Speaking at the Global Entrepreneurship Summit at Stanford University in Palo Alto, Calif., Obama said innovations like the ones that created the tech industry and revolutionized the business world had the power to further “transform the world.”
“You are going to be what helps this process of global integration work in a way that is good for everyone and not just some,” Obama said.
“Entrepreneurship is what gives people like you a chance to fulfill your own dreams,” he said.
The three-day conference that ended Friday brought together more than 700 entrepreneurs from more than 300 countries, according to the university’s Stanford News.
Technology industry stars who made presentations at the conference included Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, Google CEO Sundar Pichai, AOL co-founder Steve Case and others.
The White House, which helped create and sponsor the entrepreneurship summit, made some news, too, when it announced the expansion of its Startup in a Day program that reduces red tape for tech businesses and the National Science Foundation’s Innovation Corps training program.
The president also discussed the White House’s new Tech Inclusion Pledge, under which more than 30 companies have agreed to work toward making their workforces more diverse.
Well-known companies such as Airbnb and Lyft have joined the pledge,” Obama said.
“We have to make sure they have the tools they need to start new ventures to help lift up entire populations,” he said.
Zuckerberg discussed creation of the social networking site Facebook, which started in a college dormitory and grew to a network with more than 1.5 billion users.
“To me, entrepreneurship if about creating change, not creating companies,” he said.
Mia Medhat of Cairo, co-founder of the Eventtus app, discussed the impact of social networking on her country, Egypt, which overthrew a 30-year military dictatorship in 2011.
“We created a revolution out of Facebook,” she said.
But all the tech hoopla could not distract the president from the business of running the country, and he made a few remarks about the historic United Kingdom vote to leave the European Union.
Obama said he was sure that Britain’s exit from the EU, known in Europe as Brexit, would be conducted in an orderly fashion.
