Bill Joy, co-founder of Sun Microsystems, famously said, “No matter who you are, most of the smartest people work for someone else.” This insight is almost a tagline for the rise of online distributed innovation, commonly referred to as “crowd sourcing.” A number of scholars at Harvard Business School have gotten in on the act, studying how crowds solve problems in new product development, scientific breakthroughs, and even trying to find the tomb of Genghis Khan. Recently, Nitin Nohria, Dean of HBS, challenged some of us to apply what we have learned to a core function of the school – generating relevant, rigorous knowledge.

Image Courtesy of Stuart Miles / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Last week Lightstone Ventures, a US life sciences venture capital fund, became the latest participant in the government’s Innovation Fund Ireland initiative, pledging $172 million to invest in early-stage medical device and pharmaceutical companies – some of which will go to Irish based companies.

Image: http://www.freedigitalphotos.net

The investment manager at a Sydney-based venture capital fund has rejected entrepreneur Matt Barrie’s criticism of the Australian VC industry.

Barrie, who is the chief executive of online work marketplace Freelancer.com, wrote an email to Communications Minister Malcolm Turnbull arguing that Australia was about to miss “the biggest technology boom in the history of mankind”.

Image: Tank Stream Ventures investment manager Rui Rodrigues says the VC sector plays an important role in Australia. Photo: Peter Braig 

Arguably, the best access any entrepreneur can have is access to the world. Access to new markets, possible trade partners and the ability to understand the startup landscape and consumer market beyond their borders. This is what MyStartUp and the South Africa-Israel Forum, with the support of the Entrepreneurship Development Trust as well as Investec, are trying to do. The idea is to take 12 South African entrepreneurs on a one-week trip to Israel.

Image: http://www.freedigitalphotos.net

Semi-permanent, modular structures to make crime-prone vacant lots safer. A tablet-based system to provide self-driven education to inmates and, as a result, reduce recidivism.

Those are just two of the  ten social enterprise startups in the Philadelphia-based FastFWD accelerator that recently held their pitch day, each adopting an unusual approach to improving public safety.  I recently wrote about the accelerator.

The days are gone when a techie or a genius could build things in his garage and customers would find and buy the product, based purely on the “wow factor” of the technology. New technologies are everywhere today. People have seen so much that they are blasé, or actually fear pure technology. They want a personable brand, before they will consider the product.

IBM sent me a bottle of BBQ sauce designed by Watson, so I ate it. My job is weird sometimes.

Yes, it’s THE Watson. The same computer that decimated Ken Jennings in Jeopardy has taken on an even greater challenge--what IBM calls cognitive computing, or put more simply, creativity. And what better arena to test creativity than the kitchen? After all, computers are good at math or whatever, but they can’t invent the next cronut or conceptualize the snack chip that will become a taco shell. They can’t stick a toilet plunger in a melted pile of brown birthday fondant like those bakers on reality TV--right?

Glide, little sea turtle. Glide like the wind.

An amputee sea turtle named Hofesh, which translates to "freedom" from Hebrew, is one lucky amphibian. The kindness and ingenuity of Israeli design student Shlomi Gez has allowed Hofesh to look forward to a long, more seaworthy life.

1. Example is not the main thing in influencing other people; it’s the only thing. – Abraham Lincoln
2. All of my friends were doing babysitting jobs. I wanted money without the job. – Adam Horwitz
3. The most valuable thing you can make is a mistake – you can’t learn anything from being perfect. – Adam Osborne

As wine on tap has become commonplace to the point where it's found everywhere from ballparks to airport lounges, it's inevitable that cocktails on tap will become more prevalent as well. Innovators of the approach claim there are several clear benefits, from saving time and money to a noticeable improvement of the drinks as they age. Here are a handful of establishments that are taking chances and showing the way forward regarding this far-ranging approach.

Entrepreneurs are busy people. They’re also overwhelmed with gadgets: phones, computers, bluetooth headsets, not to mention countless other toys. But what gadgets do you actually need? The Open Forum article gives you four must-have gadgets to push your entrepreneurship to the next level.

I recently posted "Feature Request: Transcripts or Summaries of Tech Founder or Investor Interviews". I decided to pay for a transcription service to transcribe a few startup videos/podcasts that I've been meaning to watch - and why not share them! 

Please excuse the typos - I pay for these transcriptions and haven't combed through the errors on this one.

Sometimes one of the important aspects to career success can be something intangible like how likeable you are.

That vague feeling of goodwill is often determined by how genuine you seem when interacting with others. One of the first steps to showing someone you sincerely care about what they’re saying is remembering what they say--especially their name.

According to Upstate employers, Life Sciences is the sector of the Upstate economy that is most likely to see job growth and private sector investment in the next 4 years.  That makes sense, given the enormous amount of academic R&D work that is being conducted in the Life Sciences by Upstate universities such as Cornell University, the University of Rochester, SUNY Albany and SUNY Buffalo.   Collectively, the top research universities in Upstate spend about $2.3 billion annually on R&D - over half of which is allocated to the Life Sciences.

So far, so good.

When Hollywood wanted to bring to life Tony Stark, the comic-book engineering prodigy who grew up to be the billionaire industrialist and slick playboy alter ego of Iron Man, it turned to the closest thing the real world seemed to offer.

"We need to sit down with Elon Musk," Robert Downey Jr, who plays Stark in the blockbuster film series, told his colleagues. Jon Favreau, the director, hailed Musk as "a Renaissance man in an era that needs them".

There’s nothing easy about launching and running a business. In today’s business climate, everyone has a strategy or plan in place, but even the most talented entrepreneurs encounter challenges and pitfalls along the way. When it comes to long-term success, it’s important to recognize whether or not your plan is working before it’s too late.

The popular fitness technology company, Fitbit, understands how important it is to track progress when it comes to achieving personal milestones. Fitbit, best known for keeping track of how many steps the wearer takes, is used to monitor daily activities so the wearer can change behaviors to meet clearly defined goals. That’s the same approach it takes to operate a successful business.

Last Saturday, I woke up early as usual and sat down to write. Checking my e-mails, I came across a weekly Quora summary, and a question that was interesting. The question was “What Happens To The Founder Of A Company Backed By Angel Investors, If It Fails?” I had some views on this, so I wrote this answer. Within a week, my answer had been viewed 200,000 times, upvoted 1.5k times, and republished on Forbes. Here it is in full:

Of my 20+ angel investments, three have failed so far. I have seen three completely different ways this has played out, and it’s proven to be a very valuable experience, especially as I have 30+ pretty damn awesome angel investors in my company, Ometria – UK E-Commerce Intelligence Startup Ometria Raises $1.5M Seed Round | TechCrunch

Clay Rankin might have to kick a lot of investors out of the local North Coast Angel Fund because they just aren't rich enough.

He's not trying to be a snob: Some national organizations are encouraging federal regulators to make it significantly harder to become an accredited investor — a title that lets rich people invest as much as they want in private companies and investment funds.

The official start of summer may be June 21, but Memorial Day weekend is the unofficial kickoff to the season.

In 1971, United States Congress declared Memorial Day a national holiday, and scheduled it on the last Monday in May.

Duct tape makes basically everything.

The sticky, multipurpose adhesive has secured objects and helped people out of a jam since its invention during World War II to keep ammunition dry.

Now, the uses for duct tape are endless, from artwork to clothing, even home improvement. It's one of those magical DIY materials everyone should have in their house, right next to the WD-40.