Most folks know Doug Puffenbarger as a school bus driver, cattle farmer, and maple syrup producer in the Blue Grass Valley. Some friends also know he’s a great photographer, but now, folks across Virginia will know that, too. Recently, Sen. Mark Warner launched a contest to choose a cover photo of Virginia for his Facebook page, a social networking site.

As a former tech entrepreneur and a co-founder of Nextel, people often assume I know everything there is to know about spectrum. The fact is, I don’t. But what I do know is that esoteric debates about the government’s spectrum policy have a profound effect on innovation.

Charlottesville's Mikro, Inc. is a great company most people probably have never heard of: its advanced manufacturing processes allow it to produce cutting-edge, clean energy wind turbines and sophisticated medical instruments. And when foreign investors recently suggested moving the operation offshore, Mikro executives insisted on keeping the facility in Central Virginia.

In his State of the Union Address, President Obama called on Congress to pass an agenda that helps start-ups and small businesses succeed. We have already introduced a plan that shares his goals. It's called the Startup Act. Research conducted by the Kauffman Foundation and others has consistently shown that companies less than five years old accounted for nearly all net job creation in our economy over the past three decades.