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By Scott Meacham Copyright © 2019, The Oklahoman I always tell every new company that I talk to: You have to crawl before you walk and walk before you run. The same thing applies to the capital path. The great thing for startups in this state is that The Oklahoma Innovation Model, which is uniqueRead more

By Scott Meacham Copyright © (2019), The Oklahoman I learn something new practically every day in this job. For example, did you know that Oklahoma has a state meal? According to the Oklahoma Historical Society website, that spread includes chicken-fried steak, barbecued pork, fried okra, squash, cornbread, grits, corn, sausage with biscuits and gravy, black-eyedRead more

By Scott Meacham Copyright © 2019, The Oklahoman In the business of creating new high-growth companies, “trade-off” is the name of the game. From idea to IPO, from survival mode to success, entrepreneurship calls for constant prioritizing and re-prioritizing. With limited capital — financial and human — for the first few years of a startup’sRead more

By Scott Meacham Copyright © 2019, The Oklahoman This summer marks the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing — the NASA mission that made Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin the first human beings to walk on a planetary body that wasn’t Earth. Of all the Apollo 11 lore, one of my favorite storiesRead more

By Scott Meacham Copyright © 2019, The Oklahoman As Oklahomans, we live with pumps. We draw most of our water from out of the ground; we’re used to seeing pumpjacks bobbing their grasshopper-shaped heads all over the state. So, when somebody says “prime the pump” we understand the metaphor in a very real-world way. “PrimeRead more

By Scott Meacham Copyright © 2019, The Oklahoman Regardless of the state you live in or where your children go to school, STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) skills are the key to career opportunities today and will be exponentially more important over the next five years. In Oklahoma, as in every other state, weRead more

By Scott Meacham Copyright © 2019, The Oklahoman For a young company, it’s never easy and the hard work is never over. It’s a long, difficult battle full of fits and starts and failure before success. That’s why it is especially inspiring when an Oklahoma startup sprints out ahead of the pack and continues toRead more

By Scott Meacham Copyright © 2019, The Tulsa World/BH Media Group The Oklahoma Medical Research Foundation is one of the finest biomedical research institutions in the world. I2E is honored to be a commercialization partner with this organization of 400-plus scientists who evince such a passion and singular focus on understanding and curing human disease.Read more

By Scott Meacham Copyright © 2019, The Oklahoman Profitable exits are the holy grail of venture investing. The reason is fairly obvious. It typically takes an exit event for equity investors to get their original investment back and to gain the benefit of any returns. A successful liquidity event distributes the funds for venture investorsRead more

By Scott MeachamCopyright © 2019, The Oklahoman I value benchmarking. Whatever the goal, comparing metrics with industry leaders is the best way to test and improve results. Especially when the comparison is not what we would want it to be. It is no surprise that when it comes to the key indicators of a robustRead more

By Scott Meacham Copyright © 2019, The Oklahoman A few years ago, I attended an executive education program in venture capital at the University of California at Berkeley. The program, which promises to give investors, executives and serious entrepreneurs a window into venture capital and tips on how to succeed with VC firms, delivers asRead more

By Scott Meacham Copyright © 2019, The Oklahoman Every Jan. 1, Pitt Island, an island in New Zealand’s Chatham Island archipelago, is the first populated location on earth to welcome the first sunrise of the new year. Located about 430 miles east of mainland New Zealand and just west of the international date line, PittRead more

By Scott MeachamCopyright © 2018, The Oklahoman Every year at this time, I think about my grandparents — about how different their world was from ours today, and about how much about it, happily, is still the same. I had two sets of grandparents growing up. On my dad’s side, we go back to theRead more

By Scott Meacham Copyright © 2018, The Oklahoman Oklahoma continues to strive for a more diversified economy. As a state, we have historically depended too much on oil and gas. At the same time, we share a tremendous appreciation for and experience in the energy industry. When entrepreneurs apply energy industry know-how toward new companiesRead more

By Scott Meacham Copyright © 2018, The Tulsa World My previous column I concluded by comparing starting a company to a long trip down a bumpy road. It’s true; there is nothing easy about building a business from scratch. There are plenty of bright spots, moments of pure elation — succeeding with a prototype, signingRead more

By Scott Meacham Copyright © 2018, The Oklahoman Startup companies are like snowflakes — no two are exactly alike. Uniqueness, after all, is a vital part of every new company’s secret sauce. The most successful startups always break new ground. They do original things in original ways. They invent new materials (nanoparticles anyone?), new systemsRead more

By Scott Meacham Copyright © 2018, The Oklahoman I recently had the opportunity to meet Gov.-elect Kevin Stitt, his campaign manager, Aamon Ross, and a handful of other Oklahomans with diverse backgrounds who are passionate about the future of our state. I had never met our soon-to-be governor, and, frankly, I was impressed. I couldRead more

By Scott Meacham Copyright © 2018, The Oklahoman Last week I wrote about Mohammad and Jalal Farzaneh, businessmen who immigrated to Oklahoma as students and stayed here through boom and bust to build a construction business that earns a hundred million dollars in annual revenue, creates jobs for hundreds of Oklahoma workers, and builds terrificRead more

By Scott Meacham Copyright © 2018, The Oklahoman Oklahoma’s annual Entrepreneurial Summit features first-person startup stories from Oklahoma entrepreneurs. This year’s Summit lineup included Jalal and Mohammad Farzaneh, the co-founders of Home Creations. Jalal and Mohammad Farzaneh were born in Iran, the oldest of six brothers. They finished high school and two years of collegeRead more

By Scott Meacham Copyright © 2018, The Oklahoman I realize I am preaching to choir on this one, but just let me say that the Heartland of the United States is very different from the Coasts. That’s what makes the information in the State of the Heartland: Factbook 2018 so relevant to Oklahoma and soRead more