By Angie Chang (Co-Founder & Editor-in-Chief, Women 2.0)
The Kauffman Foundation proposes a “Startup Act” to jumpstart the U.S. economy and increase job creation by accelerating the growth of startups and young businesses.
The Startup Act references recent Kauffman data that proclaims while more firms have been created each year since the last recession began, the number of new firms with employees continues to drop (this is a trend that pre-dates the recession).
The Startup Act proposes changing government policy:
- Welcoming immigrants capable of building high-growth companies to the United States by providing “Entrepreneurs’ visas” and green cards for those with degrees in science, technology, engineering and math.
Providing new firms with better access to early-stage financing, creating capital gains tax exemptions for long-held startup investments, providing tax incentives for startup operating capital, facilitating access to public markets, and allowing shareholders of companies with market cap below $1 billion to opt-in under the Sarbanes-Oxley Act. - Accelerating the formation and commercialization of new ideas by creating differential patent fees to reduce the patent backlog and providing licensing freedom for academic innovators.
- Removing barriers to the formation and growth of businesses through the introduction of automatic ten-year sunsets for all major rules, establishing common-sense and cost-effective standards for regulations, and making assessments of state and local startup and business policies.
- Job creation is a nonpartisan issue, and the Startup Act aims to educate policymakers on all sides of the political spectrum about the need for comprehensive legislation aimed at helping startups.
The Kauffman Foundation reminds us that economic job creation is a nonpartisan issue, and the Startup Act aims to educate policymakers on all sides of the political spectrum about the need for comprehensive legislation aimed at helping startups.
Kauffman’s Carl Schramm provides answers in new whiteboard video:
How Kauffman’s “Startup Act” can create jobs: