For the past 30 years, companies less than five years old have accounted for nearly all net job creation in the United States. With a unique blend of innovation and entrepreneurship, startups challenge the status quo with new ideas and new products while driving our economy, creating wealth and stabilizing our communities.
In an effort to renew focus on innovation and entrepreneurship, the Small Business Administration’s Office of Advocacy is working with thought leaders to amplify the voice of the startup company.
Understanding that innovation and entrepreneurship aren’t localized to one or two geographic regions, Advocacy works to encourage startups throughout the country. By listening to their thoughts and concerns through our regional advocates and small business roundtables and by providing an independent voice in Washington, Advocacy works to promote policies that help startups grow and prosper.
Join Chief Counsel Winslow Sargeant as he discusses:
- Why we need to promote innovation and entrepreneurship.
- Some current challenges that startup companies are facing , including access to capital, and workforce issues such as retaining the best and the brightest and the skills gap.
- How Advocacy works on regulatory, intellectual property, and tax issues to help create a positive startup environment.
Presenter
Dr. Winslow Sargeant is the sixth Chief Counsel for Advocacy of the U.S. Small Business Administration’s Office of Advocacy, appointed by President Obama August 19, 2010. The Office of Advocacy is an independent voice for small business within the federal government with a mission of encouraging policies that support small business start-up, growth, and development.
And Dr. Sargeant knows the challenges of starting and building a small firm. He enrolled in a PhD. Program at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, in 1988 and left in 1992 to work at IBM in Rochester, Minnesota. He received his PhD in electrical engineering in 1995, and worked at ATT/Bell Labs in Allentown, Pennsylvania. In 1997, Dr. Sargeant and partners co-founded Aanetcom, a “fabless” semiconductor integrated circuit design company. The company designed state-of the-art computer circuits for telecom and broadband applications. In March 2000, Aanetcom was acquired by PMC-Sierra, a publicly traded company.
Dr. Sargeant met his wife, Ikanyeng, during his graduate studies at the University of Wisconsin. Winslow and Ikanyeng have three children, Kgosi, Lorato, and Marang.