The security incident at Symantec. The Volkswagen diesel emissions scandal. The market rigging allegations at Citigroup. In each of these cases, employees were singled out as the root causes for an organization’s failures. Yet given the operational scale, complexity and clip of these companies, is it viable — or beneficial — to put the onus on specific individuals?

The median pay among STEM workers in 2014 was more than $72,000. That’s more than double the median income among all occupations, according to Bureau of Labor Statistics data. Few would argue, however, that STEM workers are generally overpaid. Experts in the fields of science, technology, engineering and math are key contributors to economic growth. Furthermore, STEM occupations generally require years of rigorous and difficult training.

Nutshell: People with strong opinions can argue endlessly about whether founders should be structuring their seed rounds as convertible notes/SAFEs or equity. The problem is that the optimal structure for any type of financing is highly contextual, so anyone offering absolutes on the subject should just “Put that Coffee Down” in the Glengarry sense, before they hurt someone.  The X round that closes is better than the Y round that doesn’t.

The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) announced a recompetition of Hollings Manufacturing Extension Partnership (MEP) centers in 12 states and Puerto Rico including: Alabama, Arkansas, California, Georgia, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Missouri, Montana, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Puerto Rico, Utah, and Vermont. The objective of the MEP Center program is to provide business and technical services to small- and medium-sized manufacturers within the state of operation.

Partners HealthCare is expanding its Innovation Fund from $35 million to $100 million, the Massachusetts health system announced today at the J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference.

The fund, which was launched as an experiment in 2007 with funding from Brigham & Women’s Hospital and Massachusetts General Hospital, provides startup capital to early stage life sciences companies.

Have you ever had one of those ‘Aha’ moments when you knew your life was about to change forever? I distinctly remember mine. It started with the first recruit to my Personal Board of Directors: my husband, the entrepreneur.

It was 1999 and I was in full panic mode. We had finally settled into our new home in the city and now, since no moss gathers on a rolling entrepreneur, we had purchased an orchard in the countryside, a good hour’s drive away. On top of that, we had decided to put our family spin cycle on ‘high’, with a wild idea to make ice cider with all of our apples. There were a few problems with this:

One of the biggest movements in business today is providing employees with benefits that recognize the importance of their personal lives, like extended parental-leave policies.

But, if you're a serious entrepreneur, says "Shark Tank" investor and Herjavec Group founder Robert Herjavec, you need to set all that aside.

Image: "Shark Tank"/ABC "Shark Tank" investor Robert Herjavec.

Eddie Thai and Binh Tran are the kind of American entrepreneurs you'd expect to meet in Silicon Valley. Binh Tran is the co-founder of a successful tech company, Klout, which he sold for $200m (£140m) in 2014. Eddie Thai, the younger of the two, was educated at Harvard and Yale. But the pair have decided to set up their venture capital firm away from the ultra competitive corner of California that's home to Google, Apple and Facebook.

Is it too late for you to be an entrepreneur?

If you want to skip the article and get the quick answer, then here it is.

Absolutely not.

At the time of writing this article, I am a healthy 31-year-old male. I realize I have the benefit of life expectancy on my side. If everything goes as planned, I should have another 47.7 years of this entrepreneurial adventure. So, sure, it's easy for me to say,

The New Jersey Business & Industry Association is calling on lawmakers to vote on legislation expanding eligibility under the state’s angel investor tax credit program, which would allow for investments in the holding companies of qualified, “emerging,” New Jersey-based tech businesses.

On Monday, the Senate Economic Growth Committee voted to advance the measure, sending it forward to the Senate Budget and Appropriations Committee.

2015 was a record-setting year for shark attacks worldwide, but sharks face a much larger threat from humans.

A record-high 98 unprovoked shark attacks were reported last year, according to the Florida Museum of Natural History. 

SEE ALSO: Watch this female shark devour her male rival like a boss

The museum released its Yearly Worldwide Shark Attack Summary on Monday, reporting that the U.S. and Australia had the highest number of shark attacks last year.

UK equity crowdfunding has an enviable track record. More than 300 businesses have raised in excess of £140m through the largest platforms. The sector has been growing exponentially every year since it was created in 2011. Equity crowdfunding is becoming an essential part of the early-stage finance ecosystem and there is little doubt about its benefits to entrepreneurs and to innovation in the UK. However, recent media reports have raised some concerns about some platforms and their investors.

A new study from MIT discovered that startups are more likely to succeed when their venture capital backers are connected to them via direct flight.

The research informs larger questions about the effects of venture capital oversight and whether it improves the operations of the startups in which the firm has invested or whether startup success depends solely on effective internal management.

Let’s say you’re a software startup founder, and you’ve come under fire for having a gender-imbalanced developer team. You’ve been aware of the problem for years—especially after the slew of stories about sexism in Silicon Valley—but as you built your team, you ended up hiring anyone who was interested and had talent, without paying attention to your demographics. Now, all of a sudden, your founders—and your customers—care. And, because you want to have a healthy workplace, you do, too.

There was so much great content at the Upfront Summit but I think one that held a special place in minds of most people I talked to was our panel on diversity led by my partner Hamet Watt (

The message of the panel was very clear – “We don’t need your help. We want to partner with you to make money.” And I’ll elaborate on this but I wanted to start first with an important quote from Magic, said with a very positive tone and at the end of a session in which he emphasized,

The U.S. Department of Commerce released details today about the President’s fiscal year (FY) 2017 Budget request to Congress, which includes $258 million for the U.S. Economic Development Administration (EDA) to support 21st century economic development through innovative planning, regional capacity building and capital projects.

 Of this amount, $215 million is for EDA’s Economic Development Assistance Programs which includes the Public Works, Economic Adjustment Assistance, Partnership Planning, Research and Evaluation Programs as well as EDA’s Regional Innovation Strategies Program. This balanced portfolio of programs gives EDA the flexibility to respond to various regional needs facing communities across the nation.

There they were. Two managers glaring at each other. Teeth clenched. Hands tightened into fists. Barely breathing. Exchanging noxious words of personal attack.

The issue? Whose people were more responsible for a very angry major client threatening to pull all her business due to late delivery and poor performance.

I and several other people watched in stunned silence as the fight escalated. We made a few attempts to calm them down and address what could be done to fix things and keep the client, to no avail. Accusations kept flying.   We backed off—for our own safety. In what seemed like hours but was actually only a few more minutes, the warring parties stalked off in opposite directions leaving lots of blame but no solution in their wake.

On Feb. 8, the California Department of Technology (CDT) announced the Office of Digital Innovation and Technology Engagement — a new office designed to promote civic engagement, the use of open source software and data-driven decision-making in the state.

The office will be led by Geographic Information Officer Scott Gregory, and its first major project is to form the California Innovation Lab (CIL) — a “tech-habitat” where California’s government agencies can build open source solutions and step outside their usual technique.

Image: Chris Cruz, chief deputy director of operations for the California Department of Technology, says that the state's new Office of Digital Innovation and Technology Engagement will be modeled after the federal government’s 18F agency. PHOTO BY JESSICA MULHOLLAND

The old advice to dress for the job you want, not the job you have, may have roots in more than simply how others perceive you—many studies show that the clothes you wear can affect your mental and physical performance. Although such findings about so-called enclothed cognition are mostly from small studies in the laboratory that have not yet been replicated or investigated in the real world, a growing body of research suggests that there is something biological happening when we put on a snazzy outfit and feel like a new person.

The almost insatiable demand for leadership studies is a natural outgrowth of the all-too-frequent leadership failures in government, business, and nonprofits. Few people trust their leaders, according to the Edelman Trust Barometer surveys, among others.1 Gallup data show low levels of employee engagement worldwide, while the Conference Board finds job satisfaction at a low ebb and executive tenures decreasing.2 Other research consistently indicates that companies give their own leadership-development efforts low marks. Leaders aren’t doing a good job for themselves or their workplaces, and things don’t seem to be improving.