the leaders of high‐growth startups is 45.7 And the highest rate of entrepreneurial activity in the United States is among people aged 55 to 64.8
Entrepreneurs can succeed in today's economy – you'll meet many in this book – but many are struggling because our business landscape has fundamentally changed. We find ourselves in an age dominated by big business and powered by software and the consumer movement. Our current business environment is driven by a pursuit for profit, above all else, and enforced by a government that, under both Democrats and Republicans, has increasingly shifted the rules of the game to favor size. Society has become obsessed with the ability to order any item at any time on demand, the convenience of everything under the sun being delivered to our front door, and the comfort of knowing that you can get the same coffee, burger, or taco in just about any large city in our country. We have started to devalue people who pick another path, who want to be producers, rather than consumers. Even among technology companies – which most perceive as thriving – fewer people are launching new businesses. Now is the time to focus on these changes and start to do something about them.
This long‐term decline in entrepreneurship has terrible implications for the health of our society. Twenty‐five years ago, a child born in the bottom 25 percent of the economic bracket had a 25 percent chance of making it into the top 25 percent. This was the basis for the American dream – through hard work, determination, and likely a bit of luck, anyone, regardless of the circumstances from which they came, could rise up the economic ladder. Today, someone born into the bottom 25 percent of the economic ladder has only a 5 percent chance of making it into the top 25 percent. The American dream is slipping away, and we're simply watching it happen.9
Hope
But this is fundamentally an optimistic book, because New Builders are optimistic people.iii In a cynical age, they still believe in the American dream. In researching and meeting New Builders, we found a group of people across the country engaged in building a new future for themselves, their communities, and, collectively, the country. We also discovered communities that are picking up the challenge of growing their own local support networks for these entrepreneurs. The people we met in researching this book show us how fulfilling it is to own a business, how meaningful it is to be part of a community of entrepreneurs, and how rewarding it is to be responsible for your own future.
We spend a lot of time in the United States today celebrating individual spirit, but also looking to the government for help. What we found is that most things of consequence today happen in the space between individuals and government, in relationships between people who create change, in new networks, and in communities that are leading their own revivals.
In the coming chapters, we'll explore places like Staunton, Virginia, which is home to a local angel network that has invested more than $1 million and is home to a makerspace that has helped rejuvenate the downtown. The story of the Staunton Makerspace shows what happens when the spirit of New Builders takes root in a community and is nurtured there. About a year after it was opened, a fire destroyed the fledgling operation in downtown Staunton. A 92‐year‐old former machinist, George Saugui, read about the fire in the newspaper. “I thought we lost everything,” Dan Funk, the founder of the Makerspace told us. “But he showed up.” The duo hoisted George's old workbench into a truck and brought it down to the ruined Makerspace. “He sat for four weeks, repairing all of our woodworking equipment,” Dan recalled. The Makerspace was rebuilt with the help of George and others in the community who turned up to rally around this important asset. It is now back in operation and has since expanded to include members working on a variety of hobbies, as well as entrepreneurial ventures in everything from textiles to 3D printing (which quickly became important during Covid‐19).
Indeed, entrepreneurs, especially those with unexpected success stories, have given the United States much of our identity as a nation of builders and doers, risk‐takers, and innovators, of economic prosperity and deep community identity. The story we tell ourselves about America, although part myth and part reality, is inexorably linked to this entrepreneurial spirit.
Choosing What to See
You've probably never heard of Elizabeth Keckley. Born an enslaved person in 1818 in Virginia, she learned a skill, dressmaking, which her White owners used to help support their families. As is the case with many women – especially Black women – the value of her work was not her own. Through sheer grit and determination, she scraped together $1,200 (roughly $35,000 in today's currency) and purchased her freedom. In 1860, she made her way with her son to Washington, DC, where she met and befriended Mary Todd Lincoln, becoming her personal modiste. She eventually chronicled their close friendship in her book, Behind the Scenes: Or, Thirty Years a Slave and Four Years in the White House, a remarkable history of her escape from slavery and her time inside the highest echelons of American political society.
Hers is an almost unbelievable account of the power of the entrepreneurial spirit to change one's life and a testament to the determination required to succeed. It's also a reminder – and something we'll explore over and over as we meet more New Builders – of the power of network and mentorship. It's a story of promise and a beacon to this day for the power of American entrepreneurship. But it's also a reminder that New Builders and their predecessors have been fighting for hundreds of years for recognition and support in our entrepreneurial landscape. One of the reasons we don't value Danaris Mazara is that we haven't valued Elizabeth Keckley. Former US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice – the first Black woman to hold that position – described this fight for universal dignity and respect that many dominant communities take for granted, but that others are in a constant struggle for, in a commencement address to the College of William & Mary in 2015:
I grew up in Birmingham, Alabama, the Birmingham of Bull Connor and the Ku Klux Klan and church bombings, a place that was once quite properly described as the most segregated big city in America. I know how it feels to hold aspirations when your neighbors think that you are incapable or uninterested in anything higher…We have not and will not quickly erase the lasting impact of our birth defect of slavery, or the follow‐on challenge of overcoming prejudices about one another (emphasis added). 10
Rice reminds us that our past is something that we can't, and shouldn't, simply forget or tuck away in some dark corner. At the same time, our history does not need to define us.
As in every other sphere of American life, racism and misogyny are critical parts of the story. Too many women and entrepreneurs of color have been written out of our entrepreneurial history – from the earliest days of our country to the present day. Immigrants played, and continue to play, a critical role in building America's entrepreneurial identity. The truth is that the entrepreneurial fabric of our country has always relied on women, people of color, and immigrants. They built great businesses and helped develop the diverse Main Streets that flourished throughout much of our history as a nation. To see the potential of present‐day New Builders, we need to understand how easy it has been to discount entrepreneurs who don't fit the prevailing model. Because now, more than ever, we need to recognize the role these diverse business owners play in our economy and change how we support and enable them. Our economy has always relied on the success of small businesses, some of which grow and others that stay small. But we're quickly losing sight of that and, in so doing, jeopardize not just our economy but along with it our national identity.
To understand how we got to this place, where we've nearly abandoned the people who are our best hope for building a better future,
