Lawmakers lament detriment to startups of Trade Rep’s digital trade reversal
After overcoming childhood shyness in the warmth of his local Caribbean-owned barbershop, Royon Jeffrey knows the power of the beauty industry firsthand. He set out to create ListedB, an online marketplace for beauty industry professionals. We spoke to him about the financial opportunity within the industry, navigating capital access and investors, and his desire to empower small businesses owners.
Foreign nations are saddling U.S. companies — including startups — with discriminatory burdens.
MegaMinds was created out of a need to make learning more creative, fun, and hands-on for students. In our conversation with Co-Founder and CEO Eric Tao, we learned about the growing popularity of immersive learning, the tricky regulatory landscape for a product like MegaMinds, and what it’s like for many first-time entrepreneurs to build businesses.
Today, the U.S. House of Representatives passed the Empowering Employees through Stock Ownership Act (H.R.5719), which will encourage startup growth by making it easier for employees at private companies to exercise their stock options. The following statement can be attributed to Engine Executive Director Evan Engstrom:
There are countless startups that provide platforms through which individuals can share feedback and unbiased reviews of the businesses and services they rely on. These platforms are integral to the internet economy and consumers depend on them to inform their decisions on everything from where to grab drinks to which dentist to see. Protecting freedom of speech on these platforms is critical. But non-disparagement and gag clauses silence legitimate criticism, rendering these platforms less useful and harming the broader internet ecosystem. Engine welcomes the House’s passage of the Consumer Review Fairness Act, which would outlaw these gag clauses and go a long way towards protecting consumers’ right to share their thoughts and opinions freely in the digital marketplace.
Today, the House of Representatives passed a package of bills that will improve the capital access landscape for innovators across the country, including the Micro Offering Safe Harbor Act (H.R.4850) and the Private Placement Improvement Act of 2016 (H.R.4852). With the approval of these two bills, the House has now passed four of Engine’s 2016 legislative priorities related to capital access.
The startup community has been fighting for years for reforms that would allow the world’s brightest innovators to start and scale their companies here in the United States. Engine welcomes the Department of Homeland Security’s International Entrepreneur proposal, which will allow talented foreign-born entrepreneurs to build their companies in the U.S., in turn creating jobs and driving economic transformation. Today’s announcement is an important step towards making our immigration system work for the 21st century innovation economy.
Meaningful broadband access and affordability are essential to a vibrant entrepreneurial ecosystem. Startups rely on broadband to connect with users, develop innovative products and services, and run their daily operations. Access to quality broadband can also save startups an average of $16,000 per year, which is a significant amount for a company trying to get off the ground.
In the months since the original Safe Harbor agreement was invalidated by the European Court of Justice, the startup community has been in legal limbo awaiting resolution. The approval of this revised trans-Atlantic data-transfer framework brings much needed certainty for American startups with European users.
Today, the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the Federal Communication Commission’s (FCC) historic net neutrality rules in a 2-1 vote. Affirming that Internet Service Providers (ISPs) cannot block, throttle, or slow down web traffic at their own discretion, the ruling is a major victory for thousands of startups that depend on the open internet as a level playing field.
Engine applauds the U.S. House of Representatives’ passage of the Helping Angels Lead Our Startups (HALOS) Act. The bill, which was approved by a wide margin of 325-89, would clarify regulatory ambiguities around general solicitation, making it easier for startups to publicly showcase their ideas without unintentionally running afoul of securities laws.
Today, the U.S. House of Representatives passed the widely supported, broadly bipartisan Email Privacy Act by a unanimous vote of 419-0. The bill would make long overdue updates to the Electronic Communications Privacy Act (ECPA) to bring our digital privacy laws into the 21st century. Specifically, the bill would clarify that law enforcement must obtain a warrant—except in certain clearly defined emergencies—before accessing individuals’ electronic communications.
I am excited to announce today that Paul Geller has joined our team as Engine’s new Managing Director. Paul will focus on corporate outreach, and joins Engine as a startup veteran who spent the last few years building technology applications for fashion and retail brands in New York. He previously served on the Audio Board of the Consumer Technology Association and as a partner at Hangar.
On New Year’s Eve 2015, while most people were out celebrating, the Copyright Office quietly issued an notice of inquiry seeking public input on an incredibly important topic: the effectiveness of Section 512 of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA). For those who didn’t skip their New Year’s Eve party to brush up on copyright policy, here’s a refresher: the DMCA is a law from 1998 that, among other things, grants online service providers (OSPs)—basically, all your favorite websites—a legal “safe harbor” from facing lawsuits arising from user copyright infringements.
Today, Engine and Tusk Ventures released “Grading the Candidates on Tech,” the first report card that grades the 2016 presidential candidates on whether they are passing or failing on a number of issues critical to many startups and technology. Candidates were rated based on their level of support, understanding, and familiarity with technology, startups and the priorities of the tech community. Their final grades reflect candidates' positions on major issues including privacy and security, the on-demand economy and intellectual property.
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