Every thriving company has a founding story behind them. Usually it involves college dropouts, friends experimenting in a garage or products sold individually. It makes us wonder how they achieve it. Their success is connected to their passion, perseverance, innovation and usually just being lucky. But the important role venture capital plays in the founding of a company doesn’t usually get told.

Image: http://ventureburn.com

Starting a business is an exciting venture. While the initial stages of starting out may seem difficult, the business endeavor can turn out to be quite rewarding as the profits begin to pour in.

Once you have an idea about the type of business you wish to establish, as the owner, you would need to seek out the financing. This not only involves the startup capital but is also crucial to keep your business afloat during the lean years and for expansion purposes as well.

Entrepreneurs need to be effective team leaders, since no one can transform an idea into a product and a business without some help. Unfortunately many founders I work with as a mentor are experts on the technical side, but have no insight into leading a team. But fortunately, team building is a skill that can be learned and practiced, for those willing to put in some effort.

Millennials are constantly on the move. According to a TransferWise survey conducted in 2015, more than half (55%) of adults aged 18-34 say they’d consider moving out of the US.

In partnership with brand strategy firm BAV and the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School, U.S. News & World Report compiled a list of the best countries to live in, according to millennials — which they defined as adults less than 35 years old.

They say that form follows function. How can you design a tool before you know what the tool is supposed to do?

We built the “modern” business framework about two hundred years ago. It is old and creaky now and unequal to its task in the new millennium. The old, stiff and formal business worldview is falling away. It has no place in this Knowledge Economy.

President Barack Obama told an international audience at the seventh Global Entrepreneurship Summit that entrepreneurship is a bridge that connects the world for a more prosperous future.

“Part of this summit’s job is to make sure we are putting more tools, more resources into the hands of these folks who are changing the world,” he said today at Stanford.

Image: http://news.stanford.edu

Today at the 2016 Global Entrepreneurship Summit, the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) announced four new investments totaling more than $38 million that will help mobilize the power of global entrepreneurs and innovators in the fight to end extreme poverty.

These investments will connect innovators around the world with investors and capital to increase access to energy and expand food security in developing countries.

There are three types of decisions that you will ever make - good decisions, bad decisions and a third category of the worst kind, no-decisions. In this last category are those ideas that you deliberate on for eons, but never take any action on. In it lie those reasons you look for not starting up, such as the right business model or funding. But, make a decision and you will see that the startup ball magically moves forward.

Image: http://economictimes.indiatimes.com

The chief analytics officer Toby Lewis from Global Corporate Venturing Analytics will chair a discussion on the main investing trends and hot topics in the sector with an expert panel including Nokia Growth Partners’ Paul Asel and software company Wellspring’s Joe Granda.

Every entrepreneur I know starts out with a strong conviction that their solution is a perfect match for their target market, and yet almost every one later admits a need to “pivot” before finding their groove. Course corrections, or pivots, are normal for new ventures, so expect them and don’t make excuses. Failure is the unwillingness to learn and change based on better information.

Britain’s vote to exit the European Union has left venture capitalists downcast about the future of entrepreneurship and funding startups in Europe’s second-biggest economy.

“There’s no positive in this,” said Harry Nelis, a London-based partner with Accel Partners. “The question is how negative is the news.”

Although many observers tried to play down some of the gloom-and-doom predictions that have rippled around the world, venture capitalists widely frowned on the historic referendum as bad for business and bad for the future of startup opportunities, especially in Britain.

When the family office of the Mansukhanis invested in a completely new logistics company, WowExpress, it was with the idea to become a part of the building blocks of an early-stage company in the fast developing logistics segment. With the e-retail market growing rapidly and likely to climb to $100 billion by 2020, companies that provide logistics in moving merchandise to end-users are rapidly scaling up, and growing fast.

The U.S. science community got a big pat on the back today from members of the Senate commerce and science committee.

The senators delivered their encouraging message in the form of a bipartisan bill that would reauthorize programs at the National Science Foundation (NSF) and the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and tweak policies on science education and innovation across the federal government. Two years in the making, the American Innovation and Competitiveness Act finally makes its appearance as the Senate’s proposed replacement of the 2010 America COMPETES Act that expired in 2013.

Startup accelerator Gener8tor is expanding to the Twin Cities market and scouting for office space as it prepares to launch a six-week version of its program in Minnesota this year.

The organization hired Mark McGuire to lead the Minnesota program. He was most recently an entrepreneur in residence at American Family Insurance's venture arm and before that co-founded four companies, including one sold to Microsoft Corp.

Image: Mark McGuire is leading Gener8tor's Minnesota program.

As carpenters finished an elegantly crafted deck near Greenmount Avenue and Oliver Street, I had a thought:

Where is the "gritty Greenmount" described in news articles a few years ago?

In short, it has largely disappeared. Over the past year, a new, $12.3 million community artisan lab called Open Works has been taking shape in the Greenmount West neighborhood.

Image: http://www.baltimoresun.com

In a nondescript strip mall on Herring Cove Road in Halifax, small business ideas shared by new Nova Scotians are being given the chance to become something bigger.

About 10 projects, from the simple to the scientific, are being quietly developed in a business incubator designed to give immigrants an equal shot at selling their products and services. 

"There's lots of barriers for immigrants who want to start a business," said co-ordinator Ngozi Otti. "We believe that an incubation model is the missing piece in the integration process for immigrants." 

Image: A variety of successful crops, including onions, kale, Jamaican thyme and other plants from Africa have been grown using the Nova Aquaponics system. (Craig Paisley/CBC)

Cybersecurity startups aiming to build high-growth software or hardware technology product companies in the Alamo City have a new home, industry leaders announced today.

The space, called Build Sec Foundry, is set to squeeze into offices inside the Rand Building downtown on the 6th floor — also home to Geekdom LC — a collaborative co-working space along Houston Street. Dozens of cybersecurity company leaders gathered at the Geekdom Event Centre to launch the project.

Image: http://www.bizjournals.com

Even for hardy startup entrepreneurs known for their ability to make lemonade out of lemons, those in Europe were in for a particularly sour surprise on Friday when they woke up to a cascade of shocks following the Brexit referendum in the U.K. Many of them reacted with a mixture of resilience and uncertainty.

Immediately after the results were announced, financial markets went into a tailspin and the British pound fell the most it ever has in a single day, hitting a 31-year low. Prime Minister David Cameron resigned and Britain itself faced the possibility of a breakup, with Scottish politicians suggesting a new referendum in Scotland on leaving the United Kingdom and staying inside the EU.

Image: Flickr user Canan Çengel

In an industrial park near the shore of Lake Erie, hard by the Buffalo River, the future of the solar power industry is under construction. SolarCity’s sprawling Buffalo factory, built and paid for by the state of New York, is nearing completion and will soon begin producing some of the most efficient solar panels available commercially. Capable of making 10,000 solar panels a day, or one gigawatt of solar capacity a year, it will be the largest solar manufacturing plant in North America and one of the biggest in the world.

Image: https://www.technologyreview.com

As the results of the Brexit vote were tallied overnight Thursday, the “leave” camp had reason to celebrate while the “remainders” were left stunned by the thought of what an exit from the European Union could mean. Economists forecast that the separation will result in a tumultuous financial future that will see the devaluation of the British Sterling, the decline of foreign investment in the country and a shake-up of global financial markets. But what will the Brexit business impact be — particularly on small businesses here in the U.S. and in the UK?

Image: http://smallbiztrends.com