Executive Session
Floor Speech
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Mr. PETERS. Mr. President, when you think about fast-growing startup companies, you might think about Silicon Valley, Boston, or Boulder. Though all these cities certainly have very vibrant ecosystems, innovative startups and small businesses are launching and growing across the United States, including in my home State of Michigan.
In every State, there are hard-working entrepreneurs who have established job-creating startups. These dynamic companies act as business leaders, innovators, and job creators within our communities.
This is why I am working with Senators Warren, Tillis, and Scott to commemorate Startup Week Across America and celebrate the ingenuity and entrepreneurship in our States and across the country. I kicked off this annual event in 2013 while serving in the House of Representatives. In the years since, I have had the privilege of visiting startups in Grand Rapids, Detroit, and Traverse City.
I have met with business founders who code apps for Fortune 500 companies, design and produce high-end jeans and other denim products, and grow and deliver farm-fresh products.
This Monday I visited Ferris Wheel, a new coworking space in Flint, MI, a community of hard-working Michiganders who are focused on their future.
The people of Flint are committed to building a stronger, healthier, more prosperous community, and they are committed to doing it together. You can see this in their schools and their churches and nonprofits, and you can see this in their startups and small businesses.
One of the best parts about starting a business in Flint is 100K Ideas, a nonprofit staffed by university students committed to helping entrepreneurs start their companies. This group is named in honor of the 100,000 residents of Flint and inspired by the thought that if they could pull one idea from every local resident, they could change the world.
This week, I had the chance to learn about a few of these new ideas. I met Kiara Tyler, the founder of Kalm Clothing. She moved the furniture out of her apartment to make room for inventory and stocked boxes of overalls and track suits where her couch used to be, while using her car as the company's headquarters. Now Kiara has done over $100,000 worth of business. She is selling her clothing online, and she has space for her office and inventory at Ferris Wheel. Flint is her home, and she is excited to stay and to build her business in Michigan.
I learned about Article One Eyewear, a company that has taken on office space next door to her. They sell handcrafted eyeglasses and donate a portion of their proceeds to combat vitamin A deficiency and to fight blindness in developing nations.
I also met with SkyPoint Ventures, a true homegrown Michigan story. While they are a for-profit investment fund, they have also committed to social benefit projects and making Flint a better place to live and to do business. In addition to investing in companies like Article One, SkyPoint renovated the Ferris Building to create the Ferris Wheel coworking space and commit to the growing community of startups in the city of Flint.
Successful business growth comes down to matching talent to capital, and the United States does this better than any other country in the world. I am proud to say that I had a chance to see this happening firsthand in Flint and across the State of Michigan.
Michigan, in fact, has one of the fastest growing venture capital communities in the entire Nation, a critical asset that will help us become the startup capital of the Midwest. We have world-class colleges and universities, more engineers per capita than any other part of the country, and the infrastructure to export not just nationally but global as well.
I know that if we keep pulling together as a community and harness 100,000 ideas and beyond, Flint's future is bright. I know that Michigan's small businesses and startups will help to lead the way to new innovations that will revolutionize our economy.
I am committed to ensuring that our growing startup communities will be a fixture of creativity, innovation, and job creation for decades to come.
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