There Are Two American Economies

INC. Magazine story on TechStars makes an interesting point of page 61.  “There are two American economies”.  Whereas huge swaths of the country remain hobbled by scarce credit, depressed home prices, and high levels of unemployment, the technology hubs in Silicon Valley, Boston and NYC are booming.

If you are where the start ups are, you could never think there was a recession.  If you are a good software code writer, there might not be a recession in your near future.

As the rest of the country frets, and worries about a global meltdown, our creative folks are seeing little impact on their world.  A few years ago I was assisting a lady who was trying to found a creative (two year) university here in Columbia. I learned so much about the future, and why America needs to be pushing our creative types, not worrying about why our kids don’t do math as good as the Indian’s and Chinese.  Our future will rest,not on math in the traditional form, but on ideas and related products that entertain or assist people all over the world.

Four years ago Brad Feld (venture capitalist, co founder TechStars) made an investment in Zynga, a company that makes online video games for Facebook users.  Today, Zynga trades on Nasdaq and is worth $9 billion. 

Which brings me to a final point, I had quit subscribing to INC Magazine some years ago and now regret that.  The magazine has improved greatly from my prior experience, I find every issue contains interesting stories.  I tear them out, and pass the rest of the magazine on to a friend to read (eco friendly pass along? --- some end up in assisted living centers I think).

Credit:  TechStars is a business incubator that is now in five cities.  Evaluations of business propositions can take as little as 2.5 minutes or less.  One founder thinks that he can spot the winners in 20 seconds.  The get 1,500 application for 14 spots in their boot camps.   Have you heard of CrowdFunding ?  Maybe that’s my next Blog.