Loebsack Listens to Entrepreneurs
*This article appeared in the Tuesday, June 5, 2007 edition of the Cedar Rapids Gazette.
By James Q. Lynch, The Gazette
CEDAR RAPIDS, IA—June 15, 2007—Area entrepreneurs told U.S. Rep. Dave Loebsack on Monday they need more help finding capital to launch their businesses and access to more highly skilled employees, including those from overseas. During tours and a roundtable discussion arranged by the Entrepreneurial Development Center, 230 2nd St. SE, L o e b s a c k heard about the need for a federal tax credit for angel investors to complement an Iowa credit, according to Miriam Ubben, vice president of capital formation at the center. Angel investors provide very earlystage backing to business concepts.
The entrepreneurs also want Congress to lift the number of highly skilled foreigners allowed to enter the United States on H1B visas, she said. That would help them meet their staffing needs.
‘‘A lot of this is theoretical for me until I talk to people on the ground,’’ said Loebsack, a Mount Vernon Democrat who was a college political science professor until being elected in 2006.
Loebsack was impressed with the variety and potential he saw. He visited CoVault Technology, which provides a secure data center to store business information, and Express Auto Delivery, both located in the Armstrong Building in downtown Cedar Rapids. He also met with representatives of Asoyia of Iowa City, producer of trans fatfree soy oil, and MobileDemand of Hiawatha, which makes a ruggedized hand-held inventory tracking device used by beverage distributors.
Entrepreneurs’ success, he said, goes further than their own bottom line or the local business community. ‘‘We sometimes forget (these businesses) affect not only direct job growth, but indirect,’’ Loebsack said. Asoyia, for example, doesn’t create a great number of jobs, but the money it pays farmers and others has an economic benefit, Loebsack said. ‘‘So it’s important to keep track of the multiplier effect,’’ Loebsack said.
New businesses’ impact on community revitalization is important, too, Loebsack said. ‘‘ Think about what the Armstrong Building used to house and what it houses now,’’ he said of the former department store. ‘‘ Getting smaller business to occupy buildings in downtown, is key to revitalization. It all fits together — economic and urban revitalization.’’
