The Big Story: Startup policy priorities for 2023, and how to get involved
This week, Engine released its first-ever Startup Policy Playbook, to help give members of the startup ecosystem—startup founders and employees, investors, and support organizations—an overview of the policy conversations happening this Congress and how they can get involved in amplifying the startup voice this year.
Startup founders are busy people. They’re running businesses, managing small teams, raising funds, and doing the actual work of building new and innovative things. It’s no wonder they’re not also constantly tracking and engaging in policymaking in D.C. But their perspective should be—and is—incredibly important as policymakers consider technology, Internet, and entrepreneurship policy. Policy impacts everything from how a startup can raise money, to whether a startup can hire the talent it needs, to when a startup can expand to global markets, and everything in between. Those conversations are happening whether or not startups are at the table, and startup voices would help guide them towards productive outcomes.
Engine’s Startup Policy Playbook covers the main federal policy areas impacting the startup ecosystem—access to capital, connectivity, platform issues, patents, talent, tax, trade, and privacy and security—and acts as a guide on the policymaking process providing ways for startups to get involved. Read the Playbook here, and email advocacy@engine.is if you’re interested in learning more and making your voice heard in D.C.
Policy Roundup:
Engine files comments with USPTO on patent examination initiatives. This week, Engine filed comments with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) about improving patent quality and the positive impact such new initiatives could have on the startup ecosystem. The agency is considering initiatives to increase the “robustness and reliability of patent rights,” like giving examiners more time to review applications, making it easier to find relevant prior art, and working to create more clarity around the scope and disclosure of issued patents. Consistent with what Engine and startups have long-known, our comments support USPTO taking steps to ensure high-quality patents promote inclusive startup innovation, while preventing invalid patents from standing in their way.
Engine files comments with USTR, urges support for U.S. startups on the global stage. This week, Engine filed comments with the Office of the United States Trade Representative (USTR) highlighting the important role of balanced, certain, and consistent IP frameworks on the global stage. We emphasized how intermediary liability frameworks and transparent patent systems can be structured to ensure U.S. startups don’t face unfair barriers to trade and expansion abroad. And we identified certain countries where the current IP landscapes fail or succeed at facilitating startup growth and global competitiveness. To protect startups and enable growth on a global scale, countries have to adopt and implement legislation that creates these certainties.
New survey highlights experience of Black women founders. Black women entrepreneurs are having to find new ways to bridge funding gaps that could stifle their innovation, according to a new survey by the Black Owner & Women’s (BOW) Collective. Only 0.03 percent of Black women entrepreneurs received third-party financing, with 95 percent using personal finances to help launch their businesses—whereas, white male counterparts access more types of capital, including VC at higher rates; most relied on client referrals and networking relationships to scale their businesses. And while many Black women, despite the barriers, are finding success in the startup ecosystem, it’s integral that Black women entrepreneurs can access the resources and financing they deserve, better enabling growth.
EU advances sender-pays initiative, threatens net neutrality. The EU Commission is set to launch its consultation regarding charging Internet service providers for the Internet traffic they generate. The initiative is the latest in a long-standing effort by large European telecom companies to extract payments from technology companies that send traffic over their networks, a framework often called “sender-pays.” Internet users already pay telecom operators to provide Internet service. The debate implicates and threatens to undermine critical net neutrality principles that are important for startups to encounter a level playing field and has inspired similar “sender-pays” proposals in the U.S.
Senators send letter urging full implementation of trade agreement. Last week, Sens. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) and Mike Crapo (R-Idaho)—the Chairman and Ranking Member of the Senate Finance Committee—sent a letter to U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai urging full implementation and strong enforcement of the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement. The Senators highlighted a few digital trade issues for USTR to address, including discriminatory digital tax and online content rules put forward by Canada. Though these rules—especially digital services taxes—are usually written with the largest Internet companies in mind, they often end up impacting startups through increased costs.
Startup Roundup:
#StartupsEverywhere: Palo Alto, California. Inspirit VR is a Palo Alto-based virtual reality technology platform that is looking to revolutionize the way children learn and harness their imagination by providing new experiences right in the classroom. We spoke to Co-Founder & CEO Aditya Vishwanath about the work his company is doing, his experience navigating the U.S. immigration system as a founder, and what the day-to-day experience is like for a startup leader navigating a wide array of compliance frameworks in the U.S. and abroad.
