How the U.S. government is helping startups these days

The historically famous fact that the development of the startup movement and the birth of the Silicon Valley, the US government was prompted by the fact that the Soviet Union launched the satellite in 1957. The shock was so high and the lag so obvious that the US government decided to use the mass initiative to stimulate the development of small business in high-tech areas to turn the tide.

In 1958, the US President signed a special act in support of the Small Business Agency (AMB)

AMB began to help the development of the start-up movement in every way, even then the basic principle was proclaimed - for business development all loans and investments must be repayable, the business will not receive a single cent for free. The principle was like this if a startup found itself an investor. AMB added four times as much through the licensed private fund The Small Business Investment Company (SBIC). The benefit was obvious, but according to the pioneers, even such a generous increase in investment did not find support among investors or among representatives of the scientific community. IBA employees naturally walked around Stanford's laboratories and persuaded scientists to go into business at their own risk and leave the laboratory.

As time went on, the event turned out to be a profitable fund; today it operates on about 8 billion with a total capitalization of all assets of about 17 billion .

Moreover, the current US administration has decided to allocate an additional 2 billion over five years to support startups. One billion was directed to replenish working capital in fast-growing startups and the second billion to increase 2: 1 deposits of private investors as in the good old days.

Although it should be noted that things did not always go so rosy in 1996, the government was going to close the agency, but the development of the Internet and dot com boom actually revived the agency. And the next presidential act in 2010 also increased tax incentives for startups.

In general, I must say over the years of my life in the Valley that I have never met any of the startups who would take advantage of all the benefits of AMB, but the fact that there are benefits gives some peace of mind to startups in their difficult task of developing new technologies.