Axios Live: Expanding pipelines for entrepreneurship and education is a key focus as the U.S. economy changes

WASHINGTON — Speakers at an Axios Live event last week emphasized the importance of more opportunities for entrepreneurship and education in today's shifting economic landscape.

Why it matters: Rising demand for AI and tech companies and the jobs they create is reshaping how people start businesses and pursue education.

• Axios' Nathan Bomey spoke with Rep. Lisa McClain (R-Mich.), L'Attitude Ventures co-founder and managing partner Sol Trujillo and Rep. Roger Williams (R-Texas) at the event, which was sponsored by Flex Association.

What they're saying: "Anybody can be an entrepreneur," Trujillo said. "I want to just help people understand that."

• "We're still stuck in old paradigms" around perceptions of who can be an entrepreneur, added Trujillo, whose venture firm focuses on investing in Latino-led companies.

Zoom out: Trujillo pointed to two key factors affecting the shifting U.S. economy: "One that's always going to change, which is technology, and the second one is demographics. … The demographics of this country have changed."

Zoom in: The U.S. Latino cohort is "starved for capital," generating $4 trillion of GDP and creating about 80% of all net new businesses, Trujillo said.

• "I've always been a change agent on technology and that sort of thing, so capital and capital flowing to where the growth is is so natural for this country, and I want to promote it, and I want to build the prototype … so all capitalists will reappear and start putting capital where the growth is," he said.

State of play: As the economy evolves, perceptions of which educational paths lead to career success in a tech-driven society also do.

• "For so long, we pushed, oh my goodness, if you don't go to college, you're never going to get a job. I don't think that's true nowadays," McClain said.
• "I grew up in an era where everybody had to go to college, to get a college degree, to get a job. You don't need that now," Williams said.

The bottom line: Trade schools, apprenticeships and other forms of job training are gaining traction.

• "If we're producing a bunch of students that can't get a job, perhaps we need to change our curriculum, or perhaps we need to give them some other choices, such as trade schools or STEM schools or whatever it may be," McClain said.
• "The world is changing, and we need plumbers, welders [and] carpenters in our country, and you don't have an economy without them," Williams said.

Content from the sponsored segment:

In a View From the Top conversation, DoorDash head of federal affairs Alyssa Betz and Loni Mahanta, HopSkipDrive's chief legal and corporate affairs officer, both discussed how their organizations are working to expand access to economic and educational tools at the local level.

• "We are trying to match more customers who want to shop local with Main Street. … We're thinking of all the tools that we can develop to do that, and when we do that successfully, we give small businesses a chance to compete with the big-box retailers and with Big Tech," Betz said.
• Mahanta explained HopSkipDrive's work making sure that kids have access to transportation needed to get to school.