Newsletter

Times of Entrepreneurship Stories A Company Called Baru Has A New Way to Make Furniture, Locally Nina Roberts reports on a furniture manufacturing company, Baru, with a platform business model. It helps customers create custom orders for furniture that fits their homes. Then Baru finds idle high-tech CNC machines in shops around the country, and […]

Times of Entrepreneurship Stories Diversity Isn’t Just About Race. It’s Also About Class. It’s now easier to climb the economic ladder in Europe than in the United States. Here’s the story of one person, Sam Reiman, who went from poverty to wealth, in Pennsylvania. He’s now director of one of the world’s 50 largest foundations. […]

Times of Entrepreneurship Stories Vermont Farmer Creates A New Drink Category With Roots In The Past Shrubbly founder Matt Sayre created the first sparkling shrub drink, ready to drink out of the can, no mixing necessary. It’s delicious, and it has another selling point. The key ingredient in Shrubbly are aronia berries, which might be […]

Memories of George Floyd’s murder are fading, and so some of the promises made in the aftermath are evaporating. But some organizations remain committed: I wrote about Advantage Capital’s new fund, and a new accelerator in Brooklyn, BK-XL. It’s more important than most people realize to give all entrepreneurs a fair shot — because business […]

Times of Entrepreneurship Stories A New $500K Accelerator For Black Founders Opens In Brooklyn BK-XL will select 12 startups founded by BIPOC leaders to receive as much as $500k in investment. The accelerator is part of a philanthropic commitment by Clara Wu Tsai, whose husband, Joseph Tsai, co-founded Alibaba. Read the Story » The Passion […]

Times of Entrepreneurship Stories Will Cells and Robots Be Pittsburgh’s New Coke And Steel? There are signs that Pittsburgh (like other old manufacturing cities) could emerge as a center of new, cutting-edge manufacturing, which includes robotics and biotechnology. Until lately, this has seemed more of a pipe-dream than a reality, but developments at the national […]

Times of Entrepreneurship Stories Cybersecurity for Small Businesses Booms, but Data are Scant Venture backed firms are springing up to sell their services to small businesses after two big hacks that involved smaller companies. And cyber insurance premiums are increasing, perhaps by more than 150% this year. But data about actual attacks are scant. Rates […]

Times of Entrepreneurship Stories More Americans Are Embracing Entrepreneurship During the pandemic, business starts surged. Now, those new founders will face long-term trends that make it hard to establish a growing business. Read the Story » VC Spotlight: LA-Based Slauson & Co The fund has a lofty mission and big-name investors. It’s looking beyond tech […]

Times of Entrepreneurship Stories Why Today’s Small Businesses Can’t Get Bank Loans The number of U.S. institutions has shrunk from 14,400 to fewer than 5,000. Tech companies and CDFIs can’t fill the gap left by the death of community banks. Read the Story » VC Spotlight: New York-based Chloe Capital A women-led VC firm, Chloe […]

Times of Entrepreneurship Stories Tech Investment Is Helping Buffalo Come Back, But Immigrants Are The Real Secret. Tech Investment Is Helping Buffalo Come Back, But Immigrants Are The Real Secret There’s a little-noticed, still fragile economic comeback in Buffalo, which has gone from being the butt of jokes to having a quiet buzz in entrepreneurship […]