Times of Entrepreneurship Stories
A Saint With A Javelin In Hand
“Anyone who has read about the war in Ukraine on social media, or donated to charities there has likely come across a striking illustration of Saint Javelin. Designed to reference the religious icons in Eastern European Christianity, she’s draped in green, staring serenely back at the viewer. But she’s holding an anti-tank guided missile, a Javelin, diagonally across her chest.” … By Nina Roberts.
Tech, Infrastructure and Values Mark Rise of a Corn Belt City
The number of businesses in Indiana is surging, with the number of new formations up 51% in 2022 over 2019, to about 83,500 – a sign of economic growth to come. The broad approach seems to be working. In terms of growth, Indiana looks more like a sunbelt state, said Kristian Andersen, a partner at High Alpha, a venture firm based in Indianapolis. … By Elizabeth MacBride.
VC Spotlight: Cake Ventures Invests in Demographic Change
“Diversity is ingrained in our fund, but we don’t have a mandate,” says founder Monique Woodward. “We see opportunities in lots of different people.” According to Woodard, 40% of the companies Cake Ventures invests in have female CEOs and 40% have black founders/CEOs. … By Ellen Chang.
What You May Have Missed
A Founder’s Collaboration Skills Can Be The Key To Success, Especially in Deep Tech
University of Florida’s Innovation Center is finding a new way to measure how startups make a difference. … by Elaine Pofeldt
An Immigrant From Argentina Reinvented A Hot Niche In The Beauty Business
She recognized that waxxing shouldn’t be as painful as it was. Now, her franchise operation is employing 300 women and bringing in $21.5 million. … by Lori Ioannou
News With A Future Spin
Should Small Businesses Have to Worry about Cybersecurity? Maybe Not: The Biden Administration released its cybersecurity policy, which shifts responsibility to Big Tech firms. Of course, the devil will be in the details of regulations developed throughout the federal government. Read the fact sheet here.
The Big Men Speak On Ai.
Henry Kissinger (Yes, that Henry Kissinger), Eric Schmidt, the former CEO of Google, and Daniel Huttenlocher, dean of the MIT Schwarzman College of Computing, compare the invention of ChatGPT to the invention of the printing press. But, they say, the big risk is that people will trust AI too much. They call for new institutions and systems to reign in the power of AI. Behind a paywall, but important to read.
The American Jewish Community’s Support for Israel May Be Waning.
The right-wing government in Israel, facing huge protests at home is consolidating its power and launching more attacks on Palestinians in the West Bank. Here’s an article (from November) about the Aldelson family withdrawing its support for Birthright, the program that brought hundreds of thousands of American Jewish people to Israel (it’s hard to tell if that’s related to the new government). And here’s one from PBS, and the web site of J Street, the progressive Jewish voice in America. They suggest the political alliance between the United States and Israel could be increasingly strained. This is important in the startup world, because so many Israelis are important startup founders and investors in the United States, especially in the defense industry. A foreign policy rift could affect some of those relationships.
Living the dream
Buzzworthy: Climate Friendly and Tasty Food
According to Tamar Haspel, writing in The Washington Post:
Mushrooms: One model found that if we subbed mushroom protein in for 20 percent of meat protein, we could reduce deforestation by half.
Oysters: An acquired taste to be sure, but they filter bad stuff out of the water and have low emissions
Sweet potatoes and potatoes: Taste great and produce enormous calories per acre
Corn: Think polenta, grits and cornbread. As with potatoes, it’s about the calories per acre.
Responsibly-raised pork, which makes beans, climate-friendly but not so tasty, palatable.
Best Practices: The changing economy means some tech founders are having to do something they’ve never done before: Lay people off. It’s one of the hardest jobs of a manager or executive. One best practice espoused by the late Xana Antunes, formerly a vice president of CNBC and executive editor of Quartz: radical transparency. If people know where they stand within the organization, and where the organization stands in the economy, a layoff is less likely to be a surprise. That can be hard for controlling CEOs, who might wish to squeeze the last bit of productivity from every employee in the interests of keeping the company going. But in the long-term, you want people who rise to a challenge. In fact the silver lining of a tough economy is that it concentrates great talent, pointed out Somak Chattopadhyay, managing partner of venture firm Armory Square Ventures, in a recent talk to investors and entrepreneurs in Skaneateles, N.Y. In an economy where capital is flowing easily, talent is diffused as people launch their own startups and endeavors. When capital is scarce, great talent sticks to or moves to the best ideas.
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Time Hack: If you’ve been messing around with ChatGPT, here are some ideas and the latest news on how to use it to save time as you develop applications for a business or project. Here’s what not to do: Use it to generate mistake-ridden articles that you pass off as written by humans, as CNET’s private equity owners did.
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1. 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
Deadline to apply: May 20, 2023
Link to apply: https://www.roboticsfactory.org/
2. A Course To Reach the Next Generation of Entrepreneurs
In this free course developed by entrepreneurship professor John Lynn, professors and other entrepreneurship educators get a curriculum and supporting materials based on the influential book, The New Builders.
3. BK-XL
A new accelerator 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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