The U.S. government needs to do more to support start-ups to secure its future as a technological innovator, said former Cisco CEO John Chambers.

“We’re the only country in the world that not only does not have a digitization program, but we don’t have a start-up program,” Chambers said Thursday on CNBC’s “Squawk on the Street.”

Despite a president who supports business growth, the government has actually created a hostile environment for start-ups, said Chambers — who is now a venture capitalist.

“The key thing from the government — make it simple to start a start-up and easy to go public. It’s unbelievably difficult in this country,” he added.

Using France as an example, he also pushed for widespread changes in a broken education system.

“For start-ups to work, you have to change the education system, which we all know is broken,” he said. “When I pop into class in France and start to tell them what artificial intelligence is, they are already teaching that class.”

A few major tech companies like Spotify and Dropbox have gone public this year, but Chambers said that isn’t enough.

Chambers’ venture capital firm, JC2 Ventures, currently has a portfolio of nine start-ups listed on its website, and he plans to invest in more, he said.

Source: Tech CNBC
US needs to do more to support start-ups, says ex-Cisco CEO John Chambers