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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 2021Read 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 t 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 beganRead 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

By Scott Meacham The coronavirus pandemic has given whole segments of the economy the opportunity, and yes, even the permission, to do things differently. It is a generational opportunity for entrepreneurs who want to solve big problems for important industries. Over the last few weeks, I have focused on macro implications of the pandemic—entrepreneurial pivots,Read more

By Scott Meacham When people ask me the secret to building a scalable and successful high-growth startup, I give them a one-word answer. Talent. Entrepreneurship, just like every other endeavor in life depends on people. Is there a certain type of wiring that a high-tech entrepreneur needs? Yes. Curiosity, boundless energy, stubborn determination, and theRead more

By Scott Meacham Of all the perspectives I gained from Oklahoma’s thought leaders on the impact of the coronavirus pandemic on Oklahoma, the observations and empathy toward children and families, especially those who are more vulnerable, sticks with me the most. This pandemic has forced relentless economic pressure on countless Oklahoma families — from furloughs,Read more

By Scott Meacham “When the student is ready, the teacher will appear.” We don’t really know who said this first—maybe Buddha or a Zen master — but the idea is endlessly powerful. When we open our minds and our eyes, we can learn so much from wherever we find ourselves. From wearing so many differentRead more

By Scott Meacham The concept of crowdsourcing — leveraging the wisdom and experience of a group to achieve objectives and solve problems — is as ancient as the Bible. Ecclesiastes, the Old Testament book that takes on the hard questions of life complete with “tips,” sums it up in verse 4:9: “Two are better thanRead more

By Scott Meacham Last spring when the pandemic hit, about one in four Oklahoma students did not have internet access at home. Students did not have devices. School districts did not have additional budget for remote learning. Families stretching to cover rent and buy food didn’t have the money for internet fees — and evenRead more

By Scott Meacham Phil Busey, CEO and founder of Delaware Resource Group located in Oklahoma City, leads a company that provides critical training and logistics services for thousands of men and women around the world. DRG is a preeminent, Native American-owned global aerospace defense contractor that provides critical training and logistics services, supporting many ofRead more

By Scott Meacham Connecting with experts across the state on the subject of “first the pandemic, then what,” I am struck that the first thing everyone mentions is the pandemic phenomenon of telecommuting and work-from-home. From scientists at Oklahoma Medical Research, to engineers and software developers at startups like Ten-Nine Technologies, to Oklahoma-based experts inRead more

By Scott Meacham Oklahomans are generous people. We help our neighbors and our communities daily and especially when survival and recovery are at stake—after a horrific act of domestic terrorism, after hundreds of town-leveling tornadoes, and now through a pandemic that is affecting our health and economy. Non-profits are stepping up in amazing ways. ToRead more

By Scott Meacham We can get the national perspective of the pandemic’s current and after-effect on the banking and finance industries from the Wall Street Journal, but to get an Oklahoma banker’s perspective on the industry post-pandemic, I reached out to Darryl Schmidt, CEO of BancFirst. BancFirst is the largest state-chartered bank in Oklahoma withRead more

By Scott Meacham Information technology plays a super-sized role In Oklahoma’s innovation economy. More than half of our TBFP Concept Fund investments and about 44 percent of investments from the Oklahoma Seed Capital Fund have been in IT, software, telecommunication, and internet firms, Brett Kolomyjec, Oklahoma entrepreneur and CEO of Happily, is upbeat about post-pandemicRead more

By Scott Meacham The pandemic’s immediate and expected after-effect on the traditional energy sectors of oil and gas is harsh. However, the outlook is different for battery solutions based on advanced materials. Paige Johnson, founder and CEO of Tulsa-based Ten-Nine Technologies, is a leader in this expanding segment on the continuum of energy alternatives. JohnsonRead more

By Scott Meacham I don’t get to write that often about the energy industry; i2E’s charter is to expand Oklahoma’s entrepreneurial ventures in non-traditional sectors to diversify our state’s economy. But this week, benefitting from the sage perspective of C. Michael Ming, the original general manager of General Electric’s Global Research O&G Technology Center inRead more