Business plan competitions have increasingly become one policy option used to identify and support high-growth potential businesses. For example, the World Bank has helped design and support these programs in a number of sub-Saharan African countries, including Côte d’Ivoire, Gabon, Guinea-Bissau, Kenya, Nigeria, Rwanda, Senegal, Somalia, South Sudan, Tanzania, and Uganda. These competitions often attract large numbers of applications, raising the question of how do you identify which business owners are most likely to succeed?

Minority businesses could boost the economy by as much as $300 billion, according to the Center for Global Policy Solutions. Yet many of these are sole proprietorships and are often working with limited resources that hamper their ability to expand and create more jobs and revenue.

Next City pointed me at a new ad campaign the state of Wisconsin is running aimed at luring Chicago Millennials to move north.

The focus of the campaign is on Wisconsin’s lower cost of living and shorter commute times vs. Chicago. The state says:

"The messaging conveys the central idea that Wisconsin is “more you.” You can be more here, mean more, create more impact, and have more, making Wisconsin a better fit for you. To drive this point home, specific ads contrast life in Wisconsin with that in Chicago, highlighting the state’s shorter commute time, lower cost of living, lower taxes and numerous recreational, social and cultural opportunities.”

Image: http://www.newgeography.com

What are the biggest risks that individuals, businesses and governments face in the year ahead, and beyond? According to the 2018 Global Risks Report, published by the World Economic Forum, the environment, cyber security and geopolitics are the areas drawing the most concern.

The World Economic Forum — which holds its annual meeting next week in Davos, Switzerland — develops the Global Risks Report in collaboration with Wharton’s Risk Management and Decision Processes Center.

A year ago Bayview Labs, LLC and Seraph Group announced a technology accelerator programme called Play Labs, held on campus at MIT in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The first batch of startups took part in the summer of 2017, with 13 startups each receiving an initial investment of $20,000 USD from the PlayLabs Fund. Today, Play Labs, LLC and the MIT Game Lab have announced that applications are now open for the second batch of startups.

Image: https://www.vrfocus.com

Juice is the health trend that just won’t go away. There’s a juicing shop on practically every city block, and everyone from your Spin instructor to your mother downs glasses of it daily. There’s no doubt that juicing is ubiquitous—but is it as healthy as everyone says?

Juice can help you consume more vitamins and minerals, and that’s a positive for people who struggle to eat enough fruits and vegetables. But experts say it may not deserve its health halo. In a paper published last winter in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology, experts scrutinized several nutrition-hyped foods—including juice—and wrote that “whole food consumption is preferred” over a liquid diet.

Image: http://time.com

New York City is doubling down on its long-discussed, never-realized dream of building a biotech hub to rival South San Francisco and Boston. The latest iteration of the dream comes backed by a $500 million financing package and a goal to quadruple the amount of R&D space in the city.

City officials sketched out the funding that is available as part of a request for proposals about how to increase the amount of life science space on the rental market. 

Entrepreneurs hear the word traction being thrown wherever they turn, from mentors, investors, supporters, and the press. But what does it really mean? And how do they know what it means for them and their businesses in particular? The word conjures images of progress and momentum, but fundamentally traction is a byproduct of a company’s ability to survive over time.

 Today, we are faced with an innovative event and tomorrow with the shock caused by the novelty. There is a time lag between the two moments. There is no simultaneity because the events of tomorrow are uncertain, not reducible to the risk faced with the support of probability calculation; it is a mere presumption to project the present into the future; information is far from perfect, its update is not instantaneous and, even conceded valid the hypothesis of instantaneousness, its efficiency is not a guarantee for effectiveness; our action is a hybrid of rationality and unreasonableness.

Image: https://www.linkedin.com

Between 23 and 26 January, the Swiss mountain village of Davos will host the 48th World Economic Forum Annual Meeting. The programme, initiatives and projects of this year’s meeting are focused on the theme Creating a Shared Future in a Fractured World. EURACTIV’s editor-in-chief Daniela Vincenti and business editor Jorge Valero will be reporting from Davos throughout the whole week.

Image: 'Creating a Shared Future in a Fractured World' is the overall theme of this year's gathering of the World Economic Forum in Davos. (WEF)

If you’re an entrepreneur and have young children, it’s very easy to feel as if you’re involved in a constant war between giving enough time and energy to your business and spending sufficient time with your family. There doesn’t have to be so much friction between work and personal life, though. In fact, your children can benefit tremendously if you get them involved in your business pursuits.

Ready to move out of a big, loud, expensive city and finally stop working for somebody else? Chances are you’ve got more options than you think. Two years ago, I took the plunge into entrepreneurship by starting my own marketing agency and an e-commerce store. I’ve been able to run both ventures from anywhere in the world.

Image: Flickr user Frank Meffert

Due to an unfortunate coffee mishap, I spent the holidays setting up a new computer and frantically trying to extract documents from my old, caffeine-soaked laptop. While in the middle of my rescue mission, I stumbled upon a career map that I’d created four years ago.

ReWalk is a bionic exoskeleton that enables paraplegics to walk upright and climb stairs.

One user was able to grow muscle tissue in his legs, which he was subsequently able to raise independently. 

Image: http://mashable.com

As an entrepreneur, it is common to hear the word “bootstrapping” over and over again. While you may have a basic idea of what this means, do you truly understand the term?

Here is the definition of bootstrapping, courtesy of Investopedia:

“A situation in which an entrepreneur starts a company with little capital. An individual is said to be bootstrapping when he or she attempts to found and build a company from personal finances or from the operating revenues of the new company. “

Rather than turn to outside funding, such as venture capital, you pull from personal resources to get up and running. Some may see this as a risk, but don’t make a final determination until you consider the top benefits of bootstrapping:

A global electronics manufacturer seemed to live in a perpetual state of re-organization. Introducing a new line of communication devices for the Asian market required reorienting its sales, marketing, and support functions. Migrating to cloud-based business applications called for changes to the IT organization. Altogether, it had reorganized six times in 10 years.

The Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry has released a report suggesting that pharma companies investing in emerging start-ups is now a key source of capital for biotech innovation in the UK.

In recent years, there has been a significant increase in corporate venture capital (CVC) investment in UK biotech. The amount of capital invested in this way into UK companies increased from an average $105m per year in 2008 – 2010 and rose to $647m in 2015, a more than six-fold increase. About 60% of financing rounds in 2016 included CVC.

Image: https://www.labnews.co.uk

It’s fun to make predictions for a new year and, based on what we at Morrison & Foerster are seeing in the marketplace, here are five areas for startup businesses and their investors to watch in 2018.

Connections. We have long believed that what continues to separate the startup sector in Silicon Valley from other parts of the country and the world is human capital choosing to live and work here, notwithstanding the high cost of living and traffic jams. One understated critical driver in recent years is that people in the Bay Area startup ecosystem voluntarily offer to connect with others.

If you thought the EU was incapable of being inclusive or attracting and producing talents, you’d better think twice, business leaders gathered in Davos heard on Monday (22 January), hours before the start of the World Economic Forum.

European countries top the list of the Inclusive Development Index, released in Davos today. The most inclusive advanced economy in 2018 is Norway, but small EU economies dominate the top of the index, with Australia the only non-European country in the top ten.

Image: A man cleans the stage of the congress hall on the eve of the 48th annual meeting of the World Economic Forum, WEF, in Davos, Switzerland, 22 January 2018. (EPA-EFE/Gian Ehrenzeller)

The failure rate of startups is relatively high, especially for first-time entrepreneurs. Roughly 50 percent of all small businesses fail within the first four years, and many of those are started by first-timers who have limited entrepreneurial, business, or management experience.

Even if you start with a fantastic idea, have a dedicated team to make that idea a reality, and plan for most contingencies, external factors beyond your control and a lack of overall experience can cause your business to collapse.