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.
If you’re one of the record number of people who started a new business last year, you might feel a bit intimidated right now. Or maybe you were recently laid off or have nursed dreams of leaving your salaried job to start your own company for years. This might feel like the time to shelve those dreams of entrepreneurism until the downturn passes. Absolutely not.
The latest breed of elevators can recognize your face, greet you by name, take you to your floor automatically — and even stop to let on a robot bearing a catering platter or hospital tray.
Why it matters: The widespread fear of elevators that hit during the pandemic served to turbo-charge new innovations, in what some are calling a "digital revolution."
Every year the world runs more and more on batteries. Electric vehicles passed 10% of global vehicle sales in 2022, and they’re on track to reach 30% by the end of this decade.
Policies around the world are only going to accelerate this growth: recent climate legislation in the US is pumping billions into battery manufacturing and incentives for EV purchases. The European Union, and several states in the US, passed bans on gas-powered vehicles starting in 2035.
In 2022, around 50,000 new companies were entered in the Swiss commercial register. This data comes from the National Analysis of Swiss Company Formations 2022, carried out by the IFJ, which is an institute offering support to start-ups. Compared with the record year 2021, this equates to a slight decline of -1.4 percent. However, the number of start-ups is still above the average recorded over the past decade.
Image: In 2022, around 50,000 new companies have been entered in the Swiss commercial register. Genric image: StartupStockPhotos/Pixabay
GrubHub founder Mike Evans reveals the inside story of how he grew a multibillion-dollar behemoth that changed the way we eat.
Hungry and tired one night, Mike wanted a pizza, but getting a pizza delivered was a pain in the neck. He didn’t want to call a million restaurants to see what was open. So, as an avid coder, he created GrubHub in his spare bedroom to figure out who delivered to his apartment. Then, armed with a $140 check from his first customer and ignoring his crushing college debt, he quit his job. Over the next decade, Mike grew his little delivery guide into the world’s premier online ordering website. In doing so, he entered the company of an elite few entrepreneurs to take a startup from an idea all the way to an IPO.
GrubHub’s journey from Mike’s bedroom to Wall Street doesn’t fit into how business schools teach entrepreneurship. In Hangry, he details step-by-step the grind of building an innovative business, with each chapter including sharp lessons for entrepreneurs and startups that Mike learned on the fly as he piloted GrubHub by the seat of his pants. Hangry reveals a decade of eighty-hour work weeks, detailed steps of how Mike garnered his first customers, his hunt for financing dollars, cliffhanger acquisitions, the near collapse of his marriage, a brutally difficult merger, and a pair of tumultuous quit/unquit moments, all to steer the company to become one of the most successful startups in the world. With a razor-sharp wit, Mike reveals hard-won truths about how startups succeed—and even harder-won truths about how startups fail.
Shocking everyone, at the pinnacle of startup success, Mike leaves it all behind, quitting the company he started to bike across the United States in search of balance. But eventually, the grand vistas of America bring the lessons of the past into focus, driving the realization that for entrepreneurs a hunger for success doesn’t end, and he starts another company, even more ambitious than the first.
Everybody wants a side hustle or two these days. Not only is money tight, but such great opportunities are available; spurred on by the ease of online culture and the gig economy, it seems like a no-brainer to capitalize on them. If you're here reading Entrepreneur, you probably already have a side hustle or have a great plan. 2022 is behind us, so it's time to consider what you want to accomplish in 2023. Why not plan to make your side hustle more profitable, or even turn it into a full-time gig, become your own boss or start your own business?
“Teams succeed to the degree that there is a free flow of ideas. Read this book to learn how to bring out the best in others—and in yourself.”—Scott Galloway, bestselling author of The Four and Post Corona
Ideaflow: the number of ideas you or your team can generate in a set amount of time
We all want great ideas, but few actually understand how they’re born. Innovation doesn’t come from a sprint or a hackathon—it’s a result of maximizing ideaflow.
Jeremy Utley and Perry Klebahn of Stanford’s renowned Hasso Plattner Institute of Design (aka the “d.school”) offer a proven strategy for coming up with great ideas by yourself or with your team, and quickly determining which are worthy. Drawing upon their combined decades of experience leading Stanford’s premier Launchpad accelerator and advising some of the world’s most innovative organizations, like Microsoft, Michelin, Keller Williams Realty, and Hyatt, they’ll teach you how to:
Overcome dangerous thinking traps
Find inspiration in unexpected places
Trick your own brain to be more creative
Design and deploy affordable experiments
Fill your innovation pipeline
Unleash your own creative potential, as well as the potential of others
Perhaps you have experienced low ideaflow. Have you been in that quiet conference room, with a half-filled whiteboard, and an unmet business target? With the proven system in this book, entrepreneurs, managers, and leaders will learn how to tap into surprising and valuable ideas on demand and fill the creative pipeline with breakthrough ideas.
For all their utility and ubiquity (not to mention TV commercials’ allegations), paper towels are simply not very good at their job—at least when compared with hydrogels, which are already utilized in the form of microbeads between fabric or paper sheets for products like diapers or tampons. These materials, composed of large, interlocking polymers, absorb upwards of 100 times their weight in water, making them roughly 30 percent more effective than porous options like paper towels.
The internet revolution has made many people rich, and the lure of outrageous fortune has tempted many to exaggerate what computers can do. During the dot-com bubble, many companies discovered they could double the price of their stock simply by adding .com, .net, or internet to their names. Now, we face an comparable AI bubble — in which many companies woo customers and investors by claiming to have a business model based on artificial intelligence.
For years, the Stanford Biomechatronics Laboratory has captured imaginations with their exoskeleton emulators—lab-based robotic devices that help wearers walk and run faster, with less effort. Now, these researchers will turn heads out in the "wild" with their first untethered exoskeleton, featured in a paper published in Nature.
Image: Ava Lakmazaheri, a graduate student in the Biomechatronics Laboratory, walking while wearing the untethered exoskeleton. (CREDIT: Kurt Hickman)
Scientists have developed a new water purification system that can filter out small plastic particles, as well as other pollutants, very quickly and with high efficiency.
The porous material, described in the journal Advanced Materials, may be used as a high-efficiency adsorption material in the future as it has cost competitiveness based on raw materials and enables solar-based water purification process.
When a patient undergoes a surgical operation to remove a tumor or treat a disease, the course of surgery is often not predetermined. To decide how much tissue needs to be removed, surgeons must know more about the condition they are treating, including a tumor’s margins, its stage and whether a lesion is malignant or benign— determinations that often hinge upon collecting, analyzing, and diagnosing a disease while the patient is on the operating table.
Image: When surgeons send samples to a pathologist for examination, both speed and accuracy are of the essence. (CREDIT: Creative Commons)
As the founder of innovation firm Afara Global, I've worked with many organizations and high-achieving individuals who are focused on growth. They often come up with hoards of great ideas for ventures, growth and change. However, I've found that this can often lead to feeling overwhelmed and incapable of moving forward—a phenomenon called "analysis paralysis."
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K government’s push to bridge the AI skills gap comes with a focus on a risk based approach.
As industry predictions indicate an AI boom in 2023, the UK government has stepped up to plug the skills gap in the sector. At the end of 2022, the government evaluated the Industry-funded Masters in AI (IMAI) programme. IMAI aimed to “boost the opportunities available for applied training in artificial intelligence in the UK.”
The year 2023 is set to be revolutionary for technology, with many disruptive trends expected to reshape how businesses function and how people interact with each other. From metaverse-based virtual workspaces, advancements in quantum computing and green energy sources to innovations in robots and satellite connectivity – here’s a look at the technological trends that could define the coming year.
As we embark on a new year, it’s always helpful to have a little guidance and inspiration from those who have found success in the world of entrepreneurship. That’s why we’ve compiled a list of the top 20 entrepreneurs to follow in 2023. These business leaders have made a name for themselves in a variety of industries, from tech to fashion to food and beyond. They’ve demonstrated innovative thinking, resilience, and a dedication to their craft, and they are sure to continue making waves in the coming year.
Image: https://www.laweekly.com
Climate change, pollution, renewable energy, sustainable habitats, environmentally-aware brands, and the rise of green entrepreneurship have grabbed the headlines this year.
Drawing on our coverage of entrepreneurship and the environment this year, we present 70 uplifting quotes on the challenges ahead of us, and the opportunities within. See also our pick of quotes on World Oceans Day and World Environment Day.
Going from unknown to must-have in your client acquisition process can be a challenging task. But it is not impossible. By following a few simple steps, you can increase your sales and become an authority in your industry. Below are three easy steps that anyone can follow to achieve this goal:
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HIS PAST YEAR, long-form Horizons stories delved into the technologies that could dictate our future, including everything from cancer-destroying bacteria to a satellite-flinging launch station. Inverse’s in-depth reporting spanned forward-looking fields like artificial intelligence, renewable energy, robotics, and private space travel.
Image: Rocket Lab is developing reusable rockets to cut down on space waste.Rocket Lab
The car industry has always excelled when it comes to innovation, and we’re certainly reaping the benefits as we embrace an exciting era of relatively new technologies such as electrification, automation and micro-mobility.
But not every idea that the industry’s boffins come up with is a good one. And even when they do produce something clever, there’s no guarantee that the general public will agree.
Image: https://www.autoexpress.co.uk/
