Times of Entrepreneurship Stories
Helping Moms Re-enter The Workforce On Their Own Terms
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.
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.
Venture Spotlight: VEST Her Ventures In Oklahoma Focuses on Future of Work, Care Economy
Surprising Economists, Small Businesses Surge Across America
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.
Rathskellar
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 Place to Go: The Ragland Mansion in Petersburg, Va., has rooms in an antebellum mansion for $115 a night. More info here.
Upcoming Opportunities ⭐
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Link: https://bit.ly/TimesofEOpportunities
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.
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.
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.
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.
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