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Right to Start – Fireside Chat – Victor Hwang
August 1 @ 5:00 pm - 7:00 pm
Join us on Thursday, August 1st for a unique opportunity to hear from Victor Hwang, Founder and CEO of Right to Start! Right to Start is a nonpartisan organization fighting to make it easier for everyone to start and grow their own business.
In this discussion, we will discuss how America will be renewed by its entrepreneurs. Entrepreneurs drive job creation, boost incomes, and generate wealth in our communities. Yet, starting and growing a business is often too challenging for too many. We need to send a message to our nation’s leaders: it’s time to put entrepreneurial opportunity at the front of the American agenda.
This September, he is driving cross-country from California to Capitol Hill to deliver thousands of signatures demanding more support for entrepreneurs. Those signatures will represent communities across the nation who believe in the power of entrepreneurship to uplift everyone, no matter their background, and in turn our nation.
The Statement of Principles is our collective voice to send a message: it’s time to renew America by unleashing the entrepreneurial energy of our people.
The Statement of Principles
We are born to be starters, makers, doers, dreamers. Each of us has a fundamental right to realize an idea, create something of value, and pursue our entrepreneurial dreams. That simplest of ideas – that all of us have this Right to Start – is basic to the human condition.
When that Right is widespread, prosperity ripples across millions of lives in the form of jobs, productivity, dynamism, and opportunity. It’s time to unleash that Right in all of us, regardless of race, place, background, or walk of life. That means breaking down barriers and giving all of us opportunities to start, grow, and flourish.
We agree with these principles and support policies to realize them:
1. Everyone has a fundamental Right to Start.
We have the right to pursue our entrepreneurial dreams and shape the destiny of our own lives.
2. We must protect and nourish starters.
Society should provide fair access to resources for all of us to start and grow.
3. To level the playing field, tilt it.
Americans don’t seek favors, but every starter deserves an equal shot to succeed.
4. Renewal comes bottom-up.
Communities and nations are transformed by lifting up their people.
5. Grow ecosystems to grow economies.
Prosperity for all comes by breaking down barriers, fostering trust, bridging differences.
6. All of us matter.
Every big idea starts small and vulnerable, and needs all of our help to grow.
Victor is an economic growth expert.
His ideas have shaped the economic lives of millions of people worldwide.
His work has helped over 300 communities, cities, states, companies, and even entire countries in creating greater economic prosperity.
His economic development clients have included the World Bank, Ford Foundation, Inter-American Development Bank, and the U.S. Agency for International Development. He has also worked with corporate clients seeking to grow entrepreneurial innovation, including Accenture, IBM, and Microsoft.
He is founder and CEO of Victor & Company, an economic growth consultancy.
He is founder and CEO of Right to Start, a campaign fighting to expand entrepreneurial opportunity for all. Right to Start seeks to level the playing field by lifting the voices of everyday entrepreneurs, grassroots mobilizing and organizing, and engaging with policymakers at all levels.
Previously, he was Vice President of Entrepreneurship at the Kauffman Foundation, the world’s leading philanthropy supporting entrepreneurs with an endowment of $2 billion. At Kauffman, he led initiatives that impacted over 200,000 entrepreneurs, including efforts in catalyzing capital formation, transforming economic development practices, launching a national policy roadmap, and breaking barriers for underserved entrepreneurs.