I have spent my career in the private sector creating, financing and growing business and employment. I believe in the nobility of an honest day’s work for an honest day’s pay. Of creating not just jobs, but careers. Not just jobs, but jobs that pay good wages. Not just jobs, but jobs that add value. In short, quality, sustainable jobs that are grounded in entrepreneurship.Our nation is facing enormous financial challenges: spiraling national debt, global competition and financial market slight-of-hand. The stark reality is that we are part of a global economy and that is not going to change. Accordingly our state and our nation must adjust economic policies and growth strategies in order to remain competitive in the world theatre in which we now compete. During my career I have had to make decisions in turbulent economic environments to create opportunities for growth. Such experiences over many years inspire my vision for how your next US Senator can support entrepreneurship in North Carolina.

North Carolina’s future depends on building and enabling “homegrown wealth”: businesses formed by entrepreneurs in the State which create both lasting economic wealth and employment opportunities. Over the last century, the impact of North Carolina’s entrepreneurs in creating wealth and jobs here at home has been profound: the R.J. Reynolds, William Henry Belks, Buck Dukes, Moses & Caesar Cones of the late 19th century were followed in the 20th century by entrepreneurial trailblazers such as Jim Goodnight, Dennis Gillings, Matthew Szulik, Neal Hunter, Ralph Ketner, Eddie Smith and Fred Eshelman. These entrepreneurs shared a common thread: they built businesses which created wealth and good jobs which stayed in North Carolina. Not only did our economy benefit, but local wealth creation enhanced the standards of living statewide through the endowment of universities, schools, libraries, hospitals and green space for the benefit of all.

But it’s not only urban entrepreneurs and urban growth that North Carolina can celebrate. We lead the nation in rural entrepreneurship as well. About 85% of our state is rural and though businesses operating in rural areas aren’t as large or well-known as SAS, Quintiles, Red Hat or Cree, their innovation and growth are every bit as important to our economic diversity and resilience.

As your next US Senator, I’ll be a proponent of federal initiatives which support the development of homegrown wealth. I will work with the entrepreneurial leaders of our state who have had a hand in the growth and strength of our state’s economy. I believe that it is the responsibility of our political leaders to listen to stakeholders, and work with them to find common-sense solutions.

Homegrown wealth is a fairly simple concept, and it’s worked in Silicon Valley, Austin, and Boston just as well as it has here. The Certified Entrepreneurial Communities Program of AdvantageWest in western North Carolina is an excellent example of how communities can leverage rural entrepreneurial efforts to achieve increased sustainability, better jobs, and better economic resilience.

That’s important, for it will frame a simple concept as legislation which will have broad appeal to my Democrat, Republican, and Independent colleagues alike. I believe in a Federal Government that is a focused partner in establishing a fertile environment for entrepreneurial growth, and then gets behind local entrepreneurial thinking and decision-making.

After all, small business entrepreneurs are the economic engine driving our nation’s growth and that reality is only going to be magnified in the 21st century.

So, just how might that translate into policy? I’ll offer a few thoughts.

Raising the Education Bar

We can’t begin any dialogue about building smart businesses without acknowledging the necessity of a workforce trained for the white collar economy of the 21st century. Entrepreneurial opportunities in North Carolina are suffering at a time when less than 1/3rd of the four-year universities in the UNC General System have five-year graduation rates above 50% and our state’s high schools have the 6th worst dropout rate in the nation. Clearly, strengthening our public universities through expansion of such programs as Pell grants and targeted federal research grants will be key agenda items. Likewise, our public high schools are being undercut by federal mandates such as No Child Left Behind-a failed initiative which I would work to scrap and replace with a mandate to foster old-fashioned American innovation, creative thinking, and improved outcomes instead of test-taking skills.

It has been said that the backbone of the military is the non-commissioned officer corps. I say that the backbone for business incubation and skilled labor development is the community college system. North Carolina’s community colleges can compete with community colleges anywhere in the nation. So identifying or creating opportunities to build on this strength of our state through funding or legislation will make our government a partner in success.

Building Infrastructure to Raise Competitiveness

Let’s take those well-trained kids turned away by our education system and provide them with real opportunities in North Carolina’s home-grown economy. If we can provide the human capital -through university and community college-driven investment - infrastructure and financial capital, our entrepreneurial community can build homegrown economic engines for the 21st century.

The Appalachian Regional Commission has played a pivotal role in the development of the basic infrastructure in western North Carolina- I’ll support legislation providing the same for the eastern part of our state through the creation of the Southeast Crescent Authority as currently before the Congress.

We have made persistent and determined improvements in our information infrastructure across North Carolina. Global competitiveness begins with world-class telecommunication access. I will propose legislation further strengthening the digital backbone available to North Carolina and then providing competitive grants to build out the “middle mile” and “last mile” of connectivity. Again, this is the sort of legislation which can draw support across the ideological spectrum because the model can work for all states.

Provide Seed Capital

Based on personal experience, I can tell you that venture and private equity capital investors are increasingly raising the ante for funding new business creation, effectively making their investment mechanisms unavailable for most entrepreneurs. For most fledgling entrepreneurs the only option for funding new businesses is through the inefficient, painstakingly slow process of finding and persuading angel investors.

This is a challenge in which North Carolina is not unlike other states: a need to provide entrepreneurs with ready access to seed capital. I’ve worked extensively with the Small Business Administration in Washington, and have come to admire its Micro-Loan program. It’s a fairly new initiative which has been quite successful-more so than other SBA lending and finance programs. The SBA Micro-Loan program’s budget and loan caps must be expanded and its regional targets should be directed by public/private economic development authorities at the local level. If an expanded Micro-Loan program proves to be a success, it would serve as a model for a host of federal agencies to manage the myriad of development programs.

Entrepreneurial Spirit in Washington

Successful entrepreneurs don’t take wild risks; we take very calculated risks, learn fast and move forward. As your next US Senator, I will embrace the development of innovative ideas, track performance honestly and transparently-without pride or prejudice- in order to learn from real experience and then either scale up investment or accept loss and throw it out.

In these uncertain times, North Carolinians have a lot to be concerned with. Our current leadership is asleep at the switch. There are crucial decisions that need to be made by experienced professionals. As an entrepreneur, I’ve learned how one manages change to make the difference between falling behind and leaping ahead of the competition.

Conclusion:

Fostering the entrepreneurial spirit is in the best interest of everyone: creating home grown wealth will benefit our economy, our communities, and our state far more than any big-business subsidy. That is why I hope that this letter is the beginning of discussion, not the end. I want to hear from the entrepreneurial community, not only about your challenges, but about your success. I want to hear your thoughts about how we continue to grow North Carolina in the 21st century. I am going to be your partner in this effort. I hope to earn your support for my candidacy, because North Carolina needs an experienced, dedicated voice that demands our fair share of development funding and accepts nothing less.