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.
Courtroom5 is a Durham-based startup that provides automated legal support to people representing themselves in civil court. We recently spoke with the Co-Founder and CEO, Sonja Ebron, to learn more about her background, the company’s use of artificial intelligence, and what policymakers can do to address funding disparities.
“Engine is proud to support the Workforce Mobility Act, legislation that would give workers the opportunity to launch their own competitive startups without being hindered by non-compete agreements. This legislation would spur startup formation across the country by removing barriers to entry that serve to stifle innovation and entrepreneurship.”
TLDR: Following House passage of President Joe Biden’s stimulus package this weekend, Senate Democrats are pushing forward with the measure that would provide billions of dollars to Americans and small businesses affected by the pandemic. As the Senate prepares to vote on the stimulus plan, it is important for policymakers to guarantee that the money set aside for struggling small businesses effectively provides the entrepreneurial community with the targeted emergency assistance it needs to drive the nation’s long-term economic recovery.
The Big Story: Despite progress, barriers still stand in the way of Black founders. Although the U.S. startup ecosystem is increasingly vast and diverse, Black entrepreneurs across the country still face barriers to entry—such as a lack of equitable access—that make it more difficult for them to compete with their peers. And the pandemic has only exacerbated some of these disparities, with a report from the Center for Responsible Lending finding that approximately 95 percent of Black-owned firms stood almost no chance of receiving a first round Paycheck Protection Program loan from a traditional bank or credit union.
Based in the Motor City, Alerje is a health management startup focused on improving the lives of people living with food allergies. We spoke with Javier Evelyn, the Founder and CEO of Alerje, to learn more about his startup’s efforts to help people coping with food allergies, his experiences as a Black founder, and his thoughts on what makes Detroit such a unique city in which to launch a startup.
TLDR: The federal government recently solicited public input about a national strategy for building more diverse and inclusive innovation ecosystems. While startup communities across the country comprise individuals of every race, gender, ethnicity, and culture, more needs to be done to empower underrepresented entrepreneurs and dismantle the unjust barriers they routinely face. As the U.S. continues to address systemic inequalities, many startups, entrepreneurs, and support organizations are calling on the government to use this opportunity to support entrepreneurship for all.
“Last week’s introduction of comprehensive immigration reform legislation shows that the Biden administration is committed to positively reforming the country’s outdated immigration system. The White House and Congress now have the opportunity to pursue an immigration agenda that boosts immigrant entrepreneurship and provides startups and technology companies with greater access to the talented workers they need to grow and thrive.”
The Big Story: Congress, FCC take steps to narrow the “digital divide” amid pandemic. As millions of Americans continue to depend upon reliable Internet services to work, learn, and connect amid the ongoing pandemic, policymakers are moving to address gaps in high-speed connectivity and broadband infrastructure across the United States. The issue of broadband access was in the spotlight this week as the Federal Communications Commission and a top House panel both took steps to improve connectivity and identify areas of the country where access is still lagging.
With Georgia becoming a global destination for film and television production, an Atlanta-based startup named Productions.com (formerly known as Film Connx) is working to promote diversity and simplify the hiring process within the production industry—in the Peach State and beyond—by connecting stakeholders with local and vetted production professionals. We recently spoke with Carolyn Pitt, the CEO and Founder of Productions.com, to learn more about her startup’s role as a job marketplace for productions, the challenges she’s experienced as a Black founder, and the steps that policymakers should take to support more equitable investments in early-stage companies.
TLDR: As the Biden administration prepares to unveil an immigration reform bill this week that would provide millions of undocumented immigrants with a pathway to citizenship, policymakers need to remain mindful of the valuable skills and talents that foreign-born workers bring to the United States. In order to support entrepreneurs—particularly those economically disadvantaged by the pandemic—policymakers must improve access to high-skilled talent in any immigration reform efforts in order to bolster U.S. innovation.
The Big Story: Net neutrality back in the spotlight as DOJ drops California suit. The U.S. Department of Justice this week dropped its challenge to California’s 2018 net neutrality law, removing one of the major roadblocks to its implementation. The law—which would have reinstated the net neutrality protections in the state of California—was signed by then-Governor Jerry Brown after the Federal Communications Commission repealed the net neutrality protections at the end of 2017. In a statement following DOJ’s announcement, FCC Acting Chair Jessica Rosenworcel said “[b]y taking this step, Washington is listening to the American people, who overwhelmingly support an open Internet, and is charting a course to once again make net neutrality the law of the land.”
SampleServe is a startup that’s helping field technicians, laboratories, and consultants streamline the collection and testing of environmental samples by using a digital chain of custody process to quickly turn testing data into reports. We recently spoke with Russell Schindler, the Founder and CEO of SampleServe, to learn more about his startup’s work, his thoughts on crowdfunding, and his plans for branching out into new markets.
TLDR: Democrats are moving forward with President Joe Biden’s stimulus package that would provide billions of dollars in relief to small businesses and entrepreneurs affected by the pandemic. As policymakers finalize the proposal, they should work to ensure that economic relief earmarked for startups and other nascent companies truly provides long-term, targeted support for the U.S. entrepreneurial community.
It may sound like a cliched talking point, but it’s true—small businesses are the lifeblood of the U.S. economy. And that includes the small businesses of the technology sector, the thousands of innovative, tech-enabled, high-growth companies across the country that make up the U.S. startup ecosystem.
The Board of Directors of Engine—a nonprofit that works with a community of thousands of high-tech, growth-oriented startups across the nation to support technology entrepreneurship—announced this week that it has appointed Kate Tummarello as the organization’s new Executive Director. Kate has been at Engine since 2017 and has served as Engine’s Policy Director since 2019, working on privacy, intermediary liability, and telecommunications issues.
The Big Story: States pushing social media laws based on unfounded bias claims. Republican state policymakers across the country are pushing for laws that would stop social media companies from engaging in content moderation, amplifying GOP politicians’ long-standing complaints about anti-conservative bias, which were refuted in a recent report. But while Republicans have directed their ire at large Internet companies and Section 230—a bedrock Internet law that allows companies of all sizes to host and moderate user content without being held liable for the content they moderate or for what their users post—their state-level efforts to ban moderation are legally problematic and would hurt small and new companies attempting to compete in the Internet ecosystem.
Journimap L3C is a social enterprise startup and cloud-based application that uses qualitative research methods and ethnography concepts to map out the experiences and journeys of patients, customers, service workers, and others. We spoke with the Founder and CEO of Journimap, John Corrigan, to learn more about his startup’s work, how the pandemic has affected his business, and why net neutrality and social business models are important.
TLDR: As we round out the second week of the Biden administration, the president is continuing to chart out the country’s long-term economic recovery from the pandemic. While President Joe Biden has already taken a number of positive early steps—including prioritizing vaccination efforts, rescinding harmful immigration orders issued by the previous administration, and advancing racial equity efforts—it is integral that the administration devote time during its first 100 days in office to support and strengthen America’s startup ecosystem across a range of policy areas.
The Big Story: Biden’s regulatory freeze is a mixed bag for startups. President Joe Biden’s decision to institute a 60-day regulatory freeze on new or pending rules from federal agencies and executive departments could significantly impact the U.S. startup community. As the Biden administration undertakes this assessment, which gives officials the opportunity to review proposed regulations from the previous administration, federal officials should take care to refrain from holding up any policies that would expand and enhance entrepreneurship, while taking a closer look at rules that would prove detrimental to innovation and competition.
Arrowhead Incubator is working to advance social and economic welfare through the empowerment of Native American entrepreneurs, small businesses, and industry. We recently spoke with Shiloh Slomsky, the Executive Director and Co-Founder of Arrowhead Incubator, to learn more about the organization’s work providing business ideation education, growing Native American entrepreneurship, and the policy challenges faced by Native American entrepreneurs.
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