America’s Enterprising Spirit Is Booming After Decades-Long Slump

The New York Times ^ | July 17, 2026Updated 11:23 a.m. ET | Sydney Ember

[E. Pluribus Unum]

Cassidy Winkler was working as a flight attendant on private jets when inspiration struck.

It was the offseason for the professional hockey players she helped ferry around, and things at her job were slow. Eager for a diversion and missing the Pilates she had come to love as a college student, she went searching for studios near her home in Madison, Wis., but couldn’t find any.

“That’s when I came up with the idea,” she said.

She started researching how to start her own boutique Pilates business, including what kind of training instructors would need. By early 2025 — and with assistance from chatbots including ChatGPT — she had come up with a name, Revel Method Pilates, a logo and a plan.

Soon, Ms. Winkler, 26, had opened studios in Lake Geneva, Madison and Monona. She now has 65 employees and is set to unveil a fourth studio this year.

Across the country, founders like Ms. Winkler are powering an entrepreneurial renaissance.

Jump-started by the pandemic, when a confluence of factors including mass layoffs and remote work led to a flood of business creation, and supercharged by the rise of artificial intelligence, start-up activity is booming after a decades-long slump.

Americans filed 5.7 million applications last year to start new businesses, according to the Census Bureau, the most in the two decades the government has kept track. New business applications through the first half of this year continued to climb.

https://i.imgur.com/dQQ6Frr.png

The strong run of business creation is one of the most surprising and welcome economic developments of the post-pandemic era. New businesses help drive innovation and productivity growth. Although many fail or remain small,...

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TOPICS: Business/Economy; Culture/Society
KEYWORDS:

[Responsibility2nd]

Trump’s fault.

[PeterPrinciple]

The strong run of business creation

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any damn fool can start a business

[Jolla]

The entrepreneurial spirit will be fun to watch if the world turns to guaranteed income. You get a check, open a small boutique business you really love, don't have to make to much just break even or so, you have a guaranteed income.

[T.B. Yoits]

Translation: Expanding gig economy because your government attacks medium and large businesses.

[ClearCase_guy]

A lot of young people with brains and energy have figured out that major corporations don’t really care about your brains and energy. “Working hard” in your cubicle these days is not likely to get you raises and promotions (those days are mostly gone). The people who work really hard get rewarded with additional work.

It’s always been true — but is now abundantly obvious to a lot of young people — that the way to be successful is to work for yourself.

[Macoozie]

We don’t want a Nation of Shopkeepers.
Another Boutique?

We need business and industry and innovation.
Make stuff again.

Not importing ribbons and plastic flowers from ChiComs

[PeterPrinciple]

that the way to be successful is to work for yourself.

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Personal Services Incorporated

[SuperLuminal]

"The strong run of business creation is one of the most surprising and welcome economic developments of the post-pandemic era."

The NYSlimes, struggling to find any reasons for this surge without mentioning its most hated enemy (DJT), who happens to be the principal reason for business & innovation growth...

In the 1930s, the NYSlimes had no problem cuddling up to Adolph Hitler...

[wastedyears]

No, we need every single dalit, apefrican, and border hopper to get forcibly removed. White collar, delivery, and construction jobs in the millions will immediately open up, and the cost of housing will immediately plummet.

[notdownwidems]

coincidentally, ‘end-of-slump’ rhymes with ‘rise-of-Trump’

[packrat35]

I salute her. She identified a “need”. She did the work to make it happen and she is doing well.

This is what America is all about.

[packrat35]

Been saying the same thing for the past 10 years.

[fidelis]

'Jump-started by the pandemic, when a confluence of factors including mass layoffs and remote work led to a flood of business creation, and supercharged by the rise of artificial intelligence"

This, and renewed confidence under President Trump, is one of the biggest factors in my opinion. AI makes it ridiculously easy to start up a business because it can provide you with proven business models and strategies and takes a lot of time consuming research, planning, and design off your hands.

[Georgia Girl 2]

70% of all jobs in the US are created by small businesses. The defined parameters of small business are larger than you would think. I think its up to 150 employees or something like that.

[ChessExpert]

“The strong run of business creation is one of the most surprising ...”

The MSM, always surprised by events that conservative would label “obvious” or “likely.”

[ChessExpert]

I guess that came to a halt after Hitler turned on his ally “Uncle Joe” Stalin.

[ckilmer]

Not hitle. NY Times is world famous for cuddling up to Stalin. They were both communists

[KarlInOhio]

No entrepreneurial spirit? It was a little over a month ago when the NY Times and the rest of the MSM were having a collective aneurysm over a certain entrepreneur becoming a trillionaire. Elon has been added to the Greek pantheon as the Muse of Entrepreneurship.

[T.B. Yoits]

70% of all jobs in the US are created by small businesses. The defined parameters of small business are larger than you would think. I think its up to 150 employees or something like that.

That's true, but again, this is a gig economy due to government attacking businesses.

For example, the communists in government in Seattle created what amounted to an "Amazon Tax"; targeting Amazon by writing the law to only affect companies with payrolls more than $8.5 million.

https://www.yearoftheopposite.com/p/5-years-later-what-was-the-result

In addition to Amazon leaving Seattle, Amazon shifted their nationwide strategy for deliveries from employees to thousands of small contract companies that hire local drivers. No municipal government shakedowns, no interstate regulations, no Federal labor board, etc.

From the outside it's an increase in small businesses hiring, and part of that 70%, but it's just outsourcing like has been done over decades.

We see it with stores for example. A smaller corporation is set up for a region, or even for individual stores. The employees don't work for the national corporation in Delaware, they work for a local LLC - part of that 70%.