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.
It’s hard to pinpoint the moment Pittsburgh began its three-decade climb back from the dead, but Red Whittaker marks the comeback from the instant he heard the ominous clack of a door closing behind him when he entered a secured building near the melted heart of Three Mile Island back in 1983.
Image: http://www.politico.com
In my new book, Startup Boards: Getting the Most Out of Your Board of Directors, in addition to decomposing and explaining a lot about the functioning of board meetings, I also describe my ideal board meeting.
I had four of them this week. That’s a lot of board meetings in a week, but my weeks tend to either be “lots of board meetings” or “no board meetings,” as I generally bunch them up. Thankfully, all four of them used my ideal board meeting template.
Image: John Koetsier
Remember when you first started your current job? Just like in the early throes of dating, you found every interaction exciting. Even the Monday morning staff meeting! Your beloved could do no wrong.
But then, for many people, something happens. After a few years, you start to wake up every morning wondering “Really? Is this what I’m going to be doing for the rest of my life?” Small irritations loom large.
Image: http://www.freedigitalphotos.net
In 2008, Thierry Merquiol joined a crowdfunding effort to produce the first album of a little-known French singer named Grégoire. The investment paid off, Grégoire became a hit, and the experience inspired Merquiol to set up a similar crowdfunding platform for undiscovered companies. Nearly five years later, Merquiol and his business partner’s group, the Toulouse, France-based WiSeed, have helped finance 33 startup firms, including four in biotechnology. “Ours is democratization of equity funding,” said WiSeed associate Souleymane-Jean Galadima.
Image: WIKIMEDIA, MPLAJA
Seeing is believing, and it's unlikely you'll believe just how big the $45 Billion Comcast and Time Warner Cable acquisition is until you see how it transforms their U.S. cable business coverage. In this map, provided to Mashable by Esri and filled with cable boundary data from GeoResults, the combined company becomes a true East Coast and Midwest cable powerhouse and a real growing presence in large states like Texas and California.
Image: http://mashable.com
Augmented reality apps are quickly changing the mobile landscape, while developers are finding new functions for this technology in 2014. Just a year ago, augmented reality consisted of apps that gave its users a cool trick to show their friends. These apps were very popular when used in combination with location services to escort someone down a street to a desired destination, or point them towards stores on a specific street. They also took over gaming making its users run, duck and scan for predators.
Image: Courtesy Flickr Creative Commons
Struggling to find your significant other the perfect Valentine’s Day gift? If I may make a suggestion: woo a recruiter. Stop scratching your head and let me explain.
Work-related stress is a leading cause of relationship squabbles. While landing your dream job won’t resolve all relationship woes, it will give you and your significant other one less thing to squabble over, and as a result, likely improve your relationship. So, do yourself and your loved one a favor this Valentine’s Day: woo a recruiter!
Image: http://www.freedigitalphotos.net
One of IBM's first app ecosystem partners for Watson, the health optimization company Welltok Inc., became the first firm to benefit from a $100 million venture fund IBM established to promote the use of its cognitive computing technology.
Welltok has raised $22.1 million in Series C funding led by New Enterprise Associates (NEA) with new participation from IBM and Qualcomm Ventures. This brings Welltok's funding in the last nine months to more than $40 million.
Image: http://www.informationweek.com
With so much attention paid to innovations and disruptive business models in the venture capital and startup world, it can be easy to overlook the vital importance of great people.
I keep a quote from legendary venture capitalist Arthur Rock in mind when hiring: “What I’m interested in is investing in people.”
Of course, every company wants stellar employees who are impactful, high performers. Identifying those high performers, however, takes hard work in recruiting, screening resumes and interviewing.
Image: http://www.freedigitalphotos.net
A new partnership between the University of Wisconsin System and Wisconsin Economic Development Corp. has created a $2 million seed fund. The Ideadvance Seed Fund, announced at a Capitol press conference Thursday, will be administered by the UW-Extension “to help commercialize technology and ideas developed at UW campuses around the state.”
Image: Provided by UW System “Our University of Wisconsin labs and classrooms generate ideas ripe for commercialization, so we’re pleased to partner with the state’s lead economic development agency to support entrepreneurs on our campuses throughout the state.” — UW Colleges and UW-Extension Chancellor Ray Cross, (UW System president starting Feb. 15)
Jawbone, the company behind popular devices like the Up activity tracker and Jambox speakers, may be valued at nearly as much as Spotify, Pinterest or Uber.
Kara Swisher at Re/code reports that Jawbone is raising a $250 million funding round at a $3.3 billion valuation. TechCrunch reports hearing from sources that the funding round actually closed more than a month ago.
Image: http://mashable.com
Many founders have venture capital - VC - investment on the brain from the get-go, not only for the funding itself but for the public and personal validation that comes with it. But don’t assume the old idiom 'the sooner, the better' applies here. It’s critical to be cautious about the why, when and how of choosing a VC partner. It’s going to be one of the most important long-term relationships you’ll ever have, and you may only have one chance to get it right.
You may think your thriving start-up is ready - indeed, needs - to start spending serious money. A quick way to find out is to answer the following two questions: Can you clearly articulate the problem you want to solve and who will benefit? Can you map out exactly how the VC money will be used? If your responses come with ease and confidence, it could indeed be time. But reaching the point where funding could make sense doesn’t automatically mean going after it.
Image: Patrick Llewellyn, CEO, 99designs.
A whole crop of successful new entrepreneurs is coming out of Israel. The latest wave started last summer, with the news that Google paid $1.1 billion for the cutesy mapping-and-traffic app Waze. There's the Israeli-Canadian team that just won the Global Startup Challenge. There's the rise of Israeli venture firms, from Tel Aviv to Palo Alto. There's an incubator just for Israeli entrepreneurs in the Silicon Valley. And there's the 52 percent spike in demand for web developers that Israel — and its $243 billion economy — saw in 2013.
Move aside, MIT, Stanford and Y Combinator — even IT and Tsinghua. It looks like the best entrepreneurial incubator in the world might actually be created via conscription … the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF).
Image: (Photo: Reuters)
The Deshpande Foundation and the University of Massachusetts Lowell are pleased to announce the Third Annual Symposium on Innovation and Entrepreneurship in Higher Education. This inspired gathering of higher education practitioners, academics and faculty focuses on engaging participants in an examination and discussion of emerging strategies and practices that encourage innovative and entrepreneurial education, campus culture and community/business engagement.
Image: http://continuinged.uml.edu
In response to public comments on SBIR/STTR rule changes resulting from the National Defense Authorization Act for FY12, the Small Business Administration (SBA) amended its policy directives for the programs, including changes to eligibility and the award process. The amendments also involve minor clarifying changes to ensure participants better understand certain program requirements.
SBA published a final SBIR policy directive on Aug. 6, 2012, implementing provisions of the Defense Reauthorization Act, which was signed into law by President Obama in December 2011. At that time, SBA asked for public input on the final directives, which made several key changes to eligibility, the award process, program administration, and fraud, waste and abuse. Outlined below are some of the resulting amendments for the SBIR program, which became effective Jan. 8, 2014.
In an era of ever-expanding virtual teamwork, some companies (Yahoo, Best Buy, Bank of America and others) seem to have taken a Luddite’s view of the digitally-connected world. They’re smart people, so why are they bucking the future?
First, some equate ‘virtual worker’ with ‘non-contributor’. Not so! The quality of someone’s contributions to a team effort can’t be judged by geolocation. Is anyone looking at the organization as a living entity, and asking which team members are instrumental in maintaining processes, relationships, and ‘team spirit’?
Robots can already mow our lawns, wash our hair and vacuum our floors, will they soon take care of our elderly?
The Daily has more on the future of eldercare:
You will be old but you will not be alone. You will have a household helper, a bumptious and prying type to be sure, but one you may eventually consider a friend, or even more. Your helper will not be that smart. He will not, for that matter, be alive.
Image: http://www.business-opportunities.biz
Q. My company just received negative press in a major media outlet. Should I put out my own press release stating my side of the story or stay quiet?
The following answers are provided by the Young Entrepreneur Council (YEC) is an invite-only organization comprised of the world’s most promising young entrepreneurs. In partnership with Citi, YEC recently launched StartupCollective, a free virtual mentorship program that helps millions of entrepreneurs start and grow businesses.
Image: http://www.freedigitalphotos.net
Donors gave about $34 billion to North American colleges in 2013, according to an annual survey by the Council for Aid to Education. That's more than $3 billion more than the year before, and the most ever raised in a single year -- topping the $31.6 billion from pre-recession 2008, not adjusted for inflation.
Image Courtesy of hin255 / FreeDigitalPhotos.net
