Blog - Page 2 of 15

August 24By Guest AuthorComments OffRead more...

5 Unexpected Lessons From This Summer

Last summer, I dove headfirst into the workforce a few weeks following my high school graduation. And I guess you could say I had an okay experience because I ended up coming back for a second summer—and better yet, I was able to work with them full-time.  As I enter the last week of my internship, I can’t help but feel somewhat perplexed as to where I should start my end-of-summer blog. Since this is my second summer with HSC Next, (you can see my takeaways from last summer here) I’m forced to be a little more creative with my points...

August 22By Guest AuthorComments OffRead more...

Atlanta as an Entrepreneurial City

From 2015-2020, 16 cities raised over one billion dollars in early-stage capital. Of those cities, nine have less than one million people, like Fort Worth. Removing the well-established startup cities from the equation, we are left with Seattle, Atlanta, Denver, Oakland, Washington, DC, and Nashville. However, these six cities have an average population of 604,706: roughly 350,000 less than the estimated population of Fort Worth in 2023. If Fort Worth is the 13th most populated US City, why is our entrepreneurial ecosystem not reflecting its size? Last summer, we analyzed what makes Nashville a great entrepreneurial city, and the aspects of...

August 9By Cameron CushmanComments OffRead more...

Training an Innovation Workforce

Workforce development. It seems like everywhere I look someone is talking about developing our local workforce to meet the demands of today’s employers. But what does this really mean and more importantly, how do we actually develop our local innovation workforce? If you ask just about any local entrepreneur or CEO, they will tell you that hiring the right kinds of employees is one of their biggest challenges. It’s a challenge for BNSF and Lockheed Martin to hire qualified rail line and manufacturing workers. It’s a struggle for retail establishments to hire front line workers and restaurants to hire cooks. But...

August 2By Kendel RogersComments OffRead more...

Hiring is Hard. Sparkyard’s New Jobs Board is Here to Help!

Here at Sparkyard, we keep a close eye on Fort Worth's local economy, and recently, we have noticed astronomic growth. You may have heard that Fort Worth is the 13th largest city in the nation, but did you know that it is the #1 city in the country for raw population growth, with approximately 53 people added each day? Cowtown is predicted to have a million residents by 2030 and surpass Dallas in population by 2045. With this explosion of new residents, our economy is expanding to accommodate the city's needs. The mix of major corporations and a growing entrepreneurial ecosystem...

July 19By Marco JohnsonComments OffRead more...

When to Ask an Investor to Sign an NDA

Most of us have seen the movie The Social Network that shows how Mark Zuckerberg stole the idea for what eventually became Facebook. We know that entrepreneurs are protective of their ideas, but this scenario recalls the familiar adage in the startup world: ideas are cheap; execution is priceless. Zuckerberg didn’t just steal the idea. He actually improved the platform and made it work better. That’s execution. Investors care more about execution than ideas, so asking them to sign anything that protects your idea may actually do more harm than good. When it comes to protecting intellectual property (IP), it makes...

June 28By Guest AuthorComments OffRead more...

Why Not Fort Worth?

The necessity of entrepreneurs and their impact on a city's economy is often underestimated. More people are learning that Fort Worth is one of the fastest growing cities in Texas, and they assume that means all aspects of the city are thriving. While that is true in some respects, Fort Worth’s support for and investment in new companies lacks in comparison to the city’s wealth and population. Thus began Sparkyard’s mission: to connect entrepreneurs with resources and information regarding the local startup community. The main purpose of the platform is to help business owners navigate the entrepreneurial growth process. Startups five...

June 28By Guest AuthorComments OffRead more...

Top 5 Events in the Summer of 2023

As the summer heats up, so does the anticipation for some of the most relevant and engaging business events in DFW. These events provide a platform for professionals across industries to gather, network, and gain invaluable insights into the latest trends, strategies, and innovations shaping the business world. If you're looking to stay ahead of the curve and make meaningful connections, this blog is your ultimate guide to the summer's top five must-attend business conferences. Virtual Workshop: Supercharge your business with ChatGPT and AI It is no secret that Chat GPT has changed the business world tremendously since it became accessible to...

June 21By Guest AuthorComments OffRead more...

Startup & StartOut: Researching and Empowering LGBTQ Entrepreneurs

As of 2022, there are 1.4 million LGBTQ business owners in the United States, contributing $1.7 trillion annually to the national economy. LGBTQ entrepreneurs often find themselves navigating a system that perpetuates inequalities, limiting access to the necessary financial resources to thrive and succeed. In honor of Pride Month, I wanted to share some research findings on the LGBTQ community and resources for queer entrepreneurs. Out of $2.1 trillion dollars of funding tracked after the year 2000, only 0.5% of all the funding raised for startups went to LGBTQ entrepreneurs. The nationwide LGBTQ+ population stands at 7.1%. The average LGBTQ+ entrepreneur created...

June 13By Cameron CushmanComments OffRead more...

Startup Champions Network Policy Summit Recap

Last week, several of us from the HSC Next team attended the first-ever policy-focused summit hosted by the Startup Champions Network (SCN) in Washington, DC. Though the SCN crew has been hosting Summits in locations around the country for more than a decade now, this was the first one they held in our nation’s capital and the first one focused on policy for entrepreneurs, innovators and the organizations that support them. The conversations were encouraging and insightful. Here are a few of my takeaways from DC. First, we discussed how to build a more entrepreneurial workforce. Traditionally, Federal and state job...