This week, the Wall St. Journal published an article that shines a much-needed spotlight on a major problem our country faces: entrepreneurship in the U.S. is on the decline, and has been for decades– particularly among young people.
“Endangered Species: Young U.S. Entrepreneurs” points out that even though there’s a widely held notion that 20-somethings in our country are a generation of “entrepreneurial risk-takers,” the data tells a different story.
>>Check out the full article here
According to WSJ research, it turns out the number of people under the age of 30 who own a business is at a 24-year-low, and the proportion of startups to all businesses has been nearly cut in half between 1978 and 2011. So why the decline? The author points to a lack of relevant experience, increasing financial hurdles, and fear of failure as the primary factors contributing to the decline of young entrepreneurs.
At VFA, we’ll continue minimizing these obstacles for our Fellows by giving them the tools and resources they need to build something of their own. They’re already off to the races, with five Fellow-founded companies from our first class of 39 Fellows– but that’s just the beginning. We know many other VFAers will start their own businesses– just like Banza, Castle, TernPro, and ZestTea— in the years to come.
You can check out the complete article here. It’s a good reminder that even though we’re Snapchatting our friends from Saturday night Uber rides, the prevalence of the young entrepreneur is not the norm. Let’s get our young people building again!