Acknowledgments
This project began as a very simple if admittedly ambitious idea: contribute something new and significant to the increasingly urgent effort to put tens of millions of Americans left unemployed by the Great Recession back to work. Between original conception of the project and the completion of this book, we relied on the interest, guidance, and contributions of literally hundreds of people.
For their intellectual assistance and generosity, critical guidance, and hospitality we are enormously grateful to Carl Schramm, former President and CEO of the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation, now a professor at Syracuse University and the Carlyse Ciocca Professor of Innovation and Entrepreneurship at the University of California at Davis; Bob Litan, previously Vice President for Research and Policy at Kauffman and now Director of Research at Bloomberg Government; and Cameron Cushman, who remains at the Kauffman Foundation as Senior Advisor. We are also grateful to Bob for his contribution to our poll of more than 800 entrepreneurs, as well as his review of Chapter 2 of this book.
From our first conversations about our hope to develop new policy alternatives to accelerate job creation, Rob Nichols, President and CEO of the Financial Services Forum, understood the importance of what we had proposed. He was enthusiastic and generous in his encouragement throughout our summer project, and enormously accommodating of our ambition to write a book about what we had heard and learned from the nation’s entrepreneurs.
Special thanks to John F.W. Rogers for his vision and trust as we pursued this project.
Our deepest debt, of course, is to the more than 200 entrepreneurs who participated in our 12 roundtables. We thank them all for responding to our invitation to participate, for their time, their observations and insights, their candor and generosity, and, most especially, for what they do every day—taking the risks, both economic and personal, necessary to launch new businesses, expand those businesses, and create jobs, careers, and wealth for thousands of their fellow Americans. They, and millions of other entrepreneurs across the nation, are the true heroes of this book. Without them, there would be no net new job creation in the United States. This is their story, as told by them. We were privileged to meet them, to learn about their businesses, and to hear their observations and insights regarding the many challenges they confront on a daily basis. Most of all, we are honored to have the opportunity to bring their stories to the nation by way of our book. We are particularly grateful to those who have allowed us to use their comments and observations with attribution. Their remarkable and vividly personal expression of their ambitions, hopes, frustrations, and challenges not only adds remarkable clarity and credibility to the issues considered, but reminds us that business formation and job creation are about people and families, not just economic trends and statistics.
A number of people played a critical role in helping us identify and make contact with the entrepreneurs we invited to our roundtables, including Maria Gotch, President and CEO of the New York City Investment Fund; Tom Moebus and Helene Rude of the Levin Institute at the State University of New York; Kim Scheeler, President and CEO of the Greater Richmond Chamber of Commerce; Michael Rollins, President of the Greater Austin Chamber of Commerce; the Washington, DC, and Columbus, Ohio, offices of Congressman Pat Tiberi; Jerry Ross, Executive Director of the National Entrepreneur Center in Orlando, Florida; Bobbie Kilberg, President and CEO of the Northern Virginia Technology Council; Tim Rowe, founder and CEO of the Cambridge Innovation Center; Nancy Saucier, Director of New Venture Development at the University of Massachusetts, Lowell; David Verrill, Executive Director of the Center for Digital Business at MIT’s Sloan School of Management; Ted Ford, President and CEO of TechColumbus; Beth Flanagan, Director of the Memphis Medical Center; Kevin Roper of the University of Memphis; Nick Kistenmacher in the office of Senator Bob Corker; Jeff Marcell, President and CEO of enterpriseSeattle; Margo Shiroyama, Executive Director of Northwest Energy Angels; Sue Hesse, founder and CEO of Hesse Partners; and Alana Muller, President of Kauffman FastTrac.
Greg Hitt, Senior Vice President at Hill+Knowlton Strategies in Washington, DC, served as the moderator of our 12 roundtables, traveling with us across the country (including sitting in 100-degree heat on the tarmac in Kansas City, Missouri, for more than an hour in a plane with no air-conditioning) and presiding over our discussions with professionalism, consistency, patience, and humor. Along the way, he helped us focus our inquiry, process what we were hearing from our participating entrepreneurs, and formulate a number of our policy recommendations.
Very special thanks to John Duncan, our friend and mentor, who contributed in innumerable ways to the formulation, structure, and focus of our project, and also helped us formulate a number of our policy recommendations. John’s vast political and policy expertise, together with his sophisticated analysis of the profound technology-driven changes impacting American society and the U.S. economy, made him an invaluable discussion partner and sounding board throughout the project.
On July 20, 2011, we convened a discussion of noted economists at the Kauffman Foundation in Kansas City, Missouri, to discuss the state of U.S. labor markets following the Great Recession, as well as challenges to recovery. We appreciate the participation of Bob Litan and Tim Kane of Kauffman; Matthew Slaughter of the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth College; Robert Lawrence of Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government; Garett Jones of George Mason University; Ike Brannon of the George W. Bush Institute; and Diana Furchtgott-Roth of the Manhattan Institute. Their insights helped provide the broader economic context within which we were able to consider and make sense of what we heard at our other roundtables.
We also very much appreciate the work of Adam Geller, founder (he’s an entrepreneur!) and CEO of polling firm National Research, Inc. Adam helped us conduct a first-of-its-kind nationwide poll of more than 800 entrepreneurs, which generated results that confirmed and added additional texture to what we learned at our in-person roundtables.
Dozens of others contributed hours and even days of their time to helping us think about, devise, and structure our project, including: Mitch Jacobs, founder of On Deck Capital; Jeremy Smith and Mark Murphy at SecondMarket; David Owens, Professor for the Practice of Management and Innovation at Vanderbilt University; Jeff Cornwall, Director of the Center for Entrepreneurship at Belmont University; Robert Templin, President of Northern Virginia Community College; Jonathan Rowe, Director of the Entrepreneurship Center, University of North Carolina, Wilmington; Sid Chambless, Managing Partner and Executive Director at Nashville Capital Network; Marianne Hudson, Executive Director of the Angel Capital Association; Mark Heesen, President of the National Venture Capital Association; Gary Shapiro, President and CEO of the Consumer Electronics Association; Paul Sass, Deputy Staff Director at the House Small Business Committee; and Doug and Denise Clelan.
Special thanks to Ray Beeman, who provided expert guidance regarding the intricacies of tax reform, and to John Backus of New Atlantic Ventures for his insights regarding the venture capital industry.
Jen Scungio presided over the demanding logistical aspects of our project and was indispensible to the successful organization of roundtables in a dozen cities across the country. She also assisted with research, proofing of chapters, and the finalization of the book’s charts. Emily Dagher, Charlotte Schockaert, Cameron Friday, and Kevin Love also provided critical assistance with research, data verification, chart work, and proofreading.
Our magnificent agent, the splendidly knowledgeable and ever-enthusiastic Alice Martell, grasped the importance of our project and its findings from the moment we shared them, and worked tirelessly with us for months to transform our summer road experience into a coherent and viable narrative. We are forever grateful for her vision, advocacy, and friendship. Sincere thanks also go to the wonderful Stephanie Finman.
Our editor at John Wiley & Sons, Kevin Commins, not only provided an opportunity to tell our story, but gave us enormous and much appreciated creative discretion in how to tell it. His colleague, Meg Freeborn, provided insightful and judicious editorial suggestions that improved aspects of the manuscript significantly. Melissa Lopez, Senior Production Editor, with her patience and persistence, made the exacting and potentially painful task of final editing a pleasure.
Finally, profound thanks to our families for their loving forbearance and patience over the course of this project.