innovation DAILY

Venture capital deal activity in key markets picked up in the fourth quarter of 2013, soared in 2014, and is projected to stay strong this year, according to EY trend reports.

Last year, venture capitalists invested a total of $86.7 billion in the US, Canada, Europe, China, Israel, and India – more than in any year since the height of the dot-com bubble in 2000. EY also reported a rise in initial public offerings and mergers and acquisitions – two traditional exits that allow venture capital investors to reap the rewards from previous deals.

Genentech cofounder Herb Boyer told his origin story at this week’s CED Life Sciences conference in Raleigh. He waxed nostalgic about carefree, football-playing days in Western Pennsylvania – as well as his role in the genesis of the multibillion dollar biotech industry.

“There’s been an explosion of knowledge in my lifetime,” the 78-year-old Boyer said.

Image: http://medcitynews.com

You might think your employees are happy, but a 2015 survey done by recruiting software provider Jobvite found that almost half of all employees—including the satisfied ones—are open to leaving.

"Today’s employee is antsy," says Jobvite CEO Dan Finnigan. "The post-WWII phenomenon of people working at large companies for their lifetime was a blip in history. Millennials, for example, are expected to hold 15 to 20 jobs over the course of their careers. And for all age groups, moving up usually means moving on."

Where will the first $1 trillion company come from? Some think it is already in the making, but not visible yet. The future is all around us and innovators can see it more than the rest of us.

As suggested, a convergence of technologies, including the Internet of Things, AI, robotics and synthetic biology, might just make a health company the first to be the Trillion Dollar Unicorn.

Self-driving cars generate a lot of headlines. But there's already a new kind of car on the road that's completely changing the vehicle market.

The connected car is equipped with internet connections and software that allow people to stream music, look up movie times, be alerted of traffic and weather conditions, and even power driving-assistance services such as self-parking.

Image: http://www.businessinsider.com

ROCHESTER, Minn. (KTTC) – Once again, Mayo Clinic is making a push for small bio business start-ups to grow roots in Rochester, as they expand the Mayo Clinic Business Accelerator.

Almost two years to the day after the Mayo Clinic Business Accelerator opened it's doors, it's getting bigger. This is Techstar ++'s first venture into Rochester. Teaming up with the business accelerator will bring in new companies and give them a chance to work with other start-ups and with Mayo.

Image: http://www.kttc.com

Last fall, all eyes darted to the concept of venture philanthropy – using venture dollars to empower patient advocacy efforts – when the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation sold its royalty rights to the Vertex drugs it funded for $3.3 billion.

A sort of forced collaboration between academia and industry helped the CFF usher in the development of the CF drug Kalydeco – and the concept of venture philanthropy, said Preston W. Campbell, the executive vice president for medical affairs at the CFF. It wasn’t easy, however – academics didn’t respect industry, and vice versa.

Image: http://medcitynews.com

The funding landscape for startups in Central Texas has changed dramatically in the last five years. New firms have launched like LiveOak Venture Partners in Austin and the Geekdom Fund in San Antonio. And old firms have faded away like Austin Ventures, the big daddy of Austin’s venture capital firms.

The conversation around implementation and rulemaking of the Dodd-Frank Financial Reform legislation, which became law in 2010, has been focused on issues such as margin requirements for derivatives, bans on proprietary trading (the Volcker Rule) and other bank centric capital standards. Lost in the debate is a little known part of the legislation which requires the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to revisit the definition of an accredited investor. A change in this industry wide definition could have drastic impact on capital formation, start-up growth, and ultimately American jobs.

Seoul, South Korea, March 03, 2015 --(PR.com)-- “Intellectual Property (IP) has become a critical enabler in business and global corporations are competing to survive the IP War,” said Johney Kim, Chairman of the Korea Intellectual Property Commercialization Council (KIPCC). While Korea is still enraptured by its own ‘Miracle on the Han River’, other developed countries are preparing to switch into a new economic paradigm. “Before it is too late, Korea needs to realize the importance of IP and think seriously about the direction of the country.” -Johney Kim, KIPCC

The Renaissance Venture Capital Fund has closed on its second investment vehicle, a $79 million fund destined for Michigan-based startups and the venture capital firms investing in them.

The 6-year-old firm, which has offices in Ann Arbor and Detroit, is a fund of funds, meaning it invests in smaller venture capital firms. It closed on its first fund for $45 million in 2010 with an idea of helping grow Michigan’s entrepreneurial ecosystem by infusing it with more seed capital and attracting more outside investors.

Imagine a contact lens that monitors a diabetic’s glucose levels through a person’s tears. Though not on the market yet, it is the patented wearable technology designed by Waterloo, Ont.-based Medella Health.

This company is in the homestretch of commercialization – a harrowing feat for many university-born concepts in Canada, as countless ideas never make it past the research stage thanks to high costs and years of red tape around ownership of intellectual property (IP).

Image: http://www.theglobeandmail.com

Managers can have a powerful, positive impact on their employees’ performance, engagement and development through coaching. When skillfully done, it can help employees clarify meaningful goals and make progress toward achieving them. But, many managers make the mistake of stopping the coaching process at the end of each conversation. You’re likely to get better results if you end each  session with something for your employee to take away and work on independently — homework.

Mastering the art of leadership takes time, dedication, and a willingness to fail, and we all need some inspiration from time to time.

Here are some valuable leadership lessons from seven of today’s top CEOs.

1. FOCUS ON PEOPLE, STRATEGY, AND EXECUTION "If you get those three right, the world is a great place," Apple CEO Tim Cook said in a 2013 talk at his alma mater.

Image: Photo: via IBM

This is what’s known as the principle of “multiples,” which posits that genius breakthroughs in innovation, science, and the arts aren’t rare at all. They’re quite common. And once you understand that, it can change the way you think about developing really big, interesting ideas.

The modern story of multiples begins back in 1922, when two sociologists — William Ogburn and Dorothy Thomas — published a paper on the concept. “It is an interesting phenomenon,” they wrote, “that many inventions have been made two or more times by different inventors, each working without knowledge of the other’s research.”

WASHINGTON, DC – The National Venture Capital Association (NVCA) announced in a press release its support for the STRONG Patents Act of 2015 after the legislation was introduced in the Senate by Senators Chris Coons (D-DE), Dick Durbin (D-IL) and Mazie Hirono (D-HI).

“The right to protect one’s ideas is a bedrock principle of our country and a vital component to the health and well-being of the entrepreneurial ecosystem.

The heart and soul of American innovation has always been the individual inventor — that special, inspired person who toils for days, months and even years in a garage, at a computer, or in a laboratory to create the next product, service or cure that will change the way we live our lives.

These remarkable people are found throughout America today, helping us achieve things nobody thought possible when Thomas Edison was issued patent #223,898 for the light bulb. That same patent system — grounded in a Constitutional recognition of the importance of individual rights to inventions for a limited period of time — has provided the necessary underpinning for billions of dollars invested in cures, technologies and scientific advancements.

Maybe it's just me. Or maybe it's the business I'm in, but I can't help but notice how often people with a pressing need to call a meeting find a way to work the "Let's get together and brainstorm" phrase into their invitation even when their meeting has absolutely nothing to do with brainstorming.

In effect, these kinds of invitations are nothing more than a kind of "bait and switch" in which unwary invitees assume they've been invited to help conjure up new possibilities, when, in fact, their creativity is neither needed, wanted, or recognized. The result? "Brainstorming" gets a bad name, meeting goers get pissed, and the person who called the meeting loses major points.

Back when we were co-teaching The Flow of Coaching module at the Georgetown Leadership Coaching Program, my good friend, hero and fellow Davidson College alum Frank Ball used to do a funny bit with a bottle of water. To make the point that coaches and leaders should coach people and not problems, Frank would put a bottle of water on the table in the front of the room and say, “This bottle of water represents the problem.” Then he would start coaching the bottle of water. Needless to say, he never got very far. The bottle just didn’t have that many insights on what to change or how to change it.

In 1945, at age 21, my grandmother started a photography company.

She’d just graduated from Northwestern University, and in order to pursue this dream she had to put off getting a job. She invested everything – both financial and social capital – in this endeavor.

Every entrepreneur has a different story about why he or she decided to start a business. Some have known from day one that they wanted to work for themselves and others come up with ideas while working for someone else and decide to take the entrepreneurial leap. 

Most business owners will agree on one thing -- being an entrepreneur is great. There are endless reasons for this, and every entrepreneur will have his or her own personal reasons as well. Here are 60 reasons, in no particular order, why I think entrepreneurship is amazing. 

There has never been a better time to buy a green car, and whether you’re choosing an environmentally friendly vehicle because of lower fuel costs or lower emissions, chances are there is a an alt-fuel or fuel-efficient green car to meet your needs.

Here’s a great overview of green cars and their benefits, courtesy of Matt Allan of Crossline:

Eight years after detailing the tenants of Market-Based Management in his book "The Science of Success," Koch Industries Inc. CEO Charles Koch is again taking pen to paper to share how the business and management philosophy has boosted his business and how it can help boost others. Koch's new book, "Good Profit: How Creating Value for Others Built One of the World's Most Successful Companies," was announced on Thursday.

Jobs are not what they used to be for both employees and employers. The average worker stays at each position just 4.4 years, which leaves employers looking for new staff members at a rate drastically higher than that of just several decades ago. For the employee, the market has become more competitive and a college degree is no longer a guaranteed ticket to a profitable and happy career with a single company.

Some small business owners do their work everyday at their business address or in co-working spaces. Others work in less structured spaces like coffee shops or while commuting. But for many solopreneurs their work day happens at home. Chris C. Ducker and Arthur Piccio have some great tips for making the most of working at home (click the image above to see the full infographic).

Y Combinator will likely raise a fund that could be several billion dollars, three sources confirmed to Business Insider.

The seed capital company will use funding largely to support investments in its startups that are now on the cusp of either a big IPO, or, also, multi-billion dollar valuations, as hedge funds and non-traditional investors rush to plow cash into private tech companies. 

We're learning more about what Kleiner Perkins, a successful venture capital firm, looks for in a senior partner.

Ellen Pao, a former junior partner, is suing Kleiner for gender discrimination.

The Badger Fund of Funds, which was seeded with $25 million in state dollars, will launch its first venture capital funds in Madison, Oshkosh, Green Bay and Vilas County, according to the Wisconsin Department of Administration.

The fund of funds has raised more than $5 million in additional private capital and expects to finalize its first funds in the next few weeks, the department said in a letter to the Legislature's Joint Finance Committee.

‘Disruption’ is usually viewed in the context of a paradigm being changed and is often accompanied by the sense that it couldn’t have been anticipated. Yet, ask almost anyone if they expect their business to be disrupted and the answer will be ‘Yes’.

This is backed up by PwC’s latest research. Of 1300 respondents in its 18th Annual Global CEO Survey, 62% expressed concern about the impact of disruption in their industry, with Australian business leaders even more likely to anticipate disruptive trends than their global counterparts.

The Berkshire Hathaway annual letter is out, and Warren Buffett again finds new ways to preach what he's been saying for 50 years.

Such consistency has paid off for Buffett: A jaw-dropping return of 1,826,163% over the past half century. That's an average annual gain of 21.6%, compared to 9.9% for the S&P 500.

The American International Toy Fair is the stuff of dreams—both childhood and adult. All the newest toys, including magnetic sand, remote-controlled pterodactyls, stuffed-animal Grumpy Cats and endless construction sets, are not only on display throughout three massive floors—they’re unboxed. With wide eyes, Scientific American scoured the aisles in New York City’s Javits Convention Center this February for the standout science and technology toys of 2015. Here are our favorite six:

To be a successful technology start-up these days, you need a few ingredients: money, a novel idea and a catchy name. By late 2014, Beepi had achieved the trifecta. In less than a year, the Los Altos, California–based start-up had amassed $79 million in funding and a $200 million valuation. The company’s guiding idea — that the process of buying and selling a used car was needlessly difficult and in dire need of improvement — allowed investors to situate Beepi within a fashionable narrative of disruptive innovation. (Who better to disrupt than used-car salesmen?) And Beepi’s name observed the two- syllable rule made safe by

In the last three years, the National Science Foundation (NSF) has taught more than 700 teams of scientists how to commercialize their technology using serial entrepreneur Steve Blank’s “Lean Startup” method. Sharing a common interest to promote societal benefits, NSF teamed with the National Institute of Health (NIH) to pioneer the same program to support biomedical innovation and translation.

Throughout 2015 Emory University and its Office of Technology Transfer (OTT) are celebrating 30 years of guiding innovative discoveries from the laboratory with the ultimate goal of creating commercial products.

Emory's OTT, which had humble beginnings 30 years ago as part of the Office of Sponsored Programs, now includes a 17-member staff that not only guides inventors through the complex process of technology transfer, but also works to increase the value of inventions and reduce the risk they may falter along the path to development. OTT's robust product pipeline currently includes 39 products in the marketplace and 13 more in various stages of testing and development.

The state of Michigan may soon get out of the venture capital business.

The state House Commerce and Trade committee takes up legislation tomorrow that would sunset a state program that has made hundreds of millions of dollars in tax vouchers available for investment.  

Ned Staebler, Wayne State University’s vice president for economic development, has been appointed as president and CEO of TechTown Detroit.

The Detroit business accelerator and incubator was founded in partnership with the university in 2000. Staebler will continue in his current role at Wayne State while starting his new job at TechTown on March 9.

To Helena Valencia, Miami was home. She had grown up there. It was the place that had shaped her understanding of people and launched her into the wider world. In fact, her love of the city’s mingled cultures and vibrant local businesses was one of the things that had inspired her to cofound Unamano, now a world-renowned nonprofit that supported entrepreneurship in emerging markets.

A software developer, a tech start-up, a tracking device manufacturer and a cold pressed oil producer present their businesses in front an audience of more than 100, in the amphitheater of the Economic Studies Faculty in Cluj-Napoca, in the heart of Romania. They seem open to discussion and questions from the audience and willing to experiment with a new instrument: financing via the capital market.

Thirteen other companies have already presented their investment cases in front of interested investors, in Bucharest, and announced plans to get listed on the new AeRO market, Bucharest Stock Exchange’s alternative market dedicated to small and medium enterprises and start-ups.

Compiled from post-startup reflections written by Intern Fellows at Wharton Entrepreneurship, these tips are sure to give you a leg up on the competition!

1) Network early

Luke Chernosky (WG’14) found his internship through networking, and you can too! Today, networking can be as simple as connecting with someone over LinkedIn or, in David Pankiewicz’s (W’14) case, striking up a conversation in a coffee shop. Opportunities can present themselves at any time and in any place, so stay attentive. The earlier you make valuable connections the easier it will be to break into the start-up of your dreams. And because start-ups are frequently a close-knit group of colleagues, the right conversation with one can lead to an even better conversation with another!

We scribble notes on an already crowded whiteboard, surrounded by the buzz and hustle of one of San Francisco's popular co-working spaces. Across from me is the head of marketing for one of the startups I first invested in as an angel. The founder had asked me to weigh in on their first major product launch plan, and I see they have a lot of good ideas, but the big picture is missing. The rollout lacks one cohesive message that will tie it all together.