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Ask HN: What should I bring up at the White House's Startup America event?

4 points by JMill ↗ HN
I and my business co-founder, Mem, have been invited to participate in a discussion at the Startup America: Reducing Barriers event next week in Pittsburgh. We seek your input.

We will be joining Administration officials and local high-growth entrepreneurs to what processes and regulations need to be changed/improved to build a more supportive environment for entrepreneurship and innovation. Mem and I will also be attending a roundtable focusing on the Environment. (Our startup, Dimples [http://getdimples.com], is in the eco space.)

We want to offer you the opportunity to make your voice heard through ours. (We'll do the best we can!)

What are some pain points and/or ways that the White House can help you succeed in your startup?

15 comments

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JMill
As an example, we'll be mentioning the difficulties we've had with stewarding our patent application -- the Patent Office fees are reasonable (a couple hundred $$$) but the fact that a good lawyer is essentially required to write the claims (to the tune of several thousand dollars) is killer for a bootstrapping startup.

Additionally, though the Patent Office offers expedited patent issuance for qualifying clean/green tech, there are additional fees that must be paid for this service. Wouldn't a fee waiver or discount make sense to help spur innovation in these fields?

Links: Reducing Barriers Roundtables: http://www.sba.gov/content/startup-america-reducing-barriers... Startup America: http://www.whitehouse.gov/issues/startup-america

triviatise
A lawyer isnt really required, but someone who is experienced is. I know a one engineer who does all his own patents. It just so happens that most of the people that are experienced are lawyers. Any process they have will be sufficiently complex such that you need help the first few times through it. But once you have done it a few times, then you can do it yourself.
bediger
How about mentioning that the movie and music-recording industries are pushing a concept called "intellectual property" that's probably false to fact. The consequences of their views of "intellectual property" have consequences to innovation and invention in just about every other walk of life that are detrimental to making progress, and preserving our culture.
JMill
Copyright and IP should be a good discussion starter. It's noted. Thanks!
apex32
If he really wants to help small business and startups, he can work to streamline and consolidate the taxes and regulations.

the problem is not so much the amount of taxes and regulations -- it is the fact that they are redundant, conflicting, and coming from EVERYWHERE! It seems that any govt agency that exists, from the town up past the USG to the UN, wants to stick a finger in my business and stir it or take something out.

As an example, I run a small high tech design and manufacturing shop (mostly carbon fiber and similar tech). This is THE MAJOR obstacle that has prevented us from hiring people for more than a few incidental projects. Simply too much paperwork, regulations, and requirements to be managed before I get the first employee in the door. Seriously, you need to hire an attorney, insurance and tax consultants, and accountants just to sort it out properly. Worse yet, even if I do this, I still cannot be sure that I'm fully compliant with all requirements, and some govt agent isn't going to knock on my door next month to tell me I need to meet another requirement.

If the POTUS could make a program to streamline and organize ALL the governmental aspects of a startup or small biz, it would be enormously helpful. If I could just go to one place (website, office, point of contact, whatever) and get fully setup, many more people would be hired.

This would also dovetail nicely with the recently announced program to reduce redundant oversight agencies, where multiple agencies regulate the same activity.

Oh yes, and simplifying the tax code would help too. when I say simplify, I mean take the tens of thousands of pages of tax law and regs, burn them to a fine dust, and replace them with something that can be written on three standard pages. I love that I'll be getting a nice tax credit this year for being a manufacturer, but I'd rather pay exactly the same as EVERYONE else (e.g., including GE), and not have to invest so much absolutely unproductive resources into complying with the so-called tax code.

triviatise
Im not sure either of these things is really true. As far as compliance with employment regulations, as a small business you are mostly exempt. However, if you want you can use a PEO which will literally take care of everything (which is minimal). You dont need to hire any of the above people to hire your first employee.
phlux
One thing that really needs to be addressed is fair and equal data access. This encompasses both issues of net neutrality and the legality of municipal networks (both wired and wireless)

To this end, I would really like to see a national effort similar to the undertaking of building out the physical highway system in the 50s, where we have a nationally sponsored robust, low cost fiber network.

Yes, I know this has a million details and complexities - but I would like to hear if there is any thought at all to such a concept.

The idea that we are to forever have the internet beholden to companies such as the big telecom carriers is a pretty bleak thought.

Municipalities should build out a local fiber infrastructure, and we should have federally sponsored backbone links.

They provide grants for high-speed rail - why not grants for high-speed data between major cities?

JMill
Do you think bandwidth caps are a startup barrier as well?
phlux
I think all infrastructure is a startup barrier.

Shared offices are great, but one thing that would be of real interest is a startup technology package that provides a range of tech to a startup:

Full IT Services - from silicon valley to support startups from around the country, a package that includes:

Hosting, servers, bandwidth, support etc.

JMill
This sounds like a good opportunity for private enterprise.

How might regulation help spur growth in this area?

3dFlatLander
Small business health insurance that doesn't cost a small fortune would be fantastic. I know this was a goal of the health care bill passed earlier, but I haven't seen anything to indicate something has actually changed.
triviatise
we have a 90/10 plan, 500 deductible and pay around 1100/month for a family. For singles it is around $200. I feel like these are pretty fair prices.
triviatise
By far the most important thing is financing. There is a huge gap between bank lending and angel/VC's.