How to help Idaho new/small firms to grow - HB 510 is a good start but how do we extend its beneifts to even smaller firms??

1. Testimony in support of HB 510
Norris Krueger, PhD
ESHIP program, Ewing Marion Kauffman
Foundation
March 10, 2020

2. my credentials
• Recovering tech entrepreneur
• Research PhD & leading entrepreneurship scholar
• 20+ years of entrepreneur-led economic
development
• Blogger/columnist (incl. Idaho Business Review)
• Leader in #1 initiative to grow entrepreneurial
communities (Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation)

3. Growth Firms: More than Jobs
• Hard to grow without innovation/entrepreneurship,
without innovators & entrepreneurs
• Idaho’s entrepreneurial ecosystem is still stuck in
early stage
• But huge potential (Inc. magazine rated Boise as a
potential “surge” city)
• The data behind that from Startup Genome and
others tells us to do more for existing and potential
growth firms.

4. Idaho’s numbers
• We score very high on startups
(mostly solopreneurs)
• We score low on growth firms
• We score low on tech ventures
• (Since 2008, we are down 3500 tech jobs;
since 2010, we are ranked in 40’s for tech)
• We even score low for Main Street firms

5. • Gross new jobs (short-term):
– 58% from startups
– 40% from growing firms
– 2% from firms moving in
• Net new jobs (long-term):
– ~10% from startups
– ~90% from growth firms
again… We CAN do better; SEIA good start
(but how can we help more/smaller firms
benefit??

6. Growth firms mean jobs, yes
but also…
• Better jobs
• Spinouts
• Modeling (growth is contagious!)
• RURAL reach…
• We can do much more to grow growth firms,
but SEIA was a big, successful step

7. key drivers of growth?
• Early-state ecosystems’ #1 predictor of progress =
Connectivity.
• Local, yes, but especially global. Exporting is crucial.
Most of those using SEIA are selling outside Idaho
• Competitive advantages – not just low costs but
entrepreneurial talent (shameless plug for Moscow-
based Economic Modeling Specialists, best labor data
firm in USA)
• We can help Idaho firms to export and to grow as
innovators. Cost-effectively.

8. Some ideas to consider
• Scale Up Alberta (connects workforce development with
entrepreneur development)
• EXISTING Opportunity – expansion capital fund?
• RURAL - #1 model is Network Kansas (they will help)
• Idaho’s own Rural Growth Initiative (a/k/a 44x22) via IWBC
• “America’s New Business Plan” (bipartisan, best thinkers &
doers) Much that Idaho could do at little/no cost.
https://www.startusupnow.org/,
www.startusupnow.org/state <-most relevant link)
• Listen. (Hear…)
• Celebrate. Educate. Initiate.