Engine (organization)

Last updated

Engine Advocacy
EstablishedSeptember 2011
Headquarters San Francisco, California
Marvin Ammori, Leah Belsky, Josh Mendelsohn, Derek Parham, Julie Samuels
Website www.engine.is

Engine is a non-profit group advocating for public policies that encourage the growth of technology startups in San Francisco, California. [1] [2] Engine is composed of a 501(c)(3) organization called Engine Research Foundation and a 501(c)(4) called Engine Advocacy. [3] Engine Advocacy and Engine Foundation are the two branches of a non-profit organization that conducts economic research and policy analysis research and provides support and advice to technology startups. [4] Engine Advocacy was an instrumental partner in the effort to defeat PIPA and SOPA back in 2012. The organization researches and advocates around the issues of open Internet, intellectual property reform, privacy laws, Internet and spectrum access and immigration reform. [5] Google, SV Angel, 500 Startups, Mozilla, Yelp and the Startup Genome support the organization. [6]

Contents

History

Engine Advocacy was founded in September 2011 to advocate for public policies that benefit the startup economy. [7] [8] [9] In December 2011, over 300 entrepreneurs and investors attended Engine Advocacy's first meeting. [7] Engine supported the 2011 Startup Visa Act, a proposed amendment to the United States immigration law to create a visa category for foreign entrepreneurs who have raised capital from qualified American investors and the Startup Act and Startup Act 2.0. [8] These pieces of legislation were intended to make the immigration process for entrepreneurs and startup employees easier. [8] In 2012, Mike McGeary represented Engine Advocacy at the Republican National Convention and the Democratic National Convention. [9] Engine Advocacy was involved in stopping SOPA passing the JOBS Act that year. [9]

In April 2013, Engine Advocacy met with the United States House Committee on Small Business in Washington, D.C. to advocate for startups. [6] Engine advocacy supported #iMarch, a virtual march on Washington in support of bipartisan comprehensive immigration reform in May 2013. [10] The organization launched the "Keep Us Here" campaign in June 2013. [11] The campaign aimed to facilitate communication between entrepreneurs, investors and D.C. policymakers with the use of a website that featured various methods of contact. [11] In 2013, Engine Advocacy mapped where technology jobs are located in the United States based on the United States Census. [12] The project's goal was to raise awareness of the technology industry's widespread impact. [12]

Engine Advocacy and the New America Foundation's Open Technology Institute organized a letter sent to the Federal Communications Commission in May 2014 to express alarm over proposed net neutrality rules and urge regulators to protect Internet openness. [13] [14] [15] [16]

Engine Advocacy appointed Julie Samuels as executive director and president in 2014. [17] Samuels served as a member of the board since the organization's foundation in 2011. [17]

In 2014, Engine Advocacy lobbied on behalf of more than 500 technology startups and investors. [18] In April of that year, Engine Advocacy hosted, along with the Consumer Electronics Association, a fly-in to Washington D.C. for tech entrepreneurs to lobby for patent reform. [19]

Research

Engine Research Foundation has conducted original research on high-tech entrepreneurship. In 2012, Engine commissioned a study [20] on high-tech employment and wages in the United States from the Bay Area Council Economic Institute; the study found that the creation of one high tech job accounts for the creation of 4.3 other jobs in a local economy. A joint report with the Kauffman Foundation in 2013 found that high-tech startups are a key driver of job creation throughout the United States. [21]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Silicon Valley</span> Technology hub in California, United States

Silicon Valley is a region in Northern California that serves as a global center for high technology and innovation. Located in the southern part of the San Francisco Bay Area, it corresponds roughly to the geographical area of the Santa Clara Valley. San Jose is Silicon Valley's largest city, the third-largest in California, and the tenth-largest in the United States; other major Silicon Valley cities include Sunnyvale, Santa Clara, Redwood City, Mountain View, Palo Alto, Menlo Park, and Cupertino. The San Jose Metropolitan Area has the third-highest GDP per capita in the world, according to the Brookings Institution, and, as of June 2021, has the highest percentage of homes valued at $1 million or more in the United States.

A startup or start-up is a company or project undertaken by an entrepreneur to seek, develop, and validate a scalable business model. While entrepreneurship includes all new businesses, including self-employment and businesses that do not intend to go public, startups are new businesses that intend to grow large beyond the solo founder. At the beginning, startups face high uncertainty and have high rates of failure, but a minority of them do go on to be successful and influential.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Vinod Khosla</span> American businessman

Vinod Khosla is an Indian-American businessman and venture capitalist. He is a co-founder of Sun Microsystems and the founder of Khosla Ventures. Khosla made his wealth from early venture capital investments in areas such as networking, software, and alternative energy technologies. He is considered one of the most successful and influential venture capitalists.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Reid Hoffman</span> American internet entrepreneur and author

Reid Garrett Hoffman is an American internet entrepreneur, venture capitalist, podcaster, and author. Hoffman was the co-founder and executive chairman of LinkedIn, a business-oriented social network used primarily for professional networking. He is currently a partner at the venture capital firm Greylock Partners and a co-founder of Inflection AI.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ben Way</span>

Ben Way is a serial entrepreneur and best selling author best known for his appearance on Secret Millionaire, The Startup Kids and as a cast member on Start-Ups: Silicon Valley, he started his first company at the age of 15. He went on to raise £25 million in his teens making him one of the first dot com millionaires.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Free Press (organization)</span>

Free Press is a United States advocacy group that is part of the media reform or media democracy movement. Their mission includes, "saving Net Neutrality, achieving affordable internet access for all, uplifting the voices of people of color in the media, challenging old and new media gatekeepers to serve the public interest, ending unwarranted surveillance, defending press freedom and reimagining local journalism." The group is a major supporter of net neutrality.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Silicon Valley Leadership Group</span> Advocacy group in Silicon Valley, California

The Silicon Valley Leadership Group is a non-profit advocacy group in Silicon Valley, California, in the United States. Its members are businesses that operate in the valley and its purpose is to influence public policy relating to the valley.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Computer & Communications Industry Association</span>

The Computer and Communications Industry Association (CCIA) is an international non-profit advocacy organization based in Washington, DC, United States which represents the information and communications technology industries. According to their site, CCIA "promotes open markets, open systems, open networks, and full, fair, and open competition." Established in 1972, CCIA was active in antitrust cases involving IBM, AT&T and Microsoft, and lobbied for net neutrality, copyright and patent reform and against internet censorship and policies, mergers or other situations that would reduce competition. CCIA released a study it commissioned by an MIT professor, which analyzed the cost of patent trolls to the economy., a study on the economic benefits of Fair Use and has testified before the Senate on limiting government surveillance and on internet censorship as a trade issue.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dan Quine</span> British computer scientist

Daniel Nicholas Quine is a computer scientist, currently VP Engineering at AltSchool.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Vivek Wadhwa</span> Indian-American academic

Vivek Wadhwa is an Indian-American technology entrepreneur and academic. He is Distinguished Fellow & Adjunct Professor at Carnegie Mellon's School of Engineering at Silicon Valley and Distinguished Fellow at the Labor and Worklife Program at Harvard Law School. He is also author of books Your Happiness Was Hacked: Why Tech Is Winning the Battle to Control Your Brain—and How to Fight Back, Driver in the Driverless Car,Innovating Women: The Changing Face of Technology, and Immigrant Exodus.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Marvin Ammori</span> American activist and lawyer

Marvin Ammori is a lawyer, civil liberties advocate, and scholar best known for his work on network neutrality and Internet freedom issues. He currently serves as Chief Legal Officer of Uniswap.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Blueseed</span>

Blueseed was a Silicon Valley-based startup company and a seasteading venture to create a startup community located on a vessel stationed in international waters near the coast of Silicon Valley in the United States. The intended location would enable non-U.S. startup entrepreneurs to work on their ventures without the need for a US work visa (H1B), while living in proximity to Silicon Valley and using relatively easier to obtain business and tourism visas (B1/B2) to travel to the mainland.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dan Dascalescu</span>

Dan Dăscălescu is a Romanian-American entrepreneur based in Silicon Valley, who co-founded the ship-based seed accelerator project Blueseed in an attempt to allow entrepreneurs to start companies near Silicon Valley without US visa restrictions. He is also a public speaker and former software engineer at Google and Yahoo! and ambassador for The Seasteading Institute, a think tank researching ocean communities.

FWD.us is a 501(c)(4) pro-immigration lobbying group based in the United States that advocates for prison reform, status for undocumented immigrants, particularly for DACA recipients, and higher levels of immigration visas, particularly for H-1B visas for foreign workers in STEM fields.

Founder.org is a nonprofit foundation in San Francisco, California, United States that invests in student entrepreneurs. The organization features a company building program for student entrepreneurs at major research institutes and universities. Operated by a group of Silicon Valley entrepreneurs, Founder.org supports teams across various industries including sensors, sanitation, influencer marketing, biotechnology, health and transportation.

The Last Mile (TLM) provides in-prison technology education and post-incarceration mentorship to justice-involved people across the United States. The organization, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, originated in 2010 at San Quentin State Prison, California, United States with the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, and works with state-level correctional facilities for men, women, and youth. The Last Mile’s mission is to reduce the rate of recidivism in the US by teaching marketable skills inside prisons, helping participants qualify for and secure gainful employment after incarceration. Six states have active partnerships with The Last Mile.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gunjan Sinha</span>

Gunjan Sinha is an Indian-American entrepreneur and business executive. He is the Executive Chairman of MetricStream. He is also best known as the founder of WhoWhere?, an internet search engine he sold to Lycos in 1998. He is also the co-founder of customer engagement software provider eGain Corporation. He has served on the board of numerous Silicon Valley startups including Regalix, OpenGrowth, DesignEverest.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Silicon shire</span>

In 2012 the Eugene, Oregon metro area was dubbed the Silicon Shire. Like many regions that have taken on Silicon-themed names, the Silicon Shire is home to a thriving technology sector. In 2015, the region's rapid growth led to Eugene being named one of "The Next Top 10 Cities For Tech Jobs" by Fast Company magazine.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">FiscalNote</span>

FiscalNote Holdings, Inc., or commonly FiscalNote, is a publicly traded software, data, and media company headquartered in Washington, D.C. The company was founded by Timothy Hwang, Gerald Yao, and Jonathan Chen in 2013. FiscalNote provides software tools, platforms, data services, and news through the FiscalNote Government Relationship Management (GRM) service, its core product.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tech:NYC</span>

Tech:NYC, founded in 2016, is a New York City-based non profit organization. It represents New York City’s technology industry with government, civic institutions, in business, and in the media. Its primary goals are to attract tech talent to the city and to advocate for policies that will help tech companies grow.

References

  1. ↑ Decker, Susan (May 13, 2014). "Apple Among Most-Sued as Patent Shakedowns Skew Market". Bloomberg Businessweek. Archived from the original on September 12, 2014. Retrieved September 25, 2014.
  2. ↑ Gustin, Sam (May 24, 2014). "This Is How the Patent Trolls and Trial Lawyers Won". Time . Retrieved September 24, 2014.
  3. ↑ Gita Gulati-Partee (December 21, 2008). "Stoking the Nonprofit Advocacy Engine". Nonprofit Quarterly. Retrieved October 2, 2014.
  4. ↑ Debra Thimmesch (September 25, 2015). "Shapeways Helping to Keep 3D Technology Open, the Web Neutral". Meckler Media. Retrieved October 19, 2015.
  5. ↑ Fitzpatrick, Alex (January 28, 2012). "Engine Advocacy Turns Tech Nerds Into Political Experts". Mashable. Retrieved September 25, 2014.
  6. 1 2 Koetsier, John (April 18, 2013). "Startups and immigration: 500 Startups, Google, and Creative Commons-backed Engine speaks to Congress". Venture Beat. Retrieved September 25, 2014.
  7. 1 2 Downes, Larry (January 5, 2012). "The new politics of Silicon Valley: Revenge of the nerds". cnet. Retrieved September 25, 2014.
  8. 1 2 3 Estabrook, Rachel (February 12, 2013). "Engine founder advocates for immigration reform, saying Silicon Valley talent is at risk". Peninsula Press. Retrieved September 25, 2014.
  9. 1 2 3 McKenzie, Hamish (September 7, 2012). "Startups Get Political: How Engine Advocacy Is Bridging Washington and the Valley". pandodaily. Retrieved September 25, 2014.
  10. ↑ Li, Anna (May 23, 2013). "Silicon Valley execs share personal immigration woes at virtual #iMarch". Peninsula Press. Retrieved September 25, 2014.
  11. 1 2 Hepler, Lauren (June 6, 2013). "Here are the tech tools Silicon Valley hopes will sway the Senate on immigration". Silicon Valley Business Journal. Retrieved September 25, 2014.
  12. 1 2 Milian, Mark (January 22, 2013). "Engine Advocacy group lobbies for startups". SFGate. Retrieved September 25, 2014.
  13. ↑ Gustin, Sam (May 12, 2014). "FCC Net-Neutrality Plan in Chaos". Time. Retrieved September 25, 2014.
  14. ↑ Kim, Anne L. (May 8, 2014). "Will the FCC Delay Its Net Neutrality Vote?". Roll Call. Archived from the original on October 6, 2014. Retrieved September 25, 2014.
  15. ↑ Selyukh, Alina (May 7, 2014). "Tech companies urge U.S. FCC to scrap 'net neutrality' plan". Reuters. Retrieved September 25, 2014.
  16. ↑ Smith, Ernie (May 13, 2014). "What The Net Neutrality Debate Teaches About Advocacy In The 21st Century". Associations Now. Retrieved September 25, 2014.
  17. 1 2 Loney, Michael (March 5, 2014). "Julie Samuels joins Engine from EFF". Managing Intellectual Property. Retrieved September 25, 2014.
  18. ↑ Smith, Gerry (May 2, 2014). "Tech Startups May Be The Last Line Of Defense For Net Neutrality". Huffington Post. Retrieved September 25, 2014.
  19. ↑ Megan R. Wilson; Kate Tummarello (July 4, 2014). "Friction tests patent reform push". The Hill. Retrieved February 10, 2014.
  20. ↑ "Technology Works: High-Tech Employment and Wages in the United States" (PDF). December 2012. Archived from the original (PDF) on June 27, 2013. Retrieved February 10, 2014.
  21. ↑ "Tech Starts: High-Technology Business Formation and Job Creation in the United States". August 2013. Retrieved February 10, 2014.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.