Politics and Brisket: Moving the Political Dialogue at SXSW

As the developers and technologists -- and techie reporters -- head out of Austin as SXSW Interactive comes to an end, it’s important in the afterglow to focus on what drove conversation during the event itself. This year, a lot of focus has fallen on the lack of a major “hype” event -- no new Twitter, or even Highlight emerged as a social media victor -- but instead of riding a wave of hype, those of us in attendance got to experience people actually making, doing, and talking about interesting things. 

In the same vein, the conversation around politics was also markedly more advanced. Last year you couldn’t go more than a block down 6th Street without someone wanting to talk about SOPA and PIPA. This year the intersecting communities of technology and policy, and our friends, new and old, in government, were at SXSW talking about a broader range of issues -- including immigration reform and broadband access.

Sen. Jerry Moran (R-KS), now a SXSW veteran, started many of those conversations during his opening panel on Friday at the Austin Convention Center. With the assistance of Techcrunch’s Greg Ferenstein, Moran centered much of his energy around recruiting founders and entrepreneurs to support Startup Act 3.0, but he also talked patents, privacy, data, broadband policy and the general economic impact of tech startups.

And he reinforced his message by asking questions of his own. He wanted to learn more from the startups in attendance and he implored them to reach out to his colleagues in Congress to help carry their message of “what tech needs” into new offices.

It was a message he carried to a private meeting which we and our friends at Austin Technology Council convened on Saturday morning. This meeting featured a more tactical discussion of ways for founders, in Austin and around the country, to get more involved in issues that matter to them. And Senator Moran didn’t stop there. Later, on a panel with Sen. Mark Warner (D-VA) convened by Austin tech impresario Erika Sumner, the two Senators sounded a bipartisan note in support of Startup Act 3.0, and continued to build support for the measure as we grow closer to a national immigration debate.

Sen. Warner stuck around to debate more internet issues with Chairman Darrell Issa (R-CA), Rep. Blake Farenthold (R-TX), Jeremy Robbins, who chairs Partnership for a New American Economy, and me. We covered a number of issues, from breaking down immigration proposals like Startup Visa, to tax credits, to opening up Congress and making federal data more accessible to constituents.

Elsewhere, despite being “snowquestered” in Colorado, Rep. Jared Polis (D-CO) joined a panel with Politihacks’ Craig Montuori and Gina Cooper, our friend Alexis Ohanian called his Congresswoman, Nydia Velazquez (D-NY), from the podium to implore others in the audience to connect, and former Vice President Al Gore talked about the importance of climate change in the political debate. And these are just a few of the many public meetings and panels and speakers on political issues, not to mention the chance encounters, private strategy sessions and coordination that SXSW promotes so well.

And through it all, one fact rang true: whether we were talking immigration or patent or broadband expansion, or any other issue, the political consciousness of the entrepreneurial community has been raised significantly in the last year. Many of these discussions were built from those that occurred at CES earlier this year. As the 113th Congress gets rolling, and our issues come to the fore, it will be imperative that startups and entrepreneurs continue to raise their game as part of that debate. This year at SXSW, the hype may not have been high, but I’m hopeful that what we’ll get out of our time together is a deep and lasting impact in areas of policy that can help our businesses grow and thrive.

Photo courtesy of Alex de Carvalho.

Entrepreneurs Tell Lawmakers What They Need

At the end of February, Engine took 32 startups from across the country to the very heart of policy-making in Washington D.C. for our second annual Startup Day on the Hill. The aim was to facilitate interactions between lawmakers and entrepreneurs in order to build mutually beneficial relationships.

Participating startups include Etsy, Lyft, Yelp, and Maybrooks, among many others.

Here’s what Stacey Delo, Maybrooks Founder, had to say about her experience in Washington D.C. and what she went to talk about.

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Debi and I founded Maybrooks as an online resource for smart moms – at all stages of their careers – to go to find jobs, post jobs, and connect with like-minded women.

We built tools to harness the powerful word-of-mouth network among moms, and empower them to help each other find flexible careers. And there’s one key differentiator -- our growing job board that features meaningful opportunities for highly experienced working women who seek job flexibility. The site is a place where small businesses and startups can find overqualified talent on a flexible basis, and where large corporations can tout their amazing flex policies.

Just before our trip to D.C. with Engine, the New York Times ran a piece about how men are benefiting more from the economic recovery - from a jobs perspective - than women. As a result, our visit, and the opportunity to talk to lawmakers about women and jobs was well timed. Debi and I were particularly interested in telling policy makers about the large, smart, work-ready talent pool of women looking to put their skills to work with some level of flexibility.

To help craft our message, we built a survey to identify what working moms want when it comes to flexibility, and found that sixty percent wanted full-time job opportunities with options for flexibility. Ninety-four percent of the respondents said job flexibility was as or more important to them than money. See an infographic of the results here.

On the Friday before our trip, Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer demanded that all remote-only workers come into the office, opening a floodgate of conversation nationally about workplace flexibility particularly as it pertained to working mothers. I felt fortunate to have the survey data showing that the majority of women we interviewed wanted full-time work with options for flexibility, not necessarily an entirely remote-work setup. (Here’s our take on the conversation about women in the workplace.)

The survey also highlighted the fact that 94 percent of women say flexibility is as or more important than money, yet 78 percent say finding flexible work is very or extremely difficult. These numbers, together with our belief in the Maybrooks platform as a way to raise awareness and make it easier for women to find the right job convinced us that attending Startup Day on the Hill with Engine was the next logical step. With the numbers and the platform, my meetings in D.C. allowed me to talk directly to lawmakers about supporting policies that keep women in the workforce, contribute to job growth for women, and provide greater flexibility and income parity with men.

I was so grateful to have this opportunity to meet face-to-face in small groups with some of the most influential people in D.C., not to mention the cool factor of simply being able to “check in” on Facebook at The White House. We were inspired by the country’s CTO Todd Park and his team, who are keenly in tune with the needs of startups, and working to operate their portion of government with as much agility as possible. I was also honored to sit at a dining room-sized conference table with three of the most accomplished women in government, Rep. Zoe Lofgren, Rep. Anna Eshoo, and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi -- all Democrats of California.

Impressed with how all the government officials were so open and willing to listen to startups and their needs, Debi and I thank Engine for opening this important line of communication between the tech community and Washington.

Stacey Delo, cofounder & ceo
maybrooks.com

@staceydelo

@maybrooksjobs

Tech State of the Union

Today, President Obama will deliver his view on the state of our union to the Congress, as mandated by the Constitution. Tradition, and the aforementioned constitutional mandate, holds that this speech serves as an opportunity to set the President’s legislative agenda for the coming year in consultation with Congress. While these speeches are often far-reaching in promise and grand in tone, they serve as a platform for many interested parties to get a sense of how their policy goals might mesh with the legislative calendar for the coming year.

We at Engine have set fairly aggressive policy goals in many different fields. We are looking forward with particular interest to hearing what the President has to say about technology, and to seeing what the Congress intends to do in the coming year. Be it immigration reform, patent fixes, or reforms in other areas, we’re looking to this speech as a moment when we can get a sense of what we can reach for in 2013.

No matter what is discussed, and what policy priorities are laid out in front of us come Wednesday morning, we know that we won’t be able to achieve anything alone. To that end, we’re partnering with Google and local incubators and tech councils throughout the country to have a series of events this week on tech policy, where we’ll discuss what you as an entrepreneur, investor, or startup aficionado can do about advancing a range of policy goals while maintaining your focus on building your business.

We’ll be holding these events in five startup cities around the country, from Boston to LA, New York to Austin, and beyond, and we hope they will serve to build the core strength of our community in policymaking. By engaging with the issues as a community, collecting and sharing stories, and planning our next moves, we can set ourselves up for making positive changes to the policy and regulatory landscape in 2013. And, just as important, we hope these events will give you the chance to see how many of your friends, colleagues, and fellow travelers in the startup world are also happy to get involved and make it easier for startups to thrive in America.

If you're in Cambridge, join us tonight: Event details and RSVP form.

Or, join us on Wednesday February 13th in Austin: Event details and RSVP form.

Join us in San Francisco on Friday February 15th for our Block Party: Engine Block Party.

Photo courtesy of WCHI News.

Join us for Startup Day on the Hill

Over the last year, Engine has worked to improve the entrepreneurial environment by providing knowledge to both lawmakers and startups about the issues that impact our community. We’ve released our first paper, met with officials in our offices, and brought entrepreneurs together around issues. One of our most successful events has been Startup Day on the Hill. Last year, we took 18 startups from all around the country to talk about the products and services startups are creating and how archaic laws are impacting their ability to innovate. Now we’re gearing up to do it again.

This year, Startup Day on the Hill is aimed at showing lawmakers that startups are creating jobs all across the country and spurring economic growth across many sectors of the economy. On February 26th and 27th we are taking Congress by storm. We’ll be meeting with the Chief Technology Officer at the White House, talking to Senators and Representatives about how immigration reform impacts the technology community, and educating our elected officials about the issues that directly affect our ability to invent, start companies, and create jobs.

The startups coming to Washington are making the next generation of educational toys and inventing new approaches to semantic search. They are pioneering medical devices to help detect and prevent heart disease, and building low-cost satellites to provide universal access to information about the changing Earth. These are just a few examples of the work that we’ll showcase for legislators -- work that is disrupting industries, creating new economic opportunity, and creating greater social good.

Check out our website to find out more about the agenda and consider joining us, too. Make your voice heard.

After CES: One More Thing About Patents

Startups are taking the lead in the debate on patent reform, but the nature of litigation is keeping too many victims silent. Settlements agreed to by startups often prevent information from coming out about the hardships faced by entrepreneurs.

On Tuesday, I had the opportunity to sit on a panel at the Consumer Electronics Show with patent experts from groups including Google, EFF, and Newegg. A lot of ground was covered (find great roundups in Ars Technica and Forbes), but we ran out of time before addressing one of the most critical issues facing startups: the inability of many companies to discuss cases after settling.

Why is this big deal for startups? As moderator Marvin Ammori pointed out at the end of the session, his call for questions on Twitter was answered by a host of direct messages from entrepreneurs unable to discuss the terms of settlements made. This opacity prevents a truly comprehensive understanding of the damage wrought by entities abusing bad patents.

Not much can be done to combat the silence imposed by gag orders and NDAs, but
Congressman Peter DeFazio, an Oregon Democrat, highlighted legislation during the panel that will help start the conversation on litigation reform in Congress. By decreasing the incentives to litigate, it is hoped that some of the thousands of annual patents suits may be prevented.

Startups can’t afford to be silent about the pain caused by the patent system. Engine is working to gather the stories of entrepreneurs to share with lawmakers. If you have a story to tell about the patent system, please reach out to me at edwardg@engine.is. Together we can change the way the patent system works.

Continuing the Conversation: A Roundtable on San Francisco, Prop E, and Technology

The move by San Franciscan voters to approve Proposition E earlier this month was something of a coup for the tech industry. This shift in tax policy aims to encourage hiring and new business development in the city and saw support from the mayor, tech companies, and leaders in the venture capital community. While the impact of the reform will be evaluated over the coming years, the coordination of the tech and startup community around this policy is an encouraging achievement.

The important question we face after the success of Prop E is how to keep the dialogue between government, citizens, and innovators moving forward?

Technology companies and other interested advocates including the San Francisco Citizens Initiative for Technology and Innovation (sf.citi) backed Prop E, arguing the reform would be a catalyst for job creation in San Francisco. A video released during election season by sf.citi highlighted the important role technology can play in improving local governance and day-to-day problems.

For years, licensing, policy, and regulation have pitted the tech industry against itself, seeing companies use government as a wedge against competitors. Working together with businesses and other stakeholders to address policy challenges will help our communities and country emerge stronger, more efficient, and more prosperous. The first step is coming together. Engine has been working in local communities across the country as well as here in the valley to make local startup policy a priority. We encourage you to join Engine to be part of future success stories in your own backyard.

Next Thursday, we are going to continue this conversation. Please consider joining Engine for a roundtable on technology, economic growth, and local policy at 10am December 6. For more information, email us at info@engine.is.

Photo courtesy of  MomentsForZen.

Don't Forget to Vote

After months of campaigning, political ads, and debate between candidates across the country, today is the day to vote. While at Engine we’ve been tackling issues and policies that affect startups, this is your opportunity to directly impact your local, state, and federal government.

How should you vote? And where? The Google Elections team has engineered a useful tool that helps you find your polling place, tells you what races will be on your ballot, and even links to candidates websites and social media profiles on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and Google+. What if you're in California where propositions are up for a vote? Don’t worry! The referenda on your ballot are outlined too.

The first step to better government is increased voter participation. Whatever hand we as a country are dealt, Engine will work with policymakers to make sure the issues that affect startups are on the agenda -- but today is your day to get involved at the ballot box.

Join us after the elections to build stronger connections between new lawmakers and the startups growing the American economy. You can check out some of the issues confronting startups here. 

Startups Assist Sandy Recovery

As the federal government moves to assist communities affected by Hurricane Sandy, startups are lending a helping hand to their neighbors and one another as well. Mashable’s Zoe Fox today reported on entrepreneurs opening their offices to other companies and providing relief services to their communities.

Engine joined with New York Tech Meetup at the NYU Stern School of Business last week, where people gathered from many different corners of the New York startup community to discuss not just the upcoming election, but also a blueprint to turn moments of advocacy into a lasting movement of tech companies and allies working together on issues that affect our communities.

Disasters like Sandy have devastating consequences for families, individuals, and small businesses. The New York Tech Meetup team has put together a Google Survey taking requests for technology assistance in the wake of the storm.

The Engine team encourages you to spread the word. If you are looking for assistance or opportunities to give or volunteer on the Lower East Side, Redhook, Staten Island, or Astoria, consider using Recovers, an Engine member that coordinates disaster relief.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Engine Party Convention Recap

Our trip to the Republican and Democratic National Conventions are more proof of Engine’s ability to build the discussion about startups and create knowledge about the critical role innovation plays in our economy. We’re back from a busy few weeks in Tampa and Charlotte. Fresh and energized from talking with hundreds of engaged Americans as well as policymakers from both sides of the aisle about the importance of startups and the innovation economy, we’re looking forward to continuing to work on these issues in the coming months leading up to the election and beyond.

Key at both conventions was the growing certainty that innovation is an issue of national importance. Across the board, people from both parties, from communities all across the country, are concerned with economic prosperity and global competitiveness. We saw this at panels with Startup America and Huffington Post at both conventions. We saw it at events we co-sponsored with Startup Rockon. We heard it from the candidates themselves in their speeches.

We were able to connect with people from all across the country, showing them how high-tech industries and startups in their communities are helping to drive the economy with our data visualization, built on Google maps in partnership with the Bay Area Council Economic Institute (BACEI). And we launched a guide to the key issues that are affecting startups and innovation.

We’ll be continuing to work with BACEI to examine the data around high-tech sector job growth across the United States, with a full report from BACEI coming out in the Autumn. And we’ll be working with policymakers and candidates to educate them about the issues and help them make good calls for startups in the next Congress and beyond.