Kauffman Foundation News (4/27/11): Startup Weekend Featured in This Edition of the Kauffman Foundation’s Ideas at Work

Ideas and Insights
This edition of Ideas at Work features a conversation with Marc Nager, director of Startup Weekend, a nonprofit organization based out of Seattle, Washington, which hosts fifty-four-hour events all over the world that educate aspiring entrepreneurs by immersing them in the process of moving an idea to market.

Stirring Up the Startup World
A Conversation With Marc Nager
Director, Startup Weekend
Startup Weekend has helped educate more than 30,000 entrepreneurs at some 475 events worldwide, facilitating the launch of more than 650 new startup ventures around the globe. With events in more than 124 cities and thirty-plus countries, Startup Weekend is a signature event during Global Entrepreneurship Week, a Kauffman Foundation initiative that annually introduces millions of young people around the world to entrepreneurship.
Marc Nager jumped full-time into Startup Weekend in 2009. He serves as director along with Clint Nelsen and Franck Nouyrigat. A bootstrapping startup itself, Startup Weekend operates with a small core team based in Seattle and key program facilitators in cities around the world. With a background in international business, technical services, and business processes, Nager travels the world building communities and advising startups. In the following interview, he describes what happens at these events that are inspiring startups worldwide and how the Startup Weekend phenomenon has struck a chord that resonates with entrepreneurs everywhere. Read the entire interview…>> http://www.kauffman.org/entrepreneurship/stirring-up-the-startup-world.aspx?utm_source=Newsletter&utm_medium=Opticast&utm_campaign=Ideas_At_Work_04_2011

More news from the Foundation:
Young Firms Face Post-Recession Lending Challenges
New data released on the Kauffman Firm Survey, the world’s largest longitudinal survey of new businesses, has identified a marked increase in 2009 in firms being denied bank loans or credit due to tougher lending restrictions-and firms not applying for needed loans because they feared being denied. The Kauffman Foundation-sponsored study of new businesses founded in 2004 and tracked over their early years showed that 89 percent of firms that were denied loans in 2009 felt that banks’ heightened requirements played a role in the denials. Read more…>> http://www.kauffman.org/newsroom/lost-sales-and-tighter-lending-restrictions-challenge-young-firms-in-post-recession-economy-according-to-kauffman-study.aspx?utm_source=Newsletter&utm_medium=Opticast&utm_campaign=Ideas_At_Work_04_2011

Calling All Makers to Kansas City’s First Maker Faire
Maker Faire, a two-day event that attracts thousands of people of all ages to celebrate the Do-It-Yourself (DIY) movement, is coming to Kansas City’s Union Station, June 25 and 26, 2011. The community festival showcases the creativity of scientists, engineers, students, welders, software developers, hackers, circuit benders, musicians, crafters, artists, and food artisans, who exhibit new technology, electronic gizmos, robots, urban farming, ’slow-made’ foods, homemade clothes, quilts, and sculptures. Kansas City is accepting applications for Makers to exhibit their creations through May 6, 2011. Those interested in being a Maker exhibitor can go here to fill out an application. Read more…>> http://www.kauffman.org/newsroom/union-station-to-host-maker-faire-kansas-city.aspx?utm_source=Newsletter&utm_medium=Opticast&utm_campaign=Ideas_At_Work_04_2011

Robots Roll Into St. Louis for Championship
More than 350 of the nation’s top high school robotics teams will converge on the Edward Jones Dome in St. Louis, Missouri, for the FIRST Robotics Championship, April 27-30. The Kauffman Foundation is the founding sponsor for high school teams in the Kansas City region and established the Greater Kansas City Regional Competition. Teams from Olathe Northwest High School and Shawnee Mission South High School in Kansas, and Lee’s Summit West High School, Lee’s Summit High School, Liberty High School, and Kansas City Northland Homeschoolers in Missouri have earned their way to the FIRST Robotics Championship. Read more…>> http://www.kauffman.org/education/FIRST-Robotics.aspx?utm_source=Newsletter&utm_medium=Opticast&utm_campaign=Ideas_At_Work_04_2011

Report Makes Case for Frontier Economics
Contrary to widespread predictions following the 2008 global financial crisis, the changing nature of economic growth means that prosperity is actually more, not less, reliant on free, competitive markets. “Frontier Economics: Why Entrepreneurial Capitalism is Needed Now More than Ever,” a report released by the Kauffman Foundation, explains why the requirements of economic growth are changing and how policymakers must adapt. Read more…>>http://www.kauffman.org/newsroom/economic-growth-hinges-on-frontier-economics-of-entrepreneurial-upstarts-and-reduced-government-intervention.aspx?utm_source=Newsletter&utm_medium=Opticast&utm_campaign=Ideas_At_Work_04_2011

Kauffman Legacy Fund Grants go to Kansas City Institutions
The Kauffman Foundation has awarded two new grants totaling $3.75 million from the Foundation’s Kauffman Legacy Fund. A grant of $2.75 million was awarded to the Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts, while the Harry S. Truman Library Institute will receive a grant of $1 million. Both grants will support expanded programs and community outreach. Read more…>> http://www.kauffman.org/newsroom/kauffman-foundation-announces-two-legacy-fund-grants-for-local-institutions.aspx?utm_source=Newsletter&utm_medium=Opticast&utm_campaign=Ideas_At_Work_04_2011

Paper Considers Financial Industry’s Effect on Entrepreneurship
The expansion of the financial sector over the past few decades shifted the flow of capital toward financial assets, creating inefficiencies that had material economic impacts, according to “Financialization and Its Entrepreneurial Consequences,” a study released by the Kauffman Foundation. Although widespread entrepreneurial capitalism requires a significant and active financial services sector, the industry’s growing size potentially suppressed entrepreneurship as financial services and young companies compete for many of the same employees, according to the study. Read more…>>http://www.kauffman.org/newsroom/expanding-financial-sector-depleting-pool-of-potential-high-growth-company-founders.aspx?utm_source=Newsletter&utm_medium=Opticast&utm_campaign=Ideas_At_Work_04_2011

Grant to Expand Program for High-Growth Entrepreneurs
The Kauffman Foundation has made a challenge grant to initiate a regional expansion of PIPELINE, the nationally acclaimed entrepreneurial “immersion” program for innovative, high-growth entrepreneurs. The grant follows on a close relationship between the two organizations since PIPELINE’s inception and will foster increased collaboration between the Foundation’s Kauffman Labs for Enterprise Creation initiative and the PIPELINE program, also headquartered in Kansas City. Read more…>> http://www.kauffman.org/newsroom/kauffman-foundation-announces-challenge-grant-to-expand-pipeline-program-for-high-growth-entrepreneurs.aspx?utm_source=Newsletter&utm_medium=Opticast&utm_campaign=Ideas_At_Work_04_2011

Kauffman Facebook Page Adds Custom Landing Tab
In the last year and a half the official Kauffman Foundation Facebook page has grown to more than 2,400 people who like and monitor the page. Now, fans can interact with the Foundation through a new custom landing tab that allows them to find out more about Kauffman, to check out latest research and news, and to connect with the Foundation through the newsletter, Twitter and RSS feeds, and more. Read more…>> https://www.facebook.com/kauffmanfdn?v=app_149177351798362