No decade in history has experienced such an increase in urban population as the last. From Tokyo-Yokohama, the world's largest urban area (population: 37 million) to Godegård, Sweden, which may be the smallest (population: 200), urban areas added 700 million people between 2000 and 2010.

Nearly one in 10 of the world's new urban residents were in the fastest growing metropolitan regions (see: Definition of Terms used in "The Evolving Urban Form" Series), which added nearly 60 million residents. They ranged from a an estimated increase of more than 8.5 people in Karachi (Note 1) to 3.9 million people in Mumbai (Figure 1). The average population growth in these 10 metropolitan regions was 6 million, approximately the population of Dallas-Fort Worth or Toronto, which were fast-growers on their own in comparison to other high income world cities.

Joe Wallin has gotten a discussion going over on his blog about whether it's okay to include non-accredited investors in a Rule 506 deal.

"No, no, no," say startup lawyers like Joe and me.

"But the rules say otherwise," counter entrepreneurs and crowdfunding advocates who are reading the rule carefully.

What's missing, what's needed, is a viable investment crowdfunding exemption, one built around the Individual Crowdfunding Account, so that the investor can be in charge of her own investor protection.

As hospitals work to boost their efficiency and the quality of care they deliver, many are finding they need new ways to go about finding and creating solutions to their post-Affordable Care Act challenges. They’re also looking for new revenue streams.

With that in mind, one California health system put up $40 million to seed an independent, for-profit company that will help commercialize ideas that come from physicians and staff members while also feeding them promising new technologies and concepts from the outside.

St. Joseph Health is the founding member of the The Innovation Institute, launching today to serve as a way for health systems to develop, explore and collaborate on new innovations. And the institute’s leadership has turned to Cleveland Clinic Innovations for guidance; it has become the newest member of the Cleveland Clinic Innovation Alliance, a technology commercialization network that also includes health systems North Shore-Long Island Jewish, MedStar and ProMedica.

It’s that time of year again when we put together our 30 most influential young entrepreneurs list. Each of these founders and CEOs are running incredible ventures that have taken a lot of sacrifice and hard work to get to where they are today. There are multiple companies on the list this year carrying valuations in the billions of dollars along with our first young entrepreneur running a public company.  The 30 companies below are worth hundreds of billions and employee thousands of people. All of these companies are still private (with the exception of Facebook) but we found as much financial information and data from 2012 as we could.

No one fell off the fiscal cliff. The euro didn’t collapse. Greece is still in the European Union. The stock markets are rebounding. But are we still in the Twilight Zone?

There is no one more suited at INSEAD to look into the economic crystal ball than Deputy Dean and Economics Professor Ilian Mihov – whose doctoral thesis was completed under the tutelage of (now Federal Reserve Chairman) Ben Bernanke. But when INSEAD Knowledge put the 2013 outlook question to Mihov, what we got were…more questions.

What will happen to the European debt crisis? What will happen in China?  He wonders... “Right now the likely outcomes are – how should I say it? – not 'scary', but a slow recovery going into an extended recovery, which is not very satisfactory.”

GUEST COMMENTARY: What do Renault-Nissan, Siemens, and Unilever have in common? They are all pioneers of a groundbreaking business strategy called frugal innovation.

Frugal innovation is the ability to generate considerably more business and social value while significantly reducing the use of scarce resources. It’s about solving—and even transcending—the paradox of “doing more with less”. Frugal innovation is a game-changing strategy for an “Age of Austerity” in which firms are being compelled by cost-conscious and eco-aware consumers, employees, and governments to create offerings that are simultaneously affordable, sustainable, and of high quality. Even more than a strategy, frugal innovation is a whole new mindset, a flexible approach that perceives resource constraints not as a debilitating challenge but as a growth opportunity.

When I was in grade school, I remember going to birthday parties at the local bowling alley. Before the games would begin, the workers would install bumpers inside the gutters in order to prevent gutter balls and avoid "failure." When I was growing up, it was common for sports teams to award trophies to all the players so no little kid would have his or her feelings hurt at the end of the season. Today, there are school districts which no longer give out "F'" grades, and hundreds of high schools have removed class ranks so that my generation will feel less pressure to succeed. By the time my generation gets out into the "real world," what will happen when our bosses criticize us and rattle the core of our tenuous self-esteems? While my parents and grandparents grew up enduring the Great Depression and two World Wars, will history look back on my peers as the "Bumper Bowling Generation?"

Previous generations pulled themselves up by their bootstraps and risk taking was encouraged as millions sought the American dream. A dream encourages one to stretch their imagination and think outside the box. I am afraid that my generation fears risk taking because we haven't been encouraged to take chances. We fear failure and this undermines the entrepreneurial spirit. To make things worse, the bias in our schools encourages today's youth to feel entitled to a certain standard of living just as we felt entitled to our little league trophies.

Like the entrepreneurs on Kickstarter trying to raise money to sell hot-chocolate cubes, cut an album, or manufacture a wireless dive-log device for scuba divers, later-stage private companies may soon be finding investors online. But will crowdfunding for firms that are more established and have a solid operating history be the bonanza it is for some start-ups?

It’s possible, given that the Title II section of the JOBS Act gives companies and their broker-dealers the ability to market Regulation D Section 506(c) private placements on a widespread basis. Some broker-dealers are launching an online portal to do just that, in an attempt to open the floodgates to “sophisticated pools of equity capital funding.”

You are starting a new job. You sign a stack of mysterious paperwork -- tax forms, etc.  Some years later, it's time to leave.  You find a new job in a similar business and give your notice.  Your employer pulls out a piece of paper, signed by you,  promising not  to go to work for a competitor. 

I became concerned about non-competition agreements after a constituent told me how her career had been derailed.  As a young engineer, she had signed a non-competition agreement without fully understanding the implications.  She worked in a specialized field and was essentially locked out of her field by the agreement. 

Looking for a different kind of professional development? Called “AURP’s best event ever” by past attendees, this meeting is a can't-miss for anyone running a research park. Meet face-to-face with senior-level research park executives who will drill down on:

-Open Innovation  -Into the Future: Major Initiatives and Strategies -Threat Preparedness for the 21st Century  -Creating a New Value Proposition for University Research Parks Bring your questions--be prepared to participate in meaningful discussions with top subject-matter experts. This AURP intensive has a strictly workshop format--and it will be an extraordinary learning opportunity. To maintain a highly-interactive format, space is limited for this event. Make your plans early to reserve your spot. 

ASU Venture Catalyst, the startup unit of Arizona State University, along with the Scottsdale Public Library system, has announced a new initiative for helping inventors, problem-solvers, social enterprises, entrepreneurs, and small businesses. The new Alexandria Network is designed to provide support for the innovation economy within designated libraries, eventually creating a network of locations across the greater Phoenix area and then across the state of Arizona. These new locations will combine elements of the now popular co-working spaces, along with expert library fact-finding services and ASU startup resources, into one designated place. Innovators and entrepreneurs can use these EUREKA co-working spaces on a daily basis to work on their ideas while also getting mentorship, advice, and access to some "pracademic" classes both online and in the libraries.

The number one asset that you can become obsessed with is your time.  Why?  No matter how filthy rich you are, you can never buy more of it.

Your time one Earth is limited.  How much time on average?  78 years for Americans according to the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs.  That’s 28,470 days, 683,280 hours.  Sleep away a third and it’s not that f*cking much.

The average American spends 34 hours a week watching television, now you really just shortened your life.

Yes, there are Lean Startups even in the United States federal government. I know this is an unpopular thing to say, since it sounds so patently absurd. But I've seen the teams with my own eyes and witnessed their results first hand. For my take on how this is possible, you can see my previous post on Lean Government here. Today, I'm excited to share the latest round of startups that are being run by the Presidential Innovation Fellows program. If you'd like to try your hand at being an entrepreneur inside one of the world's largest bureaucracies, you can apply right here starting today.  I've excerpted descriptions of the program and summaries of all the projects below. Take a look and judge for yourself.

American venture capital needs a reboot. A decade of insufficient shrinkage hasn’t fixed wimpy performance. At 6.1 percent annually over 10 years to September, according to Cambridge Associates and the National Venture Capital Association, V.C. fund returns undershoot boring stock indexes like the Nasdaq and the Russell 2000.

Last year, V.C. outfits raised $20.6 billion of new committed funds, according to the National Venture Capital Association and Thomson Reuters. That’s about 10 percent more than in 2011. Unfortunately, distributions from funds have lagged the cash put in since 1999. Last year’s tally is also more than five times the average amount raised annually by V.C. firms in the decade leading up to the dot-com bubble. The bust happened, but the venture capitalists’ appetites never took the same dive.

There's a hot new startup in the limelight more often than not — but the cold truth is 90% of technology startups fail. Even companies which make it big out of the gate often lose momentum and shift from a potential powerhouse to a thing of the past.

A new inforgraphic from Allmand Law analyzes the successes and failures of well-known tech startups from Zynga and Shopkick to AirTime and MySpace, helping us understand why some companies fall short.

The deal reached by President Obama and Congress to avert the fiscal cliff included future cuts in government funding for education, anti-poverty and anti-hunger efforts, and a wide range of human services. As usual these cuts mean non-profits will need to do more with less. And many will be sure to fail if they stick to business as usual. To meet the demands of the challenging years ahead, the nonprofit sector will need to change in dramatic ways.

One of the most important shifts will be how organizations articulate and achieve goals. They need to envision and articulate with measurable specificity what success looks like, persuade others of that vision, and measure and communicate their progress against it. Some organizations in recent years have begun by identifying battles that, as Jonathan Kozol said in his book On Being a Teacher are "big enough to matter but small enough to win."

You won't believe this. There's a technological marvel that, instead of forcing you to communicate with others in writing, actually allows you to hear other people's voices and words — you can even hear the tone and volume of their voices! And wonder of wonders, they can hear you! Across any distance! It's incredible! Not many people use the device today, but it's truly in a class by itself for productive communication.

Please pardon the sarcasm, but the way people shun the telephone these days is getting ridiculous.

Johnson & Johnson’s innovation center, Janssen Labs, has admitted 18 early stage companies since opening its “no strings attached” business accelerator program in San Diego a year ago. Now the incubator is opening its doors to solo entrepreneurs as well. In a statement today, Janssen Research & Development says it is making room at Janssen Labs for individual entrepreneurs in the life sciences, providing them with free work space and access to the kind of high-end research tools and equipment needed to determine if an idea is really worth pursuing.

Diego Miralles, who heads J&J’s West Coast Research Center and is Janssen Labs CEO, says the goal is to adjust and improve the Janssen Labs’ model, based on feedback from startup applicants. While the initial concept was designed to foster networking, Miralles says, “we did not foresee the demand to be here, just to be here.”

Knowing your customer is the first rule of business.

The rising tide of consumerism in the healthcare industry means that more attention is being paid to define the consumer or the end customer. Based on a 2012 survey of U.S. healthcare consumers, Deloitte Center for Health Solutions has created six broad buckets that capture the essence of various health consumers out there.

The segments are: