National Entrepreneurship Month

This morning, the White House declared November National Entrepreneurship month. The introduction of the Startup America Legislative Agenda and the JOBS Act, which was signed into law by President Obama in February, has demonstrated the focus of policymakers on Americans who build new businesses.

The American economy depends on startups. Creating an atmosphere where entrepreneurs take calculated risks, investors help young companies grow and thrive, and technology facilitates the emergence of new markets and products will help lead our country out of the economic slump.

For a year that began with SOPA, a dark moment for internet entrepreneurs, 2012 has been a very positive for those of us championing innovation and entrepreneurship. After beating back SOPA, a new, emboldened constituency of innovators sought to improve the business climate for entrepreneurship. To that end, many of us fought for and won passage of the JOBS Act and started an important conversation on Startup Act 2.0, which we hope will become law early in the next Congress.

Though this entire month is dedicated to American entrepreneurship, November 16th is reserved in particular to be National Entrepreneurship Day as a celebration of America’s innovative prospects. At Engine, we are pleased that the President and his administration have singled out the promise of entrepreneurship, and look forward to continuing to work with policymakers on both sides of the aisle to champion the cause of entrepreneurship.

Photo courtesy of Trevor McGoldrick.

Detroit: Startup City

Over the last two days, I’ve been hanging out with some of the brightest young minds in a growing startup community, talking about strategies for growth, ways to strengthen the local startup community, ways to connect different silos of entrepreneurs, and much more.

And the best part is I did it all in the shadow of the home of winners of the American League Pennant.

Reports of Detroit’s renaissance have been premature before. The Motor City has gotten a lot of bad press for decades in the wake of crime, unemployment, widespread poverty, and more. This visit, though, has made me optimistic about the future of the city. While the auto bailout has helped turn around the seemingly endless string of bad stories coming out of Southeastern Michigan, another part of the economy is adding jobs and building community.

Detroit has always been an entrepreneurial city. The United States has an auto industry because Henry Ford had an idea and revolutionized manufacturing here in Michigan. Today, startups are taking root in Downtown Detroit like never before.

I met many local entrepreneurs yesterday at the M@dison Building, across the street from Ford Field and Comerica Park, where we gathered for Brand Camp University run by Detroit Entrepreneur and Engine collaborator Hajj Flemings. Flemings also joined Engine in June for Startup Day on the Hill. Brand Camp was a day packed full of interesting chats with a diverse group of entrepreneurs including Brad Feld, Boulder’s venture capitalist extraordinaire, Startup America COO Kathleen Warner, content strategist C.C. Chapman, myself, and others. Through all of the presentations based on the theme of “Build, Innovate and Grow Detroit,” young Detroiters gained insights and asked really excellent questions about how to start businesses and contribute to the city’s success.

I also had the opportunity to meet with many of the next generation of Detroit entrepreneurs this morning at the Startup Ventures event on the city’s East Side. More than 175 high school students focused on science and technology gathered at the UAW-GM facility along the Detroit River for a wide-ranging discussion of entrepreneurship, the importance of education in STEM fields, building business in a strong Detroit, and more. It was a powerful experience to be surrounded by motivated young minds keen to learn, many of whom pitched me on some great business ideas.

Overall, I’m leaving Detroit tomorrow with one pervasive thought: that this city, so long on the brink, has a road back to prominence. And with entrepreneurs taking the lead in building a new, stronger Detroit, they’re in good hands along the way.

Photo Courtesy of Patricia Drury.

reroute/sf: a New Model for City-Startup Collaboration

This weekend Engine, along with the City of San Francisco and friends in the tech community, will co-host reroute/sf, a hackathon in which engineers, designers, and business minded folks will form teams to build technology that aims to improve transit in San Francisco.

When our team met with representatives from the City of San Francisco and the SFMTA eight months ago, our message was simple: let’s work together to find technological solutions to overcome the transit challenges affecting the city. Access to transit is important for growing businesses aiming to establish and keep their headquarters in San Francisco.

The problem? Finding a constructive way to address San Franciscans’ transit frustrations in a way that works within the City’s infrastructure and resource constraints. To avoid the pitfalls of similar attempts and ensure real change, a new approach had to be taken -- we had to work closely with the City and local civic organizations to engineer immediately applicable and actionable solutions.

Mark Wills, a designer at Hattery, came up with reroute/sf, a hackathon that uses technology to address problems that citizens and the City agree need to be fixed. We worked together with local officials to determine the core challenges that technology might be able to solve, and we have energized the technology community behind the potential to make their city a better place to live.

This weekend, we’re ready to open our doors for reroute/sf, with the hope that our friends who code, design, and pitch will deliver interesting and useful inventions to help improve our City. The SFMTA has committed to working with the winning teams to make their innovations real, and Google Maps has generously provided grants for the winners to support this collaborative work.

While we aspire to produce new transit technologies this weekend, we also hope for reroute/sf to be a model for future partnerships between the City and the startup community.

Put Your Mark on Our Innovation Map

A few weeks back, we posted the first version of a simple tool to connect startups to incubators and accelerators in their communities. Created in association with our friends Luke Pelican and Marvin Ammori, we’re aiming to build out the map further. We’re looking to you -- investors, mentors, and entrepreneurs -- to tell us where these innovation hubs are to better connect with entrepreneurs.

Startups are critical to economic growth and job creation. Connecting entrepreneurs to resources that will help grow their businesses will be critical to keep this trend going. By submitting information about your group, startups can more easily find the spaces that will help them thrive.

How does it work? Go fill out this survey and we’ll populate your information on our map (we’re a bit obsessed with maps lately). Before we do so, we’ll send a confirmation email to make sure you’re cool with being included. Then sit back and watch as your incubator or accelerator pops up on our map.

Simple, right? As adoption grows, we hope to build out and design this map into a more robust tool, but first we need the data from you to make it possible. So drop us a line and we’ll get back to you straight away. The country can’t wait for more startups to take off and you may be the group that mentors the next big startup success story.

At Austin Startup Week

I’m excited to be in Austin for Startup Week. I’m here to meet with local startups and key players in the startup community as well as to tell Austin’s story of entrepreneurial growth. Local hubs for tech and for entrepreneurship are dotted all across the country, and each one is vital to the continued growth of the American economy as a whole. Engine is partnering with local organizations committed to growing the startup community here in Austin, including the Austin Technology Council and the Austin Chamber of Commerce.

On Wednesday, I spoke to a group of about 50 local entrepreneurs on a panel titled “Policy vs. Pitch” outlining some of the issues on the horizon in which the startup community can have a voice. There was consensus that while entrepreneurs tend to and ought to prioritize building their product above participating in policymaking. Their participation through platforms like Engine will be crucial in moving debates and helping the startup community grow. Issues like immigration reform, STEM education, and patent were highlighted as leading concerns to which the startup community should lend its voice.

And yesterday, I spoke with representatives from three congressional offices on startup policy, along with local entrepreneurs Mitch Jacobson from Austin Technology Incubator and Eric Overton, chief executive of Focus Embedded. We discussed ideas for better high-skill immigration, small business growth and other issues as part of the Austin Chamber’s involvement with Startup Week. I’m particularly happy to have had the opportunity to discuss Startup Act 2.0, a great idea we’ve touched on here many times before, and learn more about its prospects in the new Congress. All of the participants were confident about the prospects for entrepreneurship legislation in the new Congress and left the meeting eager to continue working to make these changes a reality.

I’m glad to be having these conversations in an environment as vibrant and engaged as Austin’s tech scene. Like many other entrepreneurial communities, Austin is showing how cities can grow based on investing in the startup community. I’m hopeful we can take the successes and the experience that Austin has had and translate it to help other communities grow throughout the country.

KC Startups for Open Internet

The Internet 2012 Bus Tour stopped off the campaign trail in Kansas City on Sunday, to participate in a panel hosted by the Kauffman Foundation on the future of entrepreneurship.

The internet bus tour, making its way from Denver, CO to Danville, KY, started its route after the first presidential debate last week. The aim? To show that a free and open internet isn’t a partisan issue or one restricted to small areas of the country. The bus, which will carry a group of reporters and Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian among others, will travel through the heartland to meet with people and collect stories of how they use the internet.

The event on Sunday was an opportunity for the Internet Bus riders to hear from the Kansas City startup community about how the internet has enabled their businesses to thrive. Kauffman’s Cameron Cushman told Engine; “The future of entrepreneurship is going to involve technology in some fashion. We need to make sure the internet remains a medium that entrepreneurs can use.”

Panelists included local entrepreneurs from AgLocal,Leap2, and Neighbor.ly. Jase Wilson from Neighbor.ly, a civic engagement platform that allows people and companies to invest in civic projects they want to see carried out in their cities and neighborhoods, spoke to Engine about the importance of campaigning for an open internet: “Open internet enables us. Neighbor.ly along with countless other e-commerce systems would be a non-starter if the internet were beholden to interest groups. We're able to try out ideas and provide a valuable service for next to nothing thanks to the open internet. The cost of participating as a platform in a non-open internet would skyrocket, removing lean startups like ours from the ecosystem.”

And that ecosystem is vital not just to the health of the entrepreneurial community in Kansas or any other individual community in the United States. Entrepreneurship is driving job growth across the country, and a thriving and open internet is vital to the continued recovery and growth of the economy. We’ll be tracking the bus as it rolls across the country campaigning for the internet, hitting the innovation hot spots in the heartland and further amplifying the voices of entrepreneurs and internet users from coast to coast.

Startups, Privacy & the FTC

Derek Parham is a startup advisor and a member of the Engine steering committee. This is an opinion piece and should not be construed as legal advice. @derekparham

Too few startups understand complex compliance requirements and the government could better communicate guidelines and regulations to entrepreneurs. This was the consensus reached at a roundtable meeting with Commissioner Maureen Ohlhausen of the Federal Trade Commission and members of the San Francisco startup community Wednesday morning.

The Commissioner joined members of San Francisco startup community at Engine to speak about the agency’s outreach to entrepreneurs and small businesses. Discourse between the startup community and Washington is critical to bridging the divide between the two groups. This kind of hands-on information sharing is invaluable to making sure policymakers gain technical experience with the real-world application of new technologies that they are regulating.

The FTC is eager to get startups involved in its consumer protection process. The problem is, small startups may not have the resources -- or the wherewithal -- to focus on compliance with FTC regulations. They are directing their resources toward growth and dealing with regulations is sidelined until the company gets big enough or successful enough. Often the compliance department of a company doesn’t exist until the startup is thinking about going public. But there are simple ways for startups to meet basic requirements. FTC regulators care a lot about the statements in privacy policies. So making a concerted effort when creating it, as well as checking it monthly to make sure it is still accurate is a super easy way to make regulators happy -- not to mention your users.

We need our community to become educated on FTC regulations that impact them. Privacy policies do matter, no matter how big your company is right now. And the FTC in turn needs to continue the open discourse with our community that we saw yesterday with Commissioner Olhausen at Engine. The FTC maintains a website, and a very active twitter feed which provide an avenue for keeping up on regulatory changes that are likely to impact your company. And of course, watch this space.

The First Presidential Debate: Will Startups be on the Agenda?

Tonight, former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney will take the stage with President Barack Obama at the University of Denver, for the first of three debates between the two candidates as we edge ever closer to election day. Tonight’s debate will focus on domestic policy. We’re hoping to see startups and entrepreneurship prioritized in the debate, as both are a vital and growing force in the American economy.

Both the President and Governor Romney have taken positions in their campaign platforms that would impact the startup community -- from investment in STEM education to reforming high-skilled immigration and others.

President Obama has laid out much of this vision with his Startup America legislative agenda, promoting policies such as granting green cards to the recipients of advanced degrees from U.S. universities, expanding and making permanent capital gains tax exemptions for small businesses, and championing crowdfunding and other financial regulation reforms passed in the JOBS Act in February of this year.

Governor Romney has backed similar proposals, and others that include programs to attract more high-skilled immigrants, strengthening the research and development tax credit and proposed amendments for Sarbanes-Oxley.

But will the candidates elevate these issues and others to the national stage of tonight’s debate?

America is in need of bold leadership. Our economy is still on the road to recovery, but startups are leading the way in creating jobs and pulling us up out of the recession. Government should pay attention to the potential for growth in reforming areas like immigration, education, and financial regulation, in order to give America the opportunity to reclaim our strong economy and cement our position as a global leader.

We hope that both candidates prioritize these important issues in tonight’s debate. Whatever the outcome of the election in five weeks, we look forward to working with the President and Congress on behalf of our community to make a better regulatory environment for startups reality.

Image from Creative Commons

Engine Welcomes Reps. Chaffetz and Goodlatte

Last week, Engine hosted Representatives Jason Chaffetz of Utah and Bob Goodlatte of Virginia. The lawmakers, both Republicans, joined a host of startups to discuss issues involving copyright, patents, and other intellectual property issues critical to entrepreneurs developing technology products for consumers.

The conversation revolved around a number of subjects. Entrepreneurs expressed concern about a second coming of bills like SOPA and PIPA as well as an interest in fixing the patent regime to keep trolls from harming young companies. We also discussed Rep. Chaffetz’s Internet Radio Fairness Act of the 2012 -- introduced with Democratic Senator Ron Wyden of Oregon -- which would level the playing field between radio broadcasters online and off.

Rules changing how startups can use and display content will be critical to the evolution of the technology industry. At Engine, we will continue to get entrepreneurs involved in the debate on intellectual property as it affects their businesses.

Colleen Chien Patent Research: Startups Paying the Price

Patent lawsuits create big problems for small companies and startups which pay a larger share of their revenue and resources fighting them than larger companies, according to research published by Santa Clara University Professor Colleen Chien.

In July, Chien testified before the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Intellectual Property about the need to change a patent system that harms entrepreneurs and innovators more than it helps. Afterward, Engine sent out a call for startups who had been affected by patent litigation to share your stories with Chien to assist with a study into the impacts of patent litigation on startups. Chien listened to your stories, tabulated the survey results, and used them concurrently with her comprehensive analysis of patent litigations from 2005 to present. The findings:

• Small companies are more likely to experience “significant operational impact” due to patent demands.
• Monetization of software patents is an iffy investment. Few software patents are actually valuable, and the patent market is a risky lottery type situation rather than something investors or companies can rely on. 
• Most startups don’t patent anyway because of the expense.
• Startups are often targeted because they are users of technology -- like retail or hospitality outlets that have WiFi.

Startups and small companies are among the most negatively impacted by patent litigation. The need to protect America’s startups, and to create an environment that isn’t chilling to new firm establishments, is vital to our continued economic growth and job recovery.

Chien notes that existing proposals, like the SHIELD Act, may work differently for startups than they do for larger and more established companies, who are more constrained by time and resources and thus cannot bear even the lessened drain on resources that these reforms provide. The SHIELD Act functions on a “loser pays” system in which the costs of invalid suits or non-infringed cases are paid by the bringer of the case. However, in the case of a small startup, the resources and time drained in order to prove that the suit is invalid or prove non-infringement may still be too high.

Policymakers need to be aware of the high costs patent litigation imposes on startups under the current system and under proposed reforms. The entrepreneur community should guide policies that lessen potential negative effects on startups and young businesses. Startups are the key to economic growth and global competitiveness in this country, and government regulation needs to reflect this.

Mapping Innovation and Entrepreneurship

Startups are flourishing across the country as we can see from the interactive map Engine released last month. What you may not know is that a network of incubators, accelerators, and other resources are available to entrepreneurs in these communities. Along with my colleague Marvin Ammori, we undertook a research project to catalog some of the important innovation hubs. With the help of our friends at Engine, we now have a tool to map these hubs for the benefit of entrepreneurs, job seekers, and policy makers. We welcome your help in continuing to build out this map for startups around the country.     

Startups are important: they drive economic growth and technological innovation, representing the best of entrepreneurialism and perseverance. However, finding assistance when launching a startup and building a business can be very difficult. Fortunately, there are organizations that help entrepreneurs turn a kernel of an idea into a thriving business: incubators and accelerators. These innovation spaces are a crucial ingredient for entrepreneurial success.

Generally speaking, incubators provide entrepreneurs with a place to set up shop, business resources, seed funding, networking opportunities, and other tools to get their companies started. Accelerators are similar in that they provide resources to young companies, but they also work with startups that are more established and help them to take their business to the next level. Together, these organizations play a critical role in the innovation ecosystem.

With Engine, we’ve created a map of incubators and accelerators that are helping startups throughout the country. Click on a pin to learn more about an individual innovation space. We show organizations that work with internet-focused companies -- app developers, software designers, and other related organizations -- but they may also host many other types of businesses.

The maps shows the innovation spaces that exist from coast-to-coast, in all 50 states. If you’re a startup looking for help launching or growing your technology company, check out the incubators and accelerators in your region. If you’re an incubator or accelerator but don’t see yourself on the map, fill in your information so we can add you.

Innovation Spaces Map

Survey  

Luke Pelican is an associate at The Ammori Group

FCC Auction Rules to Impact Startups

Startups should keep an eye on the launch of the incentive auction system which the Federal Communications Commission will address in its open hearing Friday. The FCC, the independent government agency charged with oversight of communications technologies, is reconvening after the usual summer lull in Washington. The agency is tackling issues startups should monitor, including rules for new spectrum auctions.

Startups are generally less concerned as to how spectrum is made available than with how quickly it is made available. The importance of the airwaves to entrepreneurs is clear; wireless communication has propelled the growth of a new segment of the economy with the introduction of smartphones and tablets. The sooner more spectrum can be made available, the sooner more new companies can develop products and services for customers.

The FCC auctions airwaves for exclusive use by companies like AT&T and Verizon. It also opens them to “unlicensed” use which allows innovators to create technologies on particular frequency sets. Incentive auctions function by relocating television broadcasters to shared or unused channels to open new swaths of LTE-capable spectrum. This move, however, may squeeze frequencies approved for unlicensed technologies between television channels that are called white spaces.

Rulemakings introduced by the FCC starting Friday will impact three areas critical to innovation:

• Sharing spectrum with government users. The FCC is moving forward with a plan to allow commercial and government entities to share the same airwaves, increasing the amount of available spectrum for innovative applications.
• Incentive auction rules. A rulemaking has been proposed that will address the incentive auction system. Auctions are complex and rule-driven. Any tweaks may protect or endanger unlicensed spectrum proposed for open use by innovators and startups.
• Satellite spectrum regulation. The commission is considering a rulemaking to reduce the regulatory burden on satellite services with the goal of encouraging the development of new consumer satellite communications technologies.

The FCC is aware of startups concerns. We asked FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski during a September 11 Twitter town hall about the

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commission’s plans to boost startups. Genachowski pointed to the incentive auction plan to create a nationwide band of unlicensed spectrum for experimentation as a critical step in innovation and entrepreneurship in the wireless ecosystem.

Engine will continue to follow the FCC moves as it builds toward an entirely new auction system. We encourage the commission continues to recognize the importance of startups and to listen to entrepreneurs and makers of disruptive technologies as they consider new rules.

Image via Wikimedia Commons

Register to Vote Today!

Today is National Voter Registration Day, a grassroots project which Engine and hundreds of other organizations across the political spectrum are cosponsoring to register more people to vote.

Elected officials on both sides of the aisle are beginning to take note of many issues critical to the startup community. You have the opportunity to shape the debate by casting a vote for candidates who share your views. Civic participation and pride are important; it’s critical that you weigh in on the issues and vote for candidates you want in government to make our democracy more complete and representative.

But you can’t do this if you’re not registered.

Maybe this is the first election you’re eligible to vote in, maybe you moved or changed address and forgot to update your registration, maybe you never had reason to vote before. Whatever your situation, there’s good news: You still have time to make your voice heard.

Across the country today, events are being held where you can sign up. Find one close to you here, or visit the NVRD website and follow #925NVRD on Twitter for more information.

You can also register through the NVRD site directly, as well as with our friends at InternetVotes.org, a site from the Center for Rights

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and Personal Democracy Media, where you can learn more about issues impacting the internet in this election. However you register, and however you vote, you can make a difference in the upcoming election. We hope you do both.

CircleUp Cofounder Rory Eakin on JOBS Act

The passage of Jumpstart Our Business Startups Act in February was praised by entrepreneurs and investors as a long overdue update to the startup financial regulation landscape. The JOBS Act eases access to investors for startups raising capital by removing the ban on general solicitation and allowing equity crowdfunding. However rules need to be set by the Securities and Exchange Commission before these provisions can be taken advantage of by startups.

Rory Eakin, cofounder of CircleUp, a startup that connects startups and investors, testified at a Joint Session of the Committees on Oversight and Government Reform and Financial Services September 13 to urge government to rapidly implement provisions of the bill. He spoke to Engine about his experience as an entrepreneur engaging directly with policymakers about the issues that affect his startup. Eakin’s testimony served as a reminder of the spirit of the bill as well as a timely nudge to keep the implementation process in motion, and demonstrates the value of startups participating in the policy making process.

Engine: How was the experience of testifying?

Rory Eakin: It was tremendously exciting, and pretty encouraging to see the level of engagement and attendance from the two subcommittees and on both sides of the aisle. There was a lot of enthusiasm for the JOBS Act. Many people have different perspectives on the ways it should be implemented, but there’s a lot of unity on the overall mission to support startups and to help them grow.

E: In your testimony you talk a lot how JOBS Act might help to open the investor market up. How do you think this would help your business and other startups?

RE: One of the most important messages we were bringing to light at the hearing is how concentrated the early stage investment market is. When you look at the data, a lot of venture capital and angel investment is concentrated in technology startups and in specific geographies. The real benefit of the JOBS Act for CircleUp is being able to spread investment to broader geographic areas and to areas not historically associated with early stage investment. CircleUp connects high growth startups to networks of accredited investors -- the JOBS Act represents a great opportunity to lift some of the burdens associated with investment in companies or geographic areas not previously well served by investor networks.

E: The rules just came out for the changes to general solicitation last month -- what impact do you think this provision will have for startups?

RE: We haven’t seen a direct benefit yet because we’re still waiting for implementation. Title II (the change in general solicitation) to us is the most important part of the bill, because it will enable companies to reach out to their consumers, and others very familiar with the brand already, to inform them that the company is raising capital and there are opportunities to invest. It’s a way of making a more efficient marketplace where buyers and sellers can come together. We want there to be an ecosystem that attracts high quality companies and high quality investors. We’re also anxiously awaiting the rules for Title III, crowdfunding, which will be very important for a number of other startup companies in gaining access to investor capital which will allow their businesses to grow and thrive.

E: What advice would you have for other entrepreneurs about engaging with policy that directly affects their business?

RE: There’s a lot of receptivity in Washington for hearing the perspective of startups. We found our way to the panel through our own blog. It was a relatively smooth path from engaging with the issues through writing about the subject to then providing testimony. Legislators have so much on their plate -- the role of the startup in this situation is to make it accessible for them to understand how policy and legislation affects startups both negatively and positively. We take our knowledge on these issues for granted, but translating them for the legislator audience is key -- which is an important part of what you do at Engine. Implementation of JOBS Act is an ongoing issue, and we hope more folks pay attention to and recognize they can be influential in DC - I’d love to connect with anyone who is looking to do that through twitter @circleup.

Read or view Eakin’s full testimony

Congress: Pass Bipartisan STEM Visa Legislation This Year

Earlier today, Engine Advocacy released a letter to Members of both Houses of Congress, strongly advocating for legislation this year to increase access to visas for qualified, highly-skilled, foreign-born graduates of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics disciplines from U.S. universities.

The letter can be read here, and we urge you to contact your Members of Congress as well, and tell them to move on important legislation this year.

Internet Radio Bill Good for Innovation, Startups

While the internet and startups play a critical role in driving innovation in content industries, the relationship between incumbent companies and their young competitors has never been harmonious. From the advent of radio to the launch of Napster, disruptive technologies have experienced legal barriers to markets. The Internet Radio Fairness Act of 2012 -- introduced by Oregon Democratic Senator Ron Wyden in the Senate and Utah Republican Representative Jason Chaffetz in the House -- will help boost web-based music services by leveling the playing field for all radio broadcasters.

Internet radio broadcasters pay higher rates to play the same songs than other music distributors using different technologies. An August Brookings Institution paper on the rate differential concluded that the policy discourages new companies from entering the market. The paper notes that internet radio companies may be compelled to pay a larger share of their revenue to acquire the rights to play music than other radio services using different technologies, such as satellite radio.

Constant innovation drives the music industry. Where iTunes and Pandora began disrupting through digital distribution, companies like Grooveshark, TuneIn, and Spotify continue to push the envelope. Young businesses often have the greatest difficulty maintaining steady revenue flow. Government shouldn’t be in the business of increasing barriers to entrepreneurship and propping up incumbent industries. We welcome Senator Wyden and Representative Chaffetz’s bills and encourage Congress to pass legislation that promotes competition in all markets.

Watch Commissioner Brill @ Engine for State of the Net West

Commissioner Julie Brill of the Federal Trade Commission joined us yesterday to discuss issues impacting technology companies at an event co-hosted by Engine as part of the Congressional Internet Caucus’ State of the Net West series. The commissioner heard from entrepreneurs, policy wonks, journalists, and activists in the technology and startup ecosystems. You can watch the event in full here:

FTC Commissioner Julie Brill @ Engine from Engine Advocacy on Vimeo.

We are encouraged by federal regulators’ increased interest in connecting with entrepreneurs on policies that influence their businesses. Q&A from the crowd touched on a number of tech policy subjects including Do Not Track standards, the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA), the commission’s work on mobile app privacy, and its actions against larger companies like Facebook and Google. The conversation primarily centered on regulations’ impact on innovation across the internet economy.

The FTC has focused on providing guidelines to developers to better and more clearly inform mobile app users. A recent Pew Internet and American Life Project survey found that more than half of people that use apps decided not to download a program based on information about the data it would need to collect to operate. It will be important for the commission to keep in mind the sophistication of users as it continues to pursue guidelines on the amount of information and disclosure imposed on mobile developers.

We will continue to host events that connect entrepreneurs and startups to policymakers and we hope to continue our partnership with the Congressional Internet Caucus in the future. If you would like to find out more about Engine events join us as a member and we’ll keep you in the loop.

Work with SF City to Fix Transit

San Francisco commuters! Hate traffic? Stuck on a slow BART train or Muni car? Having trouble flagging a taxi or locking up your bike? Now is your chance to come together to help the city improve one of its key services: transportation. We’re inviting you to spend a weekend using technology to help San Franciscans get around.

Next month, on the weekend spanning October 19-21, Engine is co-hosting reroute/sf, a hackathon focused on improving transportation in San Francisco, with Hattery Labs, SF Mayor’s Office and the SFMTA. Don’t ride public transport? No worries -- we’re looking for commuters of all stripes that bike, walk, ride, or drive to join us.

Teams of one to four developers, designers, and business people are invited to the Hattery to build open source technologies that address transportation challenges in one of three areas posed by SFMTA and the other co-hosts: data collection, trip planning, or rider feedback. If there’s something not on this list you’re interested in solving, awesome. Hack whatever it is you think needs fixing. Winners will work with the City to implement their technology and, of course, receive prizes.

For more information and to sign up, visit hattery.com/reroute.

Startups: Talk Data Reg with FTC Commissioner Brill

Engine is excited to host a townhall with Commissioner Julie Brill of the Federal Trade Commission Wednesday at 4:00 pm. Join us for the event at The Hattery in SOMA (414 Brannan Street, San Francisco, California). Video will be available after if you can’t attend. We’re bringing together startups, entrepreneurs, policy wonks, and lawmakers to talk about data, privacy, and other policies that impact small businesses and technology firms. Commissioner Brill’s visit is part of the Congressional Internet Caucus’ State of the Net West series.

Why should startups care about the FTC? The agency has been working to create guidelines for businesses on consumer privacy, releasing its “final report” on the subject March 26. Data exchange is central to the relationship between internet-based businesses and their consumers. Maintaining and enhancing trust between innovators and users will be critical to the continued success of startups across the web.

While the commission has focused on large tech companies, search engines, internet service providers, data brokers, and web browsers, perspective from dynamic young companies may help in the construction of policies that preserve the internet ecosystem that has opened doors for entrepreneurs.

Large companies tend to have established practices that are easily conveyed to users and the government. Startups, on the other hand, often change strategy, business model, or size rapidly and require a great deal of flexibility. Policymakers must be mindful of these difference as they consider rules that would affect tech companies of all ages and sizes.

Data’s regulation is one of the areas addressed in the issue book we circulated at the party nominating conventions a few weeks ago. So far, the government has taken a relatively low-impact approach to the regulation of data in the form of privacy, cybersecurity, and data breach rules. Calls for the government to become more involved have intensified in recent years. It’s critical that startups and entrepreneurs make their voices heard in this debate to ensure that the opportunity to innovate remains open.

Dialogue between entrepreneurs and lawmakers like Commissioner Brill will be critical to the success of government and business. For new rules to effectively protect customers, businesses must be able to grow, innovate, and offer new products to consumers. Engine’s goal is to foster these connections, inject startups into the policy dialogue, and promote entrepreneurship in Washington and beyond.

Photo courtesy of Priya Deonarain.

Senators Call for Startup Hearing

Yesterday, members of the Senate Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship called for a hearing on the state of entrepreneurship in America, citing the need to support U.S. job creators at a period in time when new startup formation is slowing.

New firm establishments are the driving force in the U.S. economy, responsible for virtually all net new jobs created in the past three decades. Senators Jerry Moran from Kansas, Scott Brown from Massachusetts, and Marco Rubio from Florida requested the hearing in a letter to Chairwoman Mary Landrieu, citing America’s significant decline in international rankings of startup friendliness. “Once in the top five, the United States has dropped nine places in international rankings...in just four years,” the Senators wrote.

How are the Senators suggesting we regain our edge? With startup-friendly policies to encourage entrepreneurship and new firm foundation. Specifically, with Startup Act 2.0, a bipartisan bill introduced in both houses of Congress earlier this year, and co-sponsored by Senator Moran.

Startup Act 2.0 contains provisions to ease the way for foreign-born entrepreneurs to remain in the country after graduating from U.S. universities, so they can start their businesses on U.S. soil and create local jobs. It provides incentives to get R&D from our universities on the market. And it provides tax incentives that could encourage investment in startups to create new jobs, boosting startups in driving economic growth and employment. Engine has been a strong supporter of the policy measures proposed in Startup Act 2.0, with information and a tool for action here. 

We encourage Chairwoman Landrieu to convene this hearing on entrepreneurship in America. Congress needs to hear from the founders and innovators driving the economy and creating the products that will keep America globally competitive.