Based in South Africa, Douglas Hoernle, went from working in the Cape’s wine industry to the edtech space when he co-founded the startup Rethink Education. He says that his family always had a passion for education and that he was looking to do something with a greater, lasting social impact than what the fine arts of the wine industry has to offer.

Image: http://ventureburn.com/ 

Starting a business can be a scary thing. You give up the stability (albeit perceived) of a steady income with benefits. You put your career on hold. You sacrifice significant time and energy for the first several years just to get up to your former corporate salary. You enter a risky area where most people fail within five years.

So the real question should be, "Is it worth it?"

I am here to say yes! Do you really want your life time legacy to be 'Working for someone else = building someone else's assets'? Let's start with the why you need to make it happen.

Image Courtesy of joesive47 / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

“You’re CRAZY!”

I was getting used to hearing that when I told family and friends that I was selling everything I owned and buying one way tickets to New Zealand to travel around the world with my wife and 10-month-old daughter.

After being a serial entrepreneur for over a decade (I took a leave of absence from Wharton in 2000 to start my first startup with a classmate), I was flat burnt out. We’ve all been burnt out before. For many, that’s one of the reasons they came to Wharton in the first place: to recharge and find more professional happiness. For me, not only had I been starting and building companies continuously since Wharton, but I had also just gotten married and had a baby daughter.

We’re stuck in an awkward spot. We can manufacture nearly any 3-D product we’d like. But these objects are trapped behind the 2-D computer screen we design them in.

One solution is to 3-D print a plastic mock up. A more efficient solution is a new working concept called Gravity Sketch. It’s essentially a 3-D notebook. You put on a pair of video glasses, grab the stylus, and hold a tablet in your hand. Then you draw your creation in 3-D space using augmented reality--the glasses, pen, and tablet work in concert to create a digital illusion that your drawing is floating right there in front of you. But you're literally drawing on a 2-D surface.

What saves a man is to take a step. Then another step.

Antoine de Saint-Exupery

More and more individuals and families will enter the U.S. healthcare system in coming years, and it seems obvious that this in and of itself is a good thing.  But as this trend continues, total healthcare expenditures will likely rise as well, which is not such a good thing.   So, there is a rather clear and important question to be answered:  How do we provide more and higher quality healthcare, to more and more people, while simultaneously lowering the cost of delivering that care?  Is that even a possibility?

Shea Tate-Di Donna knows what entrepreneurs need. In Silicon Valley, she's best known as one of the founding partners at True Ventures, a venture capital fund focused on early-stage companies. She was also the architect behind True University, a two-day conference that brings together companies in the True portfolio to share ideas and collaborate.

If that sounds a little kumbaya, Tate-Di Donna's latest project has similar idealistic aims. Zana is a virtual incubator that will, in her words, "democratize entrepreneurship."

The National Business Incubation Association named the Purdue Technology Centers and The Purdue Foundry as the 2014 Incubator Network of the Year during NBIA's International Conference on Business Incubation in New Orleans.

The mission of the Purdue Technology Centers is to spur economic growth across Indiana by licensing new technologies, growing companies and new industries, and creating high tech Hoosier employment opportunities. They strive to do this, in concert with their communities, by being the pre-eminent location for technology companies and start-ups in Indiana and the Midwest. They identifying marketable intellectual capital, and providing unparalleled space, services and amenities in an atmosphere of early-stage company collegiality. A model support system, The Foundry provides all manner of legal and business support to start ups, including visa assistance, business plan and SBIR/STTR grant support, and funds sourcing and mentoring though their legal staff and entrepreneurs in residence. Included in the system is the Anvil, an incubator devoted entirely to student owned business.

A business program at the University of Central Florida is gaining national attention.

The program was founded about 15 years ago has grown from one incubator location to eight locations across Central Florida. More recently, UCF’s program was recognized as Incubator of the Year by The National Business Incubation Association.

Let’s face it, consultants have a bad image. Businesses want experienced people who get their hands dirty, rather than experts who give presentations, make recommendations, and disappear. Even consultants don’t like their job, since they don’t often get to see results, and too much of their time is spent looking for the next gig.

The Internet has changed the world. If you need to know how to do something, just look it up online. You will probably find more current alternatives and more recommendations on any given subject than any consultant could muster. For example, there are a dozen articles like this one for every area of expertise.

There is a real trend developing right now of corporations becoming crucibles of innovation and entrepreneurship in a systematic way. In this post, I will discuss four specific sub-categories of this trend that we're seeing, and for all practical purposes, participating in.

Intrapreneurship Incubation

Corporations have come to realize that there are numerous great ideas buried inside their ranks, and are putting in place processes to help those bubble up and get developed. The most common form this process takes is a call for ideas, followed by various types of incubation of some or all those ideas. Those ideas that look compelling after a few months of incubation go up to a management committee / innovation council for evaluation. A subset of these are given additional resources to be developed further. Through our 1M/1M Incubator-in-a-Box program, we're involved with a number of these projects at major corporations, and see hundreds of millions of dollars of revenue opportunities get unlocked. Corporations with Intrapreneruship programs in place include Oracle, HP, Intuit, Computer Associates, etc.

Two years ago, the virus didn't even have a name. A year ago it had infected roughly 50 people, half of whom died. Now, Middle East Respiratory Syndrome has been confirmed in more than 600 people, and killed nearly 30 percent of its victims.

Originating on the Arabian Peninsula, MERS has been carried via travelers to the United States (two reported cases), North Africa, and Malaysia, as well as a handful of European countries.

Healthcare providers are looking for ways to connect with potential patients on the web, on mobile devices, and through social channels. And San Francisco-based Clariture is ramping up to fill the need.

Clariture’s platform uses social media and patient data to find people who are likely to respond to a healthcare provider’s proposition. Clatiture customers can then reach out to the prospect through search campaigns and ad placements on social media and mobile channels.

The new era of highly connected and interactive technology is changing not only how business employees interact with customers, but also how they interact with each other, and with their company. I am happy to see reports that young companies are in the forefront of these trends, on both the customer trends and the employee trends. Both are required to stay competitive.

Much has been written about the trends on the customer side, but I find less specific guidance on the changes which are impacting the way we interact with peers at work. I just finished an updated book on this subject by Alison Maitland and Peter Thomson, “Future Work: Changing Organizational Culture for the New World of Work,” which offers some real insight in this area.

By now, graduates of the class of 2014 have walked across the stage, turned their tassels and received their coveted diplomas.

You’ve worked really hard over the past four years and had some awesome experiences — and there's a good chance you're a little burned out from finals (not to mention one or two graduation celebrations). There’s just one problem: You don’t have a job.

Image: FLICKR, SEAN KELLY 

When people think of Adobe, they probably instantly think of the Acrobat Reader we use to view PDFs, or perhaps the popular Photoshop graphics software. But Adobe has a large suite of products and online platforms, especially for those who create.   And now Adobe has released something for the creator in all entrepreneurs – a remarkable new  iPad-only app called Voice.  The Adobe Voice app allows you to make small presentations — complete with graphics, icons, backgrounds — and your own voice added.

Image: http://smallbiztrends.com 

The president of the EU executive said the reason so many Europeans were in the US tech capital was because it is a cultural environment encouraging innovation, new businesses and risk-taking. His comments were challenged shortly afterwards by Commission Vice-President in charge of the digital agenda, Neelie Kroes. She said she was fed up with calls to copy the Valley and wanted to create a European culture of digital entrepreneurship.

Image: Commission President Barroso. 22 May (EurActiv) 

When Congress tries to “fix” something that affects my business, I immediately begin to worry about unintended consequences. That is certainly the case with patent reform.

I can support measures to improve patent quality and curb excessive litigation costs for all users of the patent system. However, I’m concerned that legislation currently being considered by the Senate attempting to achieve these goals will hurt the value and enforceability of patents and undermine an American economy that relies so heavily on innovation.

Image: Jerry McCormick 

To understand why General Electric is plowing $1 billion into the idea of using software to transform industry, put yourself in the shoes of Jeff Immelt, its CEO.

As recently as 2004, GE had reigned as the most valuable company on the planet. But these days, it’s not even the largest in America. Apple, Microsoft, and Google are all bigger. Software is king of the hill. And, as Immelt came to realize, GE is not that great at software.

What do you wish you had known about your manager before you started your current job? Work style? Personality? Approach to management? Ability (or inability) to empathize? Most advice around job searching and interviewing has become common knowledge: Research the company, ask questions about the company culture, send a thank you note, and so on. But while this routine might inform you (and get you excited) about any given company, it doesn’t really tell you about the person you’ll be working under.

LEAVING ON A JET PLANE (BUT JUST FOR THE WEEK)

Don’t Get Around Much Anymore

Human Resource Executive

Fewer people are moving for jobs today — and when people do move, not many are citing work as the reason. Wharton's Peter Cappelli is inclined to believe that the reason for this "has something to do with employment practices," and he lists a couple. One: Long-distance commuting is on the rise – people are taking new jobs without uprooting their families. Two: There's no such thing as lifetime employment anymore; when companies rebalance their workforces, adding employees at one site and cutting back at another, "it's easier to let people go in the down location and hire new ones in the up location. And they do that a lot.

Image Courtesy of khunaspix / FreeDigitalPhotos.net