steel) and then domestic regulation (subsidies, etc.) One man’s “strategic initiative” is another mans socialist intrustion.

By: Marc Dangeard

Marc Dangeard — Tue, 01 Feb 2011 06:53:08 +0000

I agree with you that one concern with this initiative is that it will help a few who will be well advertised, as the VCs know how to do. But incubators, business plans competitions and the likes are a winner-take-all process that do not help the vast majority of startups that are not the next hot things but do provide decent jobs to many.
Entrepreneur Commons promotes abundance thinking, welcoming all entrepreneurs interested in helping each others, and allowing them to grow to the best they can be.
The good news is that from all the corporations involved in Startup America partnership at least HP understands abundance thinking, which is why they sponsored the Incubate 2.0 conference in November (www.incubate2.com), and StartupCause.
While not all is perfect, help is on the way and there are reasons to be optimistic.

By: Facebook, Google, & IBM Partner With White House to Encourage Entrepreneurship

Tue, 01 Feb 2011 02:09:18 +0000

[...] is convinced the new campaign represents a true opportunity for startups. Small business blog Gigaom, for instance, called the program “an opportunity to get a lot of press, with low returns for [...]

By: Graeme Thickins

Graeme Thickins — Tue, 01 Feb 2011 01:09:27 +0000

Thanks, Stacey – excellent analysis. We get it: the funding is private, but the government wants the PR.

Government doesn’t create jobs. It doesn’t create startups. But it does create PR — which is also a waste of taxpayers’ money.