Before policymakers regulate AI, they need to understand a fundamental technology: neural networks.
Congress needs to act on child care challenges
The video game industry is concentrated in a handful of locations, leaving incredible talent in underserved areas frequently overlooked. Ben Kvalo started Midwest Games to change that narrative, supporting underrepresented game developers because increasing diversity in game development leads to better products and bigger markets. Ben recently joined us to talk about Midwest Games, the challenges of raising capital in the Midwest, the importance of small developers in maintaining a healthy video game ecosystem, and the potential benefits of AI for the industry.
Engine statement on SCOTUS Decision in Moody v. NetChoice and NetChoice v. Paxton
Consumer weather models are too coarse for farms and conservancies that are large enough to occupy their own microclimates. Dr. Carlos Gaitan started Benchmark Labs to solve this problem, leveraging artificial intelligence to create custom weather models for farmers and conservators—helping them increase their crop yield and better manage their land. Carlos recently sat down with us to discuss Benchmark Labs, his experience as an immigrant founder, the value of government funding for startups, and how policymakers should approach AI policy.
Public policy shapes the rules of the game that startups and investors must play by as they begin and grow businesses. Sometimes, policy limits who is allowed to play the game at all. The Securities and Exchange Commission’s (SEC) “accredited investor” definition—one of the primary measures that determines who can participate in private securities offerings—is one of those rules.
The Big Story: Biden touches on tech during the State of the Union. During the annual State of the Union Address this week, President Joe Biden touched on several of the administration’s policy goals that will impact startup founders, investors, and support organizations across the country.
Fifth Star Funds is a venture philanthropy fund that seeks to create a more equitable start-up ecosystem in Chicago, Illinois through early-stage investment. We sat down with Samir Mirza, Co-Founder and Executive Director, and Francisco Martinez, Venture Associate and Head of Marketing Communications, to talk about their organization’s mission, the racial funding gap, and how policymakers can provide much-needed support to help underrepresented founders scale their businesses.
The startup ecosystem is not a monolith. Startup founders, investors, and support organizations all have different missions, priorities, and business models, and none of them have the time or resources to spend following policymakers’ every move. But when startups join together to speak with one voice, policymakers listen. As Engine turns 10, we’re celebrating a decade of work to #StandWithStartups and how we’ve raised the startup perspective for policymakers in D.C. Here are the 10 biggest ways that startups have influenced policy conversations in the last 10 years.
The Big Story: Celebrating Black founders, calling for a more equitable ecosystem. Black startup founders across the country are a crucial part of the startup ecosystem, despite the many barriers they face. As Black history month draws to a close, Engine wanted to recognize some of the important contributions of Black founders in our network and urge policymakers to advance policy solutions that create more opportunities for underrepresented founders, especially Black founders.
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.
Based in Los Angeles, Calif., Abstract is working to enable access to and understanding of California legislative and government data. Co-Founders Patrick Utz and Matthew Chang spoke to us about their vision for the Abstract platform, the need for policies that enable growing startups' ability to access new talent, and why lawmakers should support tax incentives that encourage innovation.
Last month, Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts issued his annual report on the Federal Judiciary, in part highlighting growing concerns about judicial assignment of patent cases—concerns connected to a rapidly growing number of lawsuits being filed by so-called “patent trolls” in one court in Waco, Texas. This year the Judicial Conference of the United States will study the issue of how judicial assignment policies in federal trial courts are enabling plaintiffs to pick judges in a way that is driving up the volume of litigation and undermining confidence in the system.
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.
Based in Los Angeles, Calif., Abstract is working to enable access to and understanding of California legislative and government data. Co-Founders Patrick Utz and Matthew Chang spoke to us about their vision for the Abstract platform, the need for policies that enable growing startups' ability to access new talent, and why lawmakers should support tax incentives that encourage innovation.
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.
Bryght Labs is a connected gaming startup dedicated to making STEM-based games more accessible. Based in Overland Park, Kansas, Founder and CEO Jeff Wigh walked us through the company’s beginnings, the success they’ve seen with their launch product ChessUp, and how Wigh’s extensive experience with patents has informed his views of the US patent system.
Heading into 2022, several technology policy debates are already underway in Washington, D.C. As always, Engine aims to be a resource in those conversations, surfacing the startup perspective and highlighting the voices of startup founders who are running small businesses, creating jobs, and building new and innovative products and services. This agenda is a high-level overview of the issues we hear about from startups every day and a jumping off point for policymakers looking to support the technology industry's small businesses.
The tech ecosystem looks a lot different than it did when Engine launched 10 years ago. There has been an explosion of innovation, entrepreneurship, and startup growth across the country. Throughout 2022, we’ll be celebrating the milestone of our 10th anniversary by highlighting the biggest wins we achieved with the startup ecosystem and inviting our network to support our efforts through our Engine@10 initiative.
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.
Based in Portland, Oregon, Adhere Gear is focused on developing sustainable use IoT Smart Cargo Network for cargo operations and logistics. Founder, CEO and Chief Engineer Robert Buchanan took a moment to share with us the origins of Adhere Gear, how he and his team hope to improve the global use of cargo, and his vision for the company’s future.
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.
Civil is a virtual resource library that provides educators with vetted, researched, and summarized political topics and lesson plans that help safely foster discussion around current events in the classroom. We spoke with Founder and CEO Max Tendero about what experiences led him to create Civil, how potential changes to current copyright regulations could present challenges to startups like his, and why alterations to current Internet frameworks could impact Civil’s growth in the future.
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.
