Times of Entrepreneurship Stories

Ashley Connell is the CEO and founder of Prowess Project.

Helping Moms Re-enter The Workforce On Their Own Terms

Lori Ioannou writes about a trailblazing woman whose company trains women looking to re-enter the workforce after a career hiatus, and then uses a proprietary algorithm to match them with employers in need of part-time or fractional talent based on their skills and their personality compatibility.

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Do You Know What’s In That Gummy?

Brandy Young is the only woman and only Black woman to own a cannabis testing lab in New York State. With an analytical chemistry Phd from Purdue University, she’s also one of the best-equipped owners.

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What You May Have Missed

Businesses Have Been Fighting Tennessee’s Anti-Drag Law. A Federal Judge Temporarily Halted It.

The stakes are higher than you might think, thanks to thriving drag scenes in Nashville and Memphis, as this story by Nina Roberts makes clear.

Read the Story »

Venture Spotlight: VEST Her Ventures In Oklahoma Focuses on Future of Work, Care Economy

The latest Venture Capital Spotlight by Ellen Chang focuses on the work of Erika Lucas in Oklahoma.

Read the Story »

Surprising Economists, Small Businesses Surge Across America

Elizabeth MacBride on the ways the pandemic is reshaping the economy.

Read the Story »

 

News With A Future Spin

SBA News: The Small Business Administration opened the door to fintechs to participate in its flagship small business lending programs, which make it easier for community banks to set up partnerships with fintechs, and overall increase credit for small business. Some people are worried about predatory lending practices. This is the best story on the changes, from Banking Dive.

Global VC funding fell 13%, quarter over quarter. Without fintech Stripe’s $6.5 billion round of investing, the decline was 22%, according to CB Insights. Read the story here.

AI poses threats to creative businesses. “These systems can produce copycats of human works that dilute the market, and they use artists’ production, without their permission, as training data,” writes a team of NY Times reporters. Read the story here.

Concerns are rising that the U.S. military is failing to keep up with innovation from China. One of the reasons: the military market is dominated by large companies, which are terrible at innovation and get worse the larger they grow. Matt Stoller: “In the 1990s post-Cold War era, the White House sought to cut defense spending. Bill Clinton’s administration arranged a deal with defense contractors; they would tolerate lower revenue or stagnant revenue, if they got higher margins. And so at a dinner known as ‘The Last Supper’ held in the Pentagon, the Clinton Defense Department encouraged a merger wave.” Read the story here.

The femtech market is quietly booming both because more women are starting companies and women are increasing demanding services, as in this article from Prevention magazine, The Year of Making Noise, shows. The male-dominated world of business research has been all over the map about the size of this market, with McKinsey estimating it at $1 billion in 2022, and Grand View Research saying it was $5.5 billion the same year. They both seem low.

Living the dream


Buzzworthy: Cultural critic Marcie Bianco’s book: “Breaking Free: The Lie of Equality and the Feminist Fight for Freedom,”
comes out this September and is available for pre-order. Starting with the campaign for women’s suffrage and traveling through modern history, she shows us how equality has been designed to keep women and disenfranchised communities chasing an unobtainable goal. Bianco calls upon a long-overlooked lineage to argue that only freedom can liberate feminism from these constraints, and proposes three freedom practices for women to reclaim their bodily autonomy and power.” Here’s where you pre-order.

Best Practices: Make Sure Your Bank Uses A Sweep Account

Make sure the bank you uses for your small business and your personal accounts uses a sweep account, which is set up to automatically move money you don’t immediately need into other accounts or institutions. It can automatically increase your FDIC insurance; many small banks already offer this — just call and check that yours does.

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Time-saving hack: Turn Off Notifications

Kate Christie from Time Stylers (H/T The Corporate Traveller): “Notifications are massively disruptive. Every time you hear a mobile buzzing, a social media notification pops up, or you look between multiple screens, your brain is multitasking, which reduces your productivity by 40%. So, at best, you’re only ever working at 60% capacity.” Find them in your phone settings — and make sure you’ve turned off notifications in your word processor, too.

One Thing To Buy: Print magazines are making a quiet comeback. Here’s where you can subscribe to The Paris Review, one of the top literary journals in America (and the subscription makes a good Mother’s Day gift, too.)

One Place to Go: The Ragland Mansion in Petersburg, Va., has rooms in an antebellum mansion for $115 a night. More info here.

Upcoming Opportunities ⭐

To list an opportunity in our newsletter that reaches 13,000 influencers and entrepreneurs, email emacbride@timesofe.com. We charge $200 per listing.

Link: https://bit.ly/TimesofEOpportunities

1. Halcyon House Fellowships

Washington, D.C.-based Halcyon House is accepting applications for its Halcyon Opportunity Intensive Fellowship in Fall 2023, its Climate Resilience in Latin America and the Caribbean Intensive Fellowship and Halcyon Food & Agtech in Africa Intensive Fellowship. The accelerators don’t take equity stakes.

Where: Some programming is in person in Washington, D.C.
Deadline: April 28
2. Robotics Factory Launches

Pittsburgh-based Innovation Works is launching the Robotics Factory to create, accelerate and scale startups and manufacturers. The Robotics Factory’s program lasts seven-months and is designed for pre- and early- stage startups. Companies will locate in the Pittsburgh facility and will receive an investment of $100,000, mentorship and resources. Entrepreneurs developing robotic and related technologies are encouraged to apply when the application cycle opens Feb 1, 2023.

Location: Pittsburgh
Application opens: Feb. 1, 2023
Deadline to apply: May 20, 2023

 

3. Startup Nevada pitch event

Startup Nevada is charging attendees $79 for its startup pitch event which will award $400,000 to small companies in Nevada. Zoom tickets are free. Tickets can be purchased online and attendees can save $20 on their ticket with the promo code: SAVE20.

Location: Las Vegas, NV, and online
Date: April 29
3. BK-XL

A new accelerator launched by Clara Wu Tsai invests as much as $500,000 in founders of color. Entrepreneurs from around the world are eligible and asked to move to Brooklyn for mentoring.

Applications opened: https://bk-xl.com/

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This story and others on New Builders Dispatch are made possible by a sponsorship from the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation. The Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation is a private, nonpartisan foundation that provides access to opportunities that help people achieve financial stability, upward mobility, and economic prosperity – regardless of race, gender, or geography. The Kansas City, Mo.-based foundation uses its grantmaking, research, programs, and initiatives to support the start and growth of new businesses, a more prepared workforce, and stronger communities. For more information, visit www.kauffman.org and connect with www.twitter.com/kauffmanfdn and www.facebook.com/kauffmanfdn.