Voices » entrepreneurship

The Recession's Effect on Entrepreneurship

Pui-Wing Tam — Thu, 30 Apr 2009 23:49:29 +0000

By Pui-Wing Tam, Reporter, The Wall Street Journal

How has the recession affected entrepreneurship? So far, it’s helped to drive it up.

That’s according to a new study from the Kauffman Foundation, a Kansas City-based organization. The study, out Thursday, found that an average of 320 out of 100,000 adults created a new business each month last year even as the recession took hold, up from 300 out of 100,000 adults in 2007.

That pattern is similar to the last downturn earlier this decade, when entrepreneurship levels also rose during the tech bust.

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Washington Is Killing Silicon Valley

Michael Malone — Tue, 23 Dec 2008 08:02:09 +0000

By Michael Malone, Opinion, The Wall Street Journal

Even as economic losses and unemployment levels mount, America’s most effective engine for wealth and job creation is being dangerously–perhaps fatally–compromised.

For more than 30 years the entrepreneurship-venture capital-IPO cycle centered in Silicon Valley has generated new wealth, commercialized innovation, and created new companies and industries. It’s also spun off millions of new jobs. The great companies created by this process–Intel (INTC), Apple (AAPL), Google (GOOG), eBay (EBAY), Microsoft (MSFT), Cisco (CSCO), to name just a few–have propelled most of the growth in the U.S. economy in the last two decades. And what began as a process almost exclusively available to scientists and engineering Ph.D.s became open to just about anyone with a good business plan and a healthy dose of entrepreneurial drive.

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Tech Entrepreneurship Recession–Microsoft Yahoo–Tea Leaves

John Furrier — Fri, 11 Apr 2008 07:10:01 +0000

By John Furrier, Blogger, Furrier.org

War! What is it good for! Absolutely nothing! Say it again!

Are wars really good for business? Is tech entrepreneurship in recession heading toward depression? The battle between Microsoft and Yahoo is reaching its climax (if not already). However, there are some very interesting and unique perspectives from two blog posts that jumped out at me–Kara Swisher and Fred Wilson. Kara has the funniest headline saying “Jesus Is Coming” with the storyline about the inside scoop on the “dance” between the two. What strikes me with Kara’s post is that Yahoo might already be defeated in the “brain drain” that they have been experiencing. Even if Yahoo survives, is it already dead on the vine?

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