Analysis: U.S. Jobs Act could help the least flashy startups

(Reuters) – Much of the talk around the Jobs Act has centered on the

say.

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