As Europe’s tech companies such as Spotify, the music-streaming service, and King Digital, the maker of the Candy Crush franchise, have become global names, a series of new venture funds has sprouted in search of the next generation of European start-ups. Yesterday, Felix Capital, a new European venture firm, announced that it had raised $120 million (€106 million) primarily to back the region’s technology start-ups in industries such as fashion, food and fitness.

“If you know your enemies and know yourself, you can win a hundred battles. If you only know yourself, but not your opponent, you may win or lose. If you know neither yourself nor your enemy, you will always endanger yourself.” ~ Sun Tzu, The Art of War

If Sun Tzu had lived in the 21st Century, his sage wisdom regarding battlefield strategy would have translated well to today’s modern corporate environment.

His observation about self-awareness is of particularly noteworthiness, given the modern employee’s increasing autonomy in the workplace and the resulting need for more intense professional development. In fact, it almost perfectly sums up the very essence of what it means to perform a personal SWOT analysis.

With over half of the states having a higher minimum wage than the federal minimum, it may feel like small businesses are being squeezed. According to the U.S. Department of Labor, two-thirds of minimum wage earners are in the service industries, a full 44 percent in food service. Two-thirds are part time workers, and half are under 25 years old.

The heat wave gripping India on a day in late May feels particularly intense in the booming Delhi suburb of Gurgaon. Temperatures have soared to 109 °F by 12:30 p.m., and they aren’t done rising. Lizards are looking for shade. A profusion of new office parks, roads, and malls has obliterated any vegetation that might have preserved a little of the previous night’s coolness. And yet Albinder Dhindsa is smiling as he looks out his window, because this sort of weather is perfect for business.

Image: http://www.technologyreview.com

There's no place like home — except when you can't afford one.

Millennials have been priced out of some of the biggest U.S. cities, with residential real estate prices rising even as wage growth remains elusive.

Bloomberg used data from the U.S. Census Bureau, Zillow Group Inc. and Bankrate.com to quantify how much more money millennials would need to earn each year to afford a home in the largest U.S. cities. The good news is that out of 50 metropolitan areas, 37 are actually affordable out of 50 metropolitan areas, 37 are actually affordable for the typical 18-34 year-old (scroll down to the end of the story to see the full results).

WAXAHACHIE, Tex. — Most Americans suffered serious losses during and after the recession, knocked off balance by layoffs, stagnant pay and the collapse of home values. But apart from the superrich, one group’s fortunes appear to have held remarkably steady: seniors.

Supported by income from Social Security, pensions and investments, as well as an increasing number of paychecks from delaying retirement, older people not only weathered the economic downturn that began in 2007 but made significant gains, a New York Times analysis of government data has found.

IT’S A NEW ERA where digital influences and Barbadian businesses, like their international counterparts, need to come to grips with it.

That’s the advice coming from senior officials of Deloitte, which has established a new Deloitte Digital practice to get companies in tune with the “digital disruption”.

Every business leader has blind spots which limit their effectiveness and success, but due to ego, over-confidence, or deferential subordinates, many live totally in the dark. Some are smart and humble enough to assume that they don’t know what they don’t know, but lack an effective process for shining a light on their blind spots. Both are equally surprised by their every setback.

Sitting the whole day is not a good thing health wise. In fact the best way of ensuring that you remain health and injury free is to move around during the day. You must be able to alternate between sitting and standing. This guide looks at some of the best methods that can help you remain healthy.

It is true that your desk is the foundation of your work place and is the backbone of your work life.  The chair you sit on while working is perhaps the one of the best utility you have and is something that inspires you and will keep you healthy, focused and motivated.  If you want to get rid of a bad leg and remain healthy, the sitting position is crucial.

Image: http://www.blogtrepreneur.com

If you do not have a business blog, start one immediately.

Blogs are proving to be the most significant factor in building a business, a brand, traffic, and, ultimately sales. If you already have a business blog and are not realizing the business growth that you should, you may be making some fatal errors that should be corrected right away. So for newbies and veterans alike, here are 7 really bad mistakes and your “fixes” for them.

I believe we all have dreams to do the things that we love most—to feel alive and fulfilled in every way possible. We're here to find tasks that give meaning to our existence and make this mundane life livable. Philosopher Richard Taylor says our life is meaningless—what gives it meaning is a sense of purpose: the will to survive.

We’ve all seen the Power Networker in action: working the room, flitting from conversation to conversation, a bulge of business cards in his jacket pocket. He’s quick with a handshake and even quicker with an elevator pitch. He’s there to meet as many people as possible. He’s also doing it wrong.

The 11th floor of the Taubman Center in Detroit looked like a jumbo jet Friday afternoon.

The auditorium was a long, hollow, tube-shaped space with Virgin Atlantic air hostesses lined the back of the room, garbed in the company's crisp, red uniforms.

Virgin Group founder Richard Branson sat at the front of the room, as the seasoned pilot.

Image: http://www.benzinga.com

After decades of frustrating setbacks, scientists at CERN think they have found the Higgs boson particle — a breakthrough success after $12 billion of research funding and smashing particles into each other in all imaginable ways. A few days ago, my colleague Amy Clark argued that there is a lesson about collaboration to be learned. I will use this discovery to argue that there is also an important insight for funders of social innovation.

It takes a special kind of person to become an entrepreneur. Not everyone can do it; not everyone is willing to take the risk. But the people who do become entrepreneurs, do appear to share similar characteristics. What fosters entrepreneurial talent and zeal in a person, is a running debate. But no one argues that entrepreneurs are enthusiastic risk takers, opportunistic, passionate, committed and natural leaders. And above all, they’re innovative.

What do you get when you take the technology away from a group of 10 and 11 year olds and ask them to be creative with a handful of household objects?

Well, Thomas Fraser, a teacher at Crestwood Elementary School in Edmonton, Canada, troubled by the short attention spans of today’s youngsters endeavored to find out by creating what he calls the Bored Game, which involves giving students a handful of common household objects with the only instruction being to do something interesting with them.

Image: http://www.innovationexcellence.com

I am a knowledge worker, one of those people who leave universities and research centres to enter the entrepreneurial world where fertile ground is to be found in intangibles. I am a young well-educated European with lengthy and varied experience of studying and I have worked in many countries where companies are, from the start, designed to be international.

One metric is venture capital funding. Although not a perfect measure, it's an interesting indicator: how much confidence does the market place in companies coming out of Ireland? Last week, the Irish Venture Capital Association released new figures about VC investment here in the first three months of the year. The numbers were bullish: €120m, or roughly €10m per week. And this is overwhelmingly being put into technology start-ups and expanding companies.

The new CEO of Connecticut Innovations is stepping down from a managing partner position in a New York venture capital firm.

Matt McCooe, who earlier in his career was responsible for guiding companies formed out of Columbia University research, said Friday that choosing this job "was a no-brainer."

Every time I hear people talking about unicorns, I think “all hat, no cattle” or “another person living in the land of style over substance.” I’ve found myself blurting out, “F$&@ Unicorns!”* twice recently, including when I was on a panel at Stanford School of Engineering on Entrepreneurship from Diverse Perspective. (Yes, I get the irony.)