IBM on board with Startup America
At the close of January, the White House launched the “Startup America” initiative, which pulls together multiple successful high-tech seed programs nationwide, including a few launched in New York.
Despite President Obama having named General Electric Co. CEO Jeff Immelt to chair a jobs and competitiveness panel, GE was not listed among the early corporate supporters of Startup America, which won a $150 million commitment from Armonk, N.Y.-based IBM Corp. to fund programs that promote entrepreneurs and help software engineers collaborate.
Since launching its Global Entrepreneur initiative last year, IBM says it has helped launch more than 500 new businesses in areas such as green energy, health care and transportation. The new investment will be used to coach startup businesses throughout the U.S. and build skills in collaboration with the academic and venture capital communities.
“The investment will help us greatly expand the work we”™re doing to build business skills and provide market opportunities for the most innovative new companies in the country,” said James Corgel, general manager of developer and academic relations at IBM, in a prepared statement. “These startups are tackling some of the country”™s most pressing challenges and opportunities.”
As part of its Global Entrepreneur program, IBM has been offering software at no charge; technical support; and mentorship via its SmartCamp entrepreneur contests.
The question becomes how much startup creation will occur in IBM”™s own backyard, not just in the lower Hudson Valley but in Connecticut as well where some of its engineers live, and where it maintains a technology center in Southbury focused on cloud computing platforms that allow for software application access over the Internet.
Intel Corp. also is chipping in $200 million to Startup America as part of its existing Invest in America Alliance, and HP and Facebook are chipping in smaller amounts. A Startup America website also lists Google Inc. among supporters without immediately specifying the nature of company”™s support.
If an impressive commitment from some of the largest companies in the country, the U.S. government is funneling far more under the Startup America banner ”“ perhaps most notably in an Obama executive order for federal agencies and departments to eliminate or reduce processes deemed outdated or overly burdensome to entrepreneurs.
The Obama administration also wants to make permanent the elimination of capital gains taxes on the sale of stock in some types of small businesses after five years, a temporary measure currently authorized under the Job Creation Act of 2010. And the U.S. Treasury Department plans to simplify tax credits covering private investment in lower-income communities in hopes of drawing more capital there.
A new TechStars Network is to launch with 15 independently owned and operated regional organizations that replicate the model pioneered by TechStars, a mentorship-driven startup accelerator operating in New York City, Boston, Seattle, and Boulder, Colo. The goal is to provide more than 6,000 entrepreneurs with mentors over three years.
New York will also be among the sites for regional entrepreneur “ecosystems” sponsored by JumpStart Inc.
With the U.S. Department of Energy, the Small Business Administration will also provide funding for four private business accelerators with the goal of supporting 100 clean-technology startups nationally. The White House said the program marks the first step in the development of a large, distributed network of entrepreneurs, mentors, and startup accelerators.
The SBA will commit $2 billion in matching funds to private sector investment in promising high-tech companies, under the existing Small Business Investment Company bonding program and under a program that provides funds for startups in distressed communities.