When Howard Schultz initially proposed to buy Starbucks from its founders, the chain had three stores; he had a plan to expand to 150 stores. Today Starbucks has more than 22,000 stores and is now opening in Italy — a lifelong dream for Schultz.

When Leslie Wexner opened his first store, he hoped he could expand to a three- or four-store chain to achieve economies of scale. Today he leads an enterprise that has cumulatively created over 10,000 stores. His prize, Victoria’s Secret, will generate $8 billion in revenue this year and operates in a dozen countries.

A common mistake governments make is assuming that a “more digital” economy will equal economic growth. But digitalization does not necessarily translate into growth.

For instance, in the HBR article “Where the Digital Economy Is Moving the Fastest,” the country with the fastest rate of digital development in the past, and the steepest trajectory for future digitalization, is Singapore. But, as the Singaporean government is slowly realizing, correlation does not mean causation, and digitalization does not mean growth. The Singaporean economy’s growth rate went from 6.2% in 2011 to 2.9% in 2014.

There is a common narrative out in the world that is killing innovation. A narrative that has somehow seeped into our collective consciousness.

The narrative states that being innovative is somehow a gift bestowed upon an exclusive group of people that look a certain way, and do certain things.

Usually, this narrative shows itself in sentences like these:

Me: Are you innovative?

Craig: Not really, but Jessie down the hall is. She has a pink streak in her hair and and works on the blue skies projects.

So, you have launched your own business. You’ll need money.

Given this scenario, you have two choices. First, financing your company with your own resources, by scraping every penny from savings or parents’ trust funds. Second, giving up part of your business’s control by partnering with one or more venture capitalists, in return for funding.

Country has funneled $338 billion into startup investment funds.

While investors in the West have carefully trimmed their stakes in startups and announced the end of the golden age of unicorns, China’s government-backed venture capital funds have amassed the world’s biggest startup pool, reports Bloomberg.

And it’s enormous—reaching almost 10 times the amount spent by venture capital firms on Chinese startups in 2015: $32.2 billion.

The Illinois Science and Technology Coalition (ISTC) released new data March 8 conveying the growth of entrepreneurial activity across the state’s universities as part of its Illinois Innovation Index, a publication that reports on key metrics of the state’s innovation economy. The announcement was made at the Illinois Institute of Technology’s University Technology Park with university leaders and leading university-driven entrepreneurs.

Image: https://iit.edu

Care for your dragon and it will care for you. Picture: HBO With all the focus in the local scene around getting startups off the ground with seed funding and other early stage investments, a gap is growing in the Australian landscape when it comes to later stage capital.

Currently, the venture capital investment is focusing on what's called the "valley of death", or that period between an idea's conception and a first major investment. This is the time in the startup's life where it bleeds money before real customers begin buying the product or using the service. And with that comes a 90% failure rate, hence the name.

Image: http://www.businessinsider.com

What does it mean when the leader of an innovation consulting firm calls the very word "innovation" a cliche?

Mike Maddock of Elmhurst, Ill.-based Maddock Douglas Consulting pointed out the oversaturation of the word "innovation" and offered attendees of the XChange Solution Provider 2016 in Los Angeles conference a clear formula Tuesday for what the word actually means.

The firm works with small to midsize businesses as well as large corporations including GE Healthcare, Philips Sonicare and General Mills. It provides services to aid companies in the development of innovation processes, developing company culture and differentiating customer experience.

The traditional 9-to-5 job is starting to fall in the ranks as the most common type of job schedule. Instead, a new breed of worker is rising as the dominant force in the talent pool, willing to work whenever and wherever they are needed.

This shift in how people work developed out of two main things: first, technology has made this type of virtual relationship possible and second, companies and startups began to realize that this arrangement offered significantly more benefits than the traditional employee. Now, terms like "gig economy," "mobile economy" and "freelance economy" are being thrown around to describe the new way of working.

Once driven by fear of missing out on the next Uber or Airbnb, formerly frenzied venture investors have turned circumspect, waiting to see how far the tech market will fall. Dropping valuations often kick-start a fresh round of dealmaking, but anemic initial public offerings and billion-dollar markdowns for the likes of Snapchat and Dropbox are causing venture capitalists to sit on their hands -- leaving some startups to starve.

Sea level rise is one of the most worrisome and visible ramifications of global warming. New research published on Monday shows the startling present-day impacts of global warming-related sea level rise. It also demonstrates the potential for the situation to get much, much worse if emissions of global warming pollutants are not curtailed. 

Dr. Joseph Ferrari, a psychologist at DePaul University in Chicago and an expert on procrastination, estimates that 20% of Americans are chronic procrastinators. "They delay at home, work, school, and in relationships," he tells the American Psychological Association. "We are a nation of 'doers,' but we are also, like people from other industrialized nations, a people of 'waiters'."

But if the scientific evidence on that score is damning, it might also hold some surprising solutions for the most inveterate procrastinators. Here are seven counterintuitive strategies to finally stop procrastinating.

Canadian venture capital investing hit a 10-year high in 2015, driven mainly by a booming technology scene.

According to new figures from the Canadian Venture Capital & Private Equity Association, funding for entrepreneurs comprised 536 deals for a total of $2.25-billion in 2015. That’s the best result for Canadian startups since before the 2008 financial crisis, and according to CVCA president Mike Woollatt the trend is likely to continue in 2016, since Canadian venture investors raised another $2-billion last year, and are now on the hunt for new deals.

People who had to give up money if they didn't exercise enough met their goal 50% more of the time than people who were paid to exercise

There’s no lack of evidence proving how important exercise is for the body. But does that get you get out of the house and into the gym?

A majority of venture capital funds believe that the seed stage of funding for start-ups will see maximum activity during the year while the average deal size will be between USD 1 million and USD 5 million, a survey says.

According to a survey by News Corp-owned VCCircle Network, the year will not be good for start-ups looking to raise funds in Series B, C and D as venture capital investors believe that valuations for these rounds will drop.

A new report released today shows the changing climate of the venture capital industry, and one of the most striking aspects is the dwindling number of venture capital firms now operating in the U.S.

There are now 798 venture capital firms in the U.S, down from 1,009 that existed in 2005, according to the National Venture Capital Association’s annual workbook report. That’s a significant trimming of the VC ranks, showing how more money has consolidated over the past 10 years in the hands of fewer VC firms.

Almost every day, we see announcements about yet another “connected” product that is hailed as creating a “smarter” home environment. These types of products promise an easier, more convenient way of living, but they aren’t always connected to our lives—or all that smart. 

But there is an important need in our society for better and smarter homes that go beyond little nice-to-have conveniences like opening the garage door or turning on the lights remotely.

Image: Stuart Karten of Karten Design

Heart disease, cancer, diabetes, obesity, arthritis—chronic conditions such as these account for 84% of health care spending. Yet many are preventable. An estimated 40% of all premature deaths can be attributed to lifestyle, such as smoking and inactivity. How can the health care system shift focus (and dollars) from acute to preventative care?

The Seattle-based design firm Artefact has created a compelling new concept called Chronicle. It would be the first app to monitor someone’s health across various chronic diseases, as it compares to others with similar conditions, in real time.

Game developers have always been interested in how players might react to the characters and plots they created—but what if they could tell exactly how the player was feeling and tailor the game to their mood?

"Back in the olden days we had to do a lot of guesswork as game designers," says Erin Reynolds, the creative director of the gaming company Flying Mollusk. "Is the player enjoying this? Is the player bored? You had to create a game that was one size fits all."

Have you ever watched a seemingly interesting and informative presentation and felt like you were missing something…or everything? Just as you were about to understand a concept…click…on to the next one?

I recently sat through a series of team presentations on various projects. Nice, well laid out and easy-to-follow slides. Results clearly explained. I was learning quite a bit about a variety of interesting topics. Until, during each presentation, I wasn’t.