For some small businesses, zeroing in on their uniqueness has helped them endure 2020’s turbulence.

To understand barriers in entrepreneurship, it is useful to gain insight into who wants to, but does not, start a business – and why.

When entrepreneurial ecosystem builders podcast, the advice, resources, and conversations that used to happen in person between entrepreneurs, investors, and local government – still happen.

This report shares findings from a spring 2020 survey of 850 entrepreneurs about their experience during the pandemic, and compares them to results from a survey of more than 400 entrepreneurs in fall 2019, prior to the pandemic.

Kauffman President and CEO, Wendy Guillies, discusses the current state of entrepreneurship, policy that supports new and small business, and the Foundation’s priorities for 2021.

In this conversation, Mark Stodola, former Mayor of Little Rock and policy leader on the future of work, is joined by Chattanooga, Tennessee Mayor Andy Berke; Huntington, West Virginia Mayor Steve Williams; Columbia, South Carolina Mayor Steve Benjamin; Des Moines, Iowa Mayor Frank Cownie; and Juliet Schor, Economist and Sociology Professor at Boston College. The discussion ranged from whether the gig-economy lived up to the hype, or did it merely exacerbate already existent issues. Also, they discussed what a prepared workforce might look like, and how that might impact entrepreneurship in cities.

While the share of new Black entrepreneurs has steadily increased, the pandemic has dealt Black business owners, specifically, a blow that only magnifies the inequities built into the American economy. Black business owners in Kansas City, like entrepreneurs across the country, are managing the reality of now – and the history that got us here.

Experts Philip Gaskin, Tawanna Black, and Brad Feld discuss how to help more women, people of color and those in rural areas start and grow businesses to rebuild a vibrant economy.

Q&A with Andre Perry dives into the American problem of devaluation and suppression of Black communities – and how that hurts everyone.

Mayors who focused on entrepreneurship before 2020 share three reasons why Austin, Dayton, Birmingham, and Oklahoma City, are in a better position to weather COVID-19 and the current economic crisis.