Barack Obama’s ‘Startup America’ initiative has lessons for Ireland, says Tom Cooney
In January of this year, President Barack Obama announced the launch of the Startup America Partnership, a programme that aims to increase investments in start-ups and small businesses across America, thereby boosting job creation in the nation’s economy.
The initiative will bring together partners from across the private, public and non-profit sectors, working together towards a common ambition – supporting entrepreneurs.
The goals of the initiative are to promote entrepreneurship as a core American value and source of competitive advantage; to increase the number of new firms creating economic growth, innovation and quality jobs; and to inspire and empower greater diversity of communities and individuals to build great American companies.
The initiative will pursue these goals in a number of ways:
l Expanding access to capital;
l Supporting entrepreneurship education and mentorship programs that empower Americans to create jobs;
l Strengthening commercialisation of federally funded research and development;
l Allowing entrepreneurs to request faster review of their patents; and
l Identifying and removing unnecessary barriers, including some capital gains taxes.
The programme has already received substantial donations from several large firms, with the Intel Corporation announcing that it will be giving $200m to the campaign. Hewlett-Packard has also pledged its participation, while IBM has pledged $150m, which the company has said will be used to mentor start-ups, software developers and other information technology entrepreneurs.
It is envisaged that ‘Startup America’ could lead to more creative ideas for new or expanded initiatives to meet its goals, as well as more Fortune 500 companies partnering with and investing in start-ups and sharing best practices on how to do this effectively.
It’s also hoped to see states, regions and cities putting innovation and entrepreneurship at the centre of their economic development and job creation strategies, with successful entrepreneurs and investors nurturing the innovation ecosystem in regions that currently do not attract much investment for start-ups.
Universities are also key, in terms of ‘mainstreaming’ entrepreneurship as a career option, and accelerating the transition of ideas from the lab to the marketplace.
The forthcoming visit of President Obama to Ireland gives leaders here an opportunity to explore how this initiative could be adopted within the context of the Irish economy.
First it should be noted that not all elements of the plan could be easily replicated, as America has a highly developed and funded capital market system, not to mention a very long history of philanthropy, neither of which are very strong in the current economic climate in Ireland.
However, it is interesting to note that some of the early supporters of the initiative highlighted earlier are firms which have a significant presence in Ireland and so could potentially be called upon for support in the local economy also.
The primary lessons to be taken from the Obama initiative are three-fold. Firstly, there are very clearly stated goals which everyone can understand, even if they do not agree with them. Secondly, there are are five central action points which will be used as the pillars to the initiative. And thirdly, it is a ‘partnership’ arrangement between the private, public and non-profit sectors, with a recognition that change cannot happen from a top-down basis only.
Over the past decade, successive Irish Governments have produced a raft of highly detailed plans and reports aimed at promoting local entrepreneurial activity, many of whose recommendations were left untouched due to their complexity. What we need now is a straightforward but more effective approach to engendering entrepreneurship in Ireland.
We would do well to learn from the simplicity and clarity of the ‘Startup America’ scheme. It is an approach based on merit and not position, and so could potentially tap into the benefits that our multiracial society offers.
Dr Thomas M Cooney is Academic Director of the Institute for Minority Entrepreneurship at the Dublin Institute of Technology.
