Entrepreneurial Mentoring and Education

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President Obama presented a national innovation strategy in September 2009 with a call to action to increase innovation in order to propel sustainable economic growth and create high quality jobs. Of particular importance to this strategy is the focus on the role of high-growth small businesses. At the May 2010 Presidential Summit on Entrepreneurship, President Obama called entrepreneurship "the most powerful force the world has ever known for creating opportunity." High-growth companies for the purpose of this request for information--those that have experienced high-growth already and those that have high-growth potential--do not have a precise definition. Some academic literature has focused on companies that double in revenue or employment over a four-year period. Others focus on companies that reach a customer base beyond the confines of geographic proximity (e.g., local businesses like restaurants or dry cleaners) to a "traded" sector (e.g., manufacturing, business services) because that market has more growth potential. Perhaps the simplest definition is businesses that have the potential to grow beyond a certain size-- beyond 500 employees or beyond $50 million in revenue o