Posts Tagged: "Kauffman"

American Entrepreneurship Languishes as Startups Face Unfavorable Ecosystem

There can be no dispute that the level of business startup activity has been on the decline in the United States over the past few decades. So alarming is the downward trend that publications like the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal and others have tackled the issue in depth. Inc. Magazine has even asked whether entrepreneurship in America is dead? Still, a disturbing counter-factual narrative seems to be taking hold inside the Beltway, and on Capitol Hill. Despite all research and data to the contrary, some are actually saying that startups are on the rise, and then using carefully selected and tortured data points to claim that patent reforms are the reason for the rise in startups, and more patent reforms are needed.

Open Letter Exaggerates the Benefits of Recent Patent Reforms

HTIA’s letter argues that venture capital funding and startup activity have grown in recent years, further proof of their view that the federal government has properly pursued patent system reforms. Using data tools available through PwC MoneyTree, the HTIA cites data indicating that venture capital investments in the U.S. have increased from $32.8 billion in 2012 up to $61 billion in 2016, representing an 86 percent increase in that time. Of course, the letter easily lets go of the fact that the graph shows that venture capital funding actually dropped significantly by about $15 billion between 2015 and 2016 alone, a point the HTIA’s own data graphs prove. As for startup activity, the HTIA collected data from the Kauffman Index of Startup Activity to make its argument that startup activity has increased by 194 percent between 2012 and 2016. Again, there’s no acknowledgement of a concerning recent data point, here the absolute stagnation of new startup activity between 2015 and 2016.