[Applause]
entrepreneurs tireless dogged
risk-takers giving it their all and
putting it all on the line we celebrate
our entrepreneurial culture in America
the great entrepreneurs and the great
companies that they’ve built indeed the
American Dream itself is built on the
belief that anyone from anywhere can
take forward the next big idea and let’s
remember 250 years ago America itself
was just a start-up and no telling of
the American story would be complete
without the telling of our great
innovators and entrepreneurs like Thomas
Edison who didn’t just start the General
Electric Company his innovations
literally lit up the world or Alexander
Graham Bell whose contributions brought
us Bell Telephone Company but more
importantly help create the connected
world that we all enjoy today or even
the creative spirit of Walt Disney whose
company has entertained families for
generations now for nearly a hundred
years and those that have followed in
their footsteps from Mark Zuckerberg to
Elon Musk to Steve Jobs it’s
breathtaking to think about the impact
on society just these few innovators and
entrepreneurs have had so I started my
career in technology helping to build
the internet revolution that gave me a
terrific view and an understanding of
how the entrepreneurial spirit has the
power to change the world indeed I
didn’t see the internet as a product or
a technology
I saw it as a movement that could
democratize access to ideas information
and communication for people everywhere
in fact those of us working to take the
Internet to the masses in those early
days or animated by to questions who
haven’t we reached and who isn’t in the
arena building the next great
innovations and the next great companies
that could change the world and recently
as I’ve been working in the startup
community I came to realize a few things
are true today
we aren’t tapping the full potential of
innovation and ingenuity in this great
nation because although we’ve built a
startup culture that’s powered our
economy and brought jobs and improved
lives we’ve been building it with one
hand tied behind our back because the
entrepreneurial path that has led to
many of these iconic companies that
breakthrough has favored just a limited
view most of them men and most of them
white but here’s the good news
that means there’s a powerful
opportunity to seize here by simply
extending the same benefits to more
segments of society so there’s lots of
different businesses in America and in
fact the vast vast majority of them are
small businesses and many of those small
businesses don’t actually aspire to
become big businesses someday but that’s
not the sector I want to talk to you
about the sector I want to talk to you
about is what we call the high-growth
sector entrepreneurs who start companies
with big ideas and big dreams that they
can grow and become successful – you
know some of these companies Tesla Whole
Foods Google Airbnb and Starbucks and
what do they share in common they’ve all
been powered by something called venture
capital and in fact venture capital has
become a focus of great study in recent
you
Stanford Business School did a study and
came out with this to say venture
capital has profoundly changed the US
economy it has become the dominant force
in the funding of new innovative
companies so what is venture capital
anyway well as its name suggests its
capital it’s cash infused in a company
at a very early stage that can also
often be transformative for a young
company but it also brings things like
coaching and mentoring and strategic
advice sometimes when it’s needed most
and it often brings an entrepreneur
access into an elite network of powerful
people’s or other successful companies
that can be game-changing for a young
firm or a new entrepreneur but if you
peel back the onion and say gosh so this
really looks like jet fuel that powers
companies that have the potential to
break out who’s getting this venture
capital in recent years only 10 percent
of venture capital has gone to companies
with a female founder and if you flip
that that means that 90 percent has gone
to men and only 1 percent have gone to
companies with an african-american
founder and 75% of all Venter capital
went to just three states California New
York and Massachusetts so what’s going
on here why are we putting all of our
eggs in a small basket well could be a
lot of things right maybe women and
people of color aren’t actually starting
new firms maybe there isn’t really a
performance track record that we can
look at and feel good about investment
in this segment and maybe those states
between the coasts may be successful
companies aren’t being started there
well turns out that the fastest-growing
segment of entrepreneurs are women in
fact women-owned firms are growing at a
rate 1.5 times faster than the national
average there are more than 9 million
women owned firms in the United States
an african-american owned firms they’re
growing at a rate of 60% while non
minority firms are growing at a rate of
just 9% Hispanic entrepreneurs have
tripled there’s more than 2 million in
the United States right now so they’re
definitely out there so could it be this
performance thing let’s look at some
data if we’ve looked at women led
organizations what do we see they
outperformed the S&P 500 by 3x and one
firm peeled back their portfolio of
investments and they found that the
firms with a female founder performs 63
percent better than firms with all-male
founding teams and Forbes reported
racially diverse organizations
outperformed by 35 percent so they’re
clearly performing these segments are
and in some cases outperforming okay so
what about those flyover states that
don’t get much venture capital what’s
happening there there’s a growing view
that the successful companies are being
started in Silicon Valley or just on the
coasts what this map of the United
States draws out where we find the
fortune 500 and why does that matter
because any definition of a successful
startup is one that makes it to the
fortune 500 the elite 500 and as you can
see these successful companies have been
started all over America many of them
between the coasts so what is holding us
back then what could it be
there’s been a lot of focus lately on
something called unconscious bias and
put simply this is the effect on our
decision-making in our perceptions
based on our own backgrounds often
unknowingly making decisions based on
our own experiences TechCrunch took a
look at this and said entrepreneurs will
be categorized as similar if they have a
shared parallel experience with the
investor and they will have a distinct
advantage if they do now consider that
93% of the investing managers of the
leading 100 firms are men to overcome it
we must recognize that unconscious bias
is real
and by the way isn’t it natural that the
people in our networks are people
similar to us and the people that we
closely relate to and understand are
people similar to us it’s only natural
but we must recognize it and we need to
take steps to level the playing field so
that budding entrepreneurs everywhere
and heard of their size their shape
their color where they come from or
their background can believe that they
can get that jet fuel and maybe build
the next great American company
entrepreneurs like Shaw’s Eva’s room
Ozzy was a child of immigrants who came
to America when she was young and she
found a path that led her to Columbia
Business School and while she was at
Columbia she befriended a bunch of young
moms and she heard a common theme they
were having trouble finding healthy baby
food alternatives as the new sort of
health focus and organic movement was
taking place so Shazi saw an opportunity
she said I can solve that problem and
she created a company called happy
family as founder and CEO happy family
has found so much success that inc
magazine named it one of the fastest
growing companies in the United States
two years in a row and fast company
called Shazi a rock star of the new
economy this is Steph Spears
Steph is founder and CEO of a company
called solstice Steph was raised by a
single mom on welfare and through that
experience she watched her mom struggle
to pay the monthly bills to make it all
work so when the solar revolution came
along stuff got really excited about its
potential to address families like the
one she was raised in so she saw an
opportunity so she looked at the solar
revolution she was stunned to learn
something was true tens of millions of
households are potentially locked out of
the solar revolution simply because they
rent their house or they’re a low-income
family or maybe their house is just
positioned in the wrong way but that
fact didn’t dodge Steph in fact it
inspired her so what did she create
through solstice these are community
solar farms that neighborhoods can share
their low-cost access to solar think of
it as the sharing economy for those who
need it most so really the question is
here how do we get more Shahs ease and
how do we get more stuffs today I want
to propose five new rules that perhaps
if followed could be game-changing rule
number one let’s lose the stereotypes
that have been holding us back this is a
recent Google search under successful
entrepreneurs now it’s not really about
Google is it because their algorithms
just rely on what’s out there in pop
culture and media in movies and in
television we need to begin to focus on
other great entrepreneurs that come from
other sectors like Daymond John like
tory burch and yes like Oprah Winfrey
rule number two recognize that
unconscious bias is real it doesn’t have
to be intentional but it will play a
role if we are not intentional which
brings us to rule number three be
intentional let’s really put our efforts
into extending
the same privileges that have been there
for limited few to many many new
segments of society rule number four
diverse entrepreneurs are going to bring
us new diverse kinds of innovations
think about Steph if her mom hadn’t
struggled so much to meet basic bills
she might not have seen the need to
address that market there’s an exciting
opportunity in our communities if
diverse entrepreneurs who see things a
little differently come in and mix it up
and bring us all kinds of new
innovations and finally rule number five
be fearless and get in the arena so no
matter who you are there’s a role you
can play help champion the need for
entrepreneurship for all share the
stories in the data that I’ve shared
with you today look at your network and
asked do you know some others who can
help do more here and finally if you’re
out there and you have a new idea be
fearless start your own next great
American company so these are the faces
of founders they’ve all started new
companies and have big dreams their hope
is that this is their moment in the
American story from Alexander Graham
Bell to Oprah Winfrey to Steve Jobs
American ingenuity has brought us the
quality of life we enjoy today
so let’s seize this moment together
this powerful opportunity to democratize
entrepreneurship strengthen our economy
and make sure that anyone from anywhere
has a fair shot at the American dream
thank you very much [Applause]
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