{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://www.thune.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/press-releases?ID=A51FEBD9-79E7-4735-94EE-E4B7C9A0CFD2", "Rapid City CEO Joins Thune-Led Hearing to Examine Expansion of American Entrepreneurship", "2020-12-15", "2020", "2020-12", "Republican", "Senate", "SD", "John Thune", "T000250", "www.thune.senate.gov", "thune", "https://www.thune.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/press-releases", "scraper", "U.S. Sen. John Thune (R-S.D.), chairman of the Subcommittee on Communications, Technology, Innovation, and the Internet, today led a hearing titled \u201cBetting on the Rest: Expanding American Entrepreneurship Outside Traditional Hubs\u201d to examine the venture capital gap that exists between different geographic regions in America, how COVID-19 could redefine this gap, and what the private and public sectors are doing to address it. The hearing featured testimony from Ray Hespen, co-founder and chief executive officer of Property Meld in Rapid City, S.D., as well as other industry experts.\n\nThune\u2019s full remarks (as prepared for delivery):\n\n\u201cGood afternoon and welcome to today\u2019s subcommittee hearing to review the state of entrepreneurship in America.\n\n\u201cI would like to welcome everyone joining us today \u2013 both in-person and virtually.\n\n\u201cFor much of our nation\u2019s history, entrepreneurship has enabled both American progress and American prosperity.\n\n\u201cIt is the bedrock of the American dream and has led to the economic mobility of millions of citizens.\n\n\u201cOver the course of the last fifty years, venture capital has played an increasingly important role in the continuation of America\u2019s entrepreneurial spirit.\n\n\u201cThe venture capital model has led to tremendous economic growth in recent decades, and venture capital investment has resulted in some of America\u2019s most profitable and consequential companies.\n\n\u201cMany of these venture capital-backed businesses have enabled the technology we have come to rely on during the COVID-19 pandemic, from food and grocery delivery services to virtual health care applications.\n\n\u201cToday, it often feels as if entrepreneurs and venture capitalists go hand-in-hand \u2013 the former depending on the latter to scale and realize their full impact.\n\n\u201cHowever, we are here to not only talk about the relationship between venture capital and entrepreneurship, but also where this relationship is occurring and, more importantly, where it is not.\n\n\u201cIn 2019, California-based companies received roughly 50 percent of all venture-backed investment in the United States.\n\n\u201cThat same year, just three states \u2013 California, New York, and Massachusetts \u2013 accounted for almost 75 percent.\n\n\u201cThere are many valid reasons why this is the case, which I look forward to exploring with our witnesses today.\n\n\u201cHowever, this geographic imbalance also means that a majority of regions within the United States are often shut out from the kind of investment that creates jobs, revitalizes communities, and enables the pursuit of the American dream.\n\n\u201cFortunately, this is a problem the private sector is primed to solve, and we have already benefited from the work of many individuals including those on the panel with us today.\n\n\u201cIn addition, initiatives like the expansion of reliable broadband services to businesses across America, including many in my home state of South Dakota, have already begun to provide greater connectivity between these communities and the larger economy which helps spur more venture capital investment and entrepreneurial support.\n\n\u201cWhile we have made progress, the impact of COVID-19 makes solving the investment gap all the more important and all the more urgent.\n\n\u201cAt a time when there has been economic uncertainty, entrepreneurs are the ones building businesses that will in-turn create jobs.\n\n\u201cIt is likely that many of these new businesses will continue to focus on innovation and technology, an industry historically supported by venture capital.\n\n\u201cWithout greater access to capital in underserved regions, the flow of talent, wealth, and opportunity will continue to move to only a handful of coastal cities, and the full reach and diversity of American ingenuity will go unrealized.\n\n\u201cI\u2019ve seen firsthand what rural America has to offer.\n\n\u201cIn my home state of South Dakota, we have entrepreneurs working on therapeutics and other services to combat the COVID-19 pandemic.\n\n\u201cWe have technology companies delivering the next-generation of precision agriculture.\n\n\u201cAnd against increasing competition from countries like China, I believe more investment in American entrepreneurship in all regions of the United States will better position us in the long run.\n\n\u201cAt the end of the day, it is not going to be politicians and regulators driving the next wave of American innovation.\n\n\u201cIt will be the private sector that will ultimately expand economic opportunities across the United States.\n\n\u201cAnd it is my view that the best the government can do is to fully recognize this and then actively try to not stand in the way.\n\n\u201cToday, I hope this panel will shed light on this important topic and bring to Congress\u2019s attention the diverse voices of the American entrepreneurs \u2013 the entrepreneurs who live in San Francisco and New York as well as the ones who call places like Boise, Atlanta, or Rapid City home.\n\n\u201cTo explore this topic, we are excited to have a panel today representing the full geographic range of American entrepreneurship.\n\n\u201cWe are joined by Mr. David Hall, who serves as the Managing Director of Revolution\u2019s Rise of the Rest Seed Fund, which is based here in DC, Ms. Jan Garfinkle CEO of Arboretum Ventures in Michigan, Mr. Ray Hespen, CEO and Co-Founder of Property Meld, a technology startup in South Dakota, and Ms. Dawn Lippert, CEO of Elemental Excelerator, a startup accelerator based out of Hawaii.\n\n\u201cThank you all for joining us today.", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-06-28T00:42:23Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://www.thune.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/press-releases?ID=A51FEBD9-79E7-4735-94EE-E4B7C9A0CFD2"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 0.8512651547789574, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}