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By Scott Meacham A big idea creates ripples that can be felt decades later. Entrepreneurship is like tossing a rock into a pond. The rock gives the water energy to create ever-widening rippling circles. As the rock sinks, the surface water flows back to fill the space the rock left behind. Eventually, the pond willRead more

By Scott Meacham There is no single path to entrepreneurial success. U.S. Patent No. 4,371,752 is just one of the more than thirty-three patents issued to Tulsa born and raised inventor and entrepreneur Gordon Matthews (1936 – 2002). But it is arguably the most of impactful of his portfolio of innovation, as No. 4,371,752 isRead more

By Scott Meacham The inventor of the Nautilus exercise machines created a source of wealth and jobs. Arthur A Jones, the inventor of Nautilus exercise machines, grew up in Seminole, OK. His father practiced medicine. His mother graduated from medical school, reportedly the family had a dozen more members in the medical profession. But medicineRead more

By Scott Meacham Charles Machine Works is a case study in entrepreneurship and innovation. To succeed in entrepreneurship, solve a problem that lots of businesses have. You can be even more successful, if the business you are solving that big problem for is in an industry that is about to take off. That’s the OklahomaRead more

By Scott Meacham Oklahoma State University alumni Ed Roberts is a real life success story with the invention of the Altair 8800 personal computer. About a third of i2E’s clients are in software/IT businesses. We provide services and investment to Oklahoma entrepreneurs who are building high growth companies, so given the low capital asset requirementsRead more

By Scott Meacham In a list of mid-century inventions, I put the traffic yield sign near the top. When you think about it, the yield sign is pure genius. It is all about keeping things moving until the precise moment they need to stop. It’s a textbook example of innovation. The story of how theRead more

By Scott Meacham I like the word reverberate. In acoustics, it means the persistence of sound after the sound is produced. In innovation and entrepreneurship, reverberate perfectly describes how new inventions and ideas echo through companies, regions, economies, and the world.  Oklahoma innovators match inventions to market needs Thousands of Oklahoma entrepreneurs and innovators haveRead more

By Scott Meacham Fifty years before the world wide web and more than 80 years ahead of the phenomenon of social media, Wiley Post, was (in today’s parlance) an “influencer.” Oklahoma offers resources for today’s influencers. Wiley Post went from being a dare-devil barnstormer and pilot of the rich and famous to becoming the firstRead more

By Scott Meacham It is sometimes remarkable the lessons about entrepreneurship that we can learn from reading about the life of just one person. Wiley Post is such a man. Wiley Post offers lessons. Wiley Post was a man of curiosity and adventure born into a working family of cotton farmers who bounced around TexasRead more

I have been thinking lately about how the seeds of innovation get planted — in an individual. In a family. In a state.  Women are key to growing successful companies. My great-great grandmother on my father’s side was an innovator. Her name was Moning Rix Tarpley Gannaway. Our family and the neighbors called her “Annie.”Read more

By Scott Meacham Oklahoma businesses and college students benefit from OCAST internship program.  Across Oklahoma, our college and university students, who have been pulled from pillar to post these last few months, are gearing up for internships. The time is right for Oklahoma’s startups and corporations to get in the hunt. The OCAST (Oklahoma CenterRead more

By Scott Meacham “A company is known by the people it keeps.” Of the many sayings attributed to Oklahoma’s philosopher cowboy, Will Rogers, these words readily serve as a mantra for entrepreneurs, and, for that matter, any person running a business of any kind. Companies succeed because they have great people — people who haveRead more

By Scott Meacham In 1943, when the musical Oklahoma opened on Broadway, our state had only been a state for 36 years. Oklahoma not only gave us the best state song in the entire country, this play, named for our state, spawned innovation at every turn. Before Oklahoma, Broadway musicals were a series of bigRead more

By Scott Meacham We are in difficult times — and when times are difficult, individuals, business, and even entire states have to do things differently. Think back to what was happening in Oklahoma in the eighties. It was like living The Great Gatsby and The Grapes of Wrath jammed into less than ten short years.Read more

By Scott Meacham Everything in life is cyclical. As terrible as 2020 has been for so many, the human spirit is amazing. Over the last month, as people have begun receiving vaccines that were developed in less than a year, I sense a bit of restored optimism. Who isn’t hoping (and expecting) that 2021 willRead more

By Scott Meacham Happy New Year! I don’t know if I have ever been so happy to end one year and begin the next. Times remain challenging, but in just the last few weeks, we finally have cause to celebrate. We have a reason to hope that the vaccines that are rolling out will tameRead more

By Scott Meacham When I was a boy, I learned from my grandparents that when something bad happened, that something good would come out of it. I have been thinking about that lesson over the last few day, ever since the first doses of COVID-19 vaccine began shipping and healthcare workers and others began receivingRead more

By Scott Meacham When the world is running along in normal ways at normal speeds, we tend not to think as much about connections between disconnected things. For me lately, in the third quarter of this pandemic, as we approach the holidays and the end of the year, I have been reflecting more and moreRead more

By Scott Meacham Entrepreneurship is hard. Most everything about building a new company is a heavy lift. Are there shout-from-the-mountain-tops moments? Most certainly. When the first prototype works as designed. When the first customer contract is signed. When a talent critical hire says yes and joins the team. And when the company receives the fundingRead more

By Scott Meacham I am approaching the end of this year with a sense of relief and hope for a better year next year. Like many of us, I can say sincerely that I have never been through anything like this year with a pandemic, an ice storm (including a branch through the roof ofRead more