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Nina Vaca-Humrichouse: Startup America is an initiative that launched in 2011 in the
White House as a result of the White House,
and it's focused on helping entrepreneurship in America --
expanding entrepreneurship in America.
Startup America is a national organization with now regional
ties all across the country, and our focus is simply to advocate
on behalf and to help startup and high-growth
companies succeed.
Steve Case: There's really three parts of Startup America partnership.
One is to get people focused on the role entrepreneurs play and
really celebrate their achievements.
And the President has done a good job of that,
and we're getting other people to also step up and really
play that role.
The second is to provide resources that enable companies
to get started and to scale.
And we've got over 40 companies now that have committed over a
billion dollars of resources to entrepreneurs.
And the third and perhaps in the long run the most important is
really building up entrepreneurial ecosystems
around the country in different regions.
Everybody knows about Silicon Valley because that's got a lot
of attention, but there are actually interesting regional
activities happening all across the country,
and we're trying to isolate that and take those regions to
the next stage.
So we've already announced about seven of these regional
initiatives in different states.
We expect to triple that over the next year.
So building up these regional ecosystems we think
is critical.
So it's a mix of celebration, resources,
as well as regional ecosystem development.
Reid Hoffman: They are also trying to assemble and create densities in the
networks; not just in the networks between entrepreneurs
and finance, entrepreneurs and services,
entrepreneurs and customers, all of which matter and they're
working on that and developing good, you know,
connections there.
But even amongst entrepreneurs in themselves,
because like one of the things, the reasons why Silicon Valley
works pretty well is because they all --
we all talk to each other about how did you solve this problem,
and when you ran into this, what did you do,
and what kind of people to hire, when you're going to scale,
how does this work, and how did you shorten your sales cycle,
you know, these sorts of things.
And that actually kind of founder to founder, right,
executive to executive, entrepreneur to entrepreneur
kind of communication is actually part of the network
that helps amplify being on target and being fast in the way
that helps you succeed.
Karen Mills: Startup America is for startups and it's for early stage
companies, and it's for fast-growing companies that have
reached that next level.
There are capital programs, there are mentoring programs
that are applicable for all kinds of fast-growth companies.
And it's not just high-tech companies.
This Startup America effort reaches every state.
It's important for entrepreneurs all across this country to have
access to capital, to have access to mentors,
so we are going to provide them in rural America,
in urban America, and in states that don't generally have a
reputation for being Silicon Valley,
but they have great entrepreneurial environments and
they are growing companies.
Scott Case: We're all about helping startups in America grow,
because it's through their growth that will move our
economy forward and create jobs.
And the importance of these startups,
they're young companies led by founders who are passionate
about growth.
They're relentlessly pursuing growth.
And they need help doing it.
And so Startup America has brought a number of partners
together to help them grow.
And the reason these startups are so important is because in
the last 30 years, all the net new jobs were created by
companies less than five years old.
So by focusing on young companies that are focused on
growth, that are led by unbelievable entrepreneurs that
are from all around the country, we can push things forward and
we can create new jobs all across the country.