Sen. Rand Paul stops by Mastercraft for entrepreneurship roundtable

Sen. Rand Paul has been mum on a potential presidential run in 2016, but took time to stop by the Mastercraft Monday before heading out on a statewide tour of Iowa this week in what many politicos say will lay a foundation for a 2016 bid. The Kentucky senator toured the Mastercraft, a hub of…

RaceNote’s Dusty Reynolds moderates a roundtable with Rep. Lee Terry, Sen. Rand Paul and senate candidate Ben Sasse Monday at the Mastercraft Building. More than 20 entrepreneurs attended. 

Sen. Rand Paul has been mum on a potential presidential run in 2016, but took time to stop by the Mastercraft Monday before heading out on a statewide tour of Iowa this week in what many politicos say will lay a foundation for a 2016 bid.

The Kentucky senator toured the Mastercraft, a hub of creative and entrepreneurial activity, with Rep. Lee Terry and senate hopeful Ben Sasse before sitting down with about 20 entrepreneurs and startup community members to hear their concerns.

The roundtable was closed to the public, but Dusty Reynolds, co-founder of RaceNote and the Omaha Chamber’s entrepreneur in residence, moderated the event.

He said topics ranged from health insurance, immigration, talent, building entrepreneurship, education and angel tax credits.

Generally, entrepreneurs said they wanted to provide group insurance for their smaller operations, but the cost was prohibitive. They also hoped Congress would address immigration issues to help make it easier to bring in programming talent from other countries. They also addressed how to raise homegrown talent and re-train the American workforce for today’s economy.

Attendees included MultiMechanics co-founder Leandro Castro, Proxibid CEO Ryan Downs, Silicon Prairie News co-founder Jeff Slobotski, Scott Rutz of Travefy, Kristin Dekay and Eric Downs of Grain & Mortar, Autumn Pruitt of Aroma’s coffeeshop, Joseph Shannon of Thrive Center Omaha, patent lawyer Dave Milligan, startup attorney Bart Dillashaw and others.

Dillashaw said while the conversation was fairly familiar territory with nothing groundbreaking, it is encouraging to see big political players pay attention to the startup community.

“I don’t think you’d see that a year or more ago,” Dillashaw said. “It shows that Nebraska is building something at least.”

Sen. Paul said he’s been to Iowa plenty of times, but it was his first time in Nebraska. He also endorsed Sasse during the event.

Paul told a group of reporters after the roundtable that less regulation and taxes would benefit entrepreneurs and continue to help them grow. He said they know how to spend their money better than the government.

“We need more money in the local economy and less in Washington,” he said, pointing out there’s been growth when presidents Calvin Coolidge, John F. Kennedy and Ronald Reagan cut taxes. “We’ve had negative growth the last quarter… we need something new.”

Credit: Photo from @SenRandPaul

This story is part of the AIM Archive

This story is part of the AIM Institute Archive on Silicon Prairie News. AIM gifted SPN to the Nebraska Journalism Trust in January 2023. Learn more about SPN’s origin »

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