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Innovation Doesn't Take a Vacation in an Economic Downturn (ventureblog.com)
16 points by daveambrose on Jan 21, 2009 | hide | past | favorite | 3 comments



Innovation might still take a 'staycation'. Those driven to innovate will do it at their current employer, or as a limited moonlighting project, or otherwise on a smaller scale.


Disagree strongly, not with the main point, but with the argument that innovation isn't in serious danger.

So why am I optimistic about investing in 2009? Because entrepreneurship is an addiction, it isn't a choice. Great entrepreneurs aren't driven to create companies because it is easy, or because capital is plentiful, or because the public markets are swallowing anything the venture community will throw at them. Great entrepreneurs start companies because they can't help themselves.

If the entrepreneurs can't get funding or customers, they won't be able to start companies, so they'll go off and do other things. More than drive is needed; they also need to eat and make rent.

It is possible to squash the entrepreneurial spirit of a people, as observed in post-Soviet Eastern Europe.

While the resources an entrepreneur may be able to bring to bear on a problem may vary with the economic climate, the desire -- the need -- to innovate never goes away. And Venture Capital is the fuel of that innovation.

There's also a need for safe, reliable drinking water in sub-Saharan Africa. That doesn't mean that it's always there. It does not follow from something being necessary or desirable that it can be counted upon to be there.


To reply to your points specifically...

1. There will always be a need for things. So there will always be customers. There will always be capital available. Always. Think about the great depression. There were still very rich people. So I think it is not so valuable to argue in absolutes, as long as there exist customers and capital we have an economy, the issue is not how small, hard or tight, if it exist, then there will be entrepreneurs.

2. Your quoted statement says "the desire- the need to innovate never goes away. The author is talking about the personal and obsessive need of the entrepreneur, not "needs" in general. And your example of a need for safe drinking water... that need will be filled when there's money to be made in filling that need....




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