Santa Clara County Open Opportunity Cohort

Reimagining City Regulations to Empower Entrepreneurs in Santa Clara County.

Cities Work is excited to announce the official launch of the Santa Clara County Open Opportunity Cohort (SCC Open Opportunity) with support from the Silicon Valley Central Chamber of Commerce.

SCC Open Opportunity will bring together local leaders from Santa Clara County to establish an “Open Opportunity” environment. Through small business regulatory reform, the leaders will remove unjust barriers that harm main street businesses—making it cheaper, faster, and simpler to start a small business.

This cohort will take place over 6 months, beginning in June and culminating in a presentation and celebratory event in November during Global Entrepreneurship Week (November 17-23, 2025).

Stay tuned for updates on the SCC Open Opportunity cohort and their progress!

City leaders rightly place a high priority on small business growth. Microbusinesses—those with fewer than 10 employees—generate considerable economic activity in the United States. Cities must do what they can to support these smallest of enterprises, understanding that entrepreneurship creates economic opportunities for those who may be less likely to obtain high-paying jobs. For example, in 2021, 44% of microbusinesses were started by individuals without a college education and 63% were started with less than $5,000 in capital. 1On average, one entrepreneur generates two additional jobs for the economy.2  

Additionally, studies show that small business ownership is an effective tool to lift families out of poverty and help build intergenerational wealth. Families that own businesses have median net worths more than four times greater than those who do not.3 And in a multi-year study, 81% of surveyed households that were below the federal poverty line at the beginning of the study rose above it by the end.4 Furthermore, entrepreneurship may help close the racial wealth gap. White adults have, on average, 13x the wealth of Black adults. But when comparing the median wealth of white and Black business owners, the median wealth gap decreases to 3x.5  

A Small Business Administration report shows that 41% of Americans would start their dream small business in the next six months if they could, but less than 2% make that dream a reality.6 Another national survey by entrepreneurship advocate Right to Start reported that 53% of people who considered starting a business chose not to, at least in part, because government fees were too high, and 49% said government forms and requirements were too confusing.7

Entrepreneurship is a valuable tool but becoming a small business owner is an uphill battle, as aspiring entrepreneurs encounter one obstacle after another. Local governments often focus on addressing access to adequate capital and business education, and rightly so. However, city leaders often overlook a severe obstacle that is within their immediate purview: the local regulatory environment. Regardless of capital and education status, small businesses must be able to comply with regulations to sustainably operate and grow. 

Santa Clara County is generally known for being home to the Silicon Valley tech hub, often overlooking the region’s emerging main street business ecosystem. With appreciation of small businesses’ power to increase economic mobility and community character, Bay Area leaders are increasingly recognizing the importance of reducing regulatory barriers to support small businesses.

As our first regional cohort, we plan to keep the group small so we can provide in-depth individualized attention to each participant. If you are interested in participating or bringing a regional cohort to your area, please contact us through our Cities Work contact form or email us at [email protected].

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  1. Venture Forward by Go Daddy.com (2021). 2021 Microbusiness national survey results. https://www.godaddy.com/ventureforward/2021-nationalsurvey-results.   ↩︎
  2. Association for Enterprise Opportunity. (n.d.). Bigger than you think: The economic impact of microbusiness in the United States. Washington, DC: https://aeoworks.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/Bigger-than-You-ThinkReport_FINAL_AEO_11.10.13.pdf.  ↩︎
  3. Headd, B. (August 2021). Small business facts: The importance of business ownership to wealth. Washington, DC: U.S. Small Business Administration Office of Advocacy. https://advocacy.sba.gov/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/ Small-Business-Facts-Business-Owner-Wealth.pdf.  ↩︎
  4. Edgcomb, E. & Thetford, T. (2013). Microenterprise development as job creation. Washington, DC: The Aspen Institute. https://www.aspeninstitute.org/wpcontent/uploads/2013/03/MicroenterpriseDevelopmentAsJobCreation.pdf.  ↩︎
  5. Association for Enterprise Opportunity. (n.d.). The tapestry of black business ownership in America: Untapped opportunities for success. Washington, DC: https://aeoworks.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/AEO_Black_Owned_ Business_Report_02_16_17_FOR_WEB-1.pdf.  ↩︎
  6. America’s Small Business Development Centers (SBDC) and The Center for Generational Kinetics (May 2017). America’s voice on small business: Generational views of entrepreneurship and small business. https://americassbdc.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/White-Paper-GenStudy-6-1-2017.pdf ↩︎
  7. Right to Start. (2022). Entrepreneurial dreams: Key findings from Right to Start’s bipartisan voter poll on entrepreneurship. https://www.righttostart.org/poll.  ↩︎