Here we highlight selected innovation related articles from around the world on a daily basis. These articles related to innovation and funding for innovative companies, and best practices for innovation based economic development.
The second high-priority Agenda item for the Bring Back the Meritocracy! project in 2015 is persuading top-tier venture capital groups to launch "new-old-style" venture funds, focused on founders and early-stage entrepreneurs over the age of 40, and participating in the administration of such funds once they are launched.
By: Arthur Lipper
The logo above is intended to represent the investment decision-making process of balancing the possible risks and rewards of investing when viewed through a telescope allowing a view of future events. This is what successful investing is all about, balancing risks and rewards in light of what is to come.
By: Arthur Lipper
The following questions and answers regarding royalties, especially royalties purchased form companies seeking to expand and increase their revenues have not been prioritized or are in common interest groups. They are simply a random listing of questions we believe could be in the minds of those not having studied royalties.
It is my hope that in reviewing the questions and answers a better understanding of the royalty process will result. We believe that royalty financings will create increasing income for investors and bigger businesses for royalty issuers. Both will enrich our society...
Data scientists are trained to handle uncertainty. The data we work with, no matter how “big” it may be, remains a finite sample riddled with potential biases. Our models tread the fine line between being too simple to be meaningful and too complex to be trusted. Armed with methodologies to control for noise in our data, we simulate, test and validate everything we can. A great data scientist develops a healthy skepticism of their data, their methods and their conclusions.
The Association of University Research Parks (AURP), the world’s leading network of university research, science and technology park professionals, invites you to share your knowledge, expertise and experience by presenting at the 2015 International Conference in Buffalo, New York. This year's theme is C3 – Connect, Collaborate, Create.
For entrepreneurs, there are few tasks more important than raising the capital they need to keep the doors open as they continue their long march toward a profitable venture.
A recent article from Josh Kopelman at First Round Review provides a treasure trove of tips and information on raising this kind of capital, especially in Silicon Valley.
Award Competitions to Operate Hollings Manufacturing Extension Partnership (MEP) Centers in the States of Alaska, Idaho, Illinois, Minnesota, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Oklahoma, Utah, Washington, West Virginia and Wisconsin
Three informational webinars will be conducted for interested parties on March 30th at 2:00 p.m.; April 6th at 2:00 p.m. and April 16th at 1:00 p.m. – all EDT. Proposals are due June 1, 2015.
Background on MEP
Across the country, the National Institute of Standards and Technology’s (NIST) Manufacturing Extension Partnership (MEP), a state-federal network of 60 centers and 1,200 manufacturing experts, helps small manufacturers improve their production processes, upgrade their technological capabilities, and bring new products to market. MEP helps small manufacturers compete, increasing employment and investment across the country and generating a high return on public investment.
Every dollar of federal investment in the MEP translates into $19 of new sales for small manufacturers, or almost $2.5 billion annually across the 30,000 small manufacturers that MEP serves. Since it was founded in 1988, MEP has worked with nearly 80,000 manufacturers, leading to $88 billion in sales and $14 billion in cost savings, and helping small manufacturers create more than 729,000 new jobs.
This year at Startup Oasis I gave a presentation called “4 Insights from the Fastest Growing Companies in America.” Startup Oasis went from March 14-16 in Austin, TX, during SXSW Interactive, and is an event hosted by the Kauffman Foundation and UP Global, the creators of Startup Weekend.
On this blog I share the slide deck that I used, as well as all the research and data sources I pulled from to create the presentation. The presentation builds on a good amount of previous research from the Kauffman Foundation, and many ideas here were inspired by previous presentations by Kauffman’s Yas Motoyama and former Kauffman colleague Jared Konczal. Hope you enjoy it.
Before Kanyi Maquebela became an investment partner at the Collaborative Fund, an early-stage venture capital firm focused on social enterprises, he was a typical Stanford student in need of career guidance. He was working with startups, studying philosophy, dating someone special—and feeling overwhelmed.
Enter "Designing Your Life," a new and wildly popular course for Stanford juniors and seniors that is grounded in design thinking concepts and techniques. The course’s lessons gave him the perspective he needed to navigate decisions about life and work post graduation.
Image: http://www.fastcompany.com
Thanks to recently awarded funding granted by the Michigan Economic Development Corp (MEDC), SPARK East and Eastern Michigan University will be enhancing collaborative efforts as part of SPARK's continued growth in Ypsilanti.
"MEDC's support helps Ann Arbor SPARK continue SPARK East's existing activities, which is focused on increasing entrepreneurship in Ypsilanti," said Ann Arbor SPARK president and CEO Paul Krutko in a press release. "The funding will also work to increase Ann Arbor SPARK's collaboration with EMU on its technology transfer and Center for Digital Engagement activities."
Venture capitalist Emily Melton still remembers the day Jacob Sattelmair, founder of Wellframe, showed up with his pitch to persuade her firm, Draper Fisher Jurvetson, to invest in his start-up.
"He looked like he had been in a bar fight," Melton said. "His eye had been sealed shut." "Don't worry. It's not contagious," Sattelmair told her when he saw her expression, explaining that he had an eye infection.
When CareGuide founder John Philip Green set out to raise the first outside capital for his network of websites, his goal was $500,000 (U.S.).
He ended up raising more than $1.5-million after seeking equity through the popular U.S.-based crowdfunding portal, AngelList.
Mr. Green had already landed about 10 investors through his own contacts, but AngelList helped to push that number to more than 50.
The National Institutes of Health has selected three new proof-of-concept hubs to help speed the translation of basic biomedical discoveries into commercial products, such as new drugs, devices, and diagnostics, to improve patient care and enhance health. The hubs are part of the NIH-supported Research Evaluation and Commercialization Hubs (REACH) program and will be funded at $9 million over three years.
REACH is based on an initiative created by the NIH’s National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI) called the NIH Centers for Accelerated Innovations (NCAI). These centers are a unique public-private partnership whose objective is to change how to identify and develop innovations with scientific and commercial potential. The effort utilizes industry-style project management to arrive at technologies that are poised to launch. With the addition of the REACH, NIH has created a nationwide network of six centers and hubs to develop best practices in translating academic innovations into products to improve health.
Get the PayPal account ready.
Startups can now raise up to $50 million by selling stock online to anyone, opening the door for Internet-based equity crowdfunding platforms to begin operation.
The Securities and Exchange Commission voted unanimously on Wednesday to adopt rules that permit startups to raise money from the vast majority of Americans, including provisions that allow for deals to be made over the Internet.
This year Amazon joined Netflix and the usual TV and cable outlets in contention for one of Hollywood’s most prestigious awards — the Golden Globe for best TV series. This has prompted many in the press to proclaim that Amazon has grown up, and proven that you don’t need a major network to make quality content. However, while Amazon may have already codified the business practice of pursuing growth over profit, that’s not a success that all startups can easily replicate. More likely than not, investors will want to see that your startup has a plan to make money, and doing that requires keeping your burn rate under control. What follows are three ways of thinking that influence my approach to the way I spend.
In a stunning development earlier today, the SEC released final Regulation A+ rules under Title IV of the JOBS Act that pre-empts state law for larger Regulation A offerings up to $50M and provides for state coordinated review for offerings up to $20M. Growth companies will now soon be able to raise up to $50 million from unaccredited investors in a mini-IPO style offering serving as a potential alternative to venture capital or other institutional capital. Imagine Uber or AirBnb, instead of going to big institutions for capital, now offering their stock directly to their drivers, riders, renters and tenants as well as the general public.
Image: http://www.crowdfundinsider.com
We are now solidly in the era of big data, where computers are capturing and processing the details of everything we do with all our interconnected devices in real time. Businesses see this as the Holy Grail for finally being able to predict who, where, and when customers will buy their existing solutions, and what their future solutions must look like to be attractive.
Virgin founder Richard Branson's latest initiative, #VOOM: Pitch to Rich, invites British entrepreneurs to submit a business idea with a big pay-off: A £1 million business accelerator prize fund that will be shared by the 10 best pitches. The competition, which is a collaboration between Virgin Business Media and LinkedIn UK, launched Tuesday night with a TV spot on Channel 4 (watch below) in which Branson cites bravery as the defining characteristic of an entrepreneur.
Image: http://www.brandchannel.com
To grow and innovate, organizations have to come up with creative ideas. At the employee level, creativity results from a combination of expertise, motivation, and thinking skills. At the team level, it results from the synergy between team members, which allows the group to produce something greater than the sum of its parts.
As a venture capitalist, I meet companies seeking funding every day with projected revenue vastly exceeding current revenue. How does a VC ascertain the likelihood of you achieving your forward revenue number? How do you demonstrate to a VC that you can credibly hit your projections?
