American Entrepreneurship: Dead or Alive?

http://www.gallup.com/businessjournal/180431/american-entrepreneurship-dead-alive.aspx?print=0

by MrDom • 12 years ago

15 4 12 years ago

cylinder2• 12 years ago

Dead. Tech startups, VC funding etc are so negligible in the broad scope of the country they are not worth discussing. Everyday entrepreneurship is pretty much dead. Small family owned businesses, your mom and pop shops (e.g., retail shop, hardware shop, corner store), small factories, and pretty much whatever you think of cannot compete in a landscape dominated by massive, consolidated corporations and chains. Especially when large corporates can get all the funding they want via banks, bond markets, equity markets, etc, whereas the idea of a small shop getting a business loan has become a joke.

Don't believe the hype about "disruption," incumbents are thriving and becoming more dominant every year.

vineetch• 12 years ago

Domination by large corporations in commodity products isn't necessarily a bad thing. It leaves the brightest & most ambitious entrepreneurs to solve more complex issues. In 2015, should an ambitious 25 year old create a new pizza shop or try to create a new tech or bio-medical research company? The examples I provided are up for debate, but the fact that our basic needs (food, clothes, home improvement) are taken care of by the Walmart & Home-Depots of the world might not be such a bad thing. Just aim higher on society's hierarchy of needs.

nmandel• 12 years ago

Agreed; there's a massive difference between the capital needed to start something like a pizza shop, as compared to the resources necessary to start a web startup. Sadly, the larger companies have such strong roots that starting a traditional mom-and-pop shop is much more daunting now.

cylinder2• 12 years ago

Didn't say that it was. I like most chain stores actually, far better than mom and pops. However, it is diminishing opportunities for a lot of people, and immigrants especially. My main point of concern is access to capital -- certain people can raise easily without merit, simply by way of personal networks. Others can't. This is a source of inequality.

American Entrepreneurship: Dead or Alive?

Related Stories