New entrepreneurs tend to focus only on getting the product right, and assume that the right culture and ethics will come later simply by hiring good people. In fact, they need an early focus on developing their moral compass, as well as setting the right ethical tone. Building an ethical business is more than just compliance and meeting legal requirements, and it has big paybacks.

By now, we all know multitasking doesn’t work. Our brains are incapable of focusing on more than one thing at a time. We might think we’re multitasking as we scan our email while on a conference call, but we’re not. We’re actually switch-tasking – quickly shifting attention from one thing to another and then back again — diluting our focus and losing precious seconds each time we switch. Those seconds add up to many hours of wasted time every week.

A new universitywide strategy and organizational framework to support technology transfer and commercialization of Cornell’s intellectual property (IP) is being implemented, according to Robert A. Buhrman, senior vice provost for research and vice president for technology transfer, intellectual property and research policy.

Techstars closed a $150 million early-stage fund, a much larger pool of money than it previously had, that will enable the firm to capitalize on the global network of startup founders and advisers it has built out in recent years.

Techstars launched its first startup accelerator in Boulder, Colo., in 2007. Since then it has spread around the country and internationally. Nearly 500 startups have gone through its programs. (Venture Capital Dispatch recently looked at the performance of these companies.)

Image: Techstars co-founder and Managing Director David Cohen Techstars

The improving economy contributed to a second strong year in a row for colleges’ endowment returns, according to an annual study released on Thursday. Colleges’ endowments returned an average of 15.5 percent in the 2014 fiscal year, up from 11.7 percent in 2013, and far above 2012’s investment returns of negative 0.3 percent.

Want to get in on a promising career? Think health care, tech and finance, according to a new survey from Glassdoor.

The job hunting and information site compiled its inaugural list of the top 25 jobs in the U.S. The rankings and Glassdoor's "Job Score" are based on three factors: earning potential, career opportunities and the number of job openings. Unsurprisingly, the list reveals that this is a wonderful time to be a medical professional or coder.

Potential rules guiding investment crowdfunding will go to the full House for a vote in Virginia next week.  The legislation has been released by the Commerce and Labor Committee and will now take the next step towards becoming law.  The bill was sponsored by Del. Scott Taylor of Virginia Beach.  Taylor was quoted in the Augusta Free Press on the bill;

“Crowdfunding is a recent innovation to help entrepreneurs get their companies off the ground and find the capital to grow. My bill would eliminate many of the regulatory stumbling blocks for a business looking to take advantage of the opportunity to solicit investments by crowdfunding. There is no doubt this bill will enable Virginians, investing in Virginia companies, to create jobs.”

Aaron Sorkin’s long-anticipated Steve Jobs biopic is finally underway, with principal photography beginning in San Francisco. Danny Boyle is set to direct with Michael Fassbender in the leading role as the visionary Apple founder.

The film, which is based on key moments in Walter Isaacson’s biography of Jobs, doesn’t have a title yet. After changing production companies (Sony to Universal) and cycling through leading men (Leonardo DiCaprio and Christian Bale were both slated to play Jobs before backing out) and directors (David Fincher to Boyle), it’s something of a wonder the project has come this far.

Every startup wants to change the world, but DC-based incubator and seed fund 1776 fosters the type of early stage companies that just might have a chance.

The incubator is focused specifically on startups for the public good and you won’t find any benign photo sharing apps in 1776’s portfolio.

Image: President Obama paid a visit to 1776 in July 2014 and heard pitches from 1776 entrepreneurs. British Prime Minister David Cameron has also visited the campus.  -http://www.businessinsider.com/

Supercomputing is being squeezed by new cloud computing competitors and more expensive component suppliers. How will the likes of IBM adapt to this hostile environment?

Two weeks ago, the tech media was abuzz with news of the z13, IBM’s newest “mainframe” supercomputer”. Geared for processing 2.5 billion mobile transactions a day, the z13 is the most powerful piece of hardware out there for enabling mobile payments and analysing customer data in real time. It was five years in the making, costing US$1 billion in development and is built on 500 patents. Such a machine reminds us that IBM still has the strength to create powerful hardware. But the company’s earnings just one week later also remind us of IBM’s yo-yo-like fortunes in the supercomputing business.

When you’re trying to start a small business, it’s daunting enough to pull together the essential elements of the business itself including leadership and key staff. But, the most successful entrepreneurs don’t just plan for the resources within the business, they also strategically assemble a team of resources to help support the company: “the village.”

The question of whether entrepreneurs are made or born has long been debated, but have studies provided us with a definitive answer?

Becoming an entrepreneur can be a big leap of faith for anybody. Because it's risky, it can be scary. In the end, you want to know that somehow you have the upper hand. Having science on your side can help give you this confidence, which leads us to a discussion about whether genetics could be a factor in your favor. If entrepreneurship were genetic after all, wouldn't you want to know? Furthermore, wouldn't you want to know if you fit the mold?

The first wave of year-end 2014 data on U.S. venture investment painted a portrait of a resurgent capital market. Investment activity reached its highest level of activity in a decade, finally shaking off the stagnation of the Great Recession (see last week’s article). Within the data, however, there were some concerning trends. The PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC)/National Venture Capital Association (NVCA) Moneytree data indicated that while later-stage investments and megadeals drove the 61 percent one-year increase in total VC dollars, seed stage dollars fell by 29 percent.

New York, New York – January 22, 2015 - The Intelligent Community Forum announced the Top7 Intelligent Communities of 2015 earlier today in an online event hosted by Finland’s former Minister of Communications, Suvi Linden. The Top7 list included cities and towns from 5 different nations, three communities from the United States, one from Australia, one from Brazil, one from Canada, and one from Taiwan.

European venture capital investment last year reached its highest level since the dot-com boom on the back of a healthy market for initial public offerings.

Equity financing for European venture-backed companies reached €7.9 billion ($8.9 billion), up from €6.3 billion in 2013 – the biggest amount invested since 2001 when companies secured €10.6 billion, according to data provider Dow Jones VentureSource.

Senior market executives attributed the rise to the strong market for listings, which has enabled venture firms to exit holdings, return money to investors and make fresh investments.

It took me a long time to realize that my dad was a successful entrepreneur.

My dad started a modest vacuum and sewing machine repair shop late in his life, after retiring from a long and successful corporate job. The business kept him busy for years, and for most of that early time, I used to shudder at the thought of taking over the "family business," mostly because regardless of how hard he worked, it was clear the business would never make him rich.

Image: James Jordan | Flickr  

SHARON HADARY: The only statistically significant predictor of whether a business owner will be successful in obtaining expansion capital is not the size of the business, the time in business or the industry—it is the owner’s goal for growth.

This is one of the most compelling findings from my 20-plus years of conducting research with women business owners. Although the original research was conducted with women business owners, my experience is that the finding applies to all entrepreneurial enterprises.

How others perceive our identity and actions may be very different to who we think we are and what we think we’re doing.

Around 600 B.C., the first of the Greek sages, Thales of Miletus, made the observation that the most difficult thing in the world was “To Know Thyself.” This astute comment still rings true today and is even timelier given the rediscovery of Sigmund Freud’s notion of unconscious processes.

A large network of neuroscientists and doctors that compared over 30,000 brain images with people’s DNA says it’s found several genes that appear to influence the size of brain structures involved in intelligence and memory, as well as the volume of the brain itself.

Although the medical importance of these clues remains far from clear, the consortium, called Enigma, says its work demonstrates a novel distributed-computing strategy able to sort through vast numbers of MRI scans and DNA test results. “What Enigma is doing is combing through every pixel of every scan and comparing it to every genome,” says Paul Thompson, the neuroscientist who organized the research. “This is a roadmap to how you do this.”

Image: A colorized MRI image shows a cross-section of a human brain.  - http://www.technologyreview.com

In early January Brenton “Brent” Saunders, the chief executive of upstart pharmaceutical giant Actavis , eclined in a medical chair on a stage in an Orlando hotel ballroom as a plastic surgeon pierced his face 30 times, delivering needles full of Botox to the crooks of his eyes and nose and injecting Juvederm Voluma, a dermal filler, into his cheeks. A cameraman documented every prick and projected it on a huge screen behind him. These are bestselling products for Allergan AGN -0.91%, which Actavis is buying for $67 billion, the biggest health care deal in six years. The audience, 1,000 Allergan sales reps, went wild.