The Big Story: Startup founders come to D.C. calling for policies to enable innovation for all
This week, startup founders from diverse backgrounds, including women founders, founders of color, immigrant founders, and others, spent two days on Capitol Hill for conversations with federal agencies, their lawmakers, and key committees to discuss the barriers they’ve faced launching and growing companies in the startup ecosystem. The fly-in was accompanied by the release of our new Innovation for All report, which sheds light on their experiences and proposes policy solutions for a more equitable startup ecosystem.
Over the past two years, as part of a project supported by the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation, we learned about the experiences of more than 200 underrepresented founders—including founders of color and women, Black, immigrant, rural, and LGBTQ+ founders—to better understand the policy changes needed to support their success. Fourteen of those founders came to town this week to share their experiences directly with policymakers, which included both successes and significant struggles, from challenges accessing capital and other resources, to the impact of student loan debt and child care affordability, to challenges complying with federal regulations, and more. And while the U.S. startup ecosystem is the most innovative and dynamic in the world, and is on its surface, accessible to anyone, systemic inequities mean underrepresented founders have to consistently do more with less.
Underrepresented founders cannot and should not have to make change alone. Policymakers must act to implement policies to enable capital formation, prioritize programs that support diverse founders, collect better data about underrepresented founders in the startup ecosystem and their needs, make it easier to launch and grow a company in the U.S., and so much more. To fully realize the potential of our startup ecosystem, we must dismantle the barriers that hinder underrepresented founders and ensure that entrepreneurship truly reflects the diversity of our society.
Policy Roundup:
President’s Export Council recommends reasserting leadership on digital trade. On Tuesday, the President’s Export Council met with cabinet secretaries and other senior administration officials to present their recommendations for trade policy, which included key items that will benefit U.S. startups. The council recommended the U.S. reassert leadership in plurilateral negotiations at the World Trade Organization where the U.S. stepped back from supporting long standing digital trade provisions. Those provisions include support for free data flows, which are critical for startups, as founders and entrepreneur supporters shared at an Engine event on Capitol Hill Tuesday.
Startups need strong preemption in federal privacy law to end the patchwork. This week, Engine and over 20 other organizations representing industries across the economy sent a letter to leaders of a key committee stressing the importance of ensuring full preemption of state privacy laws to establish a uniform national privacy standard. The letter was sent to House Energy and Commerce Committee Chair Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-Wash.) and Ranking Member Frank Pallone (D-N.J.) as they continue to improve the draft American Privacy Rights Act (APRA) ahead of a full committee markup. The problematic patchwork of unique state privacy laws is creating burdensome costs for startups, which must be solved with a comprehensive federal privacy law, but that can only be accomplished through meaningful preemption of those unique state laws.
Funding needed to ensure success of Tech Hubs program. On Tuesday, a coalition of think tanks and industry organizations, including Engine, wrote to leaders of the Senate Commerce Committee to express support for the Spectrum and National Security Act ahead of an impending markup. The letter called for increased federal support for the Regional Technology and Innovation Hubs Program to enhance U.S. competitiveness. Engine has long underscored the importance of the Tech Hubs program, in support of the development of startup ecosystems across the country to support innovation.
Administration can boost ecosystem by streamlining immigrant entrepreneurship program. On Monday, Engine and the Coalition for International Entrepreneurship sent a letter to Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, encouraging the agency to clarify processing times for the International Entrepreneur Parole program to improve access for foreign founders, Engine has long underscored the significant contributions of immigrants in the U.S. startup ecosystem and the importance of programs like International Entrepreneur Parole that help more founders start companies in the U.S. Policymakers need to work to dismantle barriers slowing and preventing innovators from launching and growing companies in the U.S.
