PAGE Entrepreneurs in Their Own Words – Steve Case

I’m Steve Case, the founder of Revolution investment firm, particularly focuses on entrepreneurs creating great change of the world companies in off-the beaten track places mostly in the United States, the regions all around the country. There are entrepreneurs everywhere and that’s our real focus. I’m also proud to be chair of UP Global, the initiative that brought together the StartUp America partnership and StartUp weekend that makes it easier for entrepreneurs to connect with people in their communities to build and scale companies. 

Every time I meet a new entrepreneur, I’m smitten. I love entrepreneurs, I love the ideas, I love the sense of possibility, I love it in particular when they’re looking at a big problem and see it as a big opportunity and trying to create a startup, a company that has the potential to change the world. Particularly when they have more of a long-term built to last, they know it’s going to take a while to solve this problem, but they’re in it for the long ride. I’ve learned over the years that revolutions often happen in an evolutionary way, and you’ve really got to have patience and perseverance and passion if you’re going to be there at the finish line. But that’s what really inspires me, just hearing the stories, learning about these companies all through the country and pretty soon all around the world. That’s what gives me great hope about the nation and great hope about a stable, peaceful world.     

I think the story of America is the story of entrepreneurship. 250 years ago, America was a startup, it was just an idea, and now it’s the leader of the free world. Part of the reason of that is we created a stable democracy, but it’s also because we created the largest, most robust, most resilient economy, and that wasn’t an accident. That was the work of entrepreneurs who built it first, the agricultural revolution, the industrial revolution, more recently in the digital revolution. Entrepreneurship is really important. It helped build this country, and if we’re going to have a safe and secure world, we need to make sure some of those ideals of entrepreneurship and innovation are spread all around the world. So it’s not just about having stability from a democracy standpoint or a security standpoint. It’s also about prosperity and strong economies which create jobs and give people hope and a sense of possibility all around the world, and that’s what PAGE can help do.

If we don’t have that talent, if we don’t have access to capital, we don’t have the right risk-taking, anything is possible mindset all throughout the country, then there’s a risk we might lose our way, and doubling-down on our nation’s entrepreneurs is the main thing we need to do right now to make sure we continue to have a strong lead and continue to be the most innovative, entrepreneurial nation, while also recognizing we have a responsibility to take some of those ideas to other people in other countries and give them some of the same American dream that we’ve enjoyed so that they will have stronger economies, safer communities and therefore we’ll all live in a safer, more secure, more stable world. 

I really think it’s important we all do everything we can to make sure this country remains the most innovative entrepreneurial nation. But I also recognize we live in a broader world. We operate in a broader context, and if we can take some of these ideals and perspectives and offer them to other nations, particularly to younger people in these countries that are looking for a better way, looking to be more hopeful, looking for new possibilities, that could result in those communities, those regions being safe and more stable which ultimately is in our interest as well. So it’s both an economic consideration as well as a moral consideration if we can really create this global effort around ambassadors for entrepreneurship, we can strengthen our own country and lift up our own entrepreneurs, but also give people all around the world a sense of hope and possibility.