One of the central dilemmas for entrepreneurs is that of wealth versus control. Very few entrepreneurs are able to achieve being both rich AND king.

Transcript

This is my data on founders being replaced as CEO. It's similar to the chart that we saw before on team stability. The aging of the venture along the bottom and then as we go higher up on here that the founder is still CEO but as the venture ages that fewer founders are still CEO of their baby.

Image: https://www.entrepreneurship.org

You want to know the dirty, little secret of Silicon Valley? It’s called the 409A valuation.

Yes it’s obscure, and yes, it’s a little bit technical. Here’s how the process works: In order to attract and to retain high-powered employees, high-flying tech companies want to issue them common stock or options. To do so and to comply with Internal Revenue Service rules, they need to obtain an independent, third-party valuation of the company.

Influitive CEO Mark Organ was feeling haggard. He’d just raised a seed round for the 12-person marketing technology startup and was rapidly building out his sales department. As the company grew, Organ was becoming increasingly frazzled. He’d forgotten his third meeting in a row and was missing deadlines left and right. His associates told him that he seemed unfocused and wasn’t attending to their needs. They gently suggested he get an assistant. But that didn’t feel right. Organ needed to be several places at once. What he really needed was to be superhuman.

The best time to attempt almost any demanding task is when you’re already “in the zone”.

The tide of popular opinion seems to have turned against multitasking. Recent articles scoff at the notion that people could satisfactorily complete more than one activity at a time, labelling it a “myth”, a “fallacy”, even tantamount to adultery. This purist pushback in the press mirrors common resentment among professionals at the expectation to adjust to the constant flux that digital technology has brought to daily life.

Future employees expect a seamless virtual office and new levels of flexibility.

Only three percent of working professionals currently use any kind of virtual reality (VR) applications in their workplaces. But 30 percent say VR will revolutionise their work in the coming decade, according to the second part of a three-part study conducted by the INSEAD Emerging Markets Institute, Universum and The Head Foundation.

Can you co-create value with others? Given our incredibly agile and dynamic market, with ever increasing demands, constantly changing tastes, preferences, and behaviors, it’s acting on the belief that you cannot succeed in the future going at it alone. Before you answer, let me better explain the question. Co-creation means banding together with another organization or person to build something together that you could not have built alone.

Uncertainty is uncomfortable for everyone. Whether it’s political turmoil or a reorganization at your company, employees who are concerned about their future are likely to be distracted and unproductive. What should a manager do? How can you keep people focused while also helping them cope with the feelings that change and ambiguity bring up?

What the Experts Say Most of us feel overwhelmed, upset, and anxious when faced with uncertainty. “We have a fundamental neuroanatomy that orients us toward stress in highly charged times,” explains Rich Fernandez, cofounder of Wisdom Labs and an expert in resilience.

Living near the beach doesn't guarantee your happiness — but it certainly doesn't hurt.

From Naples, Fla. to Honolulu, Hawaii, many of the U.S. cities that scored well on Gallup-Healthways' newly released Community Well-Being Index are located on the ocean. Researchers analyzed 350,000 interviews conducted in 2015 and 2016 to rank 189 communities by physical, emotional, financial, community and social health. Naples came in first for the second year in a row, followed closely by other metro areas near the ocean, like Barnstable, Mass. and Santa Cruz, Calif.

When CEOs are bored of disrupting industries on Earth, their thoughts invariably turn to space.

It’s not news, of course, that the ultimate billionaire’s plaything is a private space company. Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk, and Richard Branson all have their own, in the shape of Blue Origin, SpaceX, and Virgin Galactic, respectively. But this week the three men have all separately announced new ventures that will make use of their space-going schemes.

If work-life balance is as big a conundrum as ever, giving workers more control over vacation is often seen as a big part of the solution. What would happen, for instance, if companies gave workers all the time off they wanted? One imagines offices emptying, teams with critical voices missing and productivity collapsing. And yet, some employers are beginning to grant unlimited vacation and sick time, and the results are surprising.

March 7, 2017 / By Illinois Science & Technology Coalition / Category 2017, Capital, Immigration, Index, IP/Research Commercialization, Theme: Capital, Universities, Venture Capital This edition of the Innovation Index is brought to you by: the Illinois Science and Technology Coalition.

Download the full Illinois Innovation Index winter 2017 issue on university entrepreneurship: A detailed look at Illinois university startup creation, tech transfer, and local funding trends

Overview

Illinois universities not only produce some of the strongest STEM talent in the nation but also spur innovation and economic development in the state. These institutions cultivate innovative thinkers and give them the resources they need to develop and deploy their ideas. Budding entrepreneurs at Illinois universities have access to more resources than ever before, including university incubation centers, university-supported funding, and innovative curriculum to help them develop new ideas and technologies into viable businesses. The expansion of these resources is paying dividends, with 2016 showing a surge in startup creation and retention in the state.

Several weeks ago, I wrote a missive pertaining to the need to get rid of toxic employees. Clear Out The Rot. The message bears repeating. I know this because more and more often, I find myself having to ask a simple question…

It’s a question I ask after a client goes into a long monologue detailing a particular employee’s poor performance in spite of extensive coaching, training, and oversight. Sometimes I ask it when I’m standing before the entire leadership team of an organization and we’re capturing issues on a whiteboard preparing to solve them…forever. A name gets picked as the issue to solve and the leadership team members can’t help themselves. They all join in with horror stories about this problematic employee, “Fred.”

As Tennessee Gov. Bill Haslam and state economic-development officials work to build on the state’s economic gains and become “the Tennessee we can be,” the for state’s business community must continue cementing Tennessee’s reputation as a terrific place to live and work.

The state’s diverse and growing entrepreneurial community already sees the tremendous growth potential here, says Launch Tennessee CEO Charlie Brock, who shares his organization’s agenda for supporting the inception and growth of Tennessee startups.

Recent, high-profile hotel hacks have brought increasing attention to the hospitality sector and its cybersecurity challenges. While hospitality organizations have long supported the internal flow of information and data (e.g. allowing a hotel guest to charge dinner from the hotel restaurant to his/her room), technological improvements and customer demands have pushed hotels to offer increasing amenities, such as free Wi-Fi or mobile check-in. Through collaboration with the hospitality industry, the NCCoE is developing an example solution to help organizations strengthen the security of their property management system to better protect the business against network intrusion, data breach, fraud loss, and damage to reputation, while continuing to allow customers and guests to utilize and appreciate a hotel’s technological amenities. Join us for a lively discussion on the unique trends and challenges to improving cybersecurity in the hospitality sector.

Ed Catmull, president of Pixar and Disney Animation Studios, explains the highly effective concept of the "Braintrust," which comprises a group of passionate peers who advise filmmakers during the production process. Key to its success is that the group has no authority, and that absolute candor and trust must be in place, Catmull says.

Image: http://ecorner.stanford.edu

When it comes to teamwork, the role of team leaders is not only about setting goals and allocating resources, but also organising the work of their team members and forming networks among them, such as who works with whom, where and when. To get their work done, one team might need a leader to coordinate otherwise unconnected team members (for example, with separate, specialised sub-teams such as task forces), while another team might need to be more cohesive, tightly knit group collaboration.

Back when the iPhone was a mere twinkle in Steve Jobs' eye, "culture" didn't mean all that much in Silicon Valley. Now, it means even less. 

While a fair and equitable work community is worth striving for, endlessly mentioning your company culture is a tired marketing ploy, and one that many women in tech have known to be only lip service for some time now. 

The c-word is invoked to provide cover. It's a box to tick. It may be tech's favourite buzzword, but it's time to give it up. 

This International Women's Day, we celebrate female innovators, problem-solvers, and entrepreneurs around the globe who make a difference in their communities. To honor this special day, we've rounded up some of our favorite stories of women who are bold and creative thinkers and doers in the IDIN Network. 

Image: http://www.idin.org/blog-news-events

NextGen Venture Partners,  a young, Washington, D.C.-based venture firm that’s quarterbacked by a handful of investors but fueled financially by a network of hundreds of part-time investors who help with its portfolio, has raised $22 million for its debut fund. (This if you don’t count a $1 million pool of capital that it raised from its network in 2015.)

We had a quick chat with Jon Bassett, one of the firm’s five partners, late last week to talk about what NextGen is trying to create. That conversation has been edited for length.

Image: https://techcrunch.com/

BIF is gratified to be regarded by institutional leaders as one of the foremost go-to sources of collaborative, cutting-edge business model innovation. We're also honored to have the recognition of business journalists who appreciate a brand of real transformation that leaves old-school tweaking in the dust.

BIF's annual Summit is now lauded by Inc. as one of the leading "must-attend innovation and technology conferences" that "will inspire your team in 2017," and a "unique experience (that) gives you the chance...to find inspiration, build connections, and learn new ways to transform yourself and your businesses." This latest news comes on the heels of last year's designation as one of 2016's Inc. "10 Most Innovative Conferences."

If you and your team are not already registered, be sure to seize the opportunity to learn what Inc. and so many others on the vanguard of innovation already know about the remarkably transformative value of the 2017 Business Innovation Factory Summit.