March 25, 2011
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Earlier this month, at SXSW, I attended a roundtable discussion on the Startup America initiative. It’s part of the Administration’s cross-country tour to meet with entrepreneurs and business owners and discuss ways to “reduce barriers” for startups. It was an energizing hour of conversation, idea-sharing and celebrating small business.
I wanted to share with you three observations from attending the panel, along with what they mean for any business owner:
• Observation No. 1: The entrepreneurial spirit was pervasive, not only in the audience, but also across the panel. All five panelists had entrepreneurial background —Scott Case, CEO of Startup America and co-founder and CTO of Priceline.com; U.S. CTO Aneesh Chopra; Ronnie Chatterji, Sr. Economist for the White House; Sean Greene, Associate Administrator for Investment and Special Adviser for Innovation for the SBA and founder of Away.com (sold to Orbitz), and co-founder of Rock Creek Ventures and LaunchBox Digital; and Todd Park, CTO of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and co-founder of Athenahealth. These are not just officials, but entrepreneurs who have walked the walk.
• For your business: One lesson that could be taken away from that list is ensuring that you have the right talent staffed against your business objectives. These officials are focused on reducing barriers, driving innovation and starting new things. The fact that they’ve all thrived in this kind of environment before bodes well for success in this current task. As a business owner, you should think about the task at hand and match talent against that, rather than just filling a “position." Ramon Ray offers some great tips for hiring effectively.
• Observation No. 2: The energy was palpable. During the roundtable component, budding entrepreneurs stood up to the mics and announced their new businesses. Founders of startups invited other entrepreneurs to secure funding through them, learn from their experiences and tap into their resources. I was especially inspired by the folks from Rock Health, who were launching their seed accelerator for health apps and offering a select a group of startups the opportunity to partake in their intensive six-month program.
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• For your business: Passion and excitement are contagious. It’s easy to get bogged down in the details of business plans and number crunching, but if you take the time to remind yourself and others around you of why you started your business, you can re-inject the mission—and energy—into your business.
• Observation No. 3: Development and innovation is happening everywhere, from small town USA to Silicon Valley. One entrepreneur introduced himself saying that he grew up in Cedar Rapids, Iowa and was focused on social entrepreneurship initiatives following the devastating floods there in 2008. This sparked conversation amongst the panelists and audience about the fact that development is happening in Iowa and Omaha and across the country. So the officials made a quick decision to add Cedar Rapids and Omaha to ensure that they were hearing from business owners in towns large and small.
• For your business: Active listening and being able to adapt given new information allow you to achieve the greatest outcomes. By listening to each of the comments being shared during the roundtable, the panelists demonstrated their ability to adapt and change their approach. At your next meeting or in your next conversation, ask yourself if there’s something in the conversation telling you to approach things differently and adapt accordingly.
If you have ideas to share with the Administration regarding ways to reduce barriers, I’d highly recommend taking a look at the SBA site for more information on the current schedule and ways to participate.
If you do have a chance to participate, let me know what your experience was like by adding a comment below or sending me a note at Stacey@openforum.com. What was the energy like at your event? What kinds of ideas did people share for reducing barriers? Did you leave feeling like your input was being carefully considered? What more would you like to see from Startup America?
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Barry Moltz 1 year 2 months and 1 days ago
I was glad to see AMEX was there supporting small business!