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NEWS FEED
Engine and ACT Amicus Brief to Federal Circuit on Patent Injunctions in Collision Communications v. Samsung
Engine joined ACT in filing an amicus brief to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit in Collision Communications, Inc. v. Samsung Electronics Co., highlighting the importance for startups of preserving the framework governing permanent injunctions established by the Supreme Court in eBay Inc. v. MercExchange, L.L.C.
Startup News Digest 09/25/26
H-1B fee would put high-skilled talent further out of reach for startups
#StartupsEverywhere: Omaha, Neb.
Heather Nelson is a professor of management and entrepreneurship at the University of Nebraska at Omaha. After 23 years of guiding her students towards new and innovative ideas, she launched her own startup—Poll The Vote—to connect voters and constituents to their candidates and elected officials. We sat down to talk with Heather about her company, her approach to content moderation on her platform, and more.
Engine Comments to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services on Proposed H-1B Petition Fee
Engine submitted comments to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services on its proposed rule to establish a $103,265 fee for cap-subject H-1B petitions.
#StartupsEverywhere: Gig Harbor, Wash.
Seattle-area startup Sound Games is building a distribution platform like Shopify for games, streamlining indie developers’ simultaneous launches across various storefronts. We sat down with co-founder Mike Schmid to talk about his journey from the App Store to building his own platform, the challenging landscape of raising capital in the current gaming market, and the operational burdens of navigating state-by-state compliance for a remote startup.
Engine and TechNet File Amicus Brief to Ninth Circuit on First Amendment Protections for Recommendation Algorithms
Engine joined TechNet in filing an amicus brief to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit on the First Amendment protections that apply to algorithmic recommendation systems.
Startup News Digest 09/11/26
Congress returns with consequential startup policy fights unresolved
The Kids’ Online Safety State Patchwork Status
As most state legislatures have adjourned for the year, they’re leaving behind an increasingly complicated patchwork of rules that are aimed at keeping young Internet users safe but create a variety of obligations, prohibitions, and compliance burdens for startups—especially for startups that don’t intend to, or knowingly interact, with young users.
#StartupsEverywhere: Coupeville, Wash.
AETHEON, a Washington-based startup, is an AI-powered workforce platform that helps individuals turn their work, education, military, and life experiences into structured, verified skill profiles. It also helps employers identify talent based on demonstrated skills and competencies rather than traditional resumes or degree requirements. We sat down with founder Marie Gill to discuss AETHEON’s mission to reshape the broken talent marketplace, the strategic decision to prioritize trade secrets over patents, and the critical policy reforms needed to support transitioning military veterans.
#StartupsEverywhere: Indianapolis, Ind.
RelateXR is an addiction recovery software that has been making waves at Indiana University since it was founded three years ago. Izzy Branam is the CEO and co-founder of RelateXR. We sat down with him to talk about his company, RelateXR’s experience with Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) grants, and more.
The Trump tariff rebuild continues and trade wars are back. What does it mean for startups?
Headline-grabbing tariffs have startups paying attention as the administration takes steps to reconstruct the sweeping tariff regime struck down by the Supreme Court and ignites trade conflict with top trading partners.
AI Essentials: What is Distillation?
It’s often easier to learn from an expert than start yourself from scratch. When it comes to AI model training, the practice of one model learning from a more developed or expert model is called distillation, and it’s one used by industry leaders and startups alike.
#StartupsEverywhere: Jacksonville, Fla.
After pioneering commercial in-space manufacturing and leading the team that designed the cameras for the Artemis II mission, Andrew Rush set out to solve the need for magnitudes more power for satellites in low Earth orbit. Star Catcher is building a power grid in space, concentrating energy from the sun and beaming optical and near-infrared beams of light that can greatly increase the energy output of solar panels on existing satellites. We sat down with Andrew to talk about Star Catcher, the importance of patenting technology, the evolution of capital formation in the space sector, and more.
#StartupsEverywhere: Atlanta, GA.
Alehra, an Atlanta-based startup co-founded by Ayobami "Ayo" Adewole and Adekunle "Ade" Oyaniyi, is a purpose-built "operating system" for behavioral health created to eliminate the administrative burnout caused by fragmented software systems. Their approach enables providers to prioritize patient care over manual paperwork by unifying scheduling, clinical documentation, and billing into a one-stop-shop platform, while also allowing practices to integrate their own preferred tools. We sat down with Ayo and Ade to discuss the origins of Alehra, the role of agentic AI in modern care, their talent and funding journeys, and the policy hurdles that founders in highly regulated industries face.
Startup News Digest 08/07/26
Senate committee advances bills that will require age verification
#StartupsEverywhere: New York, N.Y.
After an idea conceived and prototyped in business school went viral, founder and CEO Chris Lucas raised a $2 million pre-seed round for his company Secondsense, a platform that aggregates data across resale listings to determine the fair market value of commercial goods on the secondhand market. We sat down with Chris to talk about his company, the perception of algorithms versus their actual use, and more.
