Diana Yousef-Martinek Entrepreneurs navigate extreme resource- and time-constraints. Often, they can’t connect with government incentive programs or other resources because they don’t have the time to find and research them. Something as simple as having a one-stop-shop to find resources and connect with other entrepreneurs to share ideas and crowd-solve would be a huge boost.

Diana Yousef-Martinek Absolutely—we have to get back to MAKING things (high-value things). An economy heavily weighted towards services has proven to be too susceptible to house-of-cards dynamics.

Diana Yousef-Martinek Streamlining SBIR/STTR processes and rendering them more transparent would encourage more tech-based startups to apply for these grants. These grants are structured to create more high-value enterprise and jobs in the US. However, currently, the cost and effort to write up these grants, as well as the pre-historic complexity of the online application interface and the long decision time (~6mo before any feedback on the application) render SBIR/STTR grants completely impractical for hand-to-mouth technology startups.

Diana Yousef-Martinek In addition to nuclear, we need to push forward on the portfolio of clean technologies now, to ensure they are economically comparable to the current petrofuels infrastructure we currently have. Nuclear is the only renewable source abundant enough to displace petrofuels—of course, strict government regulation around disposal of the waste would be needed, but France and other nuclear-powered countries have been able to manage this.

Ian Elder Fission is actually not a renewable source of energy—uranium is used up in the process, and we don’t get it back.

Moreover, the disposal of waste is not a trivial problem. While legislators might fight over who gets to have nuclear facilities in their states/districts, surprisingly few can be found who will volunteer to house their toxic byproducts.

It would be better, then, to consider fission to be a short term solution; however, it is not even that, considering its uncompetitive cost. Why not let the market decide the best way to provide clean power once a price on carbon emissions is imposed?

Diana Yousef-Martinek However, in addition to this, policies should be put in place to re-open the IPO window, so that those who want to invest in early-stage technology ventures (esp. in biotech, cleantech, etc) have a better chance of exiting their investments, and for these startup companies to be able to access public markets in order to raise much-needed financing.