You thought the Shark Tank was tough? The second annual BioHealth Capital Region Crab Trap is now accepting applications!

Submit your application for a chance to be named the company with the most commercial potential at the BioHealth Capital Region Forum.

Deadline for entries is March 31st - Finalists will be announced by April 7th

Global technology leaders still consider the United States at the forefront of innovation, but China is catching up, according to a recent survey from KPMG. The accompanying report, "The Changing Landscape of Disruptive Technologies," also ranks the top global companies and visionaries for innovation. Beyond the lists, the findings reveal how companies are cultivating an innovation culture. A great many survey respondents, for example, said their organization has appointed a chief innovation officer to lead these efforts.

Image: http://www.baselinemag.com

On a velvety March evening in Mandeville Canyon, high above the rest of Los Angeles, Norman Lear’s living room was jammed with powerful people eager to learn the secrets of longevity. When the symposium’s first speaker asked how many people there wanted to live to two hundred, if they could remain healthy, almost every hand went up.

With 2017 still so young, there's no better time to set goals for yourself. Even if you've already let one New Year's Resolution slip away, there's plenty of time to start a new one.

With this in mind, Udemy is offering more than 17,000 classes on their site for just $10 each.

Which 20 venture capitalists — the investors who unearth the tiny start-ups that turn into tomorrow’s behemoths — are on the winningest streaks?

To identify today’s top venture investors, CB Insights, a research firm that follows the venture capital industry, produced a data-driven list.

To compile it, CB Insights looked at factors such as connectedness, since people with access to the best information hear about hot companies first; and exits, meaning the returns after a start-up is sold or goes public.

Image: From left: Kirsten Green, Bill Gurley, Jeremy Liew and Mary Meeker. Credit Jake Naughton for The New York Times; Peter Earl McCollough for The New York Times; Monica Schipper/Getty Images; Asa Mathat/Re/Code, via Reuters - https://www.nytimes.com

Apps that improve your daily life are the fastest-growing type in the US. 

That's according to the measurement and analytics firm comScore, which ranked the 11 fast-growing apps in the country over a period of two years — December 2014 to December 2016. ComScore only measured the growth of unique users over the age of 18. 

Generation X, the group between the boomers and the millennials, has been largely cast aside in the media and marketing world, victims of their generation’s small size and lack of identity. In contrast to the much-discussed boomers and millennials, few have recognized the critical importance of this group to the future of politics, economics, technology and business.

Gen Xers — defined as aged between 35 and 49 in 2015 — matter because they will be the generation that will run our companies and governments as the boomers, albeit slowly, fade from their long-standing dominance. As millennials struggle to “launch,” the Xers are the group that will be critical to local housing markets, tech development and, perhaps most important, the creation of the next generation of children.

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Being an entrepreneur isn’t easy. They have to fight against formidable odds to turn ideas into products. While that’s a tough road for anyone, it’s particularly difficult if you’re in the public sector. Despite the difficulties we lead the world in turning early stage federally-funded inventions into useful products. But that’s in jeopardy if some politicians have their way.

The millennial workforce embodies a pioneering mindset, seeing entrepreneurship as an idealized career path, according to recent studies. While data suggests many millennials feel entrepreneurial and aspire to start their own businesses, few do. Business owners under age 30 are small in number — 65 percent smaller than the same age group in the 1980s.

Across the healthcare ecosystem, IT leaders at patient care organizations are still grappling with the critical issues of seamlessly exchanging health data across systems and also being able to properly secure it. Indeed, although the healthcare industry is behind most other sectors when it comes to interoperability and security, newfound optimism has emerged in the form of a technology that potentially can help solve both of these challenges—blockchain.

Image: https://www.healthcare-informatics.com

Venture capital can kill.

Yes, it can get you the fuel you need to launch your rocket ship. And, yes, you get to join forces with an investor of great power. But if you give minimal thought to the dangers ahead, you are toast. You can find yourself fired from your board, fired from your company or even blocked from selling it.

Many entrepreneurs are not prepared for conflict, or actively avoid it. Their vision, passion, and focus are so strong that they can’t imagine someone disagreeing, much less fighting them to the death. But the reality is that startups are composed of smart people, with emotions as well as intellects, working in close proximity under much pressure, so conflicts will occur.

'MucoJet' was created by researchers at UC Berkeley for a painless, portable way to self-administer vaccines and other medicine.

Image: http://mashable.com - from video

In 1998, after a year-long study on the subject, McKinsey researchers declared that a “war for talent” was underway. In the years ahead, they said, organizations’ future success would depend on how well they could attract, develop, and retain talented employees–an ever more valuable asset in ever higher demand.

More than ever, businesses need to take full advantage of automation, data, and analytics to run their business more productively and competitively. Yet, in my role as a small business advisor, I still see many founders and executives who see data and analytics primarily as a measurement device on current results, rather than using it to evolve the business strategy and direction.

Immigration is the topic of the day. The political right, after once embracing a laissez-faire policy toward immigration -- President Ronald Reagan signed an amnesty for undocumented immigrants and President George W. Bush tried unsuccessfully to do the same -- appears to want to choke off the inflow of newcomers. Even legal immigration is being targeted for reduction.

When we speak of disruption in the startup industry, it would not be uncommon to invoke an innovative technology or a visionary founder. It is a rare occasion when we can celebrate legislators. Yet, some of the most recent strides in the emerging growth ecosystem are owed not to Silicon Valley programmers in their Spartan incubators, but instead to the U.S. Congress.

Wisconsin and Michigan share a border, but there’s a significant gap between the two states in the amount of money investors are putting into startups based there each year.

Following the recent decision to reboot the Wisconsin Venture Capital Association, which happened in part because a Madison, WI-based VC firm has a satellite office in Ann Arbor, MI, now seems like a good time to ask: What lessons can the early-stage business community in Wisconsin take from Michigan to boost the amount of venture capital flowing to Badger State startups?

Image: http://www.xconomy.com

Pivot means that a startup has decided to change their business model. This can be a drastic change (a completely new business model in a different sector) or a slight change (usually a major change in the company’s product to address a larger market opportunity in the same sector).

Pivots are quite commonplace in the startup world. We see and hear about them all the time. Startups are tumultuous by nature, disrupting the status quo by design and led by smart, entrepreneurs with “never say die” attitudes.

In 2012, Kansas City made the bold proclamation it wanted to become the most entrepreneurial city in America.

To track its process, entrepreneurial resource hub KCSourceLink launched We Create KC, a series of reports that track metrics associated with the health of the area’s entrepreneurial ecosystem. From access to capital to jobs created, the report looks at progress toward supporting entrepreneurs and business growth in the region.