First-ever availability of jobs, earnings and employment turnover data by firm size and age reveals that worker churning is declining, and the wage gap between established firms and startups is increasing

(KANSAS CITY, Mo.), Nov. 28, 2012 – The pace of recovery in hiring and job creation since 2008 is stronger in newer firms – those two years old or younger – than in more established companies, according to “Job Creation, Worker Churning, and Wages at Young Businesses,” a report released today by the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation.

Despite elevated worker turnover rates, the percentage of hiring based on job creation is much greater at startups than at more mature firms. Four out of every 10 hires at young firms are for newly created jobs, much higher than in older firms, where the ratio fluctuates between 0.25 and 0.33.

Further, post-recession, only startups show signs of recovery in the pace of worker churning, which is critical to improving the allocation of employees to jobs and boosting wage growth over workers’ careers. The study showed, however, that churning declined between 1998 and 2010 for all firm ages, with worker turnover as a percent of employment flagging as companies age.

Here at Xconomy we’ve spilled considerable ink over the question of why Silicon Valley robotics companies seem to lag behind their peers in big centers of robotics like Boston and Pittsburgh.

But if you look at the locations of robot makers worldwide, it’s clear that no single region really dominates this emerging industry. Makers of industrial and service robots, and their suppliers and affiliated academic institutions, are spread out across Europe, Asia, and North America, with respectable clusters in India, Israel, Australia, and New Zealand as well.

The Spark Socket can do for the lights in your home what apps have done for smartphones, says Spark Socket founder Zach Supalla in a video on the project’s Kickstarter page.

Spark Socket is a small Wi-Fi device that screws onto any standard dimmable light bulb and lets you control the light from your smartphone. It fits between the light bulb and light fixture.

Spark Socket offers a lot of uses for the average consumer — the ability to wake yourself up in the morning by programming your lights to turn on, or having your lights turn on and off when you’re on vacation to make it look like you’re home. You can also program your lights to dim depending on the weather. But where the product really shines is its usefulness for people who are hearing impaired.

Startup accelerators: There are more of them - and more demand to land a spot within one - than ever before.  But how can you make sure your company gets the most out of the accelerator experience?

To find out how real startup founders dealt with the accelerator issue, we asked eight successful entrepreneurs from the Young Entrepreneur Council (YEC)  to share their experiences - and their advice for other founders considering a startup accelerator.  

1. Build A Relationship

Build a strong relationship with the people in charge of the accelerator. A common problem with entrepreneurs is that they go into their caves and forget to build the relationships necessary for their companies to grow. They’ll learn more and there will be more opportunities heading their way when they establish those connections. - John Hall, Digital Talent Agents 

A new review of existing studies points toward a potential role for vitamin D in helping to prevent dental caries, or tooth decay.

The review, published in the December issue of Nutrition Reviews, encompassed 24 controlled clinical trials, spanning the 1920s to the 1980s, on approximately 3,000 children in several countries. These trials showed that vitamin D was associated with an approximately 50 percent reduction in the incidence of tooth decay.

“My main goal was to summarize the clinical trial database so that we could take a fresh look at this vitamin D question,” said Dr. Philippe Hujoel of the University of Washington, who conducted the review.

What are the main differences between incubators in Taiwan and in Europe? Technically? None, really! Similar incubation processes and services are delivered by enthusiastic practitioner in the EU as in Taiwan, to smart entrepreneurs, with smart ideas, which eventually (hopefully) will succeed in contributing to wealth generation and local development. No, not surprisingly the main differences do not lie in the technicalities which are very similar to the ones used in the EU. The main differences I saw while spending a full week visiting the Taiwanese incubation system can be identified with the high level of recognition and support provided by the public sector and in the business models adopted by the incubators.

Taiwan is a small island populated by 23 million people. One third of Italy, one fourth of Germany and of the UK, one twentieth of the overall European population. A country with a 4,33% unemployment rate, a level to which European Governments can hardly even dream of, a country which has made entrepreneurship the main ingredient of its growth. Beside the 4% unemployment rate which made me shiver when I heard about it, there is another number that gave me the goose bumps: Taiwanese entrepreneurs can rely on 130 incubators, as also described in the spotlight articel “Eastern Promise” in issue 1 of this magazine, to find support and all of these incubators receive some public support (up to more or less 30% of their business model depends on public funding).

With new treatments for disease, test suites that safeguard computers, and even expertise to rescue miners trapped thousands of feet underground, federal laboratories have a wealth of technologies and know-how that can give U.S. companies a competitive edge and improve quality of life.

These science and technology resources were developed in response to national challenges, but they also can be valuable assets for private industry and academia as well as other government agencies.

Two years ago, I began hearing the phrase "It isn't sustainable" over and over from senior executives. They were talking about the everyday demands at work.

The day of reckoning seems to have arrived. During the past month alone, no less than a half dozen senior executives have told me that fatigue, exhaustion and even burnout are the biggest issues they're facing both for themselves and among their troops.

Sustainable capacity — meaning sufficient fuel in the tank — is what makes it possible to bring one's skill and talent to life. Not even the most talented and motivated employees can run on empty.

BCG's Sustainable Economic Development Assessment (SEDA) represents an approach to systematically assessing and comparing the socioeconomic development, or level of well-being, of 150 nations across ten dimensions. The map tab in this interactive graphic shows the SEDA scores of countries across three time horizons: current level, recent progress, and long-term sustainability. The SEDA framework provides a basis for countries to benchmark themselves as they try to gain the most well-being out of their growth. Click on the methodology tab to learn about important definitions, calculations, and research sources.

After speaking engagements or webinars, or through social media, the most popular question I get:

“What’s the one thing I need to do to stand out among so many applicants?”

Of course, I rarely know the person asking the question (their passions, chosen major, career goals, etc.) so I usually answer the question with questions. I then present a response for that person based on the information collected from that person.

Creating "labs" within digital agencies and production companies has been one of the most salient -- and ubiquitous -- trends in the digital marketing industry in recent years. If you don't have an incubator or lab within your agency, it has almost come to mean that you're not serious about innovation. Not true in my opinion.

In fact, many argue that the lab approach should be a mentality that permeates every department and client engagement within the agency. I agree with that assertion, but I also think there is a clear role and benefit to incubator and lab divisions focused squarely on innovation and exploring how technology and consumer changes can inspire new products and ways of doing things. Here, I'll explore different models for driving IP creation, and the different types of benefits they're engendering -- both from a financial and talent cultivation perspective.

We have a number of portfolio companies that are raising money. When I talk to my CEOs that in the midst of this process, almost all of them complain about the same thing. They dislike the fundraising process and can’t wait until it’s over. They view it as a distraction from their day job and a non value-added chore.

I love the CEOs I work with. But when I hear these complaints, which echo those of other entrpereneurs I know, I can’t help but think how dead wrong they are.

The red states may have lost the presidential election, but they are winning new residents, largely at the expense of their politically successful blue counterparts. For all the talk of how the Great Recession has driven people — particularly the “footloose young” — toward dense urban centers, Census data reveal that Americans are still drawn to the same sprawling Sun Belt regions as before.

An analysis of domestic migration for the nation’s 51 largest metropolitan statistical areas by demographer Wendell Cox shows that the 10 metropolises with the largest net gains from 2000 through 2009 are in the Sun Belt, led by Phoenix, and followed by Riverside-San Bernardino, Calif.; Atlanta; Dallas-Ft. Worth; and Las Vegas.

Today, Energy Secretary Steven Chu announced that 66 cutting-edge research projects selected by the Energy Department’s Advanced Research Projects Agency – Energy (ARPA-E) will receive a total of $130 million in funding through its “OPEN 2012” program.  

The selected projects encompass 11 technology areas in 24 states and support an all-of-the-above approach to solving our nation’s most pressing energy challenges. Projects were selected through a merit-based process from thousands of concept papers and hundreds of full applications.

New center will increase number of technologies spun out of universities and into marketplace

A collaboration between the University of Oklahoma, Oklahoma State University, Cowboy Technologies, LLC, and i2E, Inc. promises to increase jobs and greatly enhance the number of new technologies that are spun out of university laboratories and into the marketplace. It will also accelerate the number of technology-based ventures in Oklahoma.

A Memorandum of Agreement between the four entities resulted in the establishment of the Oklahoma Proof of Concept Center, which will identify compelling technologies discovered on OU and OSU campuses and help successfully spin them out into startup or existing companies.

The virtual center unifies the expertise of all the parties into a focused effort that will answer critical questions that challenge any technology-based startup. Products are accelerated to the marketplace through coordinating efforts to validate markets, developing customer driven prototypes, obtaining guidance and feedback from industry mentors and providing access to capital necessary.

Dark news was coming out of Israel on the morning of November 15. But in a talk that morning at MIT, Nir Barkat, mayor of Jerusalem, painted a bright picture of the city’s future. Barkat—whose name, incidentally, means “light”—argues that Jerusalem’s “brand name” has been building for over 3,000 years.

As a panelist at the talk, which was co-sponsored by the Broad Institute, the Research Lab on Electronics, and the Martin Trust Center for MIT Entrepreneurship, I was fascinated to hear Barkat’s vision, which is informed in part by his own experiences as a successful entrepreneur. The vision rests on investments in infrastructure but also on a balanced, dual-track approach to entrepreneurship, which he and others hope will lead to economic development and stability. The two pillars he laid out are (1) culture and tourism and (2) life sciences.

With the entrepreneur population at an all-time high, venture capital is flowing faster than at any time since the dot-com boom In fact, in the second quarter of 2012, VCs participated in more than $2 billion in financing, which is the highest amount in the last five quarters.

Yet, many startups fail despite VC funding and support. In fact, Adeo Ressi of the Founders Institute says only 10 or so companies out of 25,000 funded each year ever go on to make a significant impact on their market. This just goes to show that having a good amount of funding under your belts doesn’t always directly translate to success in the startup world.

Many “entrepreneurs” developing apps and websites don’t actually deserve the title of entrepreneur, says actor-turned-CEO Loren Feldman. Feldman, known for producing over-the-top, sometimes offensive videos for his company 1938 Media, proposes that a real entrepreneur takes a great amount of personal risk with a new venture. Taking money from a VC, then, makes a founder a gambler, not an entrepreneur.

“You’re not putting your ass on the line; you’re basically gambling,” he says. “All you’re doing is speculative development, hoping that maybe you’ll get acquired (…) It’s really disingenuous to say that you’re a risk-taker when there’s really no risk involved.”

BALTIMORE, MD (November 27, 2012) --- Baltimore City’s technology incubator, Emerging Technology Center (ETC), announced today that 14 experienced mentors have agreed to participate in the 2013 program, AccelerateBaltimore™. AccelerateBaltimore™ accepts hundreds of applications, from all over the nation.  ETC reviews and evaluates each submission, looking for strength in idea and offering. A distinguished panel of tech business leadership selects the top six companies to participate in a three-month program that helps focus and grow the 6 businesses.

AccelerateBaltimore™ participants engage with local and regional business mentors in a variety of sectors.  This year ETC is proud to announce that 14 business leaders will join the program.   Members of the mentoring team include Chris Brandenburg, Co-founder and CTO of Millennial Media, Greg Cangialosi, CEO of Nucleus Ventures, Ron Schmelzer, CEO of Bizelo and Co-founder of Baltimore Tech Breakfast and Andrew Coy, Co-Executive Director of Digital Harbor Foundation, Ann Quinn of Quinn Strategy Group, Victoria McAndrews of CMD, and Russell Clark Co-Founder of Illuminis.

The 2008 financial crisis crippled the global economy. For Europe, the recovery has been tenuous, witnessing the lack of confidence in the sustainability of individual nations, and dwindling trust in the financial services and banking industry.

While the strategy for economic recovery has focused on fiscal policy and the banking system, the brunt of the financial burden is placed on small businesses and entrepreneurs. These groups are left without funding for their businesses, without the security of a bank loan, and without access to credit lines from the financial services industry. To contextualise the gravity of this problem, we would like to point out that the 23 million small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) in Europe represent 99% of businesses. Thus, access to capital for SMEs is critical for sparking job creation in Europe.