Next Street Institute: Telling the Next Chapter of America’s Story through Small Business

By Spencer Lau, Head of Next Street Institute

America is changing. AI is reshaping how we work. Billions of dollars are flowing into new factories and industries. A generation of business owners is approaching retirement, while a new generation of entrepreneurs is deciding what to build next.

As America celebrates its 250th year in business, there have been plenty of reasons to look backward. It is also worth asking more about what comes next.

What kind of economy are we building? Who will have the opportunity to participate in it? And what will determine whether this period of extraordinary change creates opportunities across the country?

Small businesses will be central to answering these questions. They create jobs, transform industries, and build wealth and identity for families and communities. They also give people from all walks of life the opportunity to turn an idea, a skill, or an ambition into something of their own. In doing so, they give people a meaningful stake in the economy and the communities around them.

Yet as the forces shaping our economy change, we need a clearer understanding of how small businesses are experiencing that change—and what they need to adapt, compete, and grow. Their experiences can tell us not only where the economy is headed, but whether new opportunities are reaching the communities, industries, and workers that power it.

That is why Next Street is launching the Next Street Institute, our new economic and business research arm dedicated to studying the forces shaping America’s small business economy.

Lessons from Small Business Stories

For more than 20 years, Next Street has worked alongside small businesses and the institutions that support them. Along the way, we have learned as much from these businesses as we have sought to contribute.

The statistics are familiar. Small businesses represent over 99 percent of U.S. businesses, employ nearly half of private sector workers, and account for over 40 percent of U.S. economic activity. Those numbers tell us why small businesses matter. But they tell us less about what it actually takes to start, sustain, or help one grow.

For many of us at Next Street, those lessons are also personal.

I grew up in a small business family in a small town outside Los Angeles. Through my parents, I saw the independence that came from building something of your own. I also saw the long hours, uncertainty, and responsibility that came with it.

Many of my colleagues have similar stories. Some grew up in small business families like mine. Others have been entrepreneurs themselves. And through our work, we have all spent years alongside small businesses and entrepreneurs navigating the everyday decisions involved in building and growing a company.

Our work has taken us into communities across the country. We have sat with manufacturers considering whether to invest in new equipment, entrepreneurs searching for growth capital, and community leaders trying to bring investment to places that have been overlooked.

The details change, but the questions often do not: Where will the capital come from? How do I find and invest in the right workers? Can I afford new technology? Where will I find my next customer?

Behind those questions is often something more fundamental: the desire to build something that lasts.

That helps explain why small businesses matter beyond the statistics. Owning a business can be one of the most tangible forms of economic freedom—the opportunity to pursue an idea, build an asset, shape your own future, and create opportunities for others. That freedom also gives people a greater stake in the future of their communities.

Today, the environment surrounding these businesses is changing quickly. AI can give a five-person company capabilities once available only to much larger firms. America’s reindustrialization has opened new markets for smaller manufacturers. New approaches to finance could expand access to capital. And millions of owners will eventually need to decide who takes over what they have spent decades building.

Understanding how small businesses navigate these changes—and continuing to learn from the people building them—will be essential to understanding where the American economy goes next.

Why the Next Street Institute

We created the Next Street Institute to deepen understanding of the forces shaping America's small business economy. Our research will explore pathways to entrepreneurship, the relationship between small businesses and society, supply chain resilience, access to capital, and the technological and demographic changes shaping the future of small business.

We will bring data and rigorous analysis to these questions, along with something equally important: the experiences of entrepreneurs, business owners, workers, investors, policymakers, and practitioners navigating them every day.

The Institute will bring together and expand Next Street’s research and thought leadership, including the latest work of our Industrial Supply Chain Forum, which will now become an Institute initiative. Through our Building America’s Industrial Base research series, we have examined the opportunity to strengthen America’s manufacturing supplier base and how manufacturers are navigating industrial transition in Michigan.

America's next economic chapter will be shaped by more than the technologies we invent or the investments we make. It will be shaped by who has the opportunity to participate.

For my family, and for many of my colleagues and the entrepreneurs we serve, small business offered a path to that opportunity. And through our work at Next Street, we have seen what it can mean for communities across the country.

Ensuring that more people have the freedom to build something of their own—and the opportunity to make it grow—can help build a more competitive economy, stronger communities, and a more resilient democracy.

The Next Street Institute will seek to better understand and help advance that opportunity. We’re open for business.

Read the announcement: Next Street Launches the Next Street Institute