What is the Startup America Partnership and why are tech giants such as Facebook, Google and Microsoft investing more than $400 million?
The Startup America Partnership is a joint effort between the White House and the private sector to create a "coalition of mentors, advisors, funders, major corporations and service providers to deliver strategic and substantive resources to help entrepreneurs start and scale companies," according to the Startup America Partnership website.
The website also is a resource for budding entrepreneurs, for all stages of starting a business: idea, or when first working on a business plan; startup, just after a business has been started and entrepreneurs need to grow; rampup, when a startup has grown to need office space and more employees; and speedup, the final phase where the startup's growth may be accelerating very quickly. At all stages, entrepreneurs need advice, help, funding and other resources to help along the way.
Already the coalition has more than 20 corporate commitments from companies such as:
Cisco: Will provide outsourced training to approximately 6,000 entrepreneurs within 50 cities by January 2014. Value: $3 million.
