By Scott Meacham Copyright © 2018, The Oklahoma Publishing Co. As regular readers of this column already know, I am a huge advocate of education. My emphasis tends toward STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math), but I am equally passionate about sparking the fire of innovation in the hearts and minds of the students inRead more
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By Scott Meacham Copyright © 2018, The Oklahoma Publishing Co. I lost a hero last week. My heroes tend to not be athletes or celebrities but regular people who rise to the occasion and do extraordinary things. They stand strong for their personal convictions in the face of intense pressure. My list includes relatively obscureRead more
By Scott Meacham Copyright © 2018, The Oklahoma Publishing Co. The K20 Center for Educational and Community Renewal is an Oklahoma powerhouse of authentic resources for teaching and learning for Oklahoma’s educators and students in grades K-12. The K20 Center is all about research-based initiatives that improve student engagement, critical skills and problem solving. TheRead more
By Scott Meacham Copyright © 2018, The Oklahoma Publishing Co. I received a call from a reporter from HBO’s “Vice News” recently asking my perspective on President Donald Trump’s announcement that Oklahoma’s Kelvin Droegemeier is his choice to lead the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy. The White House Office of Science andRead more
By Scott Meacham Copyright © 2018, The Oklahoma Publishing Co. At current course and speed, the U.S. is expected to need at least a million more STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) workers over the next decade than the current pipeline will produce. Focusing just on Oklahoma, recent statistics show that in our state, fromRead more
By Greater OKC Chamber staff i2E, a nonprofit that focuses on growing innovative small businesses in Oklahoma and making a positive impact on the state’s economy, is celebrating its 20th year of investing in entrepreneurs to build successful high growth companies in the state. While i2E officially started in 1998, the need for its servicesRead more
By Scott Meacham Copyright © 2018, The Oklahoma Publishing Co. Last week, after I wrote about valuation — the negotiation that happens between entrepreneur and investor over what the startup company is worth on the day the investor writes a check — I got a little good-natured kidding from some of my friends. You soundRead more
By Scott Meacham Copyright © 2018, The Oklahoma Publishing Co. There is no aspect of the relationship between entrepreneur and potential investor that has more opportunity for conflict than the negotiation of the value of the company for the purpose of the investor making an investment. Every company founder wants the value of the companyRead more
By Scott Meacham Copyright © 2018, The Oklahoma Publishing Co. The other day, Bob Hogrefe, CEO of Access Optics, posed this thought-starter: What is it that battlefield observation systems, minimally invasive robotic surgery, and cellphones all have in common? The answer? All three rely on very small compact imaging systems — systems that Bob andRead more
By Scott Meacham Copyright © 2018, The Oklahoma Publishing Co. Oklahoma’s innovation economy is a complex system with many moving parts. Our state’s innovation engine is driven by motivated and coachable entrepreneurs with ideas and technologies that disrupt. To be successful, Oklahoma’s entrepreneurs need investment capital from angels, venture capitalists and banks. They need world-classRead more
By Scott Meacham Copyright © 2018, The Oklahoma Publishing Co. In entrepreneurship, just like anything else, ratings and rankings are important, if for no other reason than they help shape how we view ourselves. Therefore, it’s important to know how Oklahoma stacks up to other states, especially states that are most like us. Oklahoma wasRead more
By Scott Meacham Copyright © (2018), The Oklahoma Publishing Co. This week, we are at the midpoint of the year — and, at least here in Oklahoma, smack in the middle of the dog days of summer. It’s easy in July in the Midwest to succumb to the summer doldrums — that is unless youRead more
By Scott Meacham Copyright © (2018), The Oklahoma Publishing Co. Jeff Weber, CEO of zone·tv, was in the first graduating class of the Management Information Systems (MIS) program at the University of Oklahoma College of Business. Now, as CEO of zone·tv, Jeff is tapping into his Oklahoma and MIS roots to build the data scienceRead more
By Jack Money Copyright © (2018) The Oklahoma Publishing Co. Oklahoma City’s Innovation District is about to become more innovative. On Monday, the Oil & Gas Technology Center owned by Baker Hughes, a General Electric company, will become the BHGE Energy Innovation Center of North America. Along with the new name comes plans to refocusRead more
By Scott Meacham Copyright © 2018, The Oklahoma Publishing Co. At a time when cable and satellite carriers like AT&T, Comcast, Cox, Dish, and more are having challenges in their core businesses, Jeff Weber, CEO of zone·tv, sees a huge opportunity in cable and satellite TV. “Consumers are leaving cable and satellite, cutting back onRead more
By Scott Meacham Copyright © (2018), The Oklahoma Publishing Co. It’s a promising sign when an entrepreneur with a successful track record inside an industry decides to build a solution to solve a problem that’s industrywide. That’s the story behind Whiteboard CRM in Oklahoma City. Launched about three years ago by CEO Brian Bomar, aRead more
By Scott Meacham Copyright © 2018, The Oklahoma Publishing Co. Entrepreneurs never have enough time or money. That’s a hard, cold fact. Another hard, cold fact is that venture capitalists often avoid investing in Series A rounds if equity in a company is more diluted than they like. And a third hard cold fact isRead more
By Scott Meacham Copyright © (2018), The Oklahoma Publishing Co. Through the Love’s Entrepreneur’s Cup Business Competition, we meet 250 to 300 college, university, and graduate students every year. While they all won’t go on to start companies, almost every student we talk to during the Love’s Cup, views entrepreneurship as a viable career option.Read more
By Scott Meacham Copyright © 2018, The Oklahoma Publishing Co. The State Science & Technology Institute (SSTI), the national network that serves those involved in technology-based economic development, recently announced a list of the most active technology-based economic development funds in the U.S. and Canada. SSTI reviewed PitchBook data from hundreds of nonprofit, public, orRead more
By Scott Meacham Copyright © 2018, The Oklahoma Publishing Co. Anybody who’s ever heard me talk about building out Oklahoma’s innovation economy has heard me say that capital begets capital and deal flow begets deal flow. The challenge is that it takes a predictable continuum of investment capital to build a robust pipeline of startups,Read more
