Dr Jeff Cornwall

There is some evidence of the seeds of creative destruction at work in the economy.

Although venture capital spending was down in the first quarter of 2009, innovation and entrepreneurship are steaming ahead without infusions of VC dollars.

From an article by Scott Harris at MercuryNews.com:

The sheer volume of entrepreneurial activity is striking, and often seems utterly independent of the investment dollars available. One reason is that so much can now be done so cheaply via the Web.

Consider the thousands of applications that techies have developed for Facebook and the Apple iPhone — business platforms that didn’t exist a few years ago. Consider the startups launched on shoestring budgets by Y Combinator and other incubators. Consider the boom in back office software-as-a-service (SaaS). Consider, also, the boom in clean tech — startups that require serious money — as well as the abiding interest in the life science sector.

This is clearly becoming the age of the bootstrapper.  Don’t focus on investment dollars or massive infusions from the SBA as a sign of activity.  Focus, instead, on the grassroots bootstrapping entrepreneurs who will reinvent our economy — if we just would get out of their way!