MassChallenge

Innovation Blog

Senators Elizabeth Warren and Ed Markey, Startup Senators

During their visit, our finalists had the privilege of pitching their companies and sharing a few thoughts with Senator Warren and Senator Markey.

 

Senator Warren, an expert on financing and loans, had a chance to chat with Alumni Prime Student Loan about private sector solutions to student loan financing. With Capital Market Exchange, the Senators discussed how to make capital markets more efficient through price discovery and transparency. On the health side of things, A Little Easier Recovery discussed with Senators Warren and Markey about providing better solutions for treat cancer patients, and QMedic reflected on improving preventative care as opposed to just treating symptoms. 
 
After touring our office and talking to our startups, Senators Warren and Markey sat in our Events Space with a huge crowd of entrepreneurs to answer their most pressing questions. During the Q&A, Senator Warren declared that she and Markey were “Startup Senators”, explaining that startups are at the core of job creation. She then spoke further on the sequester, elaborating that sequesters can make it difficult for entrepreneurs to plan and government can be smarter about cuts.
 
The Senators admitted that the government can do a better job of recognizing opportunities to collaborate on visions that benefit the greater good. There needs to be more of a focus on collective investment moving forward. Another question on the mind of every entrepreneur is that of crowdfunding: how do politicians look at it? Senator Warren stated that we need to be smart about how we are introducing crowdfunding. The challenge is to both empower individuals to invest and to protect those new investors from tricksters and charlatans – the public doesn’t necessarily have the funding wisdom that experienced investors do. 
 
An action-packed day full of key-learnings, the Senators confirmed that society’s most pressing problems can be solved by entrepreneurs and the government wants to help entrepreneurs win! The discussion between startups and the government isn’t over yet, it’s only just beginning. 

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