Angel Insights Blog

Many in the world are waking up to the huge importance of entrepreneurs – who create high quality jobs and innovations that change people’s quality of life.  Entrepreneurs, investors, incubators, universities, and a wide variety of community leaders have known about this for a long time, but now the public and elected officials are also seeing it.

They’re also celebrating entrepreneurs and now angel investors in a series of events, proclamations, articles and other programs:

• Global Entrepreneurship Week – “GEW,” which is all this week, is the world’s largest celebration of entrepreneurship and is the innovators and job creators who launch startups that bring ideas to life, drive economic growth and expand human welfare.  During one week each November, GEW inspires people everywhere through local, national and global activities designed to help them explore their potential as self-starters and innovators. These activities, from large-scale competitions and events to intimate networking gatherings, connect participants to potential collaborators, mentors and even investors—introducing them to new possibilities and exciting opportunities.

• Global Business Angels Day – The first ever “GBAD” (I’m still thinking on that acronym) is a part of GEW, aimed at highlighting the role that business angels play in helping new firms start and scale – driving innovation, jobs, and economic growth around the world.  ACA and our colleague angel associations all over the world are part of the celebration – including Canada, Europe, Middle East and Africa.

• National Entrepreneurs’ Day – Congress is also getting into the act, promoting a permanent national day to celebrate the importance of entrepreneurs, on the third Tuesday of each November, during Global Entrepreneurship Week.  From what I’ve read, the effort to create a formal day in the US both recognizes the importance of entrepreneurs, but also focuses on our national responsibility to develop public policies that support entrepreneurs as they start and grow their businesses.  Senators Jerry Moran (R-KS) and Cory Booker  (D-NJ) have introduced as resolution in the Senate to create National Entrepreneurs’ Day as a federally recognized holiday. If you’d like to see this date happen annually, click here to vote for it.

November also includes other important celebrations such as National Veterans Small Business Week, which ACA recognized last week, and the upcoming Small Business Saturday on November 29^th.

All of this celebration makes a lot of sense.  As Reps. Scott Peters, Ron Kind, and Patrick Murphy wrote yesterday, “There's no question that the flame of entrepreneurship still burns brightly for millions of Americans: According to the Kauffman Foundation, 70 percent of our young people still dream of owning their own business one day. And new business owners are still putting their own resources on the line to kickstart their ventures: Eighty-two percent of entrepreneurs in 2012 used their own savings for startup cash. That level of commitment and determination makes it clear that entrepreneurs and small-business owners will continue to power our economic growth.”

And let’s not forget how important angel investors are to these wonderful entrepreneurs:  last year angels invested nearly $25 billion in about 71,000 entrepreneurs in every US state, providing nearly 90 percent of the outside equity funding for startups.  They added mentoring and other intellectual capital to help those startups grow and be successful.

I invite you to join these various celebrations in any way you can.  If you have events or information to publish about your work in entrepreneurship or investing, let the world know!  You can post your information on the GEW website.