Early-stage startups have never been more valuable, at least on paper. Private-equity research firm Pitchbook reports that the value of venture-backed US startups has soared to new highs since their low point after the 2008 financial crisis. During the first half of 2017, the median seed-stage valuation, for companies raising their first round of financing, hit a new record of $6.2 million, nearly double what it was in 2010. Early-stage and late-stage startup valuations reached new highs as well—$20 million and $65 million respectively.

Image: https://qz.com

In his role as senior VP and managing director of Safeguard Scientifics, a venture capital firm based just outside Philadelphia, Gary Kurtzman leads the firm’s healthcare investments. So he’s perhaps a bit biased when he says that Philadelphia is the “center of the healthcare universe,” as he did in a 2016 interview.

“I really hate the ‘Silicon Valley of’ characterization because we have our own character,” Kurtzman said during an interview at MedCity’s recent CONVERGE conference. “But we should be a destination for healthcare innovation.”

Age-related frailty may be a treatable and preventable health problem, just like obesity, diabetes, and cardiovascular disease, highlights a review in Frontiers in Physiology.

“Societies are not aware of frailty as an avoidable health problem and most people usually resign themselves to this condition,” says Jerzy Sacha, Head of the Catheterization Laboratory at the University Hospital in Opole, Poland. “Fortunately, by proper lifestyle and adequate physical, mental, and social activities, one may prevent or delay the frailty state.”

I’m back from a short break. While I was away my debut contribution to City Lab was published. In it I argue that the next frontier for smaller cities (meaning metros in the 1-3 million raise) in their downtown development efforts needs to be a focus on growing private sector jobs.

There’s a reason it’s call the Central Business District. Commerce is the beating heart of a downtown. Here’s an excerpt:

Image: http://www.newgeography.com

LONG BEACH, CALIFORNIA – August 9, 2017 – The 2017 UEDA Awards of Excellence finalists have been chosen following an extremely close competition this year. Higher education institutions and organizations across North America submit nominations annually for innovative programs that focus on developing economic prosperity in their communities and beyond. A panel of university and economic development professionals have chosen 24 finalists from the group of nominated projects.

Chicago is getting recognized by groups around the world as it’s becoming one of the best cities for the next generation of entrepreneurs to build a business.

Whether looking at it from innovation, competitive cost of living or business growth, Chicago is moving up the lists. And we can now count it as a great place for proven returns on investment.

According to Entrepreneur Magazine, more than 40% of businesses on the U.S. Fortune 500 List are launched by immigrants or by children of immigrants.

Joel Contartese is a successful 26-year-old immigrant and entrepreneur who was born in Buenos Aires, Argentina. He came to the United States when he was nine years old, and spent most of his young life living in South Florida. He currently resides in Los Angeles.

Image: "America is the greatest nation on Earth; it is my home," Joel Contartese  

Last year was Earth's warmest on record, according to an international climate report issued Thursday by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration that documents other record-breaking global warming trends of 2016.

The report is the most comprehensive assessment of the effects of climate change released by the Trump administration, and it could make it easier to refute efforts from the president and his Cabinet members to publicly discount climate science as they have frequently done in the past. However, the annual report does not detail the link between climate change and human activities such as burning coal or gasoline. Those conclusions are drawn in a separate draft portion of the National Climate Assessment highlighted by The New York Times earlier this week.

Every metro area in the U.S. has strong industry clusters that are readily identifiable and reflect the unique competitive advantages of the region—Oil and Gas in Houston, Automotive in Detroit, and Financial Services in New York City are just a few examples. These clusters represent the backbone of their metro economies. The importance of clusters to regional competitiveness and economic performance was first established in the 1990s. Since then, research has shown that the co-location of businesses in clusters increases the productivity of companies and job creation, drives innovation, stimulates the formation of new businesses, and supports the survival and growth of small businesses.

Image: http://icic.org

Yesterday, Capital Factory CEO Joshua Baer announced a partnership with The Dallas Entrepreneur Center to bring Texas’ biggest accelerator to Dallas.  In his post, The Texas Startup Manifesto, Baer proposed a “Texas startup Megatropolis” combining Austin, Dallas, Houston, and San Antonio.

The vision is exciting and highlights many of Texas’ obvious strengths:

BioGenerator’s largest investment in any single company is paying off for St. Louis.  Confluence Life Sciences, Inc. has been acquired by Aclaris Therapeutics, Inc. for the St. Louis company’s world-class research team, intellectual property and drug discovery assets.

Confluence will receive $20 million upfront, equally split between cash and stock and subject to customary adjustments.  Confluence shareholders also are eligible to receive up to $80 million in contingent payments upon the achievement of certain development, regulatory and commercial milestones, as well as potential royalty payments on drug product sales.

Image: https://stlpartnership.com

The UK innovation ecosystem is lagging behind its American counterpart when it comes to having startups become unicorns and to make up that shortfall the government needs to shift its focus – that is the fundamental idea driving a consultation published by the Treasury department last week.

Figures published in the document, titled Financing growth in innovative firms, are startling: venture capital investments in private businesses in the UK stand at approximately £4bn ($5.2bn) a year, which may seem a lot at first but in fact equates to only about half of the level of investments in the US. Follow-on rounds are rarer for UK-based companies than US-based ones, too – and actually, the remainder of Europe outperforms the UK in third and fourth funding rounds, though the mainland drops below Britain’s performance for later stages.

Running a startup is difficult. But most startup founders have it easy compared to corporate entrepreneurs trying to innovate within an established company. Innovators in large companies often find themselves surrounded by slowing moving institutions with traditional management practices. Most corporate management tools were developed during an era when the world moved at a much slower and predictable pace. Such tools are not suitable for innovators who are searching for new business models.

Imagine a new economic sector in Europe worth double the yearly GDP of Belgium. Imagine it was driven by small entrepreneurial European tech businesses. Sounds great, doesn’t it?

This is the potential of the fast developing internet of things (IoT) according to the European Commission, which values it at €1 trillion a year by 2020.

The startup community in Raleigh is about to get a boost from a new partnership announced Tuesday between Innovate Raleigh and the Greater Raleigh Chamber of Commerce.

An executive director will be hired to lead the new effort when the alliance formally launches on Oct. 1.

The alliance will keep the Innovate Raleigh name, a Chamber spokesperson told WRAL TechWire.

“The objective is to fill gaps in the innovation ecosystem and address the needs of entrepreneurs,” said Terri Lomax, who is co-founder and chair of the Innovate Raleigh Executive Committee.

The Trump administration’s proposal for transforming America’s infrastructure provides no details about where funding for projects would come from – or exactly where the money would go over the proposed 10-year life of the plan. While roads, railroads and seaports seem like obvious candidates for upgrading, some experts stress that huge investments will be required for a less visible – but equally pressing – facet of infrastructure: technology.

Entrepreneurship is a cultural phenomenon. We live in a capitalistic society that encourages and rewards those who come up with new ideas, and have the gumption to follow through on them with hard work. I love our Western entrepreneurship culture, and have been a part of it for more than a decade. But there are some problems with the way it’s continuing to develop:

1. Location envy. When you hear the phrase “tech startup,” what location do you picture? Silicon Valley, right? Silicon Valley has become the go-to destination for entrepreneurs, which has been great for the region, but leaves other areas in the dust. We need to focus on entrepreneurship everywhere—not just at the hot spots.

Everyone talks about business being an adventure, but how adventurous are you really when it comes down to it?

Answer a few simple questions to find out...

Image: https://www.virgin.com

Within the next 20 years, you could be traveling for business or a vacation via a pilotless airplane. Scary, right? Well, you’re not the only one who thinks so. In fact, most people say they wouldn’t feel comfortable getting on an automated airplane.

While there are now dozens of examples of cities successfully transforming themselves into hyper connected, digital domains with layers of connected things, systems and people, Bob Mazer, a pioneer in telematics, and serial innovator and entrepreneur, believes we can move faster and achieve more when entrepreneurs and investors are themselves connected.