Recently, GoDaddy was on The Hill to talk to Steve Clemens about microbusinesses (aka ventures) and their impact on the U.S. economy.

There are an estimated 20 million ventures within the U.S. These are the bloggers, contractors, and lifestyle entrepreneurs of the world. This is someone you know who does something for the love of it and then figures out how to make it something bigger. They teach classes, build websites, and grind coffee.

These are people like Candis Jones, who started The Jones Market: a store that sells baby-safe, fashionable jewelry for mothers. Or Jaqi Wright and Nikki Howard, who created The Furlough Cheesecake during the 2019 government shutdown. Nikki was making cheesecake because she loved to make people happy. It was so good, Jaqi convinced her to sell it.

Aman Bhutani, Lori Lightfoot, Neela Mollgard, and Larry Irving all joined Steve Clemens to talk about ventures, why they matter, and what policy makers can do to foster them going forward.

Mayor Lori Lightfoot talked about her experience advocating for small businesses in Chicago. Even during a pandemic and social unrest, she found time to meet shop owners face-to-face.

Neela Mollgard is the executive director for Launch Minnesota. Together with her team, they’ve launched a hub-and-spoke network to connect would-be entrepreneurs with advisors and resources.

For Larry Irving, who coined the term “digital divide,” universal high-speed internet access remains one of the best things we could do to support microbusiness growth throughout the U.S.

GoDaddy’s CEO, Aman Bhutani, shared Venture Forward data to further illustrate the impact microbusinesses make on local economies throughout America.

During the Great Recession, for example, GoDaddy found that cities with more microbusinesses per 100 people recovered faster than cities with fewer everyday entrepreneurs. Median income was higher in these places, unemployment was lower.

Based on their findings from Venture Forward, GoDaddy recommends 4 ways policy makers and organizations can increase the number of ventures in their communities and support existing ones:

1. Greater broadband adoption
2. Access to skills-training
3. Portable benefits
4. Access to capital

Bhutani and GoDaddy are so passionate about this information and what policy makers can do to help ventures within a community, they’ve committed to knocking on the door of 500 mayors across the United States to make sure they can see the information for themselves.