We report on and advocate for the founders and innovators making a difference in their communities. We focus on telling the stories of underrepresented founders, through the written word and through events. And we’re broadening to cover the innovative companies and people in the up-and-coming smaller cities in the middle of the United States. If you become a regular reader, you’ll get a rare window onto this under-reported part of the country.
New Builders Dispatch is the rebranded Times of Entrepreneurship, a four-year-old publication I founded on February 12, 2020. It’s also a reference to the book I published in 2021 with venture capitalist Seth Levine, and for which Tyra Banks wrote the forward, The New Builders.
The new name gives our publication an easier-to-spell brand and more firmly establishes our advocacy role. New Builders Dispatch finds the signal in the noise and amplifies it to move people, change policy and hold communities accountable.
We have a track record of moving billions of dollars in federal funding with our journalism – and a track record, equally important, of helping individuals share their stories of transformation. Changing the world often starts with change within the mind and heart of a leader. We create the space for those stories and conversations.
No Gray Goo Here
Gray Goo is what some people call the flood of poor-quality content generated by AI. We are the opposite of Gray Goo. We don’t scan the web for our stories; we talk to people. Those personal interactions lead to truth and to transformation.
New Builders Dispatch has four sections. Trailblazers are profiles of successful entrepreneurs throughout the country. Innovation features stories about market trends or challenges. VC Spotlight highlights small venture capital firms that are reshaping the world of finance in a more equitable direction. New Builders are stories about the next generation of small business owners in all corners of the U.S. We’ll soon launch an op-ed section and an opportunities section that will focus on new programs, jobs and funding opportunities; we are looking for forward-thinking organizations to sponsor either of those two sections.
As journalists, we bring professional discipline to the practice of reporting and the craft of storytelling to New Builders Dispatch. We publish stories we think are important, even if the stories or the facts within them make people uncomfortable. We insist on revenue figures, for instance, and push back on unverified claims. We also vet the subjects of our stories carefully. Newspack, the nonprofit platform for small publishers, helps us to bring our stories and events to the world.
The Story of Times of E
I launched Times of Entrepreneurship after a long decade as a freelance journalist working for outlets including MIT Tech Review, Forbes, CNBC, Atlantic.com, The Washington Post and many others. I wanted to expand business coverage of entrepreneurs with Times of E, which I couldn’t do on my own through my work as a freelance journalist. In the four years since we were founded, business journalism has become more corporate and focused on reporting on institutions, which has added an even deeper purpose to our work. The future of capitalism shouldn’t be decided alone by the people who control it now.
We had early and continuing support from the Kauffman Foundation, the Walton Family Foundation, Abigail E. Disney and MIT’s Legatum Center for Entrepreneurship and Economic Development.
When we launched in early 2020, we found ourselves in the midst of a global pandemic. We focused on what was happening to small businesses during the pandemic and our reporting helped alert the U.S. Senate of the problems in the early PPP versions, the U.S. aid package. The first version of the pandemic steered aid to established businesses with relationships with banks, leaving out the tiny companies that make up the majority of small companies in the U.S. After Senate staff read our work, they reached out to tell us they had used it to shape the second version of the PPP. It’s a clear example of the importance of trustworthy journalism, $250B worth of impact.
Recently, we have covered innovations in health, like A2 milk’s growing popularity and trailblazers who are proving that impact-oriented companies can grow big. We’re also highlighting the surge in all types of small business formation, including cybersecurity and data science.
After our long careers in journalism, we have networks that extend to The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, CNBC, Forbes and SSIR. Part of what we do is inform other media and people outside the entrepreneurship community of the importance of founders, small businesses and innovation. Please subscribe to our free newsletter and donate to New Builders Dispatch.
