(Washington, DC) - July 23, 2018 - Village Capital co-founder Ross Baird will present in front of the U.S. House of Representatives Small Business Committee tomorrow about entrepreneurship in rural America.
The hearing is titled “Investing in Rural America”, and Baird will speak about expanding access to capital to rural communities.
“From Silicon Valley to Shark Tank, the national conversation would suggest we’re in a golden age of entrepreneurship,” Baird said, in a preview of his remarks. “Unfortunately, that’s not the case: entrepreneurial activity is nearing a forty-year low. Attempts to reverse this decline have focused on expanding access to capital through small business lending or venture capital — but 81% of new businesses don’t get their funding from either source. We need to be more creative with how we knock down barriers to entrepreneurship in America.”
The hearing is organized by the Committee on Small Business Subcommittee on Economic Growth, Tax, and Capital Access and the Subcommittee on Agriculture, Energy, and Trade. The hearing is scheduled to begin at 10:00 A.M. on Tuesday, July 24, 2018 in Room 2360 of the Rayburn House Office Building.
Village Capital is an active early-stage investor, and has run on-the-ground workshops in more than 20 US states. 90% of its investments are outside of New York, Massachusetts and California. In 2016, Village Capital ran a Rural Entrepreneurship Summit focused on bringing together investors and economic development leaders in Appalachia.
Village Capital is a global venture capital firm that helps entrepreneurs bring big ideas from vision to scale. Our mission is to reinvent the system to back the entrepreneurs of the future. Our vision is a future where business creates equity and long-term prosperity. Since 2009, we have supported more than 1,000 early-stage entrepreneurs through our investment readiness programs. Our affiliated fund, VilCap Investments, has provided seed funding to more than 90 program graduates.