
American Entrepreneurship: Dead or Alive? - MrDom
http://www.gallup.com/businessjournal/180431/american-entrepreneurship-dead-alive.aspx?print=0
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cylinder
Dead. Tech startups, VC funding etc are so negligible in the broad scope of
the country they are not worth discussing. Everyday entrepreneurship is pretty
much dead. Small family owned businesses, your mom and pop shops (e.g., retail
shop, hardware shop, corner store), small factories, and pretty much whatever
you think of cannot compete in a landscape dominated by massive, consolidated
corporations and chains. Especially when large corporates can get all the
funding they want via banks, bond markets, equity markets, etc, whereas the
idea of a small shop getting a business loan has become a joke.

Don't believe the hype about "disruption," incumbents are thriving and
becoming more dominant every year.

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vineetch
Domination by large corporations in commodity products isn't necessarily a bad
thing. It leaves the brightest & most ambitious entrepreneurs to solve more
complex issues. In 2015, should an ambitious 25 year old create a new pizza
shop or try to create a new tech or bio-medical research company? The examples
I provided are up for debate, but the fact that our basic needs (food,
clothes, home improvement) are taken care of by the Walmart & Home-Depots of
the world might not be such a bad thing. Just aim higher on society's
hierarchy of needs.

~~~
cylinder
Didn't say that it was. I like most chain stores actually, far better than mom
and pops. However, it is diminishing opportunities for a lot of people, and
immigrants especially. My main point of concern is access to capital --
certain people can raise easily without merit, simply by way of personal
networks. Others can't. This is a source of inequality.

