It's been almost a decade since the Human Genome Project was completed, yet despite the best efforts of scientists around the world, hopes for a broad range of cures remain unfulfilled.

In an effort to jump-start the process, a remarkable group of experts assembled last fall at the Milken Institute Lake Tahoe Retreat. "Accelerating Innovation in the Bioscience Revolution," released today, recaps that discussion among more than 65 leaders in medicine, business and government who pledged to rethink how research is conducted, how risks are assessed and how companies are structured.

Ever wondered how much your company is worth?

In this episode of eLagaan Whiteboard Friday, the eLagaan team discusses how to valuate a company, when starting a startup, raising their venture fund, exiting the company.  Some of the formulas to use are based on net profit or revenue.

There seems to be a considerable amount of confusion about the differences between business accelerator and business incubators. Many people use the terms interchangeably, but there are a number of elements that distinguish one from the other. At the same time, there is indeed overlap across incubator and accelerator services, which explains much of the confusion. The aim of this article is to help distinguish the difference between the two.

It is sometimes easier to grasp the differences between two adjacent paradigms by first knowing about the elements they share. For example, incubators and accelerators both prepare companies for growth. I.e. both incubators and accelerators help firms grow by providing guidance and mentorship, but in slightly different ways and, and more importantly at different stages in the life of the business. In order to get this straight, let’s draw an analogy and say that the life of a business is like the life of a human being. There are roughly three major stages of life: childhood, adolescence and adulthood.

Imagine an eBay-type website for investing and donating where you could login and browse causes and businesses, and find an “investment” that appeals to you.

You could contribute a small amount, become part of a community, and over time see the impact of your donation or investment.

Crowdfunding, at its essence, is exactly that — connecting “crowds” directly to those who need funds.

Vodafone is set to nurture the technology talent of tomorrow as it invests in new Tech City incubator in East London.

Tech City is Europe’s fastest growing digital hub, and Vodafone joins a host of companies to support the next generation of British digital entrepreneurs as the capital proves it can attract some of the world’s largest technology companies.

Innovative start-up businesses will be encouraged to join the technology and incubation centre which is being heralded as a European answer to Vodafone’s successful xzone in Silicon Valley. 

The Florida Economic Gardening Institute at the University of Central Florida (GrowFL) announced today that $2M in funding, authorized during the 2012/2013 Legislative session, has been finalized by the State of Florida. The GrowFL program, originally piloted in 2009, will continue to cultivate entrepreneurial growth through support and funding by the Department of Economic Opportunity (DEO). Since its inception in 2009, GrowFL has worked with hundreds of second-stage companies providing assistance under the economic development methodology known as Economic Gardening.

“We are excited about the continuation of GrowFL services on a statewide level,” said Dr. Tom O’Neal, Executive Director of GrowFL and Associate Vice President at the University of Central Florida. “Our proven approach creates jobs.”

The 19th Annual NASVF Conference will be held in Cleveland, Ohio October 15-17, 2012. Please join over 300 Innovation Capital industry experts as they address this year’s conference theme, "Advancing Innovation: Seeding Tomorrow’s Opportunities.”

The conference will feature best practices in innovation capital, updates on industry trends and great sessions with industry leaders. This will be the conference where industry professionals exchange their best strategies and tools for building and managing strategic investment programs and institutions.

The typical Los Angeles area commuter with an hour round trip spends a combined 20 minutes delayed or sitting idle during Thursday rush-hour traffic, but only about 14 minutes on Mondays. In Chicago, congestion tacks three minutes onto a similar motorist’s trips on Fridays compared to Mondays. For many commuters in dense metropolitan areas, the days they choose to drive matter. Research firm Inrix compiled one year of traffic data for Governing, showing a disparity in commuting delays for different weekdays across U.S. metro areas.

Traditionally, inventive concepts and marketable ideas have come from research and development (R&D). Observations and experiments during research activities in “think labs” have often led to discoveries and inventions that may have commercial applicability. This is most easily seen in the pharmaceutical industry. Big pharmaceutical companies pour millions of dollars into helping lab technicians and chemists to research new drugs for curing diseases that ail mankind. 

However, the landscape of discovery is broadening rapidly. In today’s times, marketable ideas are being discovered in much simpler scenarios, and by ordinary people just trying to solve a problem that they have been experiencing. 

Québec n’aura pas été sacrée ville « intelligente » de 2012. Elle s’y reprendra probablement, mais déjà elle sait qu’elle peut en montrer à la nominée californienne : Riverside!

« I have never seen an event like this one in the USA », nous avouera sur place Richard A. Bendis, le pdg de Innovation America, qui était venu de Philadelphie pour participer aux deux jours de l’événement « QUÉBEC EN MODE SOLUTIONS ».

Half of Spain's youth are unemployed, and yet at the Wayra business start-up project on Madrid's majestic Gran Via avenue, young people buzz around an office chatting animatedly, typing furiously and holding up trails of wire and computer parts.

These are Spain's technology entrepreneurs, and they're positive about the future - even as Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy tries to avert a full international rescue for a country beset by recession, a property market collapse and a banking crisis.

Olympic gold medalist Byran Clay teams up with BMW engineers to measure the vertical and horizontal velocities of his long jumps. 

Which ideas do you bet big on?

In their 30 years of studying leadership, coauthors James Kouzes and Barry Posner have discovered the practices common to the best leaders. We've grabbed a few from the fifth edition of their "Leadership Challenge" to help you put together your own bench of superstars.

When people recall their personal-best leadership experiences, they always think about some kind of challenge. Why? Because personal and business hardships have a way of making people come face-to-face with who they really are and what they're capable of becoming. They test people, and they require inventive ways of dealing with new situations. They tend to bring out the best in people.

Work isn't always a good time. That's why we've got to celebrate when we can. You may "woohoo" at your own discretion.

Growing up in New England, I tended to maintain a pretty good work ethic. If there was work to be done, I did it. And as I entered the workforce, year after year, life got busier and more jam-packed with obligations and responsibilities. And yet, it occurred to me this past week that not celebrating the wonders of the work that we do is truly a missed opportunity.

Facebook is not only on course to go bust, but will take the rest of the ad-supported Web with it.

Given its vast cash reserves and the glacial pace of business reckonings, that will sound hyperbolic. But that doesn't mean it isn't true.

At the heart of the Internet business is one of the great business fallacies of our time: that the Web, with all its targeting abilities, can be a more efficient, and hence more profitable, advertising medium than traditional media. Facebook, with its 800 million users, valuation of around $100 billion, and the bulk of its business in traditional display advertising, is now at the heart of the heart of the fallacy.

Whoa. To paraphrase the philosophers of Insane Clown Posse, magnetism, how does it work?

If you’re ever unconvinced that the simplest design ideas can create the most dramatic product improvements, think about this: designer Jung Soo Park stuck a magnet--nature’s oldest invention--to a hammer--one of Mankind’s oldest inventions. And in doing so, he created Neo, a hammer that can pick up those pesky, rolly nails from a table or floor. It can even hold your spare nails in place during the hammering process.

The job market may be bleak, but college graduates of all ages still have high hopes that they will eventually land "impact jobs" that make a difference socially or environmentally. So says Talent Report: What Workers Want in 2012 from Net Impact, which surveyed 1,726 college students about to enter the workforce as well as employed four-year college graduates (including Millennials, Generation X, and Baby Boomers) on their life goals, job satisfaction, and desire to have an "impact job".

Here’s what the survey found.

Somewhat surprisingly, current workers said that having an impact job was more important than having children, a prestigious career, wealth, and community leadership. The top two most important things to have for happiness: financial security and marriage. Financial security still matters more than making a difference, but wealth isn’t important for people if they can do some good.

You can purchase goods from larger retailers, buy or consume food from chain stores and restaurants, or patronize local small businesses. Very often, you have the luxury of choosing any and all of these. Take, for example, the pet store market. Many towns now feature large national chains at one end of town and smaller, independently owned pet stores at the other.

With so much choice, commoditization and budget-driven buying behavior, how can this small business owner stand out? For many consumers, even in a budget-conscious economy, the answer lies in the customer experience.

This summer, the U.S. has faced its worst drought in over 50 years. Farmers and other small businesses that depend  on the weather, are facing financial hardships because of it.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) declared drought disaster areas in nearly half of the nation’s counties last week (see July 23, 2012 USDA map below).

This means that agriculture businesses and other drought-affected businesses in those 1,430 counties, which reach across 32 states, can apply for financial assistance from either the USDA or the U.S. Small Business Administration, depending on the type of business: