Launchpad Republic

10Maintaining the Entrepreneurial Advantage

As we have seen over America's long economic history, entrepreneurial capitalism generates impressive innovation and renewal, as well as rising prosperity. Upstarts continue to develop new products and services, enter existing markets or create new ones, and challenge incumbents. Those that succeed in becoming industry leaders then face their own pressures to adapt. That process creates cycles of broad growth and productivity over a sustained period, as well as social mobility and even churn among politically powerful elites. Even if messy at times, this remarkable record has stood out globally for centuries, and has been in many respects the secret to America's economic success.

Since the fall of the Berlin Wall, and in the light of several decades of Silicon Valley's emergence as a global model, the consensus that entrepreneurship is a key driver of economic growth and development has taken root around the world. In fact, entrepreneurship and the benefits of investing in and encouraging start‐up enterprises may be America's most powerful current export. Over the past several years, the growth in early‐stage and venture capital investing has skyrocketed in many countries across the globe, and the number of unicorns based outside the United States has grown dramatically. Venture capital had a record year in 2021, including inside the United States, but it was also the first year in which more than half of all venture investments were ...