Are we allowing our young entrepreneurs a fair chance?
February 1, 2010
Jeffrey Bussgang of Flybridge Capital Partners in Boston recently wrote a post on “A Lost Generation of Entrepreneurs?“. For the purpose of this post, I’m going to ignore the “innovation over 30” issue, and focus on what Jeff touched on briefly.
“Now fast-forward to today. During the period of 2001-2009, there have been very few substantial start-ups built to allow that generation’s 20-somethings to learn and develop company-building skills. As a result, we have a lost generation of entrepreneurs. Not enough 20-somethings, or let’s even say under 35, have had the opportunity to see success at a young age and learn the important lessons of start-up leadership.” - Jeffrey Bussgang
I agree with him. We are not encouraging my generation (for reference, I’m 29) enough to become successful entrepreneurs and make that leap. One of Jeffrey’s final points is to “celebrate the heck out of the under 35 entrepreneurs we know who have seen success”. I agree with the context, but believe it does not go far enough. Practically - what can we do to help our younger generation become successful entrepreneurs?
Some of my thoughts / observations:
- Expand the “Open Office Hours” movement into New Hampshire that has been spreading around the Boston area. This allows young entrepreneurs to meet with Journalists, Venture Capitalists, Entrepreneurs, and others that can further help them.
- Encourage more New Hampshire based business incubators (from my research, it appears NH has a total of 3… while some of our neighboring states easily have double this)
- Offer more programs in college’s around the state focused not on creating business managers, but entrepreneurs.
- Increase co-working space in New Hampshire.
- Most importantly, begin some sort of mentor network to help young entrepreneur build the skills necessary to be successful in starting their own company. [Note: Found this, after writing this post... may be of some value]
What do you think? This is a national issue, but I tried to bring some items down to our state level. What could we be doing better nationally, and locally?
- Jeffrey Vocell
