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.
Taking a business from a concept to venture funding and large-scale success is a herculean effort, filled with countless decisions based on a mix of art and science. The landscape is littered with failed companies led by valiant entrepreneurs and competent investors who were unable to find the right formula for success.
Image: Bob Baggett Photography Inc. - Venture capitalist Travis Milks offers 4 tips to help your firm get funding and grow.
Last week, The New Republic published a lengthy exploration of ageism in Silicon Valley, the idea that venture capitalists discriminate against older entrepreneurs and that start-ups discriminate against older job applicants. The central evidence was largely anecdotal: several well-worn quotes by prominent techies talking up the innovative nature of younger founders, the struggles of a “fortysomething” entrepreneur in Boston, the thesis of an angel investor betting on older, overlooked founders, and the sociological musings of a plastic surgeon who has seen more middle-aged men coming to him to look young as a way to help their career. Nonetheless, it was enough for VC Fred Wilson to concede that, “Yes tech is biased toward younger people.”
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The Innovation U. 2.0 conference will present national thought leaders about strategies for increasing the economic impact of universities, based on the newly revised report—Innovation U. 2.0 Reinventing University Roles in a Knowledge Economy. (www.innovation-u.com). The book describes how technological innovation, entrepreneurship, and business/community partnerships happen in a carefully selected case sample of twelve major US universities. The role of organizational leadership and culture is a prominent theme as well.
There are 11 secrets to your leadership success. They are more than secrets and, in fact, the 11 keys to your leadership success. These keys are 11 E’s that are the surefire ingredients for effective leadership. They help you unlock your hidden leadership potential and make you an effective leader. They are Example, Energy, Enthusiasm, Endurance, Emotional Intelligence, Eloquence, Empowerment, Effectiveness, Execution, Excellence and Ethics.
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Silicon Valley’s mix of world class universities and entrepreneurial and venture capitalist culture makes it a hard act to follow. But as IT goes through a transition from an end in itself to an enabler of innovation for businesses, new innovation hubs focused on the application of IT are developing, writes Guest Columnist Irving Wladaswky-Berger.
Image: http://blogs.wsj.com
HAMMOND| In a decade, Northwest Indiana could have a lakefront lined with a high-rises, a convention center and a restaurant with sweeping views.
The Calumet Region could have improved transportation infrastructure, more advanced manufacturing, top-notch job training programs and a highly skilled workforce.
Image: Jonathan Miano, The Times - Purdue University Calumet's Center for Innovation through Visualization and Simulation Director Chenn Zhou speaks during a the discussion "NWI by 2024: The Imperative for Innovation over the Next 10 Years" at the university in Hammond. Ivy Tech's Gerald I. Lamkin Innovation & Entrepreneurship Center and The Society of Innovators of Northwest Indiana put on the event.
NEW YORK, April 3, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- A diverse group of industry-leading companies — Apple, DuPont, Ford, GE, IBM, Microsoft and Pfizer — which have staked their businesses on innovation, have launched the Partnership for American Innovation (PAI) to safeguard America's position as a global innovation leader. Former U.S. Patent Trademark Office (USPTO) Director David Kappos, now a partner at Cravath, Swaine & Moore, is a senior advisor to the group.
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I’ve often found that the quickest way to kill creativity is to institutionalize a corporate culture that punishes failure.
It’s one thing to demand a high standard of output from product innovators — it’s quite another to say that, if their best efforts don’t work out, they’re on a performance improvement plan or worse.
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The IPO market for venture-backed companies is off to a much stronger start than last year, which didn’t really get going until the second quarter.
Castlight Health officials celebrate the company’s IPO at the New York Stock Exchange on March 14. Reuters There were 36 initial public offerings in the first three months of this year compared with eight a year ago, according to data from Thomson Reuters and the National Venture Capital Association. It was the strongest quarter for IPOs since the third quarter of 2000.
Castlight Health officials celebrate the company’s IPO at the New York Stock Exchange on March 14. - Reuters
The startup community is a man's world. At least, in terms of funding, it is.
A recent study from professors at Harvard and MIT found that men are much more likely to receive venture capital than women. The startup community is only 17 percent female, according to an infographic from Bright Journey.
In the study, participants listened to pitches narrated by male and female voices. Those narrated by a male voice were picked more than twice as much as those narrated by their female counterparts. The study also found that people were much more likely to give funding if the men were considered attractive.
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Texas is not getting its share of venture capital investment, but experts disagreed Thursday on how to remedy the problem.
Texas accounts for 9 percent of U.S. economic activity, according the Dallas Federal Reserve, but the state attracts only 5 percent of venture capital investments in emerging companies, said Craig Casselberry, president of the Texas Coalition for Capital, a nonprofit organization supporting long-term access to capital for Texas entrepreneurs.
Brainpower rankings usually identify the usual suspects: college towns like Boston, Washington, D.C., and the San Francisco Bay area. And to be sure, these places generally have the highest per capita education levels. However, it’s worthwhile to look at the metro areas that are gaining college graduates most rapidly; this is an indicator of momentum that is likely to carry over into the future.
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Yesterday, I met with an outside board member of another company I’m on the board of.
He’s been on the board for about six months and is feeling uncomfortable with his contribution. He’s a very experienced CEO with a large exit under his belt, a founder/investor in several other companies, and an excellent operator.
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Over the last couple of years, highly selective coding bootcamps like Hackbright Academy, Hack Reactor, and Hungry Academy have graduated bona fide software engineers into the coder job market. But some naysayers claim these "coding bootcamps" leave students with inferior skill sets. We spoke to some hacker school alums to find out the realities: Is this a gateway to a lucrative new field or just a conduit for hobbyists? Can you really bootcamp your way to a new career?
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Daphne Zohar, the founder of PureTech Ventures, isn’t afraid to take big technical risks when it comes to funding new innovations. Nor is she necessarily put off by technologies that demonstrate clinical proof-of-concept without a clear explanation of why.
In fact, those are the kind of potential breakthrough technologies that the firm finds most intriguing.
Image: http://medcitynews.com
Charles Murray and Sheryl Sandberg are very different people. He’s a self-described “ill-tempered old man,” and is best known for writing The Bell Curve, one of the most controversial books of the 1990s, with its analysis of race, class, and intelligence. Sandberg is the cheery COO of Facebook, on a mission to get women to “lean in” to their ambition, and for corporate America to be more diverse and welcoming.
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See where every country ranks on the Social Progress Index, which measures more than just economic output to see if a country is really making its citizens' lives better. The U.S might crush the rest of the world in GDP, but that doesn't mean that much when it comes to the people who live here.
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I still remember the day that I decided to leave my job at Hewlett-Packard to become the CMO at a much smaller company by the name of Balihoo. I’d always dreamed of running a small business, and this was my chance to make that happen.
My first day was memorable. I introduced myself to my seven new colleagues, sat down at my desk (an old door perched on top of two filing cabinets), and then it hit me – now what? I was no longer at a company with hundreds of marketers, sales teams, and support people. Budgets were tight, timelines were tighter, and my “to do” list went on for days. I took a deep breath and dove head first into this scary but exhilarating new world.
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A dramatic surge in interest from wealthy Chinese is threatening to overwhelm a U.S. program offering investors green cards in exchange for cash. The number of applicants is now so great that the government might run out of permits.
Any foreigner willing to commit at least $500,000 and create 10 jobs in America can apply for an investor immigrant visa -- also known as an EB-5.
Image: http://money.cnn.com/
The European Union has a new regime for assessing technology licensing agreements under EU competition law. The new rules include a new technology transfer block exemption regulation ("TTBER"), which exempts certain bilateral licensing agreements from antitrust rules, and revised Technology Transfer Guidelines ("TT Guidelines"), which provide further guidance on the application of the rules to both bilateral and multi-party agreements. These rules cover all technology licensing agreements that may affect trade between EU Member State and therefore be subject to Article 101 TFEU. In force beginning 1 May, they replace the current rules dating from 2004. However, undertakings have until 30 April 2015 to ensure that existing agreements are put in conformity with the new rules.
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