“Winning the future” seemed to be the refrain most frequently sounded by President Barack Obama in his State of the Union Address last week.

To accomplish this, the president told America and the rest of the world, that he believes the nation must “out-innovate, out-educate and out-build the rest of the world.”

The White House announced in a Monday morning release from Press Secretary Robert Gibbs that the president, his administration and various business and philanthropy leaders will be launching a new multi-tiered initiative to promote entrepreneurship and small business growth, investment in emerging fields such as green technology, revitalization of economically distressed communities, and a collective push to reinvigorate America’s small business climate.

Gibbs wrote that the president hopes the measures his administration and its partners are putting in place will “create the jobs and industries of the future by investing in the creativity and imagination of the American people.”

Together, this push for innovation will be called the “Startup America” initiative, a campaign aiming to promote “high-growth entrepreneurship across the country,” emphasizing private sector investment in “job-creating startups and small firms,” as well as “accelerate research” and working to level “barriers to success for entrepreneurs and small businesses.”

In the Monday morning announcement, President Obama stated he believes this renewed focus on entrepreneurship and small businesses is, in some ways, at the very core of what drove America to become the world’s foremost economic power.

“Entrepreneurs embody the promise of America: the belief that if you have a good idea and are willing to work hard and see it through, you can succeed in this country,” he said. “And in fulfilling this promise, entrepreneurs also play a critical role in expanding our economy and creating jobs.”

Essentially, the President said, he and his cabinet are seeking to clear the way for American businesses to take root, which he and senior officials believe will jumpstart the American economy.

“That’s why we’re launching Startup America, a national campaign to help win the future by knocking down barriers in the path of men and women in every corner of this country hoping to take a chance, follow a dream, and start a business.”

The President also stated he believes the new initiative is historically unprecedented, as it represents a first-time collaboration between government, business executives, investors, educators, non-profits and private foundations.

“Startup America also represents a historic partnership with business leaders, investors, universities, foundations and non-profits,” he said, “and we’re urging others to join them in this effort.”

The drive was officially kicked off Monday morning at the White House in a ceremony featuring Commerce Secretary Gary Locke, Energy Secretary Steven Chu, Karen Mills, the administrator of the Small Business Administration, Director of the National Economic Council Gene Sperling, Austan Goolsbee, Chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers, and, according to the White House release, several of the nation’s premiere entrepreneurs and businesspeople.

Chairing the private-public partnership will be AOL co-founder and Chairman of the Case Foundation Steve Case and Carl Schramm, president and CEO of the Kauffman Foundation, will be one of the initiative’s founding board members.

The program will be anchored by several new incentives seeking to foment private sector investment in up-and-coming businesses and startups.

According to Gibbs’ release, President Obama’s FY12 budget “will propose making permanent the elimination of capital gains taxes on key investments in small businesses.” The repeal passed as a temporary freeze last September under the Small Business Jobs Act, and the Administration will seek to cement that freeze, allowing investors to keep their rewards for betting on innovative business ideas. In addition, the Obama Administration will seek to bolster investment in small businesses based in lower-income communities by proposing an expansion to the New Markets Tax Credit.

Further, the Small Business Administration (SBA) will fund $2 billion over the next five years to match private sector investment in startups and small firms in what Gibbs’ called “underserved communities.” Concurrently, the SBA will promote “early-stage investing” in organizations it sees as having potential for rapid growth through its Small Business Investment Company (SBIC) program.

As part of the president’s promise to promote job growth through clean energy, Startup America will direct the SBA and the Department of Energy (DOE) to advise and support clean-tech startup firms, while the Veterans Administration (VA) will seek to support soldiers returning home by providing new job training options to veterans who wish to start their own businesses.

A billion of that funding will come as part of the “Impact Investment Fund,” which will go to investing capital in companies in underserved communities, like economically distressed areas and companies in developing sectors like clean energy. A billion more will go to an “early-stage innovation fund,” seeking to help fledgling firms get off the ground.
Also under the umbrella of the new initiative, the Department of Commerce plans to broaden to i6 Challenge, which gives cash rewards to inventors in clean technology. The Commerce Department is also working to implement a program which would allow entrepreneurs to expedite reviews of their patent applications, which the White House hopes will “speed the deployment of new ideas to the marketplace.”

Before the Startup program was even announced, the Obama Administration had already laid the groundwork for several private-public-philanthropic cooperative projects, which today were announced at the Washington ceremony inaugurating the program.

Locally, the Startup drive will single out the MassChallenge competition, a collaboration of tech, medical, philanthropic and government organizations working together to promote innovation in new fields, seeking to replicate its results nationwide.
The initiative calls such projects “startup accelerators,” and will work to “provide seed funding and intensive mentorship” in the program’s early stages, while also working “to serve twice as many women entrepreneurs.”

In addition to taking the MassChallenge model nationwide, Startup America will work to build up a similar program, the TechStars Network, another startup accelerator, bringing its formula to such markets as Miami, Seattle, Pittsburgh, Dallas, Cincinnati, Salt Lake City, Nashville and New Orleans.

Startup America will also work to turn students into entrepreneurs and to prepare young people to become business leaders.

The drive will “scale up programs that prepare K-12 and college students to start their own companies, such as the Network for Teaching Entrepreneurship, Blackstone LaunchPad, Junior Achievement, National Collegiate Inventors and Innovators Alliance, the Virtual Incubation Network for America’s Community Colleges and the Artist & Instigators Practicum.”

In addition, the drive will seek to promote support and investment in successful technology firms like Intel, HP, IBM and Facebook, and will seek to promote innovation in selected regions, mostly formerly industrial ones seeking to grow out of their former Manufacturing-based economies, like Ohio, Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota and New York.

Several of the tech firms have already committed hefty sums to the initiative. Intel has promised $200 million to American startups through its Invest in America Alliance, which aims to “bring together companies to expand investment in American startups.” In addition, IBM has promised $150 million this year for investment in “programs that promote entrepreneurs and new business opportunities in the U.S.”

IBM’s commitment will serve to “coach and mentor startup businesses throughout the U.S., expand education, build skills and mentorship programs in collaboration with the academic and venture capital communities, and provide skills and business opportunities to the growing community of software developers who collaborate on emerging technologies.”
Other elements of the program include a national tour from Obama administration officials to help reduce burdens to entrepreneurs launching startups. The administration will also create an online suggestion site for entrepreneurs to write in about what hinders their firms, and the tour will take business and commerce officials to such innovation corridors as Silicon Valley and the Raleigh-Durham-Chapel Hill Research Triangle.

The Administration will also broaden its “DC-to-VC” summits promoting investment in healthcare technology, where the government officials meet with wealthy venture capitalists to make appeals for investment in emerging treatments, technologies and facilities. These meetings are coordinated by Todd Park, Chief Technology Officer of the Department of Health and Human Services, and include help from the White House, the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology, and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) Innovation Center.

Further, New York’s Blackstone Foundation will chip in a $50 million, five-year commitment it is calling the Blackstone LaunchPad, which aims to make entrepreneurship an appealing and successful route for college and grad students. The program debuted at the University of Miami and operates out of colleges’ career centers, “providing concrete tools and guidance by experienced venture coaches to help aspiring entrepreneurs university-wide transform untested ideas into vital businesses that lead to economic revitalization.” LaunchPad has already been established at two Detroit colleges, Wayne State University and Walsh College, and, according to the release, will move to more economically distressed areas soon.

Sam Butterfield can be reached at [email protected].