Silicon Valley entrepreneur and author Eric Ries calls startups “human institutions designed to create a new product or service under conditions of extreme uncertainty.”

With that apt description, he captures some of the challenges early-stage companies face: Besides inadequate understanding of markets, competitors and customer preferences, startups often struggle to define what value their innovation brings to the market.

How do you decide between a job you love and an exciting new opportunity to supercharge your career?

That's the choice I was faced with when deciding to leave Semphonic (acquired by Ernst & Young in March) to join independent data and analytics firm Cardinal Path.

On the surface, it's easy to point to the larger company environment and the acquisition and say it was a logical move for someone looking for a more entrepreneurial challenge.

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WITH, WELL, THE INTERNET, WHO NEEDS A RESUME ANYMORE? HERE'S THE BEST WAY TO CREATE AN ONLINE PRESENCE THAT WILL HAVE EMPLOYERS COMING TO YOU--NOT THE OTHER WAY AROUND.

I’ve never liked the idea of a resume. Partly that’s because I haven’t had a normal job since 2002. At any given point, I’m writing for five to seven different organizations, and I’m also in a line of work that’s more about output than anything else. If you’re thinking of hiring me, there are examples of my work all over the web. A resume won’t add much to that, which is why I don’t have one.

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Women's entrepreneurship has hit a media tipping point. The question is: Is it just a passing media fad that will soon be a blip on the radar screen, or is it actually a real, fundamental economic force that's reshaping the world? I think it's safe to say that it's the latter. Women-owned entities in the formal sector represent approximately 37% of enterprises globally — a market worthy of attention by businesses and policy makers alike.

We’re going to be the generation that changes the world…

Not through our innovation of future physical inventions or businesses, nor how we have already reshaped communication, or our ability to blatantly preach togetherness through quietly expressing selfishness.  Not by our desire to create solutions to fix national obstacles after first, confronting worldly dilemmas.  Although these will all be added fractions to the difference we make in history, they won’t be what allow our generation to rebuild the foundation of the future on Earth.

Purdue University administrators, faculty members and local government officials celebrated Wednesday the opening of Purdue Foundry, a space in the Burton D. Morgan Center for Entrepreneurship that aims to assist innovators in commercializing their research.

The Foundry collaborates with existing commercialization activities coordinated by Purdue Research Foundation and across the institution.

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As an economist who studies health care, I find it hard to know whether to welcome or fear new technology. Surgeons can replace a heart valve with a plastic and metal one that unfolds once threaded through arteries—repairs that used to be made by cracking open the chest. Customized cancer drugs hold the promise of making fatal diseases treatable. At the same time, it’s depressingly common to hear projections of fiscal Armageddon as health-care spending drags the U.S. federal government into debt and wipes out any wage growth for the average American. Even a recent slowdown in spending growth simply postpones the inevitable date when Medicare goes bankrupt.

The NFL, Under Armour and GE on Wednesday launched Head Health Challenge II, an open innovation challenge to award up to $10 million for new innovations and materials that can protect the brain from traumatic injury and for new tools for tracking head impacts in real time. The challenge is part of the Head Health Initiative, a collaboration to help speed diagnosis and improve treatment for mild traumatic brain injury.

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The world’s most innovative companies enjoy a premium on their share price. Holding onto it depends on the flexibility of top-level management to encourage new ideas across the organisation.

When you run the world’s leading customer-relationship software firm, you need to think ahead to stay ahead. Salesforce.com Inc.’s Founder and CEO Marc Benioff is proof of this philosophy: it’s this thinking that’s allowed his company to reign number one on our list of the World’s Most Innovative Companies for three consecutive years, with no signs of slowing down.

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What do you get when you throw a basketball off of a Dutch observation tower, and through a hoop located on the ground more than 300 feet below you? An apparent world record, that's what.

Australian trick shot YouTube masters How Ridiculous traveled to Rotterdam to climb the Euromast building, and complete the feat, as proved in the video, above. They claim it's a new world record, besting their old mark of a measly 223 feet.

To give a shot in arm to the digital services and products market and unearth talents among the digital entrepreneurs, Saudi-based Intigral has launched — Afkar.me — the Middle East and North Africa’s first comprehensive start-up incubator. The initiative gives entrepreneurs everything they require to take ideas from conception to market and turn it into a reality.

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Existing companies, not research universities or entrepreneurship programs, are the most fertile source of startup businesses in most metropolitan areas. That's a key takeaway from a new study conducted by the Kauffman Foundation, which also found that most areas with higher-than-average startup activity have been strong entrepreneurial centers for at least 20 years.

Arizona State University’s unique approach to entrepreneurship education is featured in two white papers recently published by the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation that explore the state of entrepreneurship education on college campuses.    

The papers, which were released Aug. 1, detail the results of the Kauffman Campuses Initiative, which supported the development of interdisciplinary entrepreneurship education programs at U.S. colleges and universities. The initiative, which has since concluded, was launched with eight universities in December 2003. Ten additional campuses, including ASU, joined in 2006.

Entrepreneurship can be taught. It's just not being taught very well.

At least that's the view of Bill Aulet, the managing director of the Martin Trust Center for MIT Entrepreneurship, a research and teaching program at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Educators spend too much time regaling students with tales from the trenches and not enough time providing clear directions, says Mr. Aulet, who worked for more than a decade at International Business Machines Corp. IBM +0.33% before launching a series of startups, including 3-D imaging company SensAble Technologies Inc.

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IBM-PLI and Site Selection magazine will develop a ranking of the Top 100 cities around the world based on their competitiveness for attracting international (greenfield) investment projects from multiple sectors. Find out who made the list!

All cities featured in this media kit have made the final cut. IBM-Plant Location International will release the final rankings in October, and the results will be revealed in Site Selection's November Business Climate Report, and presented at the World Forum for Foreign Direct Investment in Shanghai, China.

The World's Most Competitive Cities Report will be mailed directly to corporate decision makers from around the world, and showcased globally by IBM-Plant Location International, Site Selection magazine and Conway Data.

For information on the methodology used in these prestigious rankings, or on how to advertise in the Report, please contact Anne Hardy at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

A random statistic: the value of property in London’s most upmarket borough, Kensington and Chelsea, is now greater than that of all property in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland combined.

This monstrous imbalance is one manifestation of an economic value system that rewards short-term gain over sustainable growth. Rather than making patient investments that generate innovation and create lasting value, the bankers, oligarchs and hedge fund managers are taking the risk-free option of sinking their cash into exclusive bricks and mortar.

Every time I challenge a business plan with little or no budget for marketing, I get the answer that they will be using “viral” marketing, which costs nothing. The founder explains that the product is so “buzz-worthy” that usage will spread rapidly through word-of-mouth only, meaning people loving it and recommending it to their friends.

First of all, Seth Godin pointed out a few years ago that viral marketing does not equal word-of-mouth. His view is that word-of-mouth is an unsolicited consumer action, positive or negative, which usually fades quickly, like a good or bad restaurant review.

Investors owe a lot to startups. But what about startups themselves? Well, they do.

Here are some:

1. No paper-ideas PLEASE Nobody cares about the paper ideas. You have to get shipping or shut the f**k up. Forget about Investors, even we receive a lot of emails which starts on a basic premise that ‘I can’t get started till I have funding’.

Sorry – nobody is in a business to get you started.

For more, listen to Printo cofounder, Manish’s talk (at UnPluggd) where he talks about stationary vs. moving trains.

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The European Commission has today started the search for the first European Capital of Innovation, or iCapital. The prize will reward the city which is building the best “innovation ecosystem”, connecting citizens, public organisations, academia, and business. Given that 68% of the EU population now lives in urban areas, it is these areas that will contribute the most to making Europe more innovative. Cities foster innovation in their own provision of services, but the key is to create the right environment for others to innovate and to allow the public and private spheres to connect. An independent panel of experts will select the winner in spring 2014, with the city chosen receiving €500000 towards scaling up its efforts. The deadline for applications is 3 December 2013.

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A little while back, someone named Dr. C commented here at Small Business Trends saying:  ”I’m still not sure how hashtags are being used, or how to use them, or when to use them, or what the significance is in using them… totally confused ….”  We hear you, Dr. C — hashtags are baffling to those who do not spend a lot of time online or who are new at social media.

So today we’re going to tackle the question “What is a hashtag?” in plain language.  We will also address the business significance of hashtags, and how hashtags can help you in marketing.

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