It seems like every company is trying to tap into the Millennial market. And for good reason: this year, Pew is predicting they will overtake the Baby Boomers in number, with around 75 million people in the U.S. under 34. And they are reaching an age of independent consumption, starting to have children, and becoming a presence in the workforce.

So when research comes out showing that Millennials behave differently than the rest of the population, it’s no surprise that everyone’s ears perk up. Gallup, for example, recently published survey results that showed 44% of U.S. Millennials believe firms will keep their personal data private all or most of the time, compared to 32% each of Gen X and Baby Boomers. Does this mean, then, that Millennials are willing to share more of their personal data and digital exhaust in exchange for you’re your services? And should you design your products and services with this information in mind?

There are a couple of common analogies for startups wooing potential investors, said entrepreneur Brian Razzaque — it's like herding cats, or getting one lemming to lead the others. Most investors are wary of bankrolling an unproven company without someone else's seal of approval.

That's why the backing of the Maryland Technology Development Corp. was so valuable for Razzaque's social media marketing company SocialToaster when it sought to raise capital in 2013. After a complicated vetting process, which involved estimating the company's value and negotiating a contract, the quasi-public agency invested some money in SocialToaster. In turn, the company was able to more easily sign on several other investors, raising $1.3 million in all.

It's not just ramen-eating 20-somethings who start companies today.

More mature entrepreneurs are showing that experience counts for a lot in starting up.

Some of the lessons learned in your early days will still apply to your career, and some things you'll have to learn all over again.

Here are four lessons from starting a company that can still be applied the second (or third, or fourth) time around.

If you don't think you're a yuccie, you're probably wrong.

Mashable's piece on Young Urban Creatives — or yuccies, as writer David Infante calls them — officially announced the death of the hipster in favor of its more tech-savvy, mainstream and altogether identical twin. The good news: Creative millennials no longer have to worry about being branded as hipsters. The bad news: They have such a yucky new label to deal with.

Call the Guinness Book of World Records because this diver may have the biggest balls of them all.

A gigantic shark, one of the largest great whites ever seen by the research crew that caught the beast on video, recently swam up to several divers off the coast of Guadalupe Island. One guy was gutsy enough to reach out and shove the nearly 20-foot creature away.

Is this really a shark or a new super species here to bring an end to humanity?

Image: http://mashable.com

The Internet of Things (IoT) will lead to a wholesale transformation of how large globe-spanning companies do business, but adoption will start in certain industries

In a report from BI Intelligence, we examine the industries currently driving growth in the enterprise Internet of Things and how various sectors of the economy will embrace IoT innovations. 

Image: http://www.businessinsider.com

Before starting a business, there are four characteristics an entrepreneur should have, or look for in their partners.

The odds are stacked against entrepreneurs. Most new ventures fail within their first few years in business. Some try to scale up too early, or too late. Others run out of cash in the scramble, forcing founders to close shop before they go into the red. But the most determined will push on regardless.

"If you want to be the smartest person in the room about everything, you're going to build a crummy team," says Heidi Roizen, operating partner at Draper Fisher Jurvetson. From her perspective as an investor, Roizen says she looks for entrepreneurs who attract the best people and who empower others to create great things.

William Marshall, co-founder and CEO of Planet Labs, says that starting a business should not be the first response to every pain point in the market, but decided only after it becomes clear that there is no other solution. Marshall also describes how passion and a breakthrough idea, not business skills or an MBA, are central to entrepreneurship.

Susan Koger, co-founder and chief creative officer of ModCloth, shares a lesson learned since launching the online retailer of women’s fashion in 2003: Your first attempts at something new are bound to be less sophisticated than later versions, which inevitably reflect advanced skills and taste. You may make mistakes, but at least you're taking action, she adds.

Earlier this year, I closed my startup. So now I get to reflect on what I’d have done differently. Hindsight is unfair and inaccurate, but I still enjoy its lessons. This is one, a note to my future self: “Don’t call your projects ‘startups’”. It’s a semantic trick, but a really important one. Here’s why.

Image: https://memeburn.com

Online jobs for teens are on the rise and many high school students are using them to earn some much needed extra cash during the summer.

Online teen jobs are great for students who don’t have a car, want to work from home and are looking for a little flexibility. The best part is that with so many jobs available on the web, you can be sure to find something to suit your skills and experience.

Wisconsin is last in the nation in entrepreneurship overall, according to a survey by the nonprofit Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation.

The Kauffman Index: Startup Activity pegs Wisconsin as No. 50 among the 50 states — a drop from 45th place in 2014.

The study looks at the rate of new entrepreneurs for every 100,000 adults; the opportunity share of new entrepreneurs, which considers what percentage of them started a business based on opportunity versus financial need; and the number of startups per 100,000 people.

An essential part of developing a personal brand is mustering the boldness to discover and express authentically who you are and own it.

Listed below are a few of my favorite examples of people who have created impeccable personal brands and also a few of our team’s picks from our company Fishbowl.

Virgin CEO Richard Branson said, “Branding demands commitment; commitment to continual re-invention; striking chords with people to stir their emotions; and commitment to imagination. It is easy to be cynical about such things, much harder to be successful.”

Every time the Social Security Administration releases the list of most popular baby names in the U.S. for the prior year, observers of the human species try to figure out what the significance of the most popular names are. This is not so surprising since we are the only species on the planet that gets to name its offspring (as far as we know.) Some of these explanations are more speculative than others, but none feels completely right.

Amsterdam is home to more than 2,500 international businesses which account for approximately 15 percent of the region's overall employment. In April, I met with Deputy Mayor Kajsa Ollongren during The Next Web conference in the Netherlands to discuss her activities cultivating the sharing economy, startup culture and the internationalization of business in the area.  With more than 20 years of experience in Dutch politics, Ollongren is currently responsible for economic affairs; early this year, she launched Startup Amsterdam.

Image: http://www.usnews.com

In a study commissioned by Sanofi, Science|Business emphasized the capacity of European life sciences clusters to generate scientific creativity and talent to enable future innovations in healthcare. As a result of a mapping exercise, 17 leading life science clusters were identified in Europe. 

The world is increasingly volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous. What does that mean for leaders? In this interview, Tracy Wolstencroft, chief executive officer of global executive-search firm Heidrick & Struggles, discusses with McKinsey’s Rik Kirkland the implications the changing world has for the art and science of leadership and what companies are looking for in potential executives. An edited transcript follows.

Image: http://www.mckinsey.com

Startups have been a breath of fresh air for the global market, but it leaves most entrepreneurs breathing heavy when they actually give entrepreneurship a shot. The lessons you learn as a business owner are unlike any Silicon Valley cliché or piece of advice offered by armchair consultants.

We've heard this so many times, and we feel the need to share it again with the incoming class of Wall Street interns.

One great piece of advice any banker/hedge funder will give to the new recruits isn't what they will want to hear.

Don't go to the Hamptons.

"You don't want to be in the Hamptons," one hedge fund portfolio manager, who also spent many years working at a bulge bracket bank, told us. "How are you going to be working on Monday? You have eight weeks to prove yourself. It's insane! We had an intern last year, and the guy was on call 24/7."