The Engine Team 7/31/25 The Engine Team 7/31/25

Tech, Trade, and Tariffs: the consequences of erecting barriers to startup success

A look at how punitive trade policy that focuses on the imposition of new tariffs undermines goodwill with trading partners, invites retaliatory trade barriers, and threatens the vitality of digital trade policies relied upon by startups.

The Engine Team 5/14/25 The Engine Team 5/14/25

Mapping the future: charting the AI ecosystem & a policy blueprint for startup success

Artificial intelligence is a foundational technology driving innovation in every corner of the economy.

The Engine Team 8/6/24 The Engine Team 8/6/24

Engine releases additional resources on startups and age verification

To help policymakers better understand what these issues mean for startups and their users, we’re releasing an updated version of the report, one-pager, and video explainers of the impacts of age verification and the policy proposals that prompt it.

The Engine Team 6/1/24 The Engine Team 6/1/24

Engine releases ‘Innovation For All’ report

The U.S. startup ecosystem is anchored by the premise that anyone—no matter their race, gender, sexual identity, background, or location—with an idea and the will, can launch a startup and grow a successful company.

The Engine Team 2/22/24 The Engine Team 2/22/24

Engine releases report on how determining user age impacts startups

How determining user age impacts startups

The Engine Team 9/18/23 The Engine Team 9/18/23

Engine elevates the startup voice on acquisitions

Building on Engine’s previous research on the role of acquisitions in the startup ecosystem, Engine today released a report examining the ways that acquisitions are a critical component of the startup ecosystem, featuring over a dozen startup founders, investors, and accelerators.

The Engine Team 3/24/23 The Engine Team 3/24/23

Engine releases report on Privacy Patchwork Problem

Data privacy has been top of mind for consumers, policymakers, regulators, companies, and entrepreneurs for the past several years, in the wake of broad privacy rules in the EU, and action in several U.S. states. The U.S., which has long had a sectoral approach to privacy, remains without a comprehensive privacy framework, and many states have reacted by proposing, passing, and implementing their own varying—and potentially conflicting—comprehensive privacy laws.

The Engine Team 1/26/23 The Engine Team 1/26/23

Engine and CCIA release Tools to Compete Report

The startup ecosystem is an interdependent system of startups, support organizations, investors, service providers, and others working to support startup growth and success through the provision of guidance, capital, and other critical resources. Each of these components is critical to the success of individual startup ecosystems all across the country and the growth of the overall U.S. startup ecosystem.

The Engine Team 10/24/22 The Engine Team 10/24/22

Engine Releases Report on the Role of Acquisitions in the Startup Ecosystem

The U.S. startup ecosystem is defined by dynamism. Startups are constantly being founded, earning investment, growing, exiting, and—yes—failing in cities and towns all across the country. Startup exits and investment are two intimately related and important drivers of this dynamism critical to economic growth and innovation in the startup ecosystem. Startup exits—both those that are profitable and those that are not—promote the building of knowledge, recycling of talent, and flow of capital through the ecosystem. Each of those components are key to building new startups and stimulating the investment needed to grow them to scale.

The Engine Team 8/15/22 The Engine Team 8/15/22

Engine Releases Policy Roadmap for Supporting Startups Everywhere

Today, Engine issued a paper focused on the policy insights needed—and the legislative actions required—to adequately support the expanse of the startup ecosystem, and to grow the innovation economy. We hope this paper can serve as a resource for policymakers considering a wide range of policy issues that impact early-stage companies across the country.

The Engine Team 12/9/21 The Engine Team 12/9/21

Startups, Content Moderation, and Section 230

Debates about the intermediary liability framework provided by Section 230 have animated policy conversations as lawmakers grapple with harmful online content, including around election integrity, health information, and children’s safety. But those debates are almost exclusively focused on the largest Internet companies. Section 230, however, applies to all services of all sizes that host all types of user-generated content, including startups.

The Engine Team 7/1/21 The Engine Team 7/1/21

Startups & the U.S. Patent System: Prioritizing Quality and Balance to Promote Innovation

The Engine Team 4/22/21 The Engine Team 4/22/21

Engine Releases Report On the State of the Startup Ecosystem

Today, Engine, along with the Charles Koch Institute and Startup Genome, issued a report looking at the overall health of the startup ecosystem. We hope this report can serve as a resource for policymakers considering a wide range of policy issues that impact early-stage companies across the country.

The Engine Team 12/1/19 The Engine Team 12/1/19

NUTS & BOLTS of ENCRYPTION

Despite how often we use encryption—and how prominent the encryption debate has become in policy circles—few understand how it actually works.

The Engine Team 10/3/19 The Engine Team 10/3/19

Report: Nuts & Bolts of Content Moderation

In this report, and through a series of events in Washington, D.C. in the summer of 2019, Engine and the Charles Koch Institute sought to unpack the nuts and bolts of content moderation. We examined what everyday content moderation looks like for Internet platforms and the legal framework that makes that moderation possible, debunked myths about content moderation, and asked attendees to put themselves in the shoes of content moderators.

The Engine Team 7/1/19 The Engine Team 7/1/19

NUTS & BOLTS of USER PRIVACY

Whether it’s the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation, or the looming California Consumer Privacy Act, policymakers across the world are grappling with what steps they can take to better safeguard consumers’ online data while promoting competition and innovation.

Guest User 4/11/16 Guest User 4/11/16

Momentum in Miami: Lessons from an Emerging Startup Ecosystem

Across the country and far beyond Silicon Valley, new centers of startup activity are on the rise. Among them, Miami, Florida is one of the more exciting and dynamic cities emerging as a hub for startups. Not only are more entrepreneurs calling Miami home, but a real ecosystem is forming, complete with a new co-working and events space in the heart of Miami’s Wynwood district, investor groups with a renewed commitment to South Florida entrepreneurs, and a slew of meet-ups, conferences, and hackathons attracting students, programmers, entrepreneurs, and investors eager to be part of this transformation.