Grasshopper Group, the company that created and promoted the petition to make National Entrepreneur Day a reality, celebrated with this image on their homepage. Image from grasshoppergroup.com.
National Entrepreneurs’ Day is in full swing and I’ve already read many posts, tweets, and comments of how people are celebrating. Celebrations include a pitch to investors, giving away Tim Ferris‘ “The 4-Hour Work Week” to employees, and actually taking time off from work (which is about the complete opposite of entrepreneurial, but well-deserved).
For all the details on today’s celebration check out my post earlier today: “Celebrate the first-ever National Entrepreneurs’ Day…today!” To understand the complete story of today’s event you have to go to the source of this movement, David Hauser and his team at Grasshopper Group. Hauser was kind enough to respond to a few of my questions on how this day came to be.
Silicon Prairie News: So what is so special about this week and significantly today, November 19th?
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David Hauser: When we first launched the petition we had a different date set but when we partnered with Kauffman we decided as a group to make it part of Global Entrepreneurship Week and further the cause. Since entrepreneurs are always working the actually date did not matter all that much.
(Left, photo from twitter.com/dh.)
Explain to me the process of getting President Obama to name November 19th officially National Entrepreneurship Day?
Kauffman and our other partners really helped a lot with political connections that we never would have had. We are good at creating buzz, getting notable people to support the cause and showing there was real interest with a petition. After that it was all about getting the attention of the right people and giving them the data they wanted.
What role did the Grasshopper Group play in all of this and how do you think your role helped the cause?
Many team members from Grasshopper Group were involved in the design, development and operation of the petition site and then the market and buzz generation to get it going, so we never could have done it without that support. I do think it also helped that Siamak and I as founders of Grasshopper Group spend so much time working towards our core purpose of empowering entrepreneurs to succeed and having this day is just part of that.
Why is now a great time to become an entrepreneur?
Now is a great time to be an entrepreneur because economic change creates opportunity and those that seize that opportunity are the ones that win. Lots of people are saying not they cannot do it or now is not the good time so that means there is less competition, cheaper advertising rates, deals to be had, so why not start now.
Where do you see Entrepreneurship Week and Day evolving in the future?
We hope that it expands every year and really becomes a day for everyone to acknowledge what entrepreneurs do for this country, the jobs they create and the amazing products and services they provide to make our lives better. Hopefully it will also become a day where politicians can show this same recognition and beyond just a speech but with real actions, support and money for this group of amazing people.
To learn more, see Grasshopper Group’s blog post: The President Proclaims November 19th as National Entrepreneurs’ Day.
David Hauser spoke at Big Omaha 2010. To view a video of his presentation, visit: Big Omaha Video Series: David Hauser of Grasshopper.
