Intel, Google, IBM Among The First To Join President Obama's "Startup America" Campaign

Today, President Obama announced the launch of Startup America, a national (public/private) initiative to celebrate, inspire, and accelerate high-growth entrepreneurship throughout the nation. The core goals of Startup America are to increase the number of new high-growth firms that are creating economic growth, innovation, and quality jobs; celebrate and honor entrepreneurship as a core American value and source of competitive advantage; and inspire and empower an ever-greater diversity of communities and individuals to build great American companies.

Among the early companies to join the Startup America Partnership are familiar names Intel, IBM, Google, Facebook, HP and AOL co-founder Steve Case who will chair the partnership.

As part of this partnership, and in conjunction with its ongoing Invest in America initiative, Intel Capital, Intel Corporation’s global investment organization has pledged to invest another $200 million in American technology companies and joined the campaign’s board of advisors.

“Intel is dedicated to creating a culture of investment in the United States that supports American startups and the country’s future competitiveness,” said Arvind Sodhani, president of Intel Capital and Intel executive vice president. “We are pleased to join the Administration in the effort to help new businesses succeed in the United States and consider this partnership an important opportunity to promote education, innovation and entrepreneurship to maintain a globally competitive economy.”


IBM will invest $150 million in 2011 to fund programs that promote entrepreneurs and new business opportunities in the United States. HP will be investing more than $4 million in 2011 in the HP Learning Initiative for Entrepreneurs (HP LIFE). Facebook will be launching Startup Days, a series of events around the country that helps provide entrepreneurs with engineering and design support to build off the Facebook Platform. While Google is partnering with Network for Teaching Entrepreneurship (NFTE), a nonprofit that provides entrepreneurship education for at-risk high school students from low-income communities, to offer a number of NFTE’s lessons and curriculum plans to Bay Area students. And startup incubator TechStars is rolling out “The TechStars Network,” which encourages and promotes regional organizations that operate start-up accelerator programs with models similar to the incubator.


Goals of Startup America
Startup America will:

• Expand access to capital for high-growth startups throughout the country;
• Expand entrepreneurship education and mentorship programs that empower more Americans not just to get a job, but to create jobs;
• Strengthen commercialization of the about $148 billion in annual federally-funded research and development, which can generate innovative startups and entirely new industries;
• Identify and remove unnecessary barriers to high-growth startups; and
• Expand collaborations between large companies and startups.

Learn more:

• Frequently Asked Questions
• Obama Administration Commitments
• Private Sector Commitments
• National Innovation Strategy
• State of the Union Address
• Small Business Jobs Act
• National Entrepreneurs’ Day
• Startup America Partnership website