We continue our conversation with Janet Crawford, a pioneer in applying neuroscience to improve business performance.  In today’s part, we discuss the interplay between human biology and innovation.  To read part 1 of this interview, click here.

Janet is my colleague in developing the Rainforest Architects, a workshop to train leaders on how to spark their innovation ecosystem by applying techniques from Silicon Valley.

Starting a business takes a lot of courage, time and creativity. You have to take a big risk personally and financially. As you take the leap, make sure you are also crossing your t’s and dotting your i’s. There are a few crucial steps you must take to not only start your business, but start a successful business.

Check Legalities

There is a legal side to starting a business. You can’t just start running a business in your basement without ever registering it or paying taxes. There are laws that govern how our businesses run and responsibilities business owners must take on. Make sure you register your business, get a tax ID number – if necessary, obtain permits and any required licenses. These laws vary by state. Look into all the licenses and permits your state requires.

When it comes to microchips — the miniature machines that run so much of our lives — innovation has driven us farther than we ever thought possible. The rate of semiconductor innovation is slowing, however, the way traffic on a freeway bottlenecks as lanes diminish.

When Gordon Moore, the cofounder of Intel, asserted nearly 50 years ago that the number of transistors on integrated circuits would double roughly every two years, he was charting a path for the company that would dominate the industry — and dictate the direction of technology — for decades. Lately, much ado has been made of the coming end of Moore's Law, although the law was never an inflexible law of physics but more like a rule, a likely way forward.

Few people would associate happiness with the stress and uncertainty of losing everything. But Happier founder Nataly Kogan believes that the seeds of her company were planted when she was 13 years old, living in an Austrian refugee camp after fleeing the Soviet Union. She had no home, no money, no passport, and a very dark future.

Despite the awful circumstances, her optimistic father wanted to go sightseeing at the famed Vienna State Opera, and his young daughter’s passion for positivity was born.

The nation’s major metropolitan areas have long served as hubs attracting steady streams of immigrants from all over the world seeking opportunities. Now, as some cities lose residents and the native population ages, migration from abroad has overtaken homegrown and domestic population shifts in many urban areas.   A Governing analysis of new census estimates found that 135 metro areas experienced an increase in international migration surpassing domestic population growth. In each of these regions, net international migration exceeded the combined net domestic migration and natural change (births and deaths) between the 2010 Census and last summer.

No action is good action. At least for online investment platform the Funders Club that today received a ‘no-action letter’ from the SEC stating that it will not recommend enforcement action.

The letter is a green light for the FundersClub and validation that its investment model is legal. The news is significant for the venture capital and finance industries, as well as startups looking for more flexible methods of fundraising.

The Congressional hearings debating the regulatory framework for mobile health devices and apps made me think about how we view mobile health apps and the criteria we use to determine what makes some better than others.

And as we all think in terms of the NCAA college basketball tournament around this time, I thought we would do a mini tournament using mobile health apps.

Citizenship and Immigration Canada (CIC) announced on Thursday that foreign entrepreneurs would be able to start applying for the newly created Start-Up Visa Program on April 1st of this year.

“Canada is open for business to the world’s start-up entrepreneurs,” said Citizenship and Immigration Minister Jason Kenney in announcing the launch date.

Google Plus for business continues to gain momentum in the social media universe and it’s important to know how to create the best possible profile. This is especially true if you’re promoting your business.

Below are four steps to improve your Google Plus profile visibility in search engines and make your online profile stand out from the others.

In the video below, The Motley Fool speaks with Roger Martin, strategy expert and dean of the Rotman School of Management at the University of Toronto. We discuss how leaders must look at innovation within their organization. Martin believes that CEOs must lead like their company's life depends on innovation in order to stay one step ahead of the competition. He believes that investors should watch out if CEOs of companies in their portfolio aren't leading in this way. 

Many people, especially those who have spent years struggling up the corporate ladder, dream of jumping ship and becoming an entrepreneur. But every job move is fraught with risk, and the move from employee to entrepreneur is on the high end of the risk curve. This is a big jump, especially in an unstable economy, so do your homework first on this one.

According to an article in the Harvard Business Review a while back, “Five Ways to Bungle a Job Change,” there are at least five common missteps that professionals make when moving to a new job. I will assert that each of these has a comparable relevance for those of you contemplating leaving a company employee role to create or join an entrepreneurial startup as follows:

Four seniors at Carnegie Mellon University who grew tired of scouring their backpacks to find their student-ID cards every time they wanted a bite to eat have found a new way to pay: their fingerprints.

“We carry around these little slabs of plastic,” says Kelly Lau-Kee. “You really shouldn’t have to carry anything on you that could be lost or stolen anymore. You should be able to pay or ID yourself just by being yourself.”

The SEC today paved the way for a new era of venture capital investing by stating it won’t pursue enforcement action against FundersClub, whose platform lets any accredited investor fund startups in exchange for equity. Before, some thought FundersClub’s founders could face jail time for violating finance laws. FundersClub’s model could be used by others to raise capital online for startups before the JOBS Act goes fully into effect.

FundersClub is a Y Combinator-incubated startup that has raised $7 million to build its online venture capital system. Its website hosts profiles of different startups looking to raise money. Any accredited investor (someone who earns over $200,000 a year or has a net worth over $1 million) can choose to invest as little as $1,000 in startups with open rounds on FundersClub. These investors can cash out if the startup is acquired or IPOs, or if they do a stock offering on the secondary market, and FundersClub gets a cut of the money.

Wharton Entrepreneurship recently hosted its second Spring Startup Pitch at Wharton | San Francisco. Twelve early-stage startup teams, consisting of current Wharton | San Francisco students and Bay Area Wharton/Penn alumni (within three years of graduation), each had the opportunity to pitch their ventures before two judging panels comprised of established venture capitalists, angel investors and entrepreneurs, many of whom were Wharton alumni. Venture teams received coaching and practical feedback essential to each venture’s development.

Can technology set off a new boom in job creation? The question is a fundamental one for the American economy given that policy makers in Washington often look to the technology sector to pick up the slack in the employment market. Meanwhile, the fortunes of Silicon Valley start-ups continue to be closely followed, in part because of the spectacular wealth they can generate for their founders, but also because of the assumption that these new companies are a significant source of new employment.

So it will likely disappoint many people that four prominent economists assembled for a recent panel discussion to explore the link between technology and job creation were, in large part, bearish in their outlook. Some went so far as to suggest that technology actually increases unemployment and adds to other problems in the U.S. economy, notably the growing wage disparities between an extremely elite group of earners and everyone else.

When Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer announced a complete ban on working at home in late February, she sparked an uproar in the media, not to mention in the halls of Yahoo itself. The ban goes into effect in June and impacts everyone, including employees who had previous agreements with the company allowing flexible work arrangements. One irked employee sent an anonymous e-mailto the technology blog AllThingsD saying the new policy is "outrageous and a morale killer."

BGI, the world’s largest rapid gene sequencing center, in Shenzhen, China, is on a quest to discover the genes governing human intelligence.

Separately, China’s Shenzhen SiBiono Gene-Tech introduced the world’s first gene therapy drug, Gendicine, for head and neck cancer, attracting foreign and Chinese patients eager for treatment.

This month, Beijing-based Sinovac Biotech announced a successful late-stage trial of a hand, foot and mouth disease vaccine that may soon add to the company’s roster of vaccines for hepatitis, prevalent among Chinese. 

Most advice for aspiring business owners on whether they're cut out for entrepreneurship is nonsense, claims one founder, who offers alternative guidance.

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Just about everyone dreams of being an entrepreneur at some point, and why not? The attractions are obvious – the independence, flexibility, passion and pride of starting your own business sound great.

But, of course, not everyone is cut out for entrepreneurship. Some lack the dedication, others the work ethic, still others the tolerance for risk or financial insecurity. 

The European Commission's Entrepreneurship 2020 Action Plan is a blueprint for the development of an entrepreneurial culture across Europe.

The document was launched in January and offers well-reasoned contextualisation to its various initiatives and details action that the European Commission will take, as well as the activities that it 'invites' the member states to enact.

The document proposes three areas for intervention: entrepreneurial education and training; strengthening framework conditions for entrepreneurs; and reaching out to specific groups.

Any millennial who saw the 20,000 pages of Obamacare being piled high in Senator Mitch McConnell’s office should have asked themselves a single question:

Does it really have to be this way?

Young people have grown to expect certain things of the products we consume. Speed is a given, efficiency is a must, and we tend to also go in for brands that “speak” to us or have some unique appeal. We love the dialogue: companies that try to reach out and have conversations with us are appreciated. This gives a double benefit – we get to make our preferences heard as consumers, and businesses are able to put out products that sell.