President Barack Obama is back in office after winning the toughest US election ever but is he good for your startup or venture fund?
Barack Obama is himself tech savvy, with over 22 million twitter followers and over 32 million likes on Facebook. He is known to employ heavily social media in his campaigns and communications. Obama recently answered to questions from fans personally on his Reddit profile, and sure, his thirty minutes presence brought it down.
But this aside, Obama loves tech.
In his acceptance speech Obama emphasizes on innovation. He assured the massive crowd that America will live up to its dream as a leader in tech.
He said,”A country that lives up to its legacy as the global leader in technology and discovery and innovation, with all the good jobs and new businesses that follow.”
The president believes America is a nation of Facebook and Google. In his State of the Union address last year Obama called for all to unite for innovation. Innovation was still top on his agenda in his 2012 State of the Union address with a promise of opening up the global market for innovations. There is therefore both a conducive environment for innovation and a market for final products.
“I will go anywhere in the world to open new markets for our products. And I will not stand by when our competitors don’t play by the rules,” he said.
So this is not the time to give up on your startup idea or prototype. It’s not time to say there are no funds for your small business or venture.
And for CEO’s and CIO’s finding skilled staff won’t be an painful issue anymore.
Obama promised,” I also hear from many business leaders who want to hire in the United States but can’t find workers with the right skills. Growing industries in science and technology have twice as many openings as we have workers who can do the job. Think about that: openings at a time when millions of Americans are looking for work. It’s inexcusable. And we know how to fix it.”
To entrepreneurs in Africa Obama’s win is still good. Silicon Valley has a great influence on the African tech scene. Facebook, Google, Apple, Twitter and Yahoo still inspire entrepreneurs globally and even work to stir innovation internationally. With Obama’s reelection it might not take the US government increases funding to initiatives like DEMO Africa or extend Empact100 or SBA to a city near you.
However his win is not an outright success for entrepreneurs just because they are in business. It requires effort and sharp skills to beat growing competition in the market and public-private partnerships also cannot be ruled out.
The president needs our help too.
Here is his message to his supporters just before his acceptance speech.
President Obama’s message to supporters
I’m about to go speak to the crowd here in Chicago, but I wanted to thank you first.
I want you to know that this wasn’t fate, and it wasn’t an accident. You made this happen.
You organized yourselves block by block. You took ownership of this campaign five and ten dollars at a time. And when it wasn’t easy, you pressed forward.
I will spend the rest of my presidency honoring your support, and doing what I can to finish what we started.
But I want you to take real pride, as I do, in how we got the chance in the first place.
Today is the clearest proof yet that, against the odds, ordinary Americans can overcome powerful interests.
There’s a lot more work to do.
But for right now: Thank you.
Barack
TechCruch give us a full list of his plans for tech here.
This is his jobs plan.
