The Final State of the Union
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Summary:
Senior Advisor to the President Valerie Jarrett discusses the Administration's efforts to “renew our commitment to supporting the entrepreneurs who power the engine of our Nation's economy.”
President Obama declared today the first-ever National Entrepreneurs’ Day, part of a full-blown National Entrepreneurship Week that, in the President’s words, aims to “renew our commitment to supporting the entrepreneurs who power the engine of our Nation's economy.”
Entrepreneurship is a core American value. And supporting a culture that is conducive to entrepreneurship and startups is a core component of the President’s National Innovation Strategy, for achieving sustainable growth and quality jobs. Startups are inherently bold and by their nature constantly facing the risk of failure. But startups also bring an unparalleled wealth of transformative innovations to market—think of everything from the airplane to the automobile to Amazon.com—and have been the Nation’s engine of job creation over the past three decades. It is the entrepreneurs who are tackling the Nation’s challenges in clean energy, medicine, national security, and other fields. They will build the leading industries of the 21st century.
This week, leaders from throughout the Obama Administration have highlighted a range of initiatives to promote entrepreneurship and high-growth startups, through a series of five daily White House blog postsand a live web chat with Commerce Secretary Gary Locke.
And this afternoon, Aneesh Chopra, the nation’s first Chief Technology Officer, is joining up with Steve Case,co-founder of AOL and a co-chair of the National Advisory Council on Innovation and Entrepreneurship, for a discussion with DC-area entrepreneurs at an Entrepreneur Town Hall. Among the topics: What are the key challenges and opportunities facing innovative startups in the Nation’s capital? And what can the public and private sectors do to grow entrepreneurial ecosystems here and across the country?
This is not just a job for government, as the President emphasized this Wednesday when awarding the National Medals of Science, Technology, and Innovation. Fostering a climate of innovation and entrepreneurship “depends on all of us,” the President said, “including businesses and universities and nonprofits.” This is a call to action that the President first proclaimed when signing the Small Business Jobs Act.
This Administration is committed to working with the private sector to accelerate the success of entrepreneurs and high-growth startups, and to ensure that all Americans have the opportunity to dream big in our innovation Nation.
