Every angel wants to hit the home run – to find startups that will bring huge returns. However, we know angel investing is risky and that the majority of investments will not pan out. That’s why it’s critical for angels to think not just about hitting home runs but how to win the game, honing their skills in identifying high potential companies and developing strategies that build high returns.

The University of Pennsylvania's new Penn Center for Innovation, described as "a dedicated, one-stop shop for commercial partnering with Penn," has been awarded a National Science Foundation (NSF) grant to foster entrepreneurship and commercialization.

Under the three-year grant, Penn is launching the Penn I-Corps Site, a new business accelerator, in collaboration with Wharton's Mack Institute for Innovation Management, Penn Medicine’s Center for Healthcare Innovation, Ben Franklin Technology Partners of Southeastern Pennsylvania (BFTP/SEP) and the City of Philadelphia.

To build a startup, entrepreneurs need a laser focus on providing an innovative solution to a real problem. Once they achieve that initial traction, the focus needs to change for quicker growth. Most entrepreneurs dream of achieving the exponential expansion of a Google or Amazon, but few investor pitches I see outline any strategy beyond simple marketing to make this happen.

Facebook believes that one day we'll be able to connect with friends in virtual reality, so users can eventually experience someone's vacation as though they're right there with them.

Facebook chief product officer Chris Cox revealed on stage Tuesday at the Code/Media conference the company's vision for how it plans to embrace virtual reality.

Anyone who knows me also knows that I have a huge sweet tooth. I always have. My friend and fellow graduate student Andrew is equally afflicted, and living in Hershey, Pennsylvania — the "Chocolate Capital of the World" — doesn't help either of us.

But Andrew is braver than I am. Last year, he gave up sweets for Lent. I can't say that I'm following in his footsteps this year, but if you are abstaining from sweets for Lent this year, here's what you can expect over the next 40 days.

The Daniel J. McCarthy(s) Venture Mentoring Network (VMN), a university-wide network that aims to provide the advanced guidance and industry connections that Northeastern entrepreneurs need after their companies begin to succeed, debuted on Jan. 21. The VMN works by matching student, alumni and faculty entrepreneurs with experienced mentors, mostly alumni and their professional contacts, who have the expertise each budding company needs.

Image: http://huntnewsnu.com 

A startup is betting more than half a billion dollars that it will dazzle you with its approach to creating 3-D imagery.

Availability: 1-3 years

Logically, I know there isn’t a hulking four-armed, twisty-horned blue monster clomping in circles in front of me, but it sure as hell looks like it.

I’m sitting behind a workbench in a white-walled room in Dania Beach, Florida, in the office of a secretive startup called Magic Leap.

In watching successful innovation clusters evolve around the world, we’re beginning to see the theory of creating an innovation ecosystem being successfully deployed in practice, with appropriate localization according to the destination. Whether it be the USA, UK, Germany, India, Brazil, or some countries in the Middle East, every government (national and local) appears to now recognize that they need to work with industry and academia to create the right environment, highlight role models and case studies for innovation and entrepreneurship, and stimulate an ‘innovation economy’.

Image: http://www.thenextsiliconvalley.com 

Last week, we went over a few basic mistakes people make when starting out as entrepreneurs. This week, I'm going to focus on the mistakes that one can make prior to embarking on the journey of entrepreneurship.

Not enough people spend time talking about the mistakes they have made in their journey. That's partly because we are all so enamoured with the success of it all that we don't want to hear how difficult and uphill the journey was to get that that Ferrari, or build that empire.

Securities and Exchange Commission chair Mary Jo White says that her agency will finalize the regulations for equity crowdfunding – efforts by entrepreneurs to sell equity to many people – sometime “in the near term.”  When the government finally gives the go-ahead, would-be investors should follow some simple rules for selecting companies in which to invest.

Millennials may be on track to be our most educated generation ever, but they consistently score below many of their international peers in literacy, numeracy, and problem solving. The results of this report help shed light on the growing inequality of opportunity in the U.S. and the impact this has on both skills acquisition and outcomes for both current and future generations.

He’s been deemed “the greatest marketer of all time.” There are countless stories of his outbursts and his stubbornness, but also of his iconic innovation, his inspirational personality (for some) and his revolutionary methods in everything from product design to branding.

Ever since I got my first Apple II when I was 12, I knew that someday I wanted to go work for “the guy who made that.” I dropped out of grad school after landing a job at NeXT and drove down from Winnipeg to sunny California. At the time I couldn’t have pointed out Silicon Valley on a map, but I knew in my gut that was where I wanted to be.

Finding employees is a fairly standard process. Unfortunately, when seeking tech talent with specialized training, such as back-end and front-end development skills for websites, mobile apps and other technical products and services, the process becomes anything but standard.

For starters, many entrepreneurs may lack the tech expertise necessary to properly describe the job needed or to vet and qualify candidates.

My heart beats faster than normal every time I hear somebody says “Education is the key, it is our answer to our problems.” If by education we are referring to the organized systematic methods of giving instructions as is the curriculum in our schools today, then education is definitely not the answer to our problems as a country. It hurts sometimes when I think that I might have to put my kids through this system, but then I find peace in knowing that I always have a choice.

Interviews are fairly anxiety inducing, especially when your interviewer has what can only be described as a professional poker face. You could drive yourself insane trying to figure out what exactly is going on behind that diplomatic smile.

To save you from the agony and to help you better prepare, here is an inside look at what goes through a hiring manager's mind during an interview. In general, employers are looking for the best technical and cultural fit that their budgets will allow for. While these questions will all go through their minds, the questions they end up asking usually aren't as direct. So, know that no matter how wacky or irrelevant the question might seem, they all come back to these five core concerns.

You probably don’t fly first class if you want to save money on business travel. And if you’re checking several websites before booking flights and hotel rooms you’re already doing better than many travelers. But are you doing flexible-date airfare searches before scheduling business trips? That strategy, explained below, can save you hundreds of dollars. What else can you do to save money on business travel? Use a few of the tricks in each of our five categories of travel savings.

DJ Patil is a smart guy who knows data – and he’ll play a key role in President Obama’s Precision Medicine Initiative. But what the White House’s first-ever Chief Data Scientist is short on? On-the-job experience in healthcare.

But that could be OK. Patil has worked at some Silicon Valley giants – LinkedIn, eBay, PayPal, Skype, and venture firm Greylock Partners. President Obama personally sought out Patil for the job – and now, he’ll represent the government’s newly heavy focus on big data, particularly as it applies to healthcare.

Image: http://medcitynews.com

The transition to a global digital economy in 2014 was sporadic – brisk in some countries, choppy in others. By year’s end, the seven biggest emerging markets were larger than the G7, in purchasing power parity terms. Plus, consumers in the Asia-Pacific region were expected to spend more online last year than consumers in North America. The opportunities to serve the e-consumer were growing – if you knew where to look.

As a manager, you provide some level of coaching to all your direct reports, helping some attain higher levels of professional achievement, and helping others improve their performance to fulfill their current roles. But while every manager should have the capability to coach, you also need to have the ability to discern when coaching isn’t working.

“It’s harder than ever to hire the right people.” It seems like almost every company today shares some version of this lament, and for good reason: Research shows that many have open positions for 12 months or more. Often, that’s not because the talent isn’t out there; rather, it’s because a company’s approach to compensation hasn’t evolved to be effective in today’s rapidly changing talent market.