Although the nation’s unemployment rate is at a seven-year low of 5.4 percent, job growth among the states has been uneven, with several showing only meager gains more than five years removed from the depths of the Great Recession.

A Stateline analysis of states’ employment data shows that while all states have added jobs since their economies hit their nadir during the recession, some have added far fewer than others. Ten states (Alabama, Arkansas, Maine, Mississippi, Missouri, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, Pennsylvania and West Virginia) have seen total employment grow 5 percent or less compared to their lowest points, according to the analysis of Bureau of Labor Statistics data.

In the 1950s, a time of pioneers of trade without borders, this was a disturbing and perhaps less than obvious question. The protagonists of that time were first-generation entrepreneurs of small businesses who answered the question by initiating a process of assimilation with the economic achievements of the Free World. “Made in Germany” was their benchmark — a perfect example of how much an economy devastated by war, such as that of Germany, could rise again in the Free World. The work of these first-generation entrepreneurs succeeded because assimilation did not mean passive levelling down to the values of others, but rather the combination of those values with the emerging culture of the small and flexible company.

Let me start with a disclaimer that may soon become obvious to you all, I’m the least expert member of this panel when it comes to analyzing the specifics of the pending patent reform bills and how they will impact various constituencies. Luckily, the other panelists more than make up for my deficiencies. If we try and look at the current patent reform debate objectively there are some overall themes it might be helpful to consider. One is what a poor job we have done as a community over the years presenting the importance of the patent system to the American public and our political leaders. That’s now come back to bite us.

According to the last Global Entrepreneurship Report, published by Oracle Capital Group, India and Turkey are the countries where the highest number of new companies are started (in proportion to their populations). The United States follows in third place, and Spain is ranked 24th.

Although multiple criteria are used to analyze entrepreneurial activity, the productivity of any region ultimately brings us back to one factor: the universities in that place. That is where most ideas are developed that will later become long-term economic projects, and where future professionals grow and gain the training essential to launching their careers.

Image: The Global Enterpreneurial Report

If you read what Peter Drucker had to say about competition back in the late ’50s and early ‘60s, he really only talked about one thing: competition on price. He was hardly alone — that was evidently how most economists thought about competition, too.

It was this received opinion Michael Porter was questioning when, in 1979, he mapped out four additional competitive forces in “How Competitive Forces Shape Strategy.” “Price competition can’t be all there is to it,” he explained to me, when during the course of updating that seminal piece in 2008, I asked him about the origins of the five forces model.

Congress is considering the Innovation Act, which would implement several significant reforms to the U.S. patent system. Unfortunately, the Innovation Act, as it exists, creates many troubling disincentives for innovation despite its well-placed intentions.

North Carolina has a strong interest in whether the Innovation Act passes due to the state’s thriving pharmaceutical sector. The pharmaceutical industry accounts for over 23 percent of all domestic R&D, annually generates $790 billion in economic activity, supports a total of 3.4 million jobs and pays its workers over $110,000 a year on average (more than double the U.S. average).

Innovation in the United States will suffer if there is no surge in basic research investments, according to a report recently published by a committee at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The report, “The Future Postponed: Why Declining Investment in Basic Research Threatens a U.S. Innovation Deficit,” looks at how declining research investments will impact the future of scientific breakthroughs in the U.S.

The Allen Institute for Artificial Intelligence has established a new startup incubator at its offices in Seattle, recruiting two high-level researchers who will try to develop technologies in the emerging field.

Joining the Institute’s new incubator program are Prismatic co-founder Aria Haghighi and Johns Hopkins University PhD graduate Xuchen Yao.

As a serial entrepreneur who now runs an Israel-based platform that helps companies raise money from investors, Jon Medved has seen more than a few locales.

“If you’re looking for innovation outside of Silicon Valley in the states, you can really do no better than Maryland,” said Medved, the CEO of OurCrowd.

Medved sees such promise in the Land of Pleasant Living that he wants to help Israel’s startup community connect here. In the process, OurCrowd could help address one of the local startup community’s primary needs: access to early-stage capital.

Image: OurCrowd CEO Jon Medved.  - https://technical.ly

SAN FRANCISCO — On April 19, 1965, just over 50 years ago, Gordon Moore, then the head of research for Fairchild Semiconductor and later one of the co-founders of Intel, was asked by Electronics Magazine to submit an article predicting what was going to happen to integrated circuits, the heart of computing, in the next 10 years. Studying the trend he’d seen in the previous few years, Moore predicted that every year we’d double the number of transistors that could fit on a single chip of silicon so you’d get twice as much computing power for only slightly more money. When that came true, in 1975, he modified his prediction to a doubling roughly every two years. “Moore’s Law” has essentially held up ever since — and, despite the skeptics, keeps chugging along, making it probably the most remarkable example ever of sustained exponential growth of a technology.

For many entrepreneurs, Kickstarter represents a level playing field where good ideas can find people with the cash to help make their dream a reality. 

Just look at the success of the legendary Potato Salad, where a guy tried to raise the funds to make, well, potato salad — and ended up raising over $55,000 and throwing a potato party for charity.

Image: http://www.businessinsider.com 

Every business owner works hard daily to help their company. Unfortunately, there are many actions they take that do more harm than good. Here are the top seven and what to do about them: 1. You’re Busy, but not Productive Emails, phone calls, and meetings get in the way of accomplishing critical tasks. When these interruptions dominate your day, you become busy, but not productive. Instead, start the day with two goals that need to be accomplished. Do these two things before anything else and your day will always be productive.

In a first-of-its-kind endeavor, electricity-starved Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo are trying to get power from a lake—and avert catastrophe.

In a month’s time, a motley assortment of robots will attempt to navigate a punishing obstacle course laid out in a fairground park in Pomona, California. At the challenge, organized by the Defense Advanced Research Projects (DARPA), about two dozen machines will make their way through a series of tasks meant to push the limits of robot navigation, manipulation, and locomotion.

Probably the single greatest threat to most small businesses is “concentration risk,” also known as “keeping all your eggs in one basket.” In this chapter excerpt of of The Innovation Formula Langdon Morris discusses innovation portfolio design, and how it translates the goals and intents of your aims and strategy into a set of risk-managed innovation projects.

You’ve heard of the Internet of Things (or Internet of Everything) by now, I’m sure. It’s things like your fridge telling you when you’ve run out of eggs; your shoes telling you how far you’ve travelled; your car keeping you up to date on local traffic so you know which routes to avoid; your house telling you how much water or heating is being used, that kind of thing.

Mexico is known for many things: tequila, tacos and mariachi music. But technology, innovation and startups? Actually, yes.

The country has become an increasingly powerful player on the Latin American innovation map. It ranked 66th on the 2014 Global Innovation Index, behind Chile (46), Panama (52), Costa Rica (57) and Brazil (61), but ahead of Colombia (68), Uruguay (72) and Peru (73). Gartner estimates that the Mexican IT market is worth US$64 billion and anticipates it will grow nearly 3% through 2018.

Getting customers in the door is a challenge that all entrepreneurs face. But even if you've been successful with one business model to date, targeting a new customer base—whether through expansion or a new venture—can feel like starting all over again.

To save you time and money, I asked several YEC entrepreneurs what one thing they'd prioritize above everything else when expanding an existing model to target a new customer base. Their best answers are below.

If you haven’t figured this out by now, mentorship is essential for your career, for the adventures of adulthood, and for life in general. And the person who’s helped me the most so far isn’t my mom’s cousin’s BFF. It’s C. Jay Steigerwald, the co-president of Carey Financial, LCC (who happens to be my uncle).