Times of Entrepreneurship
Stories of the Week
Main Street Caught In A Whipsaw As Fed Combats Inflation
Small companies like the one founded by Meghan Noland (above) are turning to creative measures to cope with inflation. Some are slicing staff and using supply chain technology, but the next year will require even more flexibility. Here’s one key piece of advice: As you develop your product, focus on pricing. Read Lori Ioannou’s reporting on the Main Street economy:
VC Spotlight: Lu Zhang’s Fusion Fund
The groundbreaking Silicon Valley investor offers insights, including on personalized diagnostics.
What You May Have Missed
A STEM Woman Needs A Stylish Steel Toe. An immigrant and an engineer, Anastasia Kraft founded Xena Workwear to take on the ‘Shrink It and Pink It’ Problem. Read the Story »
A Teacher Steps Up Outside Miami. His students are only an hour a way from one of the country’s booming tech hubs. But the only way they were going to get access to the jobs of the future is if he led the way. Read the Story »
After Almost A Decade, A DC Florist Re-Opened Her Father’s Shop. In a story that casts a spotlight on the way community lending organizations make a big difference, Georgetown University students helped finance a generational entrepreneur’s dream. Read the Story »
From The Archives
Insights from John Sculley He was CEO Apple and Pepsi. Now an angel investor, he offers insights into how to recognize the insights worth taking to the market. Read the Story »
How Startups Can Avoid Uber’s Pricing Fiasco. Back in 2014, Uber instituted surge pricing and experienced a huge customer backlash. As you consider increasing prices this year, it’s worth a read to understand what experts thought the company did wrong (Hint: it’s about hubris). Read the Story »
What American Women Should Wear In The Middle East Planning travel to the region? Here’s Times of E founder’s Elizabeth MacBride’s primer. Read the Story »
Living the dream 💭
Best Practices: You may read a lot of business gurus who identify inflation as a big risk to your business this year. The specter of the 1970s haunts today’s discussions. But it’s more complicated than that. In a research note, asset manager BlackRock identified not inflation but mistakes in monetary policy as the key risk today. Prices are rising, and so are interest rates; new regulations in response to new kinds of financial technology add an unknown element to the mix. If the problem is multifaceted, so should your response be. Apparel brand Meghan Fabulous turned to automation of its global production, is investigating storing more of its product close to its factories. At the same time, it brought some of its production closer to home. Read more about inflation tactics here.
Buzzworthy: Three different kinds of efforts to help people in Ukraine: Global Giving funnels funding to local nonprofits, which will have a good sense of the need on the ground and effective ways to deliver aid. One of the most effective ways of helping refugees is to send cash. Cash delivered at a crucial moment helps people avoid becoming part of the vast worldwide population of permanently stateless people. Mercy Corps is one nonprofit that delivers cash assistance. And here’s a link to Jose Andres’ World Central Kitchen.
Rathskeller 🍻
The 4.5 hour workweek: A productivity hack
Lots of us have to-do lists. But how about organizing them? Journalist Anderson Cooper told the WSJ he categorizes his list under ‘important/urgent,’ ‘important/not urgent,’ and then just ‘to do,’ and tries to knock out two or three at the beginning of the day. You could also categorize by job, side hustle, and home/life, to make sure you’re not getting too consumed by work, or by long-term and short-term goals.
Wanderlust : a restaurant or activity from our Top Ecosystems list
One of the smallest ecosystems on our top ecosystems list is Bend, Oregon. And one of the must-stop places to visit is the famous Crux Fermentation Project, which also has introduced its first whiskey. Visitors quaff on the brewery’s lawn, which has a view of the Cascades. If you live in Oregon, you can have the beer delivered, otherwise, make your way to Central Oregon.
Pysanky
Pysanky are particularly beautiful Ukranian Easter Eggs, made with a dye and a special tool for drawing on eggs with hot wax. Churches in the United States and Canada are holding pysanky workshops and raffles to raise money for Ukranian war relief. Here’s a gift shop in Minneapolis that sells pysanky and the supplies to make them.
Upcoming Opportunities ⭐
1. 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.
📅 Date: N/A
🏢 Location: N/A
🔗Link: https://docsend.com/view/s/4gah7gde5yrguz8j
2. Bursary Benefits Available for AI Week 2022
Amii has announced plans to award $100,000 in talent bursaries to empower AI technical professionals to attend AI Week 2022. Apply now to have your travel expenses covered – awards are allocated on a first-come-first-served basis.
📅 Date: May 24-27, 2022
🏢 Location: Edmonton, AB
🔗Link: https://www.ai-week.ca/talent-bursaries
3. Comcast Accepting Applications for Comcast NBCUniversal LIFT Labs Accelerator
Open to global startups in connectivity, media, and entertainment, Comcast is now accepting applications for the fifth class of the Comcast NBCUniversal LIFT Labs Accelerator. Comcast writes that they are “looking to mentor and invest in startups developing world-class technologies and products in the program’s core focus areas: Connected Living; Immersive and Inclusive Experiences; and Smart, Sustainable Enterprise.”
📅 Application Deadline: May 11, 2022
🏢 Location: Philadelphia, PA
🔗 Link: https://lift.comcast.com/accelerator
4. Render Launches Second Iteration of Reconstruct Challenge worth $750,000
Render has announced a new partnership with Access Ventures to award a second national prize focusing on addressing barriers to employment in the United States. Five winning innovations will receive $100,000 each, with one innovation receiving an additional $250,000 to scale further. The challenge is open to anyone in the United States as long as the beta test of the innovation takes place in Jefferson County, KY, or Floyd and Clark County, IN.
📅 Registration Deadline: April 29, 2022
📅 Application Deadline: May 27, 2022
🏢 Location: N/A
🔗 Link: https://www.reconstructchallenge.com/initiatives/employment
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This story and others on Times of E are made possible by a sponsorship from the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation. The Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation is a private, nonpartisan foundation that provides access to opportunities that help people achieve financial stability, upward mobility, and economic prosperity – regardless of race, gender, or geography. The Kansas City, Mo.-based foundation uses its grantmaking, research, programs, and initiatives to support the start and growth of new businesses, a more prepared workforce, and stronger communities. For more information, visit www.kauffman.org and connect with www.twitter.com/kauffmanfdn and www.facebook.com/kauffmanfdn.
