AZ entrepreneurs get their voices heard in Washington!
FORGE hosts first ever virtual entrepreneur roundtable in partnership with the Center for American Entrepreneurship.
The University of Arizona has been working hard to ensure the safety of our students, faculty, and staff, while Research, Innovation, and Impact (RII) has been rising to meet the challenges of this disruptive event with resilience, ingenuity, and a dedicated focus on supporting important research to combat the COVID-19 pandemic.
Meanwhile, FORGE has not skipped a beat, moving our operations online to continue supporting our entrepreneurship community, near and far.
On March 26th, John Dearie, Founder and President of Center for American Entrepreneurship (CAE) led a lively discussion with Arizona-based entrepreneurs about the challenges and opportunities they’ve encountered in building their businesses.
CAE uses the input from these nationwide roundtables to inform policy recommendations it makes to state and federal legislatures. This policy and advocacy organization has hosted over 40 similar roundtables around the country, and FORGE was honored to convene the very first such discussion in Arizona.
The meeting was originally scheduled to coincide with the grand opening of the first FORGE location, the Roy Place building in downtown Tucson, but present challenges didn't stall this important conversation.
Over 30 entrepreneurs and startup ecosystem leaders gathered in virtually to share their experiences and concerns.
The Arizona roundtable covered a broad range of topics top of mind for entrepreneurs and small businesses, including funding, taxes, healthcare, child care, grant applications and post-award administration, and the regulatory approval process. In our continued focus on growing entrepreneurship (and the conditions holding founders back), FORGE will explore each of these in future roundtables and publications.
Here are just a few words shared by attendees...
"I'm stuck in the chicken and the egg scenario: you need funding to work full time on your business but you need to work full time on your business to get funding."
"We came to Tucson because we found amazing talent here."
To read more about the themes and issues discussed at the roundtable, click here.
Feedback from this conversation will be compiled with nationwide findings from other roundtables and will help shape CAE's priorities in upcoming policy recommendations on Capitol Hill.
Our community is stepping up and showing that we are stronger together.