Humans don’t make very good multitaskers, but the same isn’t true for AI
Court hears arguments on net neutrality
Executive coaching should be accessible to anyone who is interested, but oftentimes scaling the education is not practical. With her company Zella Life, co-founder Remy Meraz is democratizing professional development using AI. We sat down with her to discuss AI, independent contractors, and more.
After working in the financial sector for over 20 years, Mical Jeanlys-White founded her own company, WealthMore, a wealth tech with a focus on tackling a key financial barrier—wealth building and management. Her company leverages technology to connect everyday Americans with accessible wealth management services, aiming to provide wealth creation for all. We sat down with her to discuss her journey in raising capital, navigating tax policy, the evolving role of AI, and more.
Vance Reavie is no stranger to entrepreneurship. Using his knowledge from previous ventures, he created an AI platform that intelligently automates manual marketing and merchandising workflows and content generation processes for brands and retailers. We sat down with Vance to discuss the startup ecosystem in Arkansas, AI policy and regulation, grant opportunities, and more.
The Big Story: Big week for Biden’s broadband efforts. The Biden administration is honing in on broadband expansion this week with new partnerships with Internet providers to ensure low-cost broadband for low-income Americans and the kickoff of a program to make available $45 billion for state broadband initiatives. Reliable, accessible, affordable broadband is crucial to the startup ecosystem and innovators across the country.
The Big Story: Administration action easing student loan debt could spur entrepreneurship. With student debt forgiveness back in the news, policymakers have an opportunity to ease the tough road to entrepreneurship, especially for underrepresented founders. Last week, the Biden administration indicated an intent to enact student loan forgiveness in the coming weeks, as millions of borrowers continue to struggle with high federal student debt balances. While the details are still unclear on what exactly forgiveness would look like and who would be eligible, one thing is clear: excessive student loan debt serves as a barrier to entrepreneurship for many.
When policymakers think about changing the rules for how companies host and moderate user content, they focus on three or four large Internet companies. But we know from talking to startups across the country every day that all kinds of companies host user content online. They may not be the companies that are top of mind when policymakers write rules, but they’re the companies least equipped to deal with compliance and litigation costs designed with the large industry players in mind.
The Big Story: EU advances overhaul of content moderation rules. Early Saturday morning, the European Union reached an agreement on a final version of landmark legislation to govern online intermediaries hosting user content in the EU. The legislation, known as the Digital Services Act (DSA), will build on existing EU law and create new obligations for companies—including startups—that will require additional staff, development of new tools, and attention toward compliance in order to serve users in the EU.
The Big Story: Startups should be prominent voice in merger guidelines re-write. This week, Engine submitted comments in response to a request for information (RFI) from the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and the Department of Justice (DOJ) Antitrust Division on merger enforcement. The agencies issued the RFI in January as they move toward re-writing the merger guidelines, guidance that outlines how the agencies will analyze prospective mergers, which is traditionally relied on by the agencies, companies, and courts alike. Sound merger enforcement that mitigates illegal anticompetitive behavior is important for startup success, but policymakers must balance those potential harms with the benefits of acquisitions. If the new guidelines are too restrictive, they risk burdening legal transactions—including those of startups, thereby limiting startups’ exit opportunities and stemming the flow of capital in the startup ecosystem.
The Big Story: Over 100 startups, investors, organizations defend QSBS tax treatment. This week, more than 100 startups, startup investors, and startup support organizations sent a letter to Congress urging them to preserve the current tax treatment of Qualified Small Business Stock (QSBS), which helps startups attract early-stage investment and employees.
The Big Story: EARN IT Act moves forward despite concerns from lawmakers, advocates, and industry. A bill moving through the Senate would amend critical Internet legal frameworks that startups rely on to host user-generated content and disincentivize startups from using privacy and security-enhancing measures like encryption.
The Big Story: The startup policy priorities for 2022. This week, Engine released its 2022 Startup Agenda, highlighting the policy priorities of the U.S. startup ecosystem and featuring startups across the country explaining the ways policy can support them. As we explain in the agenda, there are startups in every state and every congressional district. There are startups that have all kinds of business models and rely on all types of funding. There are startups that operate in every sector of U.S. industry. And all of them will be impacted by policymakers' decisions across a range of issues.
The Big Story: America COMPETES is a mixed bag for startups. The new sweeping House package aimed at boosting American competitiveness and innovation has several provisions that would dramatically improve the startup ecosystem, but the bill also includes an unrelated bill that would harm e-commerce startups.
The Big Story: 10 years later, SOPA has lessons for startup policy. This week, we’re reflecting on copyright policy’s past as well as the impact it will continue to have on innovation, and what that all means for high-tech, high-growth startups and the Internet users and creators that depend on them. Engine, alongside many organizations, remembered and commemorated the 10 year anniversary of the defeat of the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) with conversations of what balanced, innovation-friendly copyright policy looks like for startups and small businesses.
The Big Story: Changes to copyright rules would hurt news, commentary startups, and free expression. As a few countries adopt or consider laws that would require websites to pay whenever they—or their users—link to or quote a news article, the U.S. Copyright Office is studying what those sorts of laws would mean here. In comments this week, Engine emphasized the substantial unintended consequences of such policies, which would not just alter how information is shared and communicated online, but cause problems for startups and innovation.
The Big Story: Congress talks online content, but startups are sidelined. As Congress continues the drumbeat of complaints about user-generated content on the Internet, the conversation misses the realities of content moderation and the role content moderation plays for startups.
Debates about the intermediary liability framework provided by Section 230 have animated policy conversations as lawmakers grapple with harmful online content, including around election integrity, health information, and children’s safety. But those debates are almost exclusively focused on the largest Internet companies. Section 230, however, applies to all services of all sizes that host all types of user-generated content, including startups.
The Big Story: Startups watch as Congress considers tech nominees. This week, Senate committees weighed in on several individuals President Joe Biden nominated to key tech leadership roles, shedding some light on the direction the nominees might take to support startup innovators. In a series of hearings, Senators considered acting Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Chair Jessica Rosenworcel and FCC nominee Gigi Sohn, as well as Alan Davidson, who was nominated to lead the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA), Federal Trade Commission nominee Alvaro Bedoya, and Kathi Vidal, who was nominated to lead the Patent and Trademark Office.
The Big Story: Making the startup ecosystem more equitable. Startup founders with innovative ideas should have the chance to succeed, no matter where they’re located or what they look like. But too often, underrepresented founders—including women and founders of color—are denied the opportunity to get investments, launch, and grow. This week, Engine released an assessment of barriers that underrepresented founders face as well as policy proposals to alleviate those barriers.
The Big Story: Immigration in play in reconciliation bill, but path unclear. As the House eyes a path forward on the reconciliation bill, newly-added language would create temporary protections for millions of undocumented immigrants, which could make it easier for foreign-born innovators, founders, and STEM talent to stay and work in the U.S.
The Big Story: Biden puts up key tech, telecom nominees. This week, President Biden announced several long-awaited nominations that, if confirmed, will serve key roles in setting technology and telecom policies that impact the startup ecosystem.
The Big Story: Policymakers turn attention to patent policy. Over the past weeks, there have been several indications policymakers across D.C. are thinking about the various roles patents play in innovation policy—both recognizing their potential to support innovators but also seeking to understand how low-quality patents hurt startups and small businesses.
Your privacy is important to us. To better protect your privacy we provide this notice explaining our online information practices and the choices you can make about the way your information is collected and used.
