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.
NPR’s “Wait Wait ... Don’t Tell Me!” is heard weekends on public radio stations across the country. (npr.org/programs/wait-wait-dont-tell-me/)
1. Michele Bachmann went to Waterloo, Iowa, last week to begin her presidential campaign, and said she shared the “spirit” of Waterloo’s famous resident. Who?
A. Napoleon Bonaparte
B. The serial killer John Wayne Gacy
C. Benny Andersson, of the band Abba
D. Professor Harold Hill, of “The Music Man”
Companies that successfully shepherd their discoveries to the marketplace need to have certain skill sets and abilities, Chizzo said, from adapting through internal cultural shifts as the company progresses to raising enough money for clinical trials and intellectual property protections.
“You’re always kind of changing the wheels on the bus as you’re going down the highway,” Chizzo said.
Young biotech companies these days are having a tougher time than their predecessors, according to a June 14 report from Ernst & Young, which found that startups are getting an ever-smaller piece of investment pie.
f you feel trapped in a cubicle, the thought of being your own boss can be intoxicating. But are you really ready to declare your independence from that steady paycheck and start your own business?
California native Mark Holtzman, 57, says had reached a stage where he needed something of his own. He had hit a dead end in the small, family-owned truck dealership where he worked after more than two decades in sales. The only career progression was to become a part owner and the owners weren't offering that to him.
"I had a family, wife, and kids that I wanted to at least have something for in the future and I wanted to be able to get ahead and not at the mercy of the whims of somebody else," he recalls.
A few months ago, The New York Times did a nice piece rounding up the reasons why many would-be entrepreneurs are destined for failure. The article, “Eight Fallacies of Entrepreneurship,” expands on these myths:
1. Any new business has a 50-50 shot at succeeding.
2. It's all about finding the new thing.
3. Starting a new business offers more stability than holding a corporate job.
Every year, thousands of patients from around the world travel to the Houston area for life-saving medical care. Houston is home to the Texas Medical Center, the world's largest medical complex, but the benefit extends beyond hands-on patient care. Thanks to the area's major hospitals and universities, Houston is one of the top regions in the world for medical research. People everywhere have benefited from research-based discoveries made — or inspired - by physicians and scientists in this field during the past few decades.
I believe the potential in the Houston area for expansion and commercialization in the field of biotechnology parallels - and may even surpass - the promise for commercializing research discoveries I observed in San Diego more than 25 years ago as an academic researcher.
Boredom is good for creativity. Yes, you read that right! I advocate boredom in your life to help improve your creative potential. Oh yeah, I am not kidding at all because that works for me. I hardly sit down when I am bored. I am always on the move when boredom knocks at my door.
For most of us, being busy is a sign that we are achieving something in life or that we are progressing. We constantly keep ourselves busy doing something. It could be working hard at the office, shopping or other household chores, organizing something, looking after the family or even 'researching on the internet.'
We keep our brains so active all the time that we do not allow ourselves the time to relax, the time to allow our brains to make connections between all the different stimuli we have given it.
Sand is a cheap and easy to find water filter. It's also not a very good water filter. But a new development--coating sand in graphite--could make it possible for everyone in the world to have easy access to clean water.
Nearly one billion people lack access to safe drinking water. There are creative ways to purify dirty water when a Brita isn't handy, to be sure--people living in areas with plentiful sand, for example, can pour water through sand and pebble-filled filters. But while the sand quickly filters water and removes large particles, it is, not surprisingly, ineffective at removing heavy metals, pathogens, and other toxins that find their way into dirty water.
Extreme weather events have become both more common and more intense. And increasingly, scientists have been able to pin at least part of the blame on humankind's alteration of the climate. What's more, the growing success of this nascent science of climate attribution (finding the telltale fingerprints of climate change in extreme events) means that researchers have more confidence in their climate models—which predict that the future will be even more extreme.
Are we prepared for this future? Not yet. Indeed, the trend is in the other direction, especially in Washington, D.C., where a number of members of Congress even argue that climate change itself is a hoax.
GoDaddy founder and CEO Bob Parsons has 16 rules for success in business and life in general. If he sells GoDaddy to private equity firms for $2 billion, that’ll make him a billionaire or close to it.
Does that give his “business rules” more weight? Maybe.
On the other hand, the guy made a creepy videotape of himself killing an elephant and hungry villagers ripping the flesh off it while wearing GoDaddy hats.
Does that mean you shouldn’t learn from him? Who knows?
What I do know is the guy’s got a big success under his belt and that’s worth something. Personally, I would learn as much as you can from accomplished executives and follow the advice that resonates with you.
A new Nielsen survey of women in 21 countries shows that women in emerging nations are more stressed than those in the developed world, and that women in India are the most stressed of all.
Nielsen measured stress by asking women
In emerging markets, the most stressed women were in:
$250,000 invested in wide variety of Edson student startup companies
This year’s Edson Student Entrepreneur Initiative continues to break records, with 30 student startups getting funded, up from 22 student companies in 2010. This means that the Edson Initiative will invest almost $250,000 in student startups, the most it has ever given out in one year.
“The record number of companies funded has been triggered by the increasing quality level of entrants that ASU has witnessed in recent years,” said Gordon McConnell, executive director of Venture Acceleration in ASU. “There are a fantastic mix of problem solving concepts on show this year. Student venture are increasingly showing a real maturity in terms of solving the bigger issues that people face.”
The wide variety of business models, products and services this year also highlights the wide diversity of the entrants. This is a student venture competition that sees student teams enter from all the ASU campuses, from undergraduate, graduate and doctoral students.
By Thomas Nastas
Member, International Science & Technology Board, Technology Commercialization Project, Kazakhstan
Founder, Innovative Ventures Inc., Michigan, USA
Last week I returned from Kazakhstan where I am a member of the International Science & Commercialization Board. The Government of Kazakhstan is embarking on a nation building program to accelerate the creation and commercialization of intellectual property to improve the country’s participation in knowledge-based industries.
The Government is implementing the Technology Commercialization Project with the World Bank to finance competitively selected R&D groups and commercialization activities in Kazakhstan. The Ministry of Education & Science (MOES) executes this project through its Project Management Unit (PMU). The MOES established a seven member board of international scientists, commercialization & venture practitioners to oversee this program and provide guidance to it and the PMU.
In February 2011, the 1st call of a competitive bid process to finance the technology of junior and senior scientists was published. 304 proposals were received, technologies submitted for financing included nanotechnology, agriculture, medical, exploration & production of mining & mineral, information technology and alternative energy to name a few. By the end of April the Board had evaluated and shortlisted 35 proposals; we invited 23 senior and 12 junior science groups to submit full proposals.
Starting a small business in Canada is easy - at least compared to the rest of the OECD countries.
Only New Zealand and Australia beat Canada in an index that measures the time and costs necessary to incorporate and register a new firm, according to an extensive report on entrepreneurship by the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development using data from 2007.
The other day I was talking with a colleague about marketing, social media and time. She was marveling at all that I have on my plate and wondering out loud about how I manage to get it all done. I told her that I actually created a social media calendar.
Let’s face it. There are multitudes of opportunities to participate online – and I’m not just talking about social networks. There are article submission websites, industry-specific communities, blogs, video, e-newsletters and more. When you choose to interact in a variety of ways, how do you maintain a consistent level of participation? Like any business system, you have to create a structure and live within it.
Though Randy Komisar, KPCB partner and seasoned entrepreneur, proposes that most successful ventures do not find success in their initial business idea, he still maintains there is value in constructing a thoughtful initial plan. Any "Plan A" must flesh out your business' assumptions, challenges, and risk mitigation. Those critical first thoughts on paper help the entrepreneur to create a language with which to discuss their strategy and move forward.
Confusion over federal guidelines regulating unpaid internships is evident in at least some career centers, where employers are posting fewer opportunities on campus job boards, counselors are under false impressions regarding the legality of such jobs, and students are unsure whether they’re appropriate.
A survey released Thursday that asked more than 400 career center officials about how the unpaid internship debate is playing out on their campuses revealed these findings and others, with the clear takeaway being that no two colleges are responding the same way.
As strange as it sounds, a new research study published in the FASEB Journal (http://www.fasebj.org), suggests that the “healthy” ingredient in red wine, resveratrol, may prevent the negative effects that spaceflight and sedentary lifestyles have on people. The report describes experiments in rats that simulated the weightlessness of spaceflight, during which the group fed resveratrol did not develop insulin resistance or a loss of bone mineral density, as did those who were not fed resveratrol.
According to Gerald Weissmann, M.D., Editor-in-Chief of the FASEB Journal, “There are overwhelming data showing that the human body needs physical activity, but for some of us, getting that activity isn’t easy. A low gravity environment makes it nearly impossible for astronauts. For the earthbound, barriers to physical activity are equally challenging, whether they be disease, injury, or a desk job. Resveratrol may not be a substitute for exercise, but it could slow deterioration until someone can get moving again.”
Downsizing Venture Capital
The venture capital business itself is going through an even more fundamental change than just the entry of a new category at the earliest stage. The industry is shrinking back to a mid-90′s level in terms of both dollars and numbers of firms.
The doubling of the industry size was caused by the euphoria of the dot-com bubble and since funds take 10 years or more to dissolve the bursting of the funding bubble has taken its time. We all know the result of the over-funding of the asset class – poor returns in aggregate for the industry. The best firms have still delivered results, though.
I received an email from an entrepreneur today asking me about something that made my stomach turn. It’s a first time entrepreneur who is raising a modest (< $750k) seed round). There are two founders and they’ve been talking to a VC they met several months ago. Recently, the VC told them he was leaving his firm and wanted to help them out. This was obviously appealing until he dropped the bomb that prompted their question to me.
This soon to be ex-VC said something to the effect of “I can easily raise you money with a couple of phone calls, but I want to be a co-founder of the company and have an equal share of the business.”
WASHINGTON, June 29, 2011 – Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack today announced the selection of 21 utilities in 11 states for loans and grants to help rural businesses expand and create jobs.
"These loans and grants help cooperatives and utilities support local projects that create jobs and improve rural economic conditions," Vilsack said. "USDA is proud to be a partner in the effort to bolster these cooperatives and help them win the future by increasing the value and appeal of the products and services they deliver."
The loans and grants are being provided through USDA Rural Development's Rural Economic Development Loan and Grant program. Recipients are rural utilities program borrowers that pass the funds to local organizations for projects to retain and create jobs, upgrade public infrastructure, improve service delivery and improve the quality of life for area residents and visitors.
