AOL founder Steve Case says innovators must become policy savvy
October 25, 2016 | Bobby Burch
Get familiar with public policy or your company will get left behind.
That was the forward-looking message that AOL founder Steve Case had for a group of about 200 investors and entrepreneurs at the 2016 Kauffman Fellows summit in Kansas City.
Now the CEO of Revolution, Case argued that investors, entrepreneurs and policymakers will have to forge better working relationships or risk losing out on the economic paradigm shift he’s dubbed “the third wave.”
“The only way that we’re going to get this right is if we have move constructive dialogue between the innovators and the policymakers,” Case said during a Tuesday visit to the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation. “Right now they’re talking past each other.”
In his new book, Case defines the third wave as entrepreneurs’ ability to leverage the Internet to transform the largest sectors of our economy. That will not only prompt new technologies to connect with broader industrial systems but also entail more cooperative partnerships among businesses big and small.
Entrepreneurs will have to get more creative with their partnerships to achieve scale and differentiation in the market. Corporations also will need to embrace “self-disruption,” in which they are constantly re-inventing their businesses.
Innovation will be more difficult in the future, he said, which is why entrepreneurs must work closer with local, state and federal lawmakers to craft policies conducive to competition.
Case said that regulators must change their mentality moving forward.
“My general view is that regulators are focused on keeping bad things from happening and need to focus on enabling good things to happen,” Case said. “Regulations are there essentially to lock in the status quo in a way that protects incumbents. We need (regulations) to enable innovation and open up the door to disrupters. We need more of a bias to enable good things to happen .”
Case is no stranger to Kansas City. In 2014, he visited the City of Fountains during his nationwide “Rise of the Rest” tour, in which he hosted a $100,000 pitch competition and stopped at the Kansas City Startup Village.
Featured Business
2016 Startups to Watch
stats here
Related Posts on Startland News
In second term, Mayor Q says he’ll help get City Hall out of entrepreneurs’ way as they build a more diverse economy
Creating economic equity in Kansas City goes hand in hand with building a sustainable city, said Mayor Quinton Lucas. “We will not be the city that we need to be — we won’t have the workforce, the entrepreneurs that we need — if we’re not actually investing in equitable tools in any number of ways,”…
Sandlot Goods takes a swing at a brick and mortar; new JoCo storefront expected to be a home run with brand’s fans
Sandlot Goods — Kansas City’s only local hat manufacturer — is hoping to score big with its first, dedicated, standalone retail space. The new location at Park Place in Leawood — 11530 Ash Street — is slated for a soft opening Aug. 15 and a grand opening Sept. 16, shared Garret Prather, Sandlot vice president…
‘Oppenheimer’ actor says new Missouri tax incentives could bring investors, more film productions to KC
David Dastmalchian’s screenplays for movies set in Kansas City now have a realistic chance to be filmed in and around his hometown, said the acclaimed actor, writer, and producer who grew up in Overland Park. Recently-signed legislation paves the way for increased film production in Missouri by reauthorizing — and strengthening — tax credit incentives…
She witnessed short-staffed hospitals as a COVID patient; How her ‘Airbnb for health care workers’ could save lives like hers
After her own hospitalization with COVID-19, Shapree’ Marshall set out to make sure local hospitals have adequate staffing to care for the community, she shared. In February 2022, Marshall — now a 2023 Pipeline Pathfinder cohort member — founded A Traveled Path Homes, which she describes as Airbnb for the medical industry. She plans to…