With the debt ceiling and budget cutting negotiations struggling to find a solution, there’s another approach that could cut the deficit and grow the economy faster — provide self-funding programs to jump start new and growing businesses. That could gain over one Trillion dollars in GDP growth each year! Both Republicans and Democrats should find this attractive.
Every year some eight out of 10 startups fail. The cost to the economy could be a trillion dollars or more. But if we could create more new companies like Apple, it would add hundreds of billions of dollars to the economy. In 2021, for example, Apple promised over $430 billion in investments in the US and 20,000 jobs over five years. What if we had 10 or 20 more new companies like Apple!
Surprisingly, little research has been done as to why do so many startups fail and how to prevent that. In The 7 Secret Keys to Startup Success, I’ve examined why and provided detailed solutions.
The reasons range from poor management to inferior products. And some startups deserve to fail. Often entrepreneurs fail because they don’t know what to do, such as when to file a patent; and what never to do, such as make false advertising claims. The result is “Startup Suicide.”TM The good news is that startup success can be learned.
Being an entrepreneur takes a village to get from an idea to a commercial success. It requires lawyers, a business plan, investors, and more. Most startups run out of money and fail to cross the “Startup Grand Canyon”TM— and run out of money. The current system isn’t just inefficient. Theirs is no system. How can we create an eco-system to help the thousands of startups succeed?
Three Steps To Baking The Startup Cake
For startup success, three problems need to be addressed. It’s like baking a cake. You need all the ingredients in one place, an oven to bake them, and cooking on time. Unfortunately, the ingredients required are scattered. Suppose you have an idea for a new product. You’ll need to find an attorney, marketing support, and investors. There’s no one-stop clearing house. Everything’s somewhere, but somewhere equals nowhere. How can the essential stakeholders connect?
Step One: Bring All The Ingredients Together in One Place. Create sbay — A Startup eBay.
Let’s create an online, one-stop, virtual information, and meeting place for all parties — buyers, sellers, inventors, grantors, etc., on any subject area, such as “better solar panels.” Then use proven Business to Business (B2B) internet techniques to connect all stakeholders. Visionaries like Bill Gates, and investment banking firms could easily fund this new startup service, an “sbay” web platform and profit from it by charging a modest fee.
Step Two: There’s No Oven To Bake The Startup Cake. Let’s Create Local Startup Centers (LSCs).
Next, there’s no physical meeting place for the diverse stakeholders. Let’s create Local Startup Centers (LSCs) in each state with research universities — where stakeholders could meet and have meeting rooms, secretarial support, and engineering software. Entrepreneurs could get advice; federal and state agencies could help inventors find government funding. Prototypes would be fabricated. The LSCs would buzz with activity will all the stakeholders in one dynamic place. Retired executives could be a “Startup Volunteer Corps and commercial development would launch quicker.
Step Three: Let’s Have A Startup Moon Shot To Launch New Companies in Ninety Days.
Let’s speed up and cut costs to launch new businesses. LSCs could provide grants or loans to startups. At LSCs, entrepreneurs would present their draft business plan to experts. In days a decision would be made on whether to fund it. Winners could receive $100,000 to spend at any LSC for legal support, prototyping, etc. The goal would be a Startup Moonshot — to launch companies from an idea to commercialization in 90 days.
LSCs Could Pay For Themselves And Generate Tax Revenues and Profits.
Government or private sector seed money could create the LSCs. Startups could sell some equity to the LSC to support it. When profitable, the LSC could pay back the funds plus interest. It could be a self-licking ice cream cone!
There may be other ways to solve these problems. But let’s think big and finally bring all the ingredients together to bake the entrepreneur’s cake. Create sbays, LSCs, and build a Startup Moon Shot! This will help entrepreneurs, create more jobs faster, maintain America’s economic leadership, and help bridge the budget negotiations!
David J. Muchow is a corporate lawyer, serial entrepreneur, author of the Amazon Best Seller, The 7 Secret Keys to Startup Success, and former Adjunct Professor for Law, Business & Entrepreneurship at Georgetown University.