Crowdfunding is the new black for small businesses and nonprofits. It’s a sleek solution to an age-old problem: how to raise money to get something done. The premise is pretty simple–make a video, set up a page, and let the money pour in. And when inventions like a frying pan with a sword hilt handle rack up thousands of dollars, it can seem like crowdfunding is as easy as taking candy from a baby (or taking money from your friends, to be more precise). After spending the past five months running my own Indiegogo campaign, I am here to tell you: It’s not.

Image: Perk purgatory. (Chris McKenna/Wikimedia Commons, CC-BY-SA 4.0)

Facebook is releasing for free the designs of a powerful new computer server it crafted to put more power behind artificial-intelligence software. Serkan Piantino, an engineering director in Facebook’s AI Research group, says the new servers are twice as fast as those Facebook used before. “We will discover more things in machine learning and AI as a result,” he says.

Image: Facebook designed this server to put new power behind the simulated neurons that enable software to do smart things like recognize speech or the content of photos. - http://www.technologyreview.com

I don’t have children yet but when I do, I know I’m going to want to make sure they’re intelligent, creative, compassionate, and self-confident—probably what every non-parent hopes for, right?

Wishful thinking aside, I do still want to raise children who feel the world is their oyster. I don’t want to bring up ruthless little businessmen that hike drug prices 5,000 percent, but people more like Blake Mycoskie and Sanjit “Bunker” Roy who temper business smarts with a whole lot of compassion.

Image: http://articles.bplans.com

In today’s time TED talk, a video created from a presentation at the main TED (technology, entertainment, design) conference, events around the world have inspired entrepreneurs, business leaders, life coaches, marketing honchos, young and old leaders etc to create their own success story.

Learning derived from these talks has contributed to many success stories in recent past. Entrepreneur India here pen down few best Ted Talks that every entrepreneur should listen to:

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — The University of California has named a well-known Silicon Valley entrepreneur to lead a new venture capital fund aimed at bringing inventions based on faculty and student research to market.

UC President Janet Napolitano announced Tuesday that TIBCO Software founder Vivek Ranadivé would oversee the independent fund that will be launched with $250 million from the office that manages the university’s investments.

Image: A locked gate to Birmingham Community Charter High School in Van Nuys carries a sign Tuesday declaring the school is closed. All schools in the vast Los Angeles Unified School District were shut down due to an electronic threat. AP photo

Entrepreneurship is nothing without risk-taking, as it’s impossible to earn a substantial reward in the business world without an equally substantial risk taken in its pursuit. Risks are intimidating, of course, but that’s what separates the bulk of the population from the inspired, hard-working entrepreneurs who try their best to nurture an idea to success.

This week, congressional leaders reached a deal on spending that would prevent a federal government shutdown. The omnibus appropriations bill would fund the Economic Development Administration’s (EDA) Regional Innovation Program at $15 million, an increase of $5 million over the previous year. The Regional Innovation program is SSTI's highest legislative priority because of the flexible funding it provides for regional innovation activities. 

Over the past few years, Gallup Research has found that people with innate entrepreneurial talent have higher levels of success, are better at noticing business opportunities, and are more natural salespeople and networkers than their less talented peers. They also suggest that while hard work and steady practice are important, those with innate talent will still see much greater returns. That's the bad news.

The world as we know may be run by businessmen, but it is definitely shaped by engineers. Every engineer would said that the world will be a better place if tech guys made more decisions. In their microcosms (organizations) they often rule, but how much help do they need from the non-tech side?

In corporations engineers becomes managers, that’s natural – and as an engineer working in software industry where 95% of positions are held by engineers I can say that things can surely work in that way – but what’s in startups, where’s no time or budget for such education?

The first three of ten free downloads from the Change Planning Toolkit™ were focused on innovation and change:

1. Five Keys to Successful Change 
2. Architecting the Organization for Change 
3. Building a Global Sensing Network

The goal of these three frameworks was to get people visualizing more holistically how to build a strong foundation for a successful continuous change capability for the organization and a strong, vibrant innovation ecosystem. The next free download will tackle one of many project managers’ least favorite project planning activities – the creation of a project charter.

The field of entrepreneurship policy has expanded rapidly in the past few years and policymakers are now considerably more sophisticated in understanding how to better enable firms to form and scale. 

One recent example occurred at a meeting of foreign ambassadors to the United States at the opening of Global Entrepreneurship Week in Washington, DC. I heard one ambassador after another eloquently outline their nation’s strategy for entrepreneurship – many without notes. Five years ago, that would not have happened. Entrepreneurship policy was not high enough on national agendas that a country's principal diplomat to Washington was articulate on the details of their national strategy -- if one even existed -- to foster entrepreneurial growth.

Image: http://www.kauffman.org 

Internet-enabled devices improve productivity and help us achieve greater innovation, but there are three major risks that could unravel it all.

It is estimated that 90 per cent of the world’s data has been generated over the past 2 years. Every second, the data equivalent of 150 million books is created. A large part of this expansion is attributable to the Internet of Things (IoT), the network of “smart” physical devices that collect and exchange data.

Roche Holding AG (RHHBY - Analyst Report) announced that the FDA has approved its lung cancer drug, Alecensa, for the treatment of patients with anaplastic lymphoma kinase (ALK)-positive metastatic non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) who have progressed on or are intolerant to Pfizer Inc.’s (PFE - Analyst Report) Xalkori (crizotinib).

Alecensa gained an accelerated approval from the FDA based on its tumor response rate and duration of response. Data from the pivotal studies suggested that Alecensa was able to shrink tumors in up to 44% of patients with ALK-positive NSCLC who had progressed on Xalkori.

A viral image claiming to show what dolphin’s echolocation perceives is backed by suspect science.

Bottlenose dolphins, in addition to their remarkable intelligence and agility, are able to “see” their underwater world with sound. This ability—echolocation—is often referred to as a “sixth” sense, but it’s more like a hyperdeveloped version of hearing.

While some companies have adopted a totally transparent salary structure, talking about money in the office is still extremely uncomfortable for many people.

This week, leadership coach Lolly Daskal helps a reader come up with a graceful way to address the sensitive issue of salary with a prying coworker.

In 2015 Apple invaded the smartwatch market, Google dramatically changed its plans for Glass and Samsung heralded the return of consumer virtual reality, courtesy of the smartphone. Consumer tech companies invested heavily in AI, although it’s debatable just how much more intelligent this made their products. Meanwhile hobbyist drones hovered onto the radar—or, some might say, into the crosshairs—of several government agencies, leading to tighter restrictions.

THERE are plenty of reasons to put our cellphones down now and then, not least the fact that incessantly checking them takes us out of the present moment and disrupts family dinners around the globe. But here’s one you might not have considered: Smartphones are ruining our posture. And bad posture doesn’t just mean a stiff neck. It can hurt us in insidious psychological ways.

Image: Credit Tim Lahan - http://www.nytimes.com

“When campaigning for vice president in 2012, Paul Ryan, now Speaker of the House of Representatives, was asked if he had run a marathon. He replied that he had completed one 26.2 mile race in less than three hours: ‘two hours and fifty something’. Unfortunately for him, the race, in 1990, was timed by computer and easily accessible on the internet. His time was actually over four hours.” Ole Holsti, Professor International Affairs, Emeritus, Duke University. Read in The Economist.

As a technology futurist, start-up founder and a fintech industry expert, Brett King is a real authority on innovation in a fast changing environment. I interviewed him about disruption, the shrinking workforce, corporate culture, start-ups, transparency and the skills companies need to stay relevant.

Image: Brett King

If you are an entrepreneur in emerging markets, you have probably heard a lot about crowdfunding, but wondered how it could be useful for your early-stage business.

In developed markets, crowdfunding is swelling the ranks of early-stage entrepreneurs and bolstering the pipeline of enterprises that diversify economies and create the majority of jobs. However, for early-stage entrepreneurs in emerging markets, the path toward crowdfunding remains untrod.