On a hot summer day in 1969 I walked with my parents through an unlocked gate into the Daytona International Speedway. (I'm old enough to remember a time when most gates were unlocked.)

When we stepped out of a tunnel under the grandstands and I saw the track I was stunned. A small dot -- a motorcycle running a tire test -- flew down the backstretch, climbed the steeply-banked turn, and rocketed through the tri-oval. I had never seen anything go that fast.

Last month, in conjunction with the opening of GE's Center for Additive Technology Advancement in Pittsburgh, PA, I released a report along with several colleagues titled "The Workforce of the Future: Advanced Manufacturing's Impact on the Global Economy."

The report looks at how advanced manufacturing is transforming industry, its growing role in the economy, and how it is changing the nature of jobs. It benefits from contributions by a number of engineers, scientists and executives from GE who are working to incorporate advanced manufacturing techniques into our production processes.

A subsidiary of United Therapeutics ($UTHR) has placed an order for up to 1,000 unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) from Chinese manufacturer EHang. The plan is to use the UAVs, flying vehicles more commonly known as drones, to ship manufactured lungs and other organs from production facilities to hospitals for transplantation.

Many stumbling blocks stand between the United Therapeutics subsidiary, Lung Biotechnology PBC, and the realization of this vision, but the company has seen enough potential to justify committing time and resources to the idea. Lung Biotechnology plans to spend 15 years working to turn the idea into reality with EHang, a Chinese drone developer that unveiled a prototype of an autonomous helicopter in January. The partners plan to rework that prototype, which was designed to carry one passenger, to ferry organs between locations without the active control of a human.

Image: http://www.fiercebiotech.com/

CAMBRIDGE — The Massachusetts Institute of Technology must accelerate the pace of its long-term research to entice venture capitalists to fund it, university President L. Rafael Reif said in an interview.

Reif’s remarks on his vision for MIT’s future coincided with the announcement Friday that the college has launched a $5 billion fund-raising campaign.

Image: PAT GREENHOUSE/GLOBE STAFF

When many people hear that the tech bubble is going to burst, they harken back to 2000 or 2008 when the floor fell out of the tech industry.

"Other than the fact that they are cycles of eight, the three sort of periods are very, very different," warns Hemant Taneja, managing director of General Catalyst Partners.

Business valuation is used to set the fair market value of the shares of a business, to know how much the business is worth. Valuation is useful in various situations, such as a transaction, tax reorganization, integration of a new shareholder or in the context of litigation. When comes the time to have their business valued, the owners’ biggest concern is to maximize the value of it.

Image: http://www.iamwire.com

There is nothing wrong with growing your business by selling more of your solution to more people in more cities, states, and countries. That’s called organic growth, and everybody does it. But in my experience as a startup advisor, too many entrepreneurs get stuck there, and always find excuses for not really exploring mergers, acquisitions, partnerships, and alliance alternatives.

Image: http://blog.startupprofessionals.com

Innovation has become a religion in business today, with “innovate or die” as its mantra. When a company succeeds, people attribute its good fortune to superior innovation. When it fails, people say it lacked the ability to innovate, no matter how many new products it launched. The message is simple: you need to disrupt to survive.

Tech Coast Angels has launched an innovative way in which the angel network can assist its members realize tax losses at Zombie companies (companies that have essentially shut down but have not dissolved). The new approach will be announced at the Angel Capital Association Summit next week in Philadelphia.

One of any angel investor’s biggest challenges is what happens when an investment turns essentially worthless, yet the company does not shut down or claim bankruptcy. This can happen either due to struggles in the company’s business, or through a recapitalization of the equity of the company. 

The new rules are well-meaning, but flawed.

In the very near future, equity crowdfunding will no longer be reserved for the ultra-wealthy.

That’s thanks to the Securities and Exchange Commission passage of Title III JOBS Act, which goes into effect May 16. It’s a turning point for entrepreneurs and investors alike. Before that date, only accredited investors — individuals with a net worth of more than $1 million or annual income of more than $200,000 — could take an equity stake in a private company via crowdfunding. After May 16, anyone can participate.

Unproductive meetings have reached epidemic status in America.

Bain & Company, using analytics tools from VoloMetrix, examined the time budgeting of several large corporations. The research found that big U.S. companies are wasting millions of dollars on unproductive hours. For one business in the study, management meetings "ate up" about 300,000 hours, or the equivalent of one executive working full-time for 144 years.

Xconomy Raleigh-Durham —  Agriculture and food-related companies make up a global industry, but when it comes to seeding startups in the sector, agricultural technologies face a relative funding famine.

AgTech Accelerator, a new startup program launched Thursday in Research Triangle Park, NC, is trying to address funding issues facing agtech companies, while also providing some of the business support and infrastructure that these young companies need to grow. The accelerator is starting with an $11.5 million investment from global agribusiness companies and life science investors, and includes partnerships with leading academic institutions across the country. John Dombrosky, CEO of the new accelerator, says that investment could balloon to more than $30 million by the end of this year as AgTech Accelerator adds new partners.

Image: http://www.xconomy.com

As digital flows command a growing share of trade and economic growth, executives must answer new questions.

Globalization, once measured largely by trade in goods and cross-border finance, is now converging with digitization. Enormous streams of data and information are transmitted every minute—circulating ideas and innovations around the world via email, social media, e-commerce, video, and more. As these sprawling digital networks connect everything, everyplace, and everyone, companies must rethink what it means to be global. Our latest research quantifies the economic impact of this shift and suggests five critical areas of focus for executives and top teams.

Image: http://www.mckinsey.com

America’s postsecondary student population is more diverse than ever. Many students attend school while working part- or even full-time. Some are raising children while in school. And, in many cases, they’re financially independent. There’s no one-size-fits-all path to (or through) college – and we need to plan our education policies accordingly.

Image: http://postsecondary.gatesfoundation.org

Doing a quick Google search one can discover the many stories about how entrepreneurship and investment is rising in Latin America.

Brands like OpenEnglish, iBillionaire, and Mural.ly are becoming household names, but what about the movers and shakers behind those stories?

Image: http://thenextweb.com

It started as a tiny rash on Nicole Burwell's calf, appearing at the end of a trip to Las Vegas with her fiancé late in the summer of 2010. “I had this super, super itchy spot on my leg, but not like a mosquito bite. Not raised, not a bump. I couldn't get it to stop itching,” she says. So Burwell, then 40, took the over-the-counter antihistamine Benadryl and slept the entire four-hour car ride home to Claremont, Calif. “It knocked me out,” she says, but when she woke, the itch was still there. Over the next week the rash grew and with it the itch, so Burwell saw her doctor. “By then it had spread to both legs.” For the next three years Burwell would battle an angry, weeping red rash that moved around her body, covering her arms and legs, hands, torso and back. But as ugly as the rash was, it did not bother Burwell nearly as much as the itch.

A new accelerator devoted to agricultural technology startups is launching in Research Triangle Park with $11.5 million in initial funding.

The AgTech Accelerator, which officially opened for business Thursday, anticipates raising a total of $25 million to $30 million from investors by the end of this year, said John Dombrosky, a former Syngenta executive who is CEO of the new venture.

RTP, he said, is the best place in the world to nurture fledgling agri

English-speaking universities continue to dominate the world, according to a new ranking from the Times Higher Education supplement released Thursday.

Of the top 24, 16 were American and six were British.

Canada and Switzerland also had one entry each.

Image: Nick Ansell The University of Cambridge was high on the list, but did it make No. 1?

Let us not conflate military innovation with technology, as if that were the problem. Those who claim the United States lost its recent wars do not blame deficient technology.

The accelerating pace of change will make military innovation increasingly decisive in the 21st century, and Defense Secretary Ash Carter’s recent trips to Silicon Valley, Austin, and Cambridge reflect the Pentagon’s deliberate outreach to the technology sector and a clear priority on innovation. But technology is not the solution to the problem of innovation. Rather, innovation is a solution to the problem of technology. Its crux is agility in adjusting strategy and operations, which rests first in how an institution thinks, which is in turn a function of people and their development.

Image: U.S. AIR FORCE PHOTO BY STAFF SGT. EMERSON NUÑEZ

Yesterday was Cinco de Mayo. In the US this is often confused as Mexican Independence Day, which is actually September 16th and is called Grito de Dolores. That made some people think of taco bowls and love Hispanics. Whatever.

Our portfolio company mitú, the fastest growing digital video company focused on the Latino market in the US (in English) and globally (in Spanish) has taken a different approach to the taco.