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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

By Scott Meacham Copyright © 2018, The Oklahoma Publishing Co. The fight against cancer in Oklahoma took a giant leap forward last week with the announcement that the Stephenson Cancer Center has become a National Cancer Institute Designated Cancer Center. NCI-designated Cancer Centers represent only the top 2 percent of Cancer Centers nationwide. I haveRead more

By Scott Meacham Copyright ©2018, The Oklahoma Publishing Co. Whether the weather fascinates, frustrates, or frightens, weather is big business for Oklahoma. In Norman alone, there are more than 1,100 people working in the weather industry. About 100 of those (nearly half are degreed meteorologists) are employed by Weather Decision Technologies (WDT), a firm thatRead more

By Sarah Terry- Cobo Courtesy of The Journal Record OKLAHOMA CITY – Laura Fleet is pushing in the clutch and revving the engine. She is looking to expand her technology startup from Oklahoma to the rest of the U.S. The founder of the SendaRide mobile application said she used her knowledge of the health careRead more

By Scott Meacham Copyright © 2018, The Oklahoma Publishing Co. We’ve just completed Oklahoma’s 14th annual statewide collegiate business plan competition. Last Thursday evening, as we honored the 2018 Love’s Entrepreneur’s Cup winners at the traditional celebratory gala, I was struck — as I am every year — with just how impactful this business planRead more

By Scott Meacham Copyright © 2018, The Oklahoma Publishing Co. If you are a regular reader of these columns, and I hope you are, you can tell that I like history. There are the lessons, of course, and the perspective we gain from looking back. And there are the celebratory moments. There’s always an “aha”Read more

By Scott Meacham Copyright © 2018, The Oklahoma Publishing Co. The U.S. trucking industry is vital to the nation’s economy. Trucks move more than 70 percent of the country’s cargo and the industry employs more than 7 million people. Nearly half of those people are driving the trucks. Driving a truck is tough; turnover ratesRead more

By Scott Meacham Copyright © 2018, The Oklahoma Publishing Co. Kenneth Knoll, chief operating officer at WeGoLook, has been on i2E’s radar since he was a student at the University of Tulsa and led a team that earned first place in the Governor’s Cup (now the Love’s Cup) collegiate business plan competition. Knoll’s story sharesRead more

By Scott Meacham Copyright © 2018, The Oklahoma Publishing Co. The best ideas for new companies come from people who deeply understand an industry, recognize a problem, and then talk with potential customers. That’s the back story to SendaRide, an Oklahoma startup that provides customized, concierge, nonemergency medical transportation and transportation for individuals and seniorRead more

By Scott Meacham Copyright © 2017, The Oklahoma Publishing Co. Life teaches us many things if we take the time to listen. I have been privileged to serve on the Advisory Board for OU’s newly created Stephenson School of Biomedical Engineering, allowing me to be on the ground floor of building a new academic program.Read more

By Scott Meacham Copyright © 2017, The Oklahoma Publishing Co. Twenty years ago, when i2E (first known as the Oklahoma Technology Commercialization Center), came into being there wasn’t a startup scene in Oklahoma. The economy was all about oil and gas, and agriculture and commercial real estate. We had no venture capital. Most young peopleRead more

By Scott Meacham It’s always interesting to me how archetypal change in a state comes about. I’m talking of change that is so far-reaching and ultimately disruptive that it bores deep into a state’s DNA and puts that state on a different path. The evolution of the entrepreneurial ecosystem in Oklahoma is a homegrown exampleRead more

By Scott Meacham Copyright © 2018, The Oklahoma Publishing Co. The status quo is always hard to overcome. I’ve been saying that a lot lately as our state battles through the budgetary issues that are dragging us down the rabbit hole. It’s a frustrating, dangerous time, that has left many of us shaking our heads.Read more

  By Scott Meacham © Copyright 2018 TulsaWorld.com, 315 S. Boulder Ave. Tulsa, OK The most amazing phenomenon is happening in Oklahoma right now. I don’t believe that I’ve ever seen anything like it — not in our state or anywhere else. It’s well known that Oklahoma has a debilitating budget problem. It’s not onlyRead more

By Scott Meacham Copyright © 2018, The Oklahoma Publishing Co. In writing this series of columns, it has been enjoyable and informative to consider current innovation in Oklahoma in the context of innovation and inventors from our history. I like history as a teacher, and from readers’ comments, so do you. We’re making innovation historyRead more

By Rhett Morgan Copyright © 2018 TulsaWorld.com, 315 S. Boulder Ave. Tulsa, OK Things are looking up for John Morad and not just because he works on the 27th floor. Morad is getting his MBA from Harvard and teaches artificial intelligence and machine learning four times a year as a visiting instructor at Stanford. HeRead more

By Scott Meacham Copyright © 2017, The Oklahoma Publishing Co. Innovation is unpredictable. Like the grocery cart inspiration that came to Sylvan Goldman or the parking meter idea that came to Carl Magee, the seeds of innovation can come from anywhere. Although there is no precise formula for innovation, there are indicators that make innovationRead more

By Scott Meacham Copyright © 2018, The Oklahoma Publishing Co. A few years ago, a contributor in Forbes put it this way: “Invention creates an ability, but innovation takes that ability and allows it to scale and create some kind of market impact.” But which comes first? Does invention lead to innovation or it isRead more

By Scott Meacham Copyright © 2018, The Oklahoma Publishing Co. Innovation drives everything. Without innovation, we wouldn’t have entrepreneurs, startup companies, or job and wealth creation. And we wouldn’t have shopping carts. Sylvan Goldman, the Oklahoma grocer who in 1937 invented the shopping cart, had a business problem that was keeping him from increasing whatRead more

By Scott Meacham Copyright © 2017, The Oklahoma Publishing Co. I believe in metrics. To borrow from Peter Drucker (or whoever said it first), if we can measure it, we can manage it. I was reminded of that quote recently as I was catching up on my report reading over the holidays. For the lastRead more