Entrepreneurship isn’t ‘pro-business,’ it’s pro-newcomer — and America 250 is the moment to say so

Pro-entrepreneurship is not necessarily pro-business.

These interests may overlap, and they’re certainly confused by many. Those of us who champion new business creation and getting more people their chance need to spend more effort distinguishing the two. This year’s US Semiquincentennial, celebrating 250 years since the Declaration of Independence, is a worthy time to do this.

“Who are the founders of America for the future?” asked Victor Hwang, the founder-CEO of pro-entrepreneurship advocacy group Right to Start and its America The Entrepreneurial campaign. “That’s us.”

“America is the ultimate entrepreneurial idea.”

Brian Brackeen, Lightship Capital

He’s also one of my co-hosts for Builders Live, Technical.ly’s monthly podcast focused on entrepreneur-led economic development and “ecosystem building.” This year’s Technical.ly Builders Conference (May 6-8) will feature the first live recording of our podcast. It is in Philadelphia as part of this anniversary, which Hwang is referring to as the quarter-millennium anniversary: Early-bird tickets are open for a short while longer.

This month we asked, “What might entrepreneurs and their supporters inject into this year’s national consciousness?”

Nationalism has a dark past, and patriotism can be misused. But nation-building has and will continue to shape the world, so I’d much rather be part of it. If you don’t tell your story, someone else will. I want entrepreneurs and their supporters to shape the American story.

“America is the ultimate entrepreneurial idea,” said Brian Brackeen, the investor and founder of Lightship Capital. Not because it’s flawless, he said, but because of its disruptive and messy founding.

The challenge now is vying for what the American identity is today, amid toxic politics and accusations of federal government excess. Entrepreneurs, who are supported across the political spectrum, have something to offer.

“America’s just as much yours as it is anybody else’s,” said Rae’Mah Henderson, the Techstars investment associate who is also our Builders Live co-host.

Of course, entrepreneurship is a far-flung concept. How to build a coalition across such a wide-ranging group? Marking boundaries helps: Entrepreneurship is the act of starting. 

It’s pro-competition, pro-disruption and pro-creation, not incumbency — hence why pro-entrepreneurship strategies won’t always neatly overlap with pro-established business interest groups. In my experience, this is one reason why traditional economic development struggles to implement serious pro-entrepreneurship. Other points feel safe: defending the rule of law and free speech. 

This moment deserves stronger calls. Here are three other issues entrepreneurship boosters should become aligned on.

1) Standing for science as an economic issue

If you care about regional dynamism, you care about public research. Though the Trump administration has battled with university science departments and federal industrial policy has been under scrutiny, congressional Republicans have defended science funding. 

Empirically, academic research tends to generate business opportunities that private markets underinvest in, which is why economists keep finding high “social returns” to government R&D investment. A recent overview synthesizes evidence linking federal R&D to productivity growth and large spillover benefits.

More concretely: NIH funding doesn’t just help universities publish papers. It shows up downstream in private-sector innovation. One widely cited study finds that increasing NIH funding measurably increases private patents.

So when science funding becomes politically fragile, entrepreneurs should treat it like a supply-chain risk for the future.

2) Immigration is one of America’s most productive entrepreneurship policies

The entrepreneurial story of the US has always been entangled with immigration. That’s not a position statement; it’s backed by research.

Immigrants are substantially more likely to start businesses than the US-born population, per a major study summarized in 2022 by MIT. Kauffman Foundation research has long echoed the same pattern: Immigrants are disproportionately likely to become entrepreneurs.

Americans may have conflicted opinions about people illegally entering the country, but we overwhelmingly support pro-immigrant stances. Recently polling in particular shows declining support for the aggressive tactics deployed by the federal government for identifying foreign-born residents.

3) Economic mobility is the American promise, and entrepreneurship can contribute

If you strip American mythology down to a single value, it’s something like this: a person should be able to change their station through effort, skill, risk and community. But mobility is uneven, and it’s not just a “work harder” problem.

The Opportunity Insights body of work has long documented how intergenerational outcomes vary dramatically by place, race and class. More recent studies show mobility has changed over time in ways that widen class gaps for some groups while narrowing racial gaps in certain cohorts, a reminder that these systems can move in both directions.

Henderson knew an Alabama startup founder who built for years, only to get “lapped” by better-capitalized peers. If better execution won out, then fair enough. But if there was no real competition, everyone loses.

Entrepreneurship and in-demand skills are tools for economic mobility, but effort must go into making programs and resources better understood and more accessible.

So what does a ‘Semiquincentennial entrepreneurship agenda’ look like?

The American flag is complicated, Henderson said. Maybe all are. But inaction is no answer. 

Plato famously argued that “The price good men pay for indifference to public affairs is to be ruled by evil men.” Hwang’s America the Entrepreneurial program calls for small, individual acts. 

Entrepreneurship is one of the few cross-regional languages America still speaks. But in 2026, it has to be used in service of something bigger than pitch decks.Three such issues to stand on include advancing science, supporting legal immigration and prioritizing economic mobility. Plenty of others exist too. Entrepreneurs must stand for something.

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