Leapfrog (What It Will Take to Win the Global Innovation War)

The United States once defined the future of technology, from jets and nuclear energy to computer chips and the internet. Today, we have been leapfrogged as China has bet big and bet early on the technologies of the future. From cars and batteries to robotics and synthetic biology, America’s leadership has been lost or imperiled.

Blinkered by envy and hamstrung by risk aversion, Washington’s answer has been to pour billions into vain attempts to catch up in industries where it’s too late to lead—chasing electric vehicles instead of autonomous ones, solar panels rather than next-generation nuclear or advanced robotics. This copycat approach is doomed to fail. The country’s economic future and national security depend on whether we can change course.

Leapfrog argues that the only way for America to win is to invent and lead the industries of the future, building frontier technologies no rival can match. We need to relearn to take risk on emerging innovations and go after them before it’s too late. When you’ve been leapfrogged, the only option is to leapfrog back.

A former White House official and now a venture capitalist on the front lines of innovation, Josh Zoffer takes readers inside D.C.’s halls of power and Silicon Valley’s start-ups to pull back the curtain on how global technology competition really works at the highest levels of government and industry. Leapfrog explains why the U.S. has fallen behind in so many areas and what frontier innovations and industries we need to pursue today to turn things around. With illuminating diagnoses and provocative prescriptions for policymakers, businesses, and innovators, Leapfrog makes the urgent case for rediscovering America’s techno-industrial dynamism.