[robotadam]

The U.S. does have a similar program, the Self-Employment Assistance Program: http://www.workforcesecurity.doleta.gov/unemploy/self.asp

It's a Federal program, but the states have to implement it. Only Delaware, Maine, Maryland, New Jersey, New York, Oregon and Pennsylvania do. In short, if you're on unemployment and you qualify (they have some calculations that determine whether they think you're likely to exhaust primary unemployment anyways) then you can retain your unemployment benefit while starting a company, instead of looking for jobs.

One of my co-founders and I were on this after our last employer went under, and it helped a lot, keeping us focused on building the business instead of taking consulting work to pay the rent.