We are born to be starters, makers, doers, dreamers.
Everyone has the right to pursue their entrepreneurial dreams… a right to start.
To fulfill that right, we must unleash entrepreneurial opportunity for everyone. Regardless of race, place, or background. Across every community.
When the Right to Start is realized, prosperity spreads through homegrown jobs, higher incomes, stronger communities, less poverty, and more opportunity for all.
Learn more in our free book, We Are All Starters: A Manifesto to Renew Ourselves and Our Nation.
Here’s how we make entrepreneurial opportunity a civic priority.
1. Change minds. Lift the voices of entrepreneurs through storytelling and media.
2. Change policies. Advocate for pro-entrepreneur policies by engaging policymakers and civic leaders at all levels.
3. Change communities. Organize and mobilize citizens to take action to support entrepreneurial opportunity.
Why Right to Start matters.
America is confronting an entrepreneurial crisis. The system is tilted against everyday entrepreneurs. But we can change that.
America’s Startup Slump
Since the 1970s, America’s rate of entrepreneurship has fallen by nearly half. Data from the U.S. Census BDS shows the downward trend in new business formation.
The system is skewed
Entrepreneurs have too little time or money to advocate for themselves. But survey data from the Kauffman Foundation shows that entrepreneurs are getting left out.
Entrepreneurs drive job growth
New businesses create almost all job growth in an economy. Research shows that young businesses create almost all net new jobs, while older businesses shed jobs or net zero jobs.
America is still a Startup Nation
There is hope. Because Americans still dream. Survey data from the SBA shows that, at its heart, America is still a “Startup Nation” inside. That energy is bottled up but is ready to be unleashed.
Change the system with these 6 principles.
1. Everyone has a fundamental Right to Start.
We have the right to pursue our entrepreneurial dreams and shape the destiny of our own lives.
2. We must protect and nourish starters.
Society should provide fair access to resources for all of us to start and grow.
3. To level the playing field, tilt it.
Americans don’t seek favors, but every starter deserves an equal shot to succeed.
4. Renewal comes bottom-up.
Communities and nations are transformed by lifting up their people.
5. Grow ecosystems to grow economies.
Prosperity for all comes by breaking down barriers, fostering trust, bridging differences.
6. All of us matter.
Every big idea starts small and vulnerable, and needs all of our help to grow.