
Innovation Doesn't Take a Vacation in an Economic Downturn - daveambrose
http://ventureblog.com/articles/2009/01/innovation_doesnt_take_a_vacation_in_an_economic_downturn.php
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gojomo
Innovation might still take a 'staycation'. Those driven to innovate will do
it at their current employer, or as a limited moonlighting project, or
otherwise on a smaller scale.

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time_management
Disagree strongly, not with the main point, but with the argument that
innovation isn't in serious danger.

 _So why am I optimistic about investing in 2009? Because entrepreneurship is
an addiction, it isn't a choice. Great entrepreneurs aren't driven to create
companies because it is easy, or because capital is plentiful, or because the
public markets are swallowing anything the venture community will throw at
them. Great entrepreneurs start companies because they can't help themselves._

If the entrepreneurs can't get funding or customers, they won't be able to
start companies, so they'll go off and do other things. More than drive is
needed; they also need to eat and make rent.

It is possible to squash the entrepreneurial spirit of a people, as observed
in post-Soviet Eastern Europe.

 _While the resources an entrepreneur may be able to bring to bear on a
problem may vary with the economic climate, the desire -- the need -- to
innovate never goes away. And Venture Capital is the fuel of that innovation._

There's also a need for safe, reliable drinking water in sub-Saharan Africa.
That doesn't mean that it's always there. It does not follow from something
being necessary or desirable that it can be counted upon to be there.

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apsurd
To reply to your points specifically...

1\. There will always be a need for things. So there will always be customers.
There will always be capital available. Always. Think about the great
depression. There were still very rich people. So I think it is not so
valuable to argue in absolutes, as long as there exist customers and capital
we have an economy, the issue is not how small, hard or tight, if it exist,
then there will be entrepreneurs.

2\. Your quoted statement says "the desire- the need to innovate never goes
away. The author is talking about the personal and obsessive need of the
entrepreneur, not "needs" in general. And your example of a need for safe
drinking water... that need will be filled when there's money to be made in
filling that need....

