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.
Marcus Bullock knows firsthand the impact a strong familial support system has on the lives of incarcerated people. As founder & CEO of Flikshop, he’s set out to make sure that families have accessible communication to facilities across the country. He spoke with Engine about reentry resources for incarcerated people interested in entrepreneurship, what policymakers should know around efforts to reduce recidivism, and his goals for Flikshop moving forward.
Mycocycle is a Chicago-based biotechnology company that harnesses the mycelial properties of fungi to detoxify and transform construction waste into new raw materials. With over 30 years of experience in the construction industry, Founder and CEO Joanne Rodriguez seeks to transform the treatment of waste through regenerative and sustainable approaches. We spoke to her about her experiences launching a company in the Midwest, navigating the patent system, and her goals for Mycocycle for the future.
The Big Story: Bipartisan legislation to build AI resource for startups, researchers. A recently introduced bill would create government AI resources for startups and bolster needed talent in the field. The bipartisan bill—the Creating Resources for Every American To Experiment with Artificial Intelligence Act of 2023 (CREATE AI Act)—formally establishes the National Artificial Intelligence Research Resource (NAIRR) which will provide compute, datasets, and educational resources for startups, students, and academics. The legislation comes amid rapid growth of AI technology and will improve the competitiveness of U.S. startups.
The Big Story: Senate advances bills requiring user data collection, limiting legal content online. This week, the Senate Commerce Committee advanced two bills that carry serious risks for cybersecurity, user privacy, and third-party content available on startups’ services. The legislation, the Kids Online Safety Act (KOSA), and the Children and Teens’ Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA 2.0), though well-intentioned, will increase costs of compliance, undermine startup competitiveness, and diminish user experience, as we highlighted in a letter ahead of the committee markup.
Hiring early employees is one of the first obstacles startup founders face, made more complicated by talent shortages in STEM fields and an immigration system that often makes it time consuming and expensive to hire high-skilled talent from abroad. Other countries—most recently Canada—are taking advantage of that reality to attract tech talent away from the U.S. Without urgent action from policymakers, the U.S. innovation ecosystem will soon lag behind, as talent will continue to seek out nations where they receive a warmer welcome and better support.
AcreTrader is a Fayetteville-based equity financing mechanism that helps farmers scale their operations with the support of outside investment. After spending time working in San Francisco, Founder and CEO Carter Malloy moved back home to Arkansas to apply what he learned in equity to the farming system by creating a company that empowers both farmers and investors to buy and sell land in more efficient ways. We spoke to him about his experiences building a startup in a rural area, how he believes policymakers can incentivize investment into middle America, and his goals for AcreTrader for the future.
The Big Story: Policymakers threaten successful startup exits, investment. This week, federal agencies released new draft guidelines for merger enforcement that could reduce the number of acquisitions and negatively impact the ability of startups to successfully exit. The new draft guidelines come amid a parallel effort to revise the filing process for larger transactions, adding costs and new burdens to those acquisitions. Taken together, the agencies’ actions are designed to limit acquisitions, which are critical to investment and successful exits in the startup ecosystem.
Jim Roberts has led the transformation of the once tiny startup ecosystem of coastal Wilmington, North Carolina into an environment on par with cities like Charlotte and Raleigh. This has resulted in national attention and the establishment of Wilmington as an emerging hub for tech entrepreneurs. We spoke with Jim about the importance of community building organizations, his experience leading an angel investor capital network outside of a traditional tech hub, and the impact of a more restricted definition of an accredited investor on startups.
Last month, a majority of the European Parliament voted in favor of a resolution contemplating a policy framework that could diminish startup competitiveness and endanger the open Internet. The vote is the latest in a long-running effort by telecom companies to force websites and apps to pay them based on the traffic they generate. That model, sometimes called “sender pays,” is gaining popularity with policymakers throughout the world—including in the U.S.—threatening net neutrality principles and the competitiveness of U.S. startups.
The Big Story: EU, U.S. implement framework to restore transatlantic data transfers. The European Commission this week adopted a needed decision to implement the EU-U.S. Data Privacy Framework, bringing certainty back to transatlantic data transfers and lowering barriers for startups. The long-awaited agreement ends years of uncertainty surrounding data flows needed for U.S. startups to serve EU customers thanks to the invalidation of an earlier transfer agreement called Privacy Shield. The new framework is a welcome step that will bolster the competitiveness of U.S. startups looking to serve the EU market.
As summer kicks into gear, state legislatures are closing up shop, but not before introducing and passing legislation impacting startups. In the absence of federal action on many technology policy issues occupying the public imagination, state legislatures have acted to create their own rules, which can vary slightly, significantly—or outright conflict with—each other.
The Big Story: Supreme Court strikes down Biden student loan relief plan. The Supreme Court this week struck down President Biden’s student loan relief plan that would have canceled up to $20,000 in student debt for qualified borrowers. The decision, while not unexpected, is a blow to the millions of Americans riddled with student debt, and individuals whose debt acts as a barrier to pursuing entrepreneurship.
The Big Story: House advances tax package with pro-startup provisions. A House committee advanced multiple tax bills this week that include several startup priorities. Legislation passed by Republicans on the House Ways and Means Committee includes two bills—the Small Business Jobs Act and the Build It in America Act—that would fix R&D expensing, create startup investment incentives, and fix reporting threshold. While the entire package faces uncertainty in the Democrat-controlled Senate, several provisions—including startup priorities like R&D expensing— have bipartisan support.
As a mom, Laurel Hess understands the difficulties of multitasking and juggling competing priorities around the home. She created hampr to provide busy people with freshly done laundry and community members with a source of additional income. We spoke with her about the multiple ways hampr benefits local communities, the impact of various data privacy laws on her business, and her experience as a mom and woman founder.
The Big Story: Startups call on Congress to fix R&D expensing. Lawmakers in both chambers of Congress took steps this week toward addressing a critical tax issue impacting startups’ bottom lines: a recently enacted change to how startups expense research, development, and experimentation costs. House and Senate lawmakers held two hearings this week exploring how the tax code, including incentives around R&D impact small businesses and startups.
The Big Story: House passes capital formation bills. The House passed several bills this week to improve capital access for startups, including by providing educational resources on capital raising options for underrepresented small businesses and another to broaden the pool of potential startup investors.
Modgarden is on a mission to provide city residents with an opportunity to take control of the way their food is grown. After food cured his own illnesses, Founder and CEO Aamar Khwaja wanted to find a way for everyone to access organic, healthy food, and built tinyFarm. We spoke to him about his background on Wall Street, the unique difficulties he faces with a hardware company, and his goals for Modgarden.
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