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Week of March 8 - 12, 2004Welcome to the National Dialogue on Entrepreneurship and e-News, an electronic newsletter sponsored by the Kauffman Foundation of Kansas City for followers of the entrepreneurial economy. Through e-News, we bring you short summaries and analyses of various trends driving the innovation economy. Please feel free to share this with friends and colleagues. To subscribe, visit www.publicforuminstitute.org/nde/join/ Did you know that links to the day's entrepreneurship stories from across the nation and around the world are posted each weekday at www.publicforuminstitute.org/nde? Bookmark it and stay informed about the latest entrepreneurship news. |
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SBA 7(a) Loan Program Fight Looming The Small Business Administration’s (SBA) most popular program—the 7(a) loan program—has come under close scrutiny. Earlier this year, the program ran out of funds and was temporarily shut down. Now, the SBA is seeking other ways to expand lending volume but some in Congress are not supporting the plan. Traditionally, SBA guarantees 75% of a loan’s value under the 7(a) program. Under the new proposed rules, which would expand use of SBA’s Express Loan Program procedures, only 50% of the loan’s value would be guaranteed. This shift helps release more money for the program as smaller guarantees leave more funds for new loans. However, lenders contend that these changes are unnecessary and may actually be counterproductive. They argue that because guarantee levels are smaller, lending criteria will be tightened and more risky loans may be not approved. As a result, firms with the greatest need for loans may be shut out of the program. The SBA is still revising its plans, and both the House and Senate Small Business Committees are examining the matter. Expect further discussion throughout the year. The House Committee on Small Business website can be accessed at www.house.gov/smbiz. The Senate Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship website can be accessed at http://sbc.senate.gov/ |
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The Latest from Topeka NDE E-News will be providing a more comprehensive look at what’s happening in several states later this month. In the meantime, however, we offer a snapshot of how Kansas is moving forward in addressing entrepreneurship. Like many midwestern states, Kansas is seeking new economic drivers to supplement the state’s traditional strengths in agriculture, manufacturing and extractive industries. As a result, homegrown entrepreneurship has become a part of the state’s economic development programs, and a number of interesting efforts are moving forward. The state legislature has just completed a performance audit of how Kansas could improve its support for entrepreneurship. Among its recommendations are that Kansas should seek to expand youth entrepreneurship training, create more mentoring opportunities, and also expand the pool of risk capital available in the state. The audit also argues that state programs need new metrics so that the return on investment from support for entrepreneurship can be more effectively computed. Meanwhile, some members in the Kansas legislature are trying to further stimulate the state’s economy through the newly proposed Kansas Economic Growth Act. This comprehensive bill focuses on two primary goals: building a strong biosciences presence in Kansas and further stimulating entrepreneurship. On the latter goal, the Act proposes to create a Kansas Center for Entrepreneurship as well as several funding vehicles to expand the availability of risk capital for Kansas-based start-ups. The February 2004 Performance Audit Report entitled, Encouraging Entrepreneurship: Examining Ways Kansas Could Improve its Efforts, by the Legislative Division of Post Audit, State of Kansas, is available at http://www.kslegislature.org/postaudit/audits_perform/03pa21a.pdf To learn more about the proposed Kansas Economic Growth Act, visit http://www.kshousegop.org/economic_growth/roadmap.pdf Measuring Globalization In today’s economy, successful entrepreneurs can’t just sell close to home—they must be global players from the start. Which countries do best on this front? Each year, A.T. Kearney and Foreign Policy magazine produce an index that seeks to answer this question. The fourth annual A.T. Kearney/Foreign Policy Globalization Index finds that global integration is increasing even though many parts of the world are suffering through economic doldrums. The index reviews data from calendar year 2002, and measures four categories of data: economic integration, technological connectivity, personal contact, and political engagement. Overall, the index finds that many economic indicators, such as cross-border capital flows, are lagging. Yet, other measures of global integration, such as Internet usage and other forms of cross-border communication, are expanding rapidly. In terms of individual countries, Ireland again ranks as the world’s most globalized state. Others atop the list include (in order): Singapore, Switzerland, the Netherlands, and Finland. More details on the A.T. Kearney/Foreign Policy Globalization Index can be found in the March/April 2004 issue of Foreign Policy. On-line materials are available at: http://www.foreignpolicy.com/story/cms.php?story_id=2493 Asian Venture Capital Rankings While India’s economy is booming, the nation has slipped in terms of its ability to attract outside venture capital/private equity investment (VC/PE). A February 24, 2004 article in The Financial Express, one of India’s leading business journals, notes that, while venture capital investing in India grew by 31% in 2003, India’s overall ranking in Asia dropped to number 5. India attracted $774 million in VC/PE funding in 2003. Yet, even stronger numbers elsewhere in Asia overshadowed this strong performance. Japan ($7.7 billion) and South Korea ($3.1 billion) attracted significant inflows of VC/PE money. Other strong performers included Australia and China. The February 24, 2004 Financial Express article, India Slips in VC/PE Rank, by Prachi Verma and R. Ravichandran is available at http://www.financialexpress.com/fe_full_story.php?content_id=53321 |
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Stanford Technology Venture Program:
Educators Corner |
Stanford University has long been a national leader in terms of developing future entrepreneurs and advancing the cause of entrepreneurship education. One of its newer efforts is the Stanford Technology Venture Program (STVP) Educators Corner, a free, online archive of over 500 high-technology entrepreneurship education resources. The website targets faculty who are teaching entrepreneurship and are seeking new tools, curricula, articles, or case studies. It also includes videos of leading entrepreneurs and investors, like Carol Bartz of Autodesk, or Vinod Khosla of Kleiner, Perkins, Caulfield and Byers, one of the nation’s leading venture capital firms. This project is funded by the Kauffman Foundation, and has been developed by a dynamic team of educators, entrepreneurs, engineers and designers at the Stanford Technology Ventures Program, in the School of Engineering at Stanford. This online archive is a tremendous resource for anyone interested in learning more about the field of entrepreneurship. |
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