(Reuters) – Much of the talk around the Jobs Act has centered on the
technology sector, but the biggest impact could land on far more prosaic ventures, investors and analysts
say.
Speaker of the House John Boehner (C) unveils JOBS Act outside Capitol Hill in Washington, February 28, 2012. REUTERS/Larry
Downing
The Jobs Act, a bill to make it easier for young companies to raise money, raced through
Congress over the past several weeks and likely will be signed into law by President Obama next week.
The president
sees the legislation as a way of giving “entrepreneurs opportunities to start creating the next Google or the next Apple or
the next innovative company.”
And Republicans have matched his enthusiasm.
Rep. Eric Cantor quoted Google’s
public-policy blog on how “the next Google, Facebook, Apple, or Amazon could be funded thanks to crowdfunding legislation,” a
key part of the bill that allows large numbers of people to invest small amounts in a company.
Rep. Tom Rooney wrote
about entrepreneurs “with dreams to build the next Apple, Google, or Ford.”
But while high-tech businesses may be
widely associated with entrepreneurship, they are not the most prevalent.
“In colloquial usage, we tend to use startup
in the sense of high growth, innovative business,” said Dane Stangler, director of research at the Ewing Marion Kauffman
Foundation, which studies entrepreneurship. “Those are by definition the minority of new companies.”
The sectors with
the most new activity are construction, professional and other services, and retail, he said.
Entrepreneurs say those
are the businesses most likely to benefit from a key provision in the Jobs Act known as crowdfunding.
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The technology sector is in many ways the least in need
of help. Last year, software companies raised $6.71 billion, up from $4.86 billion the year before, according to the National
Venture Capital Association and Thomson Reuters. Information-technology services companies raised $2.42 billion, up from
$1.75 billion the year before.
“If you’re a tech business in Silicon Valley and you can’t raise money, that