Recently, I have noticed Silicon Valley get more involved (or at least louder) in political issues. The group of Paul Graham, Dave McClure, Manu Kumar, Brad Feld and others are heading up the Startup Visa agenda to help foreign entrepreneurs start companies in the U.S. Investor Keith Rabois and Valley blogs like VentureHacks have spoken out against Dodd’s ridiculous rules against accredited investors and Obama’s increased taxes on angel investments.
The problem is that Washington D.C. is 3,000 miles away from Silicon Valley… away from technology… away from Google and the politicians don’t fully understand the incredible impact that the ecosystem of entrepreneurs and investors have on the economy and the American Society in general.
America needs a LOUD and POWERFUL politician willing to push forward the agenda of Silicon Valley. I’m not saying that there aren’t pro-valley people in government. Jared Polis is one but I am pretty sure that asking 100 people from Middle America, they would have no idea who he is.
We need somebody popular, controversial, relatable…. a Bill O’Reilly type figure that isn’t afraid to call Bullshit on politicians when they do things so ridiculous and obviously anti-innovation that people start to listen.
But the guys or girls from the valley that we need in the office refuse to do it… and for good reason. Things in D.C. are so inefficient, dirty, non-meritocratic (ie the opposite of Silicon Valley) that it would drive them crazy not being able to get anything done.
Whats the best way to fix these fiscal issues quickly? Let Silicon Valley govern itself (its taxes, fiscal regulations etc)… but since that won’t happen we need somebody really willing to fight for Valley principles.
Some things that the Gov’t should do NOW:
1) Pass the StartupVisa Act
2) Decrease Long Term Capital Gains taxes to 0% (that would really get investment going!)
3) Get Rid of Accredited Investor Regulations (If people can spend thousands of dollars on booze, gambling and lottery tickets, let them invest in startups that can help the world)
4) Increase Gov’t funding for innovative Startups
5) Offer College Loan Forgiveness Programs for people who start companies after graduation
6) Make Computer Science Classes Mandatory for all grade-school students.
Have any others? Please add to comments below!
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> 4) Increase Gov’t funding for innovative Startups
Govts and large organizations are extremely bad at this. That’s by structure. I wouldn’t ask the govt for money.
> 5) Offer College Loan Forgiveness Programs for people who start companies after graduation
Number of fake startups will go up. The only way to identify if something is a genuinely good startup, is to see if it gets some seal of approval. An investor, or revenues, etc. Again, at this point, I don’t think the founder cares about loan forgiveness.
> 6) Make Computer Science Classes Mandatory for all grade-school students.
Kidding?!
(2) & (3) are whole new blog topics by themselves. It’s unfair to hide it under your main point of visa grants and asking for it. For now, let’s focus on the (1)
(4) – I meant the govts are arguably the single entity, that makes highly incorrect choices at picking “innovative” startups.
Re4: Govt funding works if the only thing they are providing is money… the people deciding what to do with it should be in private industry. For instance they should find a couple of Paul Grahams and give them $100M to incubate startups.
Re5: Yes there needs to be strict policies in place for “fake startups” just like for getting Visas but I know numerous people from Grad school (with $150k in debt) that think they need to work for 2 years to get that debt down before starting a company. We all know that it only gets tougher to start something the longer you wait so anything the govt can do to accelerate that should be considered.
Re6: Definitely should be done.
2) and 3) not hidden and not subtitles of Visa, but other things that gov’t needs to do to spur the economy.
Re4) If PaulGrahams work, they will make the $100M. I love capitalism. Govts must be as less interfering as possible.
Re5) Tell me about identifying fake-startups. How about calling them incompetent? Performance can be measured only by results. It’s impossible to classify two guys with $150K debt, who’s going to make a “competent” startup that’s worth tax-payers money. (I don’t think taxpayer’s money must be touched regardless. Markets will decide.)
Re6) That’s really insane. What about all those doing electronics startups writing blogs calling to include electronic chip making in grad school classes, and making it compulsory? How do you make such a call on someone else’s time.
I agree with (3). I don’t know about (2). But I’m sure either require more comprehensive disclosure of the downsides, and are not an obvious way to say, it spurs the economy.
You can accelerate capitalism in many cases… every great country has done it and is speeds economic progress immensely if done correctly.
Schools have been making calls on what classes people need to take forever… history, science, social science.. they even have mandatory word processing classes in many schools (mine does)…computer science is as valuable if not more than these other things and should be included.