Crisis In US Entrepreneurship

[gla22]

entrepreneurship has largely moved exclusively to tech because of the low cost of capital to enter the market and incredible scalability. Not to mention the VC infrastructure is there and there is a bit of a gold rush mentality. Snapchat 3 billion ?

Why would you start a business in another industry when in tech you can cash out with 100mil at 30. The smartest people in the world are doing work of onlyaverage difficulty in the financial sector for ridiculous amounts of money or making gimicky websites and scale-able tech companies and cashing out.

[The Dharma Bum]

high entry barrier due to cartelization mostly explains the phenomena if you ask me.

our system actively stifles innovation and the flow of information to protect existing concerns

[Mr.Bill]

[Saz]

[nordictruce]

I AM an Entrepreneur. Twice over. I started a company in my late teens and sold out when I was 21, took a break, did a lot of drugs lol, came back and started the company I run/own now 6 years ago. I'll start another by the end of the year.


I'm an old school Entrepreneur, I'm smart but I'm not the smartest person on earth. I made some mistakes, and didn't get it right the first time. Or 2nd. Or 20th lol. But I burned all my bridges behind me to where the only place I could go is forward. I lived out of my car at one point when I was 19. I've walked around with holes in my shoes. My credit still is sub 550 from all the up's and down's i've had financially, but I also own my house outright, so it really doesn't matter.


I say all that to say, this is a subject that I can talk at length about, and I'm going to give you a few accurate, real world reasons why entrapurnership is down


1. Innovation is not encouraged. Not only am I an entrepreneur, becuase of the nature of my business (web development) I interact with entrepreneurs on a daily basis. I hear all types of business plans, all types of things. I put together about 100 proposals a month for new work. I.. might... MIGHT.. come across 1 idea that makes me turn my head every 3-4 months. might. What I do run into are copycats. I'm not even talking about taking functionality and making an niche version of it. See no one is interested in having a website that makes money.


The last really interesting unique idea that I came across for a website was a woman up in New Jersey, who just wanted to sale custom made sport headbands for women. Which doesn't sound like a lot until you consider that 1. there's a market for it and 2. no one else is doing it lol. We built her site last year and she makes so much money off her site now she had to quit her job to handle all the orders she gets. We're now making a snazzier version of her website



My entire life has been my parents telling me what not to do. Don't do this it's too hard. Take the easier way. Don't dot his. What if you don't.. What if..



2. Everyone is broke. The best thing I did was get "in the game" before I had a kid, before I had student loans.. My rationale was that I'll give it a year (then 1 became 2 then 2 became 3, etc) before I go to college, i can always to go college if it doesn't work out. I was 18-19 at the time. But I knew I had one thing on my side. I had no expenses whatsoever. I had no college loans to pay back. I was living ("at the time) rent free at home, no car note, nothing.

These student loans are now making it virtually impossible for people to start businesses unless you have parents like Romney who just give out 5 thousand dollars to start a company like it's nothing. I didn't have that. Say you are really starting an ecommerce website. You're going to do it right. Say you use an open source platform.. you're going to do it right so you're going to pay 2 grand at least for it. Probably closer to 3 depending on the exact functionality. You have to pay for marketing. You have to buy inventory.


Even if you WEREN'T in school this would take you a good year to save up. But you can't do that and pay back student loans. If you do save the money you have one and I mean one shot to get it right.


Where does this 5-10 thousand dollars in seed capital come from? The girl above, it took her 4 years to save that money to start her website and she was able to do that by moving back home and with her dad matching her penny for penny with the business seed capital money.



This is where the student loan crisis is really going to hit home. There is no money to startup companies. Most companies aren't "VC funded" they are dudes that scrape together a few grand and try an idea. We can't do that right now.

I have one client out of 15 that's under the age of 40. Not 30. 40.



3. You're not rewarded


Let's say you somehow scrape together this great idea and you come up with the money. You still have a big problem.

SOCIETY does not reward entrepreneurship. 20 years ago I could start a company and still try to have a family life. I could come home and tell my wife about my struggles with my company and she be there with me while we grow. now that same woman is looking on facebook at all her friends with "fun guys" and "guys who have normal jobs" and she sees the instant gratification and leaves you lol. That's the truth of the matter, the 800 pound gorilla in the room so to speak. WE live in an instant gratification society. Hot instagram pics and such are what people care about, not putting your head down and working towards something.


The "party stage" has become too important to give up. "Yeah bro but you only live once" is the new motto for millennals, me being one of them. I had a guy tell me once "why would I do all that work to be successful when I can just sit at home and play my ps3 and watch porn" lol. You can't argue with this logic.


I don't even know what it's like to work for someone anymore I have not had a boss since I quit working at best buy when I was 17. But most peole my age aren't yarning to start businesses. They just want money lol. They don't care about innovation. They want money. Why start something from scratch when you can just work your way up the top of something that's there.

[Indy]

That damn well sums it up!

[eynon81]

[Winchester]

[eynon81]