Here we highlight selected innovation related articles from around the world on a daily basis. These articles related to innovation and funding for innovative companies, and best practices for innovation based economic development.
Deciding to leave your full-time job for your startup isn’t easy. But what happens when one founder is on board and the other would rather continue to take home a steady paycheck?
That issue plays itself out in the third episode of TechStars, where one company’s co-founder decides to stick with their day job instead of join the accelerator program full-time. The problem: she still wants to keep her unvested equity in the startup she helped create.
Entrepreneur and investor Reid Hoffman articulates why individuals and companies who do not take intelligent risks will eventually marginalize themselves over time. Hoffman also describes the importance of holding and testing contrarian views.
Montclair, New Jersey – April 26, 2012: New Jersey wants to support technology entrepreneurs, and is putting its money where its mouth is. Applications are now open for the inaugural class of the State’s latest startup venture, TechLaunch (www.techlaunch.com), funded in part by the New Jersey Economic Development Authority (EDA). Modeled after successful programs throughout the U.S. and abroad, N.J’s premier technology accelerator offers seed funding within an intensive 12-week, mentor-driven business development program—called LaunchPad—culminating with an investor conference and Demo Day.
Following a vigorous selection process, an intriguing mix of 10-12 Portfolio Companies will receive $18K - $20K of seed capital and, with the help of a network of successful entrepreneurs, industry experts and investors, will attempt to transform their ideas into successful businesses. Until now, aspiring entrepreneurs in New Jersey had to look to New York City, Philadelphia or beyond in order to pursue their startup dreams with the help of an accelerator program. “We’re looking to attract top-tier talent who would otherwise leave the state because the support infrastructure simply wasn’t there,” says founder and Managing Partner, Mario Casabona, himself a seasoned entrepreneur and Angel investor.
By Dr. Janice Presser, CEO, The Gabriel Institute
You dreamt up something completely new. It is so cool that people don’t even know they need it yet. But, like their iPad, once they try it, they’ll forget they ever had a life without it.
It was a fit for your line of business, so – with great hopes swelling in your chest – you brought it to your teammate, your manager, or even the Vice President of Innovation, and it got shot down before you even had a chance to explain the vision, or the strategy, or the compelling need it would serve.
You’re a grownup, and you can take rejection. But still, it grinds you. It’s one thing when people give an idea a fair shake, and maybe it doesn’t fly because one or the other decision-makers isn’t ‘in the know,’ but this time it was clear that they were simply ‘in the NO!’
What’s an innovator to do?
Healthbox, a Chicago, IL-based company that supports innovation and entrepreneurship in healthcare, is launching a business accelerator program in the Boston/Cambridge area.
Up to ten New England-based healthcare startups will be selected for the three-month program and will receive $50k in seed capital, access to a mentor network of industry experts, collaborative workspace and strategic guidance.
Are you bursting with big-think ideas that could change the world? Can you take those ideas and actually, you know, build something tangible? If so, there’s a new matchmaker in Silicon Valley that wants to fund you, mentor you, and set you on a path to solve the specific challenges of enterprise partners.
That’s the premise of 2020, a new seed fund started by Gaye Beceren and Shani Shoham. Last week I attended 2020’s kickoff in downtown Palo Alto, where more than 250 entrepreneurs heard presenters from Cisco Systems, Nice Systems, Faurecia, and Nokia Siemens Networks talk about the challenges they hope to solve.
Today the New York City Investment Fund (NYCIF) joined the New York eHealth Collaborative (NYeC) and the NYS Department of Health (DOH) to launch the New York Digital Health Accelerator (NYDHA), a program that will make New York a hub for the emerging digital health technology industry. Visit digitalhealthaccelerator.com for frequent updates.
The NYDHA is run by NYCIF and NYeC. In upcoming months the program will choose 12 early- and growth-stage companies that are developing cutting-edge technology products in care coordination, patient engagement, analytics and message alerts for healthcare providers. Each chosen company will be awarded up to $300,000 along with invaluable mentoring from senior-level executives at leading hospitals and other providers in New York. The focus areas of innovation will support the development of products that help the state's Medicaid Redesign Team and its new "Health Homes" program, an initiative intended to make the state's treatment of Medicaid patients more coordinated and efficient.
It may seem obvious to some, but the line between an idea or invention can become blurred in the rush to make that first million. So, how do you know whether all you have is a basic idea or an actual invention. InventSAI Press Room defines the difference:
An Idea is generally defined as “a formulated thought,” while an Invention is “a device, contrivance, or process originated after study and experiment.” An Idea is a thought. An Invention is a device. An Idea cannot be touched. An Invention is a physical object. An Idea does nothing more than stimulate further thought and discussion. An Invention performs a task. Ideas are therefore not Inventions, but an Idea needs to exist before there can be an Invention.
Two talks at the TED conference this year formed, back to back, a sort of debate about the future of our planet. First, Paul Gilding gave a talk entitled "The Earth Is Full," about how we are using up all Earth's resources, with possibly devastating consequences. Next, X Prize creator Peter Diamandis gave a presentation entitled "Abundance," about how we will invent innovative ways to solve the challenges that loom before us.
I believe that we will need great ingenuity to enable our planet to provide successfully for more than seven billion human beings, let alone the nine billion that will probably inhabit it by 2050, and I believe that information technology will make this ingenuity possible. Because of fluid marketplaces and an ever more globalized economy, nearly every important resource is becoming scarcer and more costly. Evidence of this is seen in the price not only of oil but also of aluminum, concrete, wood, water, rare-earth elements, and even common elements like copper. Everything is getting more expensive because billions of people are trying creatively to repackage and consume these materials. But there is one resource whose price has consistently has gone down: computation.
B
y merging data from cars' onboard computers and drivers' smart phones, AT&T researchers have created a system that reports on drivers' real-time behavior and long-term driving trends—and reveals whether a particular mistake might have been caused by phone use.
The company envisions the prototype system as a cloud-based chaperone for teen drivers. But it could rate any driver's abilities, and any change in those abilities, over time. "It allows you, as a parent, to monitor kids' driving behavior in real time. And if your kid is SMS-ing while driving, you will be able to log it—and even remotely disable the phone," says Raz Dar, business manager at AT&T's business incubator in Ra'anana, Israel. "The only thing he could do to prevent it is take out the unit from the car—unplug it—but we can detect that, too, and send an alert."
If you are an entrepreneur these days, or trying to grow an existing business, everyone is telling you that you need to use social media. There are many ‘experts’ out there telling you how to do it, or even offering their services. But very few are talking about how to measure your results, and the right metrics for optimizing your marketing environment.
Jim Sterne, who has written six books on Internet advertising, marketing, and customer service, tackled this complex world of social media metrics in his book titled "Social Media Metrics." He has one of the first books on this subject, and he breaks the process down into nine steps, as follows:
Startup 2012 conference is next week, and eight startup finalists have been chosen to compete for a $75,000 prize -- $25,000 in cash and $50,000 in kind. Check them out and buy tickets to see them present live:
Silicon Valley offices are famous for their wide-open spaces, creative designs, and amazing perks. But YouTube takes the cake. The video service is owned by Google, but the office is located about 20 miles away from the main Google headquarters, in a big glass building that was formerly occupied by the Gap. In addition to the free food that most big tech companies offer, there's an on-site gym, walking trail, full-length lap pool, and indoor putting green. You literally never have to leave.
The average pay for a software development intern at Facebook is more than $5,000 per month, according to a collection of responses on Quora. If you ignore taxes, that's a salary of around $60,000 annually for someone with little or no work experience in programming. One user said the pay was as high as $6,800 per month with a stipend for living too.
Every business begins with ideas. But it’s the “have to dos” that get done.
When you know that you:
Silicon Valley is widely regarded as the ultimate success as an incubator of start-ups and entrepreneurship. Yet most businesspeople, leaders and innovators around the world have learned the wrong lessons from it.
They focus primarily on its ingredients — its obvious assets, like venture capital, skilled workers and universities. What they have largely ignored is its recipe — the social interactions that turn those ingredients into vibrant companies. Learning the right lessons of the Valley can empower entrepreneurs, as well as cities and regions, and take them to new heights of innovation and productivity.
Of the 460 postings on this blog, the most popular ones have been our lists. Many have "gone viral" (which, I guess, is better than "going postal.")
Anyway, just in case you want to see what all the fuss is about, here is a list of our lists -- something for everybody -- even a list about WHY lists are so compelling.
1. 26 Reasons Why Most Brainstorming Sessions Suck
2. 50 Ways to Foster a Culture of Innovation
3. 20 Reasons Why Many People Get Their Best Ideas in the Shower
4. 56 Reasons Why Most Innovation Initiatives Fail
5. 100 Ways to Be More Creative on the Job
Healthbox, a company that supports innovation and entrepreneurship in healthcare, has announced it is launching a business accelerator program in the Boston/Cambridge area. Up to ten New England-based healthcare startups will be selected for the three-month program. Each company selected will receive $50,000 in seed capital, access to a mentor network of industry experts, collaborative workspace and strategic guidance. The program launches this August and will conclude with a high-profile conference in November, where each participant will be able to pitch to an audience of investors and healthcare leaders from across the country.
“Massachusetts’ world-renowned academic institutions, cutting-edge provider systems and strong investor community make it an ideal location for a healthcare accelerator to stimulate the ecosystem and support new ideas,” said Nina Nashif, Founder of Healthbox. “We are looking forward to working with New England’s most promising healthcare entrepreneurs to help them gain traction in the industry and develop sustainable businesses.”
The Tech Council of Maryland (TCM), Maryland's largest technology trade association with more than 400 biotechnology and technology members employing more than 200,000 in the region, last night announced the winners of its 2012 TCM Tech Awards. The annual celebration drew 850 technology and business leaders from around the state including Senator Jennie Forehand; Senator Rob Garagiola; Senator Nancy King; Delegate Charles Barkley; Delegate Kathleen Dumais; Delegate Brian Feldman; Delegate Guy Guzzone; Delegate Sheila Hixson; Delegate Ben Kramer; Delegate Susan Lee; Delegate Kirill Reznik; Delegate Geraldine Valentino-Smith and Delegate Jon Cardin.
"Each year at this time, the members of the Tech Council of Maryland pause and collectively reflect upon the outstanding contributions made by Maryland's life science and technology companies," said Art Jacoby, CEO of the TCM. "The achievements and contributions of this year's award winners reflect the breadth, depth and quality of business that resides in our region and makes us one of the most innovative technology centers in the world."
A new European network has been established which aims to encourage technology transfer between countries. The ultimate aim is to enable the region to bring more ideas to market, including those in the renewable energy and energy saving sectors.
A European network bringing together the technology transfer offices of 25 large public research organisations has been established with the support of the European Commission.
The European TTO CIRCLE (Technology Transfer Offices – Connecting Innovation and Research Centres and Laboratories in Europe) aims at increasing the market and societal impact of publicly-funded research.
