“Our big belief is that entrepreneurs are part of the way to really drive systems forward because they think of what’s possible, what doesn’t exist, and they have the audacity to go build it,” says Taylor McLemore, managing director, Techstars – a venture capital firm that invests in founders through accelerator programs.

WorkingNation sat down with McLemore at JFF Horizons in New Orleans.

He says strong innovation is driven by employer demand. “I really believe that employer demand needs to be the North Star for much of our education system. To be clear, I say ‘much’ intentionally because it’s not that all education is about finding a job. But we, as an economy and a society, have a bunch of people that strive and desire to have greater career opportunity, provide a better life for their family, contribute to their communities.”

“And if we don’t really think about how education is the catalyst for that, those people are not actually realizing their full potential. They’re not able to understand what pathways they could pursue.”

McLemore notes, “There is a massive amount of potential that’s yet to be unlocked in our society through education and work – and we need to open that up.”

Learn more about Techstars.