Fairbrothers Gregg E. - From idea to success: the Dartmouth entrepreneurial networks guide for start-ups

The Dartmouth Entrepreneurial Networks GUIDE FOR START-UPS

GREGG E. FAIRBROTHERS
TESSA M. WINTER

Copyright 2011 by Gregg E. Fairbrothers and Tessa M. Winter. All rights reserved. Except as permitted under the United States Copyright Act of 1976, no part of this publication may be reproduced or distributed in any form or by any means, or stored in a database or retrieval system, without the prior written permission of the publisher.

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Vision is the art of seeing things invisible.

Jonathan Swift

Imagine a truly prosperous economyprosperous because innovation thrives. Growth is sustainable and creates jobs for everyone who wants one: rewarding, fulfilling jobs for people all across the demographic spectrum. And that prosperity is widely shared. Imagine that opportunity is open to all people to make what they can of themselves. They can do well for themselves by creating value for everyone. People renew themselves over and over, all through their lifetimes. They do well and do good. Imagine that labor doesnt have to compete for jobs across borders, driving wages into the ground; it complements the innovation and creativity of new ventures, leveraging the amazing human capacity for creativity and building new things. It sounds so appealing. Would that we could see this today wherever we are. Sad to say, this is not exactly what we see. But that doesnt mean it isnt there.

Almost by definition, entrepreneurial value creation comes from someone being entrepreneurial. In good times, value creation adds fire to a thriving economy. In bad times, entrepreneurial value creation rekindles dimly glowing coals. Lately it seems there are more bad times than good. We see an economy with deep-rooted problems; no one is denying that. The economy has always had problems of one kind or another, yet everyone from average college grads looking for their first jobs to economists studying national economic trends seems more worried than ever, and they are all worried for one main reason: People cannot find the kind of work they want and need, at least not where theyve always looked for it before. We need to create more good jobs.

There are really only three ways to create jobs: You can grow the companies you have, steal companies from somewhere else, or create new ones. As to growing and stealing, in the last three decades the developed world has been losing ground. Our existing firms are not growing much. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, from 2000 to 2009 the economy added essentially no new jobs. We will never turn back the economic clock and recapture those lost jobs. All we can do is create new ones. This means that if we are going to create new jobs, we are going to have to rely on growth through innovation, creating new companies and growing the ones we have with new ideas and new products.

Hence the new hope: The entrepreneur will save us. In a recent study by the Kauffman Foundation, Dane Stangler described the need for a new discussionone that not only promotes entrepreneurship, but specifically high-growth entrepreneurship... because top-performing companies are the most fruitful source of new jobs and offer the economys best hope for recovery.

Governments are also pushing entrepreneurship. They are even putting money behind it. Kathy Barks Hoffman of the Associated Press reported in February 2010, Gov. Jennifer Granholm is counting on entrepreneurs to bring Michigans struggling economy back from the brink. So much so that she plans to set aside $200,000 to teach budding entrepreneurs and help provide $43 million for small business loans. Carl Schramm and Robert E. Litan wrote in the Wilson Quarterly in 2010:

[President Obama] embraced entrepreneurs near the beginning of his 2010 State of the Union address and has since outlined a series of steps to encourage small business to create new jobs: $33 billion in tax credits for hiring new workers and $30 billion in low-interest loans (from the Troubled Asset Relief Program) intended to spur community banks to lend to small business.