As the Louisiana startup ecosystem grows, so does entrepreneurship and startups throughout the rest of the country.
Silicon Valley Bank released Startup Outlook 2011 on April 22, a survey of startup company perceptions, in conjunction with the Silicon Valley Leadership Group’s Annual CEO Business Climate survey of its member companies.
According to the Startup Outlook 2011, startup companies are seeing business conditions improve, actively hiring, and highly concerned about the regulatory environment.
The Startup Outlook survey of 375 U.S.-based, private, venture capital-backed software, hardware, life science and cleantech companies revealed:
- 83 percent of surveyed startups said they planned to hire this year, up from the 73 percent of startups that reported plans to hire in last year’s report.
- Startups are optimistic about current business opportunities and generally believe business conditions have improved and are improving further.
- Companies will continue to hire to support their growth: nationwide 83 percent plan to hire this year, up significantly from the already high percentage (73 percent) of startups that reported plans to hire in last year’s report.
- Respondents by and large identify access to equity capital and the regulatory and political environment as their largest impediments to growth.
- The regulatory issues of greatest concern were uncertainty about new regulations, the impact the overall regulatory environment has on risk taking, and health care reform.
- Life science companies are particularly concerned about the impact the regulatory environment is having on their ability to thrive:64 percent of these companies say the regulatory environment is a challenge and 83 percent say the government could help them grow by improving the FDA approval process.
- The number one challenge cited across all respondents is access to capital. This result echoes our own survey of Louisiana startups.
“Because we work with amazing companies everyday that are creating new services and even industries, we have always known intuitively that the innovation sector will lead the U.S. in economic recovery,” said Greg Becker, CEO of SVB Financial Group and Silicon Valley Bank. “This new data, however, clearly shows that technology companies met or beat their 2010 revenue targets, are still experiencing improved business conditions and are creating U.S. jobs. There is no question that the innovation sector is making a tangible impact on the U.S. economy and our ability to compete globally.”
You can download the 21 page report here.
How many of you Louisiana companies plan on hiring this year? Drop us a line at contact@siliconbayounews.com.