The Edward Lowe Foundation today announced its new partnership with The NASDAQ OMX Educational Foundation to establish a new research and education institute focusing on job growth and capital access for developing companies in the United States.
The institute, known as the Institute for Exceptional Growth Companies (IEGC), will focus on the relationship between equity funding sources and fast-growing companies. Particular attention will be paid to high-growth companies in the second and third stage of business development, which include companies with 10-99 employees and 100-499 employees respectively.
Among key activities of the IEGC will be to:
- Create new datasets and use existing data in innovative ways to track exceptional growth companies (EGCs) and better understand their impact on community and economic development. For example, the IEGC will leverage the National Establishment Time Series (NETS), a longitudinal database that tracks the performance of more than 41 million business establishments from 1990 to 2009.
- Establish a concentrated research initiative to examine the performance of EGCs through economic cycles and how they contribute to job creation and economic prosperity. This initiative will be led by Doug Tatum, a nationally recognized entrepreneur, author and advocate for high-growth companies.
- Develop new research and educational tools to help evaluate the important roles that EGCs and equity markets play, such as a website that enables visitors to see these economic contributions of EGCs at the local, state and national levels.
"One of the primary functions of a public marketplace is to enable entrepreneurs to raise both financial and human capital with a public listing," said Bob Greifeld, Chief Executive Officer of NASDAQ OMX. "As a driver of our global economy and a key asset to job growth here in the United States, NASDAQ OMX continues to focus on the relationship between equity funding sources and developing companies with research partners like the Edward Lowe Foundation."
"NASDAQ's history of working with entrepreneurial companies and the resources it brings to the table combined with our shared interests and expertise will enable the new institute to have great impact on increasing literacy about financial markets and entrepreneurship," said Mark Lange, executive director at the Edward Lowe Foundation.
"Although entrepreneurship is recognized as critical to our country's economic recovery and growth, there are many misconceptions about entrepreneurs, including how they should be categorized and served," Lange continued. "A better understanding of EGCs' impact on job creation and economic growth — especially those that have received equity financing — would provide valuable insights on how regions can support these important companies."