What’s next on the entre­pre­neur­ship policy agenda? Opower, YEC and others tell Congress

Now that the so-called JOBS Act has passed, Congress is searching for the next big idea to give entrepreneurs a boost. The Jumpstart Our Businesses Act aimed to simplify the fundraising process for small companies and reduced the requirements for them to go public. Entrepreneurs and investors were largely pleased with the outcome, but some say further policies are necessary to enhance small-business growth .

To that end, Senate Small Business Committee Chair Sen. Mary L. Landrieu (D-La.) is holding the third in a series of roundtables Wednesday morning on growing jobs through entrepreneurship. The hearing will feature policy pitches from academics, local officials, accelerators and successful start-ups, such as the handmade goods e-commerce site Etsy and the Arlington-based energy information company Opower.

“These roundtables are a thoughtful look at entrepreneurial ecosystems, which are the relationship between entrepreneurs and their current environments,” Committee spokesman Robert Sawicki said in an e-mail. “Our ultimate goal is to take the ideas that come out of these discussions and use them as the foundation for a major piece of entrepreneurship legislation.”

On Small Business caught up with some of the participants to ask them what the next challenge is for entrepreneurs and what they think Congress should do about it.

The speaker:

Evan Burfield, chairman of Startup DC.

Why him?

Along with leading the Washington branch of the national Startup America initiative, Burfield is also a serial entrepreneur and the head of Synteractive, a cloud computing and business intelligence company.

The idea:

The single biggest challenge D.C. start-ups face, according to Burfield, is finding the right talent in order to grow.

Software engineers are in high demand nationally, but Burfield says the D.C. region specifically lacks agile, creative coders who are willing to work at odd hours and for little pay -- at least in the initial years of a start-up’s life. Because of that, many area start-ups can’t hire the types of employees they need, he said.

“Start-ups need people with strong critical thinking abilities, the ability to communicate effectively, and the ability to get things done,” he said. “That’s the single biggest labor market challenge we face today.”

The real-world example:

Burfield likes the solution that the D.C. daily deals company LivingSocial came up with for the lack of quality developers: It trains new ones. LivingSocial partnered with Hungry Academy, a five-month program that pays people while it teaches them to become programmers. The participants get a salary, health insurance during their training and a guaranteed job with LivingSocial at the end. (LivingSocial is led by Tim O’Shaughnessy, who is a son-in-law of The Washington Post Co. chairman Donald E. Graham.)

“They’re setting up an entire training apprenticeship program in how to write code and work in the way that a company like LivingSocial needs,” Burfield said.

The prescription:

Burfield wants more apprenticeship programs. But companies need tax incentives and federal dollars in order to train workers, he said. Rather than simply fund career training for those who become unemployed, he argues the federal government should help companies give eager workers some brand-new coding chops instead.