It will come as no surprise to anyone that I spend a lot of my time focused in a hyperlocal sort of way. On startups. Usually Portland. Sometimes other places in Oregon. But usually Portland. And usually tech. So it’s always nice to get the opportunity to muck around with more macro data. Or datasets that provide a broader context and indicators for what’s happening here around entrepreneurship.
That’s why I was pleased to see the Kauffman Foundation — arguably the leading national organization researching and supporting entrepreneurship in the United States — releasing the Kauffman Indicators of Early-Stage Entrepreneurship, a living dataset that “tracks entrepreneurial activity across two decades, geographies, and demographic groups, focused on the crucial first year of business.”
And I was equally excited to tune in today, as they took to the stage to share their annual State of Entrepreneurship address where they revealed that, according to their numbers, three out of every 1000 people start a new business in the US. Every month.
3 + 997 = 1,000
Every month, out of 1,000 people, about 3 of them start a new business. What can the rest of us – the 997 – do to support them?"Everyone in this room, everyone in America fits into that equation," @rainforestbook #ZeroBarriers
— Kauffman Foundation (@KauffmanFDN) February 27, 2019
And that those new businesses drive the net new jobs in the country — even moreso than an Amazon HQ2.
Too many communities concentrate on attracting businesses from afar instead of growing them at home. In a thriving ecosystem, entrepreneurship empowers individuals, improves standards of living, and creates jobs, wealth, and innovation in the economy. But the success of an entrepreneurial ecosystem can’t be bought; it has to be built.
Those were just a few of the findings. And calls to action. And thanks to the magic of the Internet, you can hear more from Kauffman about the state of entrepreneurship, from the comfort of your own web browser.
Don’t have time to watch it at the moment? Then maybe consider texting the word “grow” to 52886 to get involved. Or maybe just retweet this:
3 out of every 1,000 people start a business each month. RT to show that we – the 997 – are here to support them. https://t.co/o8Q43DN633 @KauffmanFDN #ZeroBarriers
— Rick Turoczy (@turoczy) February 27, 2019
For more information, visit the Kauffman Foundation.
Oh and if these sorts of efforts are interesting to you or you’re looking to connect with more folks who are doing this kind of work, you might want to consider attending the Startup Champions Network Summit in Portland, next month.
[Full disclosure: I am the co-organizer of the SCN Summit in Portland. And I’d really like to see you there.]
