• You can now submit new ideas, vote on other ideas and interact with the entrepreneurial community through the Reducing Barriers online platform.

Senior Obama administration officials will visit eight cities as part of the administration’s Startup America initiative, to meet with entrepreneurs and hear directly from them about what processes and regulations we need to change and improve to build a more supportive environment for entrepreneurship and innovation. As President Obama has made clear, support for startups and entrepreneurs will be part what it takes to grow America’s economy and win the future.

Using the input from the roundtables and broader public participation, the Administration will put together a list of the best ideas to streamline and simplify unnecessary barriers to America’s entrepreneurs and innovators. These ideas will be incorporated into the agencies’ responses to the President’s Executive Order instructing federal agencies to identify and take steps to eliminate or reduce regulations that are outdated or overly burdensome to entrepreneurs.

The locations where the Startup America: Reducing Barriers roundtables will be held are:

Durham, NC, March 3
Austin, TX, March 12
Boston, MA: March 29
Minneapolis, MN: April 6
Pittsburgh, PA: April 28
Atlanta, GA: May 2
Boulder, CO: May 9
Silicon Valley, CA: May 12

Watch this page for more information on the Startup America: Reducing Barriers roundtables.

Space at the roundtables is limited and SBA has already received a large number of invite requests. If you’re interested in attending, please submit your name, contact info, and business information to reducingbarriers@sba.gov and we'll be in touch as space opens up.

You can also email your comments on ways to reduce regulation and barriers to entrepreneurship to reducingbarriers@sba.gov. Comments received via email will be incorporated into the final Reducing Barriers report.

Resources

SBA’s Office of Ombudsman helps small businesses when they experience unfair regulatory enforcement. Small business owners can file a complaint with the Office of Ombudsman, which will follow-up with the regulatory agency and work to resolve the matter.

SBA’s Office of Advocacy is an independent voice for small business within the federal government and is the watchdog for the Regulatory Flexibility Act (RFA). Advocacy advances the views and concerns of small business before Congress, the White House, the federal agencies, the federal courts and state policy makers.