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Week of January 29 - February 4, 2007

National Entrepreneurship Policy Summit Scheduled for Feb. 26 in DC

While more than 850 partner organizations are busy planning activities for EntrepreneurshipWeek USA, a policy summit is being planned in Washington DC to examine key policy areas with a view to promoting economic growth and innovation generally as well as to lowering any barriers that make it harder than it should be for individuals to form and sustain the businesses that drive economic growth. The summit is scheduled for Monday, February 26, and the topics slated for discussion include: immigration reform; innovations in energy technologies; litigation and regulatory reform; balancing intellectual property laws; health care; and, education. During the Summit, the Kauffman Foundation will release a white paper that outlines those key policy areas in order to prompt and further public debate.

Register to participate in the EntrepreneurshipWeek USA Policy Summit

2007 Development Report Card of the States

The Corporation for Enterprise Development (CFED) has recently released the 20th annual edition of its well-known Development Report Card of the States. The report card assesses state performance on 67 different measures that track a state’s performance in terms of development capacity, business vitality and economic performance. States are graded on their performance in these three baskets of indicators. Connecticut and Delaware are this year’s straight-A students. Other top performers on CFED’s honor roll include Colorado, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Utah, and Wisconsin. In the category of business vitality, the top three performers were Colorado, Massachusetts, and Alabama.

View the Corporation for Enterprise Development’s 2007 Development Report Card of the States.

Venture Fundraising Hits Five-Year High

2007 might be a good year to look for venture capital (VC) investments if the latest data from the National Venture Capital Association are any guide. The latest data release examines venture capital fundraising and finds that 2006 was the VC industry’s best year since 2001. Overall, 200 funds raised more than $28.6 billion in 2006. An additional 138 buy-out and mezzanine funds raised $102.9 billion, the highest total on record. Industry observers expect to see an uptick in investments this year as the new funds seek to invest these dollars into high growth entrepreneurial businesses.

Download the latest fundraising data from Thomson Venture Economics and the National Venture Capital Association.

A Good Year for Cleantech Investments Despite Late Dip

You’d expect that some of this new VC money would be invested in sustainable or clean technologies which seem to be regularly featured in the media these days. If so, this investment would represent something of shift from the end of 2006. Somewhat surprisingly, investments in “cleantech” -- a term coined by the Michigan-based Cleantech Venture Network for technologies that enable more valuable use of natural resources and greatly reduce ecological impact -- businesses actually dropped (down 34%) in the fourth quarter of 2006. A one-quarter drop doesn’t always make a trend, but this figure does represent the first decline in cleantech investments in nine quarters.

Overall, however, 2006 was a good year for cleantech as more than $2.9 billion was invested in its industries, a 78% jump from the previous year. In fact, a number of experts are looking at innovations in energy technology to have a larger economic impact than the Internet explosion of the 1990s. The growing interest in cleantech is evident through EntrepreneurshipWeek USA as well. Several activities are being planned by organizations across the country, including the Cleantech Innovation Challenge at the University of Colorado, an Invention to Venture session on the topic in Boston and a satellite session at the EntrepreneurshipWeek USA Policy Summit in Washington DC.

The article, “Cleantech VC Investment Drops 34% in 4Q,” by Jennifer Kho, appeared in the January 17, 2007 edition of Red Herring.

New York City’s Future as a Financial Center

New York City’s elected officials, led by Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Senator Charles Schumer, are growing increasingly concerned about the City’s future as a leader in world financial markets. They commissioned a study, developed by consultants at McKinsey and Co., that assesses where New York City stands today and where it might stand in the future in terms of serving as the world’s leading financial center. The report notes that the financial services sectors is big business—not just for New York, but for the entire US. Financial services now account for 8% of US GDP and more than 5% of US jobs. The report contends that strengthening this sector is critical to US competitiveness, and that concerted action is needed to help maintain the US’s current global leadership position. The report finds that, when compared to other financial centers (e.g. London), New York excels in attracting and retaining talent, but that the US suffers from less competitive legal and regulatory environments. It concludes with a series of recommendations, such as securities litigation reform, for how to improve the business climate for financial services firms and workers. If policy makers fail to act, the report predicts that the industry could lose out on anywhere from $15-$30 billion in revenue over the next five years.

View the January 2007 report, Sustaining New York’s and the US’s Global Financial Services Leadership.

Tech Agenda 2007

The Progress and Freedom Foundation, a market-oriented think tank based in Washington, has released its 2007 Tech Agenda. The report lists ten items for Congress’ consideration in the coming year. By enacting these policies, the report’s authors contend that Congress will help open markets, spur innovation, and further strengthen the technology sector. At the top of the agenda is aggressive reform of communications laws to reduce regulation and to open more spectrum to market forces. The agenda also supports a hands-off regulatory posture in debates about net neutrality, internet taxation and copyright protection.

Download the Progress and Freedom Foundation Tech Agenda 2007.

Correction: Last week's story titled "Innovation Policy and the Economy" incorrectly listed the contact email address.  The correct address is rshannon@nber.org

The National Dialogue on Entrepreneurship, an initiative of the Public Forum Institute made possible by a grant from the Kauffman Foundation of Kansas City. Through NDE-news, we bring you short summaries and analyses of various trends driving the innovation economy. Subscribe now to receive your weekly copy. Archived issues are available online. Links to the day's entrepreneurship stories from across the nation and around the world are posted each weekday on the NDE main page - bookmark it and stay informed about the latest entrepreneurship news.

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