John Byrnes has written one of the better articles [164K pdf] I’ve read on the topic of Wisconsin’s generally poor entrepreneurial track record. He correctly points out that:

• Most attendees at recent VC & Economic Conferences were from government agencies, community development organizations, schools and universities (why? most real entrepreneurs don’t have time to sit around and talk, they’d rather make things happen)
• Byrnes further muses that perhaps our culture is to blame: “We may be dealing with the long-term effects of an overprotective social climate that discourages risk taking.”
• Too much overhead: Byrnes cites a recent study by the California-based Milken Institute which shows that Wisconsin has more economic development offices and business incubators per capita that almost every other state, including California! Byrnes calcuates that the ratio of business support people to entrepreneurs is 100 to 1; if you add educators, the ratio is 1000 to 1!

Byrnes is right on. We don’t need more state sponsored programs (that generally only benefit the largest firms). We in fact, need less paperwork (I can’t imagine how a small business keeps up with it all….), more risk taking and a more entrepreneurial financial environment (California has this in droves).
Byrnes article appeared in the April, 2004 issue of Corporate Report Wisconsin.