How does it work?

The federal government sets aside funding to infuse start-up seed capital for the bank. Upon formation, the government will leverage private capital and invite proposals from American entrepreneurs in line with important national innovation priorities. The National Innovation Bank will enable entrepreneurs to access the capital, resources, and mentorship to unleash the full potential of their next generation innovations that will re-charge the American economy.

How much capital will it raise?

The government will contribute $15B from non-committed stimulus funding and then leverage up to $100B through the sale of federal “innovation” bonds or other devices.

What are the investment guidelines?

The National Innovation Bank will appoint an “Investment council” made up of experts from academia, the private sector, and government. The NIB will outline investment areas in line with national priorities, including clean-tech, bio-tech, national broadband expansion, and web tech.

How can everyone get involved in re-starting America?

The bank will solicit proposals from bright American innovators and entrepreneurs for early seed capital, mid-stage investing, or late-stage scaling to fund ground-breaking initiatives. These investment packages would include incubator subsidies, access to resources, and advisory support from the “Investment council”. Americans can invest in “innovation bonds” across the three asset classes of early-stage, mid-stage, or late-stage companies, with appropriately scaled risk-return rates. In addition, investors can track progress against transparent reporting metrics. Together, we can re-start the American economy.

What role can states play?

Each state will be invited to provide matching investments for innovators selected by the National Innovation Bank. In addition, states can set up special “incubator incentives” to provide start-up space, public-private resources, and mentorship to cultivate businesses. In doing so, the National Innovation Bank will not only fuel entrepreneurship and growth nationally, but will be an engine for states to develop regional innovation clusters, similar to Silicon Valley.

Computer Science and Applied Math will continue to be the tools of innovation and value creation. Let’s point some of our education budget to creating more scholarships in this area and insure New York and the United States remain strong in the 21st Century.

I took a big risk two years ago. I quit a stable job to start my own business. What I didn’t realize was how difficult it would be to get decent health insurance once I was self-employed. New York is better than most states, with our large freelance community, but making a decision about the type of health care I could get was very simply defined by what I could afford as an individual. What I could afford ended up being a basic scheme from a health insurance provider who my doctor once accepted but soon dropped because in her words, “My practice can’t survive on the rates they are paying.” Wouldn’t it be great if there was a pool insurance I could buy into at a “reasonable” rate as a registered entrepreneur? Wouldn’t it be nice if I could spend less time worried about my health coverage (and praying I don’t get REALLY sick) and more time creating innovative ideas for my business and for New York? I think so. :)

Need a user-friendly online portal that provides both public and private sector information for entrepreneurs, including information on:
1) local meetups
2) local watering holes
3) government grants, loans, incubators, subsidies
4) data centers, servers, labs
5) engineers, managers
6) investors and venture capital
7) mentors, angels
8) city training
etc.

Right now, this information is scattered over the web. Just be aggregating it real-time, the city can provide an invaluable map for new entrepreneurs.

For almost a century Senior Centers such as Lennox Hill Hospital have provided valuable services for Senior Citizens living in the district. With budget cuts, these organizations much rely increasingly on private donations to sustain there activities. Although they are adept at raising a large donations from a few donors, they lack the technology and skills needed to raise large sums of money from small donors. By working with various senior centers in the district, you could provide a valuable public service, raise your profile among senior citizens, undermine the argument that your campaign is based on agism, and show how you would differentiate yourself via Maloney.

Why do we need to think differently?

If we’re serious about jump starting our economy, then we need to reboot the conventional economic thinking coming from Washington. From 1995-2005, over 25% of technology companies founded in the US had a key immigrant founder. In 2005 alone, those companies generated $52B in sales and employed nearly half a million people, mostly Americans. The immigrants that comprise 12% of our population earn a staggering 47% of the nation’s science and technology PhDs and pioneer new innovations by filing for 24% of US patents. From Google to Ebay, immigration has been good for New York City, good for America, and is critical to our future economic prosperity.

How can we enact innovative reforms to boost American entrepreneurship?

However, for years, Washington policy has shown immigrant entrepreneurs the door instead of providing them the resources to start the next Google here in the US. In fact, right now over 50% of immigrants returning to India or China hold advanced degrees. Our current work-visa system is outdated, counter-productive and sorely in need of reform. By enacting smart reform, we will both protect existing American jobs while also encouraging immigrant entrepreneurship that will create more domestic jobs. Today’s H1-B (for immigrant workers) and EB-5 work visas (for immigrant investors) for immigrants are too limited in scope and too narrowly defined. I propose eliminating the cap on H-1B visas and doubling the cap on EB-5 visas to 20,000 per year. In addition, I will fight for the immediate passage of the “Start-up visa” program which keeps immigrant entrepreneurs, who commit to hire American workers and generate domestic sales, right here in the United States.

Use some of the money that has been allocated to the SBA — which small businesses have difficulty getting access to because of the complexity of the application process and demanding collateralization requirements — to give all small businesses (less than 100 employees) a breark (3-6 months) from payroll taxes. This would be an effective capital infusion for small businesses, allowing them to use these funds for new jobs and capital purchases, both of which stimulate economic growth.

Before 1960, more than 95% of clothing sold in the United States, was produced in the United States. After NAFTA and several other sweeping changes only 4% of clothing purchased in the United States was made here.

Many ask the question, can clothing still be made in the developed world? My response is yes.

Of course we cannot compete using the same tactics as countries that have few labor rights and cultures so poor any work is acceptable. We can compete with great ideas, executed better than anywhere else.

We need to support businesses that make products in innovative and sustainable ways as much as we support the creation of software and web-based companies.

I do not suppose we will revisit the days of traditional shirt factories, now a relic of the fading New York garment district. For one, we must imagine a new way to design and manufacture the stuff we wear and love.

It is important that we support the creation of companies that use technology to create tangible products, which can be in themselves, solutions to our economic and environmental challenges.

When I started my small business in New York, it cost me a small fortune. In other states and cities, becoming an entrepreneur is practically free. If New York State won’t change it’s burdensome fees and filing process, perhaps Congress can help entrepreneurs in NY and other business-unfriendly states by offering a tax credit for state and local start-up costs. It would a small expense to the Treasury, and a huge help to entrepreneurs.

Create a national Innovation Corps, in the vein of AmeriCorps and the Peace Corps, to enlist recent math, science, and engineering college graduates in a rotational program geared towards cultivating the next generation of American Innovators.

Innovation Corps participants will be sponsored through a public-private partnership grant and engage in a 4 part rotational program. Each participant will apply to join the Innovation Corps with a particular focus areas in either web-tech, clean-tech, bio-tech, or new infrastructure.

The participants will spend the first 3 months as a research assistant in their focus area in an academic or federally sponsored research facility, such as the NIH or a local university. The second 3 months will be spent with an early growth or venture capital firm investing in technologies in line with the participant’s focus area. The third 3 month rotation will place the Innovation Corps participant as an apprentice in an entrepreneurial enterprise. The last 3 month rotation will bring Innovation Corps members together in their focus cohorts together in an Innovation Incubator to learn about the entrepreneurial process and work on their own business plan.

Throughout the program, Innovation Corps members will receive mentorship, guidance, and exposure to career paths as an entrepreneur and innovator in areas of significant national importance. The Innovation Corps will be a highly competitive program that enlists America’s brightest college graduates, who far too often are drawn into swapping derivatives for big bonuses. Cities can apply for a cohort of Innovation Corps members in particular focus groups by coordinating and public-private rotational program plan. The Innovation Corps will offer young innovators an incredible network within which to cultivate their ideas, learn new skills, and contribute to their country.

Following their Innovation Corps service, participants will receive stipends to pursue higher education in math, science, engineering, and business. These Innovation Corps alumni will be equipped with the direction, experience, and support network to create the next set of great private enterprises and innovations that will drive our nation into the next generation economy.

While democracy has indisputably been a blessing to the American people, increasing in scope over the last couple centuries, it is also indisputable that there is still a lot of room for improvement. I’d like to discuss one major way we can improve our system to make it work better for the American people, and that is to improve our hyper-partisan political system and address the disappearance of moderate legislators.

Despite the fact that most Americans occupy a place near the center of the political spectrum, we are increasingly governed by a legislature bitterly divided into two strict partisan factions. As a result, the political preferences of one ideological extreme are instituted over the howls of the other—in the very rare case that anything is done at all about America’s most pressing issues. Americans rightly bemoan a state of politics in which their leaders appear to care more about beating the other party than about actually solving the nation’s problems—a situation which frequently descends to the level of one party opposing moderate reforms that it has long supported, in the cynical hope that they might derive a partisan advantage from the defeat of sensible solutions.

Perhaps the best way to fix this would be to make it possible for voters to rationally select third party candidates. This would force the two main political parties to the center, while allowing for the possibility of giving a true representative voice to districts that would really prefer to be represented by the Greens, Libertarians, Reform Party, Socialists, or Conservative Party.

The problem today is that voting for a third party in America means throwing away your vote. One solution that would still maintain the advantages of our electoral system would be to rank your preferences in a procedure called Instant Runoff Voting. Here’s how it works:

1. You rank as many candidates you want in order of your preference.
2. If someone wins a majority of first place votes, that person wins.
3. If no one wins a majority of first place votes, the person with the fewest would be eliminated. If you voted for them, your second place vote becomes a first choice vote in the next tally. If someone wins a majority if first place votes in the next tally, he or she wins.
4. This is repeated until someone wins a majority.

This is equivalent to having an election, and if no one wins a majority, eliminating the last place person and having another election—except in this case you state your preferences beforehand so you don’t have to vote several times.

Under this method, people could run under the party that really reflects their beliefs, and voters could vote for whomever they wanted without worrying about wasting their vote. In most districts, this could lead to more moderate candidates in the Republican and Democratic parties. The end result would be a Congress that is more politically diverse and more moderate at the same time, ultimately serving as a better representative of the wishes of Americans.