The success of companies like Uber and Airbnb can be attributed to one factor: independent contractors. A business model built around the sharing economy, it’s brought about a boom of cash flow in niche markets. But with new territory comes new challenges, and already these industries are feeling the heat for their approach to labor management.

Marketing is essential to any company’s bottom line. However, traditional advertising channels such as newspapers, radio and television can get expensive really quick. Furthermore, they may produce little or no ROI. Contrary to these earlier practices, your own marketing strategy does not need to break the bank. Here are several tactics for saving money on marketing while still ensuring that your message reaches your target audience.

As the world prepares to create 600 million new jobs by a deadline of 2020, Dell entrepreneur in residence Elizabeth Gore is trying to put entrepreneur support on the UN's official agenda for the next 15 years.

She says almost all of those new jobs will be generated by entrepreneurs instead of existing corporations or government agencies. In fact, 70% of job creation in the U.S. comes from entrepreneurs and new businesses, and 90% of new jobs come from the same source globally, according to Gore, who also chairs the UN Foundation’s Global Entrepreneurs Council.

The Obama administration and the Pentagon are giving the wearables industry a big push. On Friday, defense secretary Ash Carter will announce that the Department of Defense is investing $75 million in a "flexible hybrid electronics" innovation center in Silicon Valley; in addition to the Pentagon’s contribution, the new institute will receive more than $90 million in funding from academia, corporate interests, and local governments for a total of about $171 million.

German entrepreneur Christian Braun is scrolling through the pages of his collectibles web site, hobbyDB.com, with his team in a downtown Boulder office building. From the ceiling above him hang flags representing countries from all over the world. Whiteboards form a perimeter around his space with yellow and pink Post-It notes on all the walls and windows. The scent of Indian food is thick in the air, from a table filled with large amounts of takeout food.

Since SparkLabs Global Ventures launched 20 months ago, we have made 50 investments across five continents. We have six partners, based in Silicon Valley, Seoul, Tel Aviv, Singapore, and London, which gives us a unique viewpoint on what is trending in terms of technology and innovation across the globe.

Last year, we began an annual analysis of the top global startup ecosystems in the world, and we’ve just completed our analysis for this year. Silicon Valley, New York City, London, Stockholm, Berlin, Tel Aviv, Beijing, Seoul, Los Angeles, and Boston won out.

Image: A view of San Fransokyo from Disney's 'Big Hero 6' Image Credit: Walt Disney Animation Studios

The modus operandi for the world's top venture capital funds is similar to that of a power hitter in baseball: lots of home run swings, some of which lead to strikeouts but occasionally they produce a towering home run.

In this breakdown of five of the top venture capital funds today, we'll first discuss the key differences between the elite funds and the rest and then highlight these five funds in terms of their size and notable investments.

(TNS) -- Always looking for big ideas that can revolutionize industries, venture capitalists are starting to look beyond the overcrowded field of software startups. Some say their latest target could be more meaningful — and lucrative — than any app: biotechnology.

Silicon Valley’s biggest venture capitalists continue to pump massive late-round investments into established apps like Uber and Airbnb, but smaller biotech startups are increasingly piquing their interest and opening their wallets.

Image: FLICKR/BILL DICKINSON 

My office manager recently told me that the tally of my visiting cards collection has touched a count of 9000. That means, in the span of 15 years of being a startup entrepreneur, I have met almost 600 people a year or about 3 new people a day (considering holidays)!

Amongst these 9000 people, many of them are blue-blooded "professionals" who have often tried to "start up" — only to fail and go back to their comfortable ivory towers (large companies). What are the common mistakes these wannabe entrepreneurs make when they try to startup, especially when they come from formal, established organisations?

Have you got a simple solution to a problem affecting your community? Then you might want to enter the Empowering People Award, which once again has a technology category.

Sponsored by Siemens Stiftung, the competition is looking for innovative technical solutions to tackle global challenges in basic needs, and inventors and developer teams can submit their low-tech innovations in one of eight categories.

Image: http://memeburn.com

Taking the plunge from full-time employee to business owner is no small feat. To move from a stable job with a steady income to one where uncertainty is the flavor of the day every day takes courage, competence and confidence. Most of all, it requires an emotional tolerance strong enough to deal with the pressures of change and unpredictability, not to mention the mental fortitude to navigate through it.

Whether entrepreneurship can be taught is an often asked question  The United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) – part of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) definitely falls on the ‘taught’ side of the debate.

The organisation has been certifying entrepreneurship trainers in Ethiopia since earlier this year – announcing its first batch of certified trainers earlier this year (in May). This is part of a larger UNCTAD and UNDP programme called Empretec that was started in 1988 and can now be found in more than 30 countries.

Women are starting companies at a faster rate than men, as they have been for years. But you know who's really rocking it? Women of color.

At least that's what preliminary data from the U.S. Census Bureau, in its Survey of Business Owners, shows. In 2012, women owned about 9.9 million U.S. businesses, or about 36.2 percent of the total. That's a 27.5 percent rate of growth since 2007, the last time the Survey of Business Owners was released. Among employer firms--those that employ at least one other person besides the founder--the number of women-owned firms grew 19.5 percent, while the number of firms owned by men grew 11.5 percent.

In my experience mentoring new entrepreneurs and aspiring business leaders, I see far too many who seem to be driven by all the wrong reasons. Everyone seems to espouse extrinsic motivations, such as getting rich, having power, and fulfilling parent dreams, when in fact a focus on satisfying internal interests and desires will likely lead to more success, as well as satisfaction.

Always looking for big ideas that can revolutionize industries, venture capitalists are starting to look beyond the overcrowded field of software startups. Some say their latest target could be more meaningful — and lucrative — than any app: biotechnology.

Image: Photo: Gabrielle Lurie, Special To The Chronicle

Too often, economic development efforts pit communities against each other or fail to help large swaths of low-income people. How do you go about engaging in economic development that helps low-income areas, involves local people in the process, creates jobs paying a decent wage, avoids the dislocation of many residents and shops, and helps to form a more vibrant community?

A new report published by IDC paints an intriguing picture of the wearables market as it looks in the middle of 2015. The market rew 223% over the course of the previous year, and Apple—new to the sector and with only one wearable to its name—was bested only by Fitbit, in terms of devices sold during the last three months.

Pharmaceutical companies are running hard to keep pace with changes brought about by digital technology. Mobile communications, the cloud, advanced analytics, and the Internet of Things are among the innovations that are starting to transform the healthcare industry in the ways they have already transformed the media, retail, and banking industries. Pharma executives are well aware of the disruptive potential and are experimenting with a wide range of digital initiatives. Yet many find it hard to determine what initiatives to scale up and how, as they are still unclear what digital success will look like five years from now. This article aims to remedy that. We believe disruptive trends indicate where digital technology will drive the most value in the pharmaceutical industry, and they should guide companies as they build a strategy for digital success.

Bengaluru: Over the past two-and-a-half years, Arvin Padmanabha has been trying hard to find an investor for his interactive marketing products start-up, Cross Works. He has not succeeded yet.

Shubham Mishra, co-founder of Absentia Virtual Reality, a start-up that churns out three-dimensional representation of any two-dimensional content, even contemplated shifting to the US, after several rounds of futile talks with investors.

ANNAPOLIS, Md. (AP) — The University of Maryland University College plans to eliminate textbooks this fall to save students money by using resources online. Kara Van Dam, a vice provost, said Thursday students will be able use a variety of materials like readings and videos online at no cost.