Starting new businesses — and starting them more quickly — are key to jumpstarting the economy, the co-chair of President Obama’s National Advisory Council on Innovation and Entrepreneurship said today.
Each year, about 500,000 businesses are started in the United States, creating about 4 million jobs annually, Desh Deshpande told members of the Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce.
But starting a successful business requires a good idea, a good entrepreneur, a good mentor and access to capital, said Deshpande, co-founder and chairman of Sycamore Networks and founder of the Deshpande Center for Technological Innovation.
Since the center was established, it has funded more than 90 projects, leading to the creation of 26 companies that have generated $4 million.
Deshpande also started a “social innovation sandbox” in Lawrence and Lowell, encouraging 30,000 students divided into 100 teams to work on innovative projects.
And he pointed to MassChallenge, the $1.1 million startup competition and accelerator that is incubating 125 companies this year, as one of the best models for encouraging innovation and entrepreneurship.