U.S. private equity set multiple records in 2014, with a surge in valuations and strong public markets, among other factors, driving changes in investment strategies and producing staggering stats such as the $240 billion+ in total capital exited. Sponsored by Merrill DataSite, the 2015 Annual U.S. PE Breakdown is one of our largest Breakdowns yet; in it we examine investments by size, region, industry and more, as well as exits, fundraising and updated stats on company inventory and capital overhang. To download, click here.

In a 2012 article in The New York Times called "China's Rise Isn't Our Demise," Vice President Joe Biden wrote a cogent summary of America's advantage in the world economy that has enormous implications for innovation in education.

"The United States is hard-wired for innovation. Competition is in the very fabric of our society. It has enabled each generation of Americans to give life to world-changing ideas - from the cotton gin to the airplane, the microchip, the Internet.

Image: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/

Technology has democratized the field of journalism. As we've seen in recent events across the country, anyone with an iPhone can raise a story to the level of national consciousness.

This reality is one of the foundational principles of the Knight Foundation's embrace of the "hospital" model of journalism. It's the idea that news can be created by a collective group, leveraging emerging technologies and channels like social media.

Median "pre-money" valuations — the value ascribed to a company before it takes new money — jumped more than 50 percent in venture rounds raised by San Francisco-area companies last year, according to a report from the venture activity tracking firm PitchBook. A particularly dramatic example of the trend was MixPanel, a five-year-old mobile and web data analytics platform in San Francisco. It recently raised a $65 million Series B round of funding at a whopping $800 million "pre-money" valuation. That's more than 24 times the company's previous valuation.

As 2014 draws to an end, the outlook for crowdfunding does not wane one bit despite growing up pains.

The Tabb Group has estimated that the market will hit $17 billion in 2015 after having been forecasted to touch $10 billion in 2014 with more than 1000 new platforms formed. Some of the funding will come from angel investors who could invest a total of $50 billion in 2015 across all funding opportunities compared to $22.9 billion in 2012, though a more conservative estimate puts the figure at $28 billion.

Nowadays, you don’t have to go back to college (and take on the huge loan or remortgage your house) to get up to speed. You can learn to code for free. The ability to code (and to participate in conversations around programming) is indispensable; it’s not a skill reserved for the uber-geeky. It allows business professionals to identify and quickly resolve issues like a string of wonky HTML in a content management system, to more effectively optimize landing pages, or leverage powerful new AdWords Scripts.

Image: http://smallbiztrends.com

Angel investing and the startup economy has been through so many exciting changes in the last few years.  I’ve been thinking about that as the new year begins and my organization celebrates ten years of supporting angel investors. This exercise has me convinced–2015 could be one of the most important years ever for angel investing.

Why?  Here are the trends that I, with added insights from top angel investors on the boards of the Angel Capital Association and Angel Resource Institute, anticipate:

Recent numbers by StatCounter show that Yahoo has achieved remarkable growth in the last month while Google’s search traffic dropped. In the US at least, the world’s largest search engine faced a drop of 2.1% between November and December after Mozilla announced that its Firefox web browser would be ditching Google for Yahoo as its default search engine in the US.

Image: http://memeburn.com

It's absolutely critical that leaders understand this: An innovation has no value until an ambitious entrepreneur builds a business model around it and turns it into a product or service that customers will buy. If you can't turn an innovative idea into something that creates a customer, it's worthless.

Image: Free Digital Photos

How a consumer genetics company amassed a database of willing research participants.

Facebook generates about $8 a year in revenue from each of its users. But what if you offered a company not just your photos and updates, but your entire genome?

Then you could be worth as much as $20,000.

My brother-in-law recently asked me a question that I tend to get often: “Tell me if you think this is a good business idea…”

“Stop right there,” I said.

He was shocked (but not surprised) that I interrupted him. But I had to. I needed him to answer something for me before he said another word.

Unbroken could be one of the most influential books you read and films you watch this year. What does a film about the olympian, World War II bombardier and prisoner of war have to do with being an entrepreneur? If you’ve been exposed to the life of Louis Zamperini then you already know: this guy had guts. He led an extraordinary life and refused to give up in any situation. Entrepreneurship is based on the same defining character traits that Zamperini exemplified throughout his life.

Image: Louis Zamperini - Image credit: Wikipedia

Peter Vanham, Senior Media Manager, Media Relations, Tel.:+41 79 620 9129 E-mail: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

New report compares 44 economies in terms of their entrepreneurial activity, ambition and innovation Most advanced economies – including the US, the UK, Germany and Switzerland – are missing out on the full potential benefits of entrepreneurship, including accelerated growth and prosperity

When money is the last thing founders look to think about, they tend to make much wiser and more rational calls. In contrast, those who are desperately in need of money tend to make rushy decisions, which result on a less engaging proposal for investors.

The notion that business school can be a launching pad for budding entrepreneurs becomes catchier with every dinky startup that becomes a multibillion-dollar business. So catchy, in fact, that MBA programs are falling over themselves to convince students that their campuses are basically souped-up startup camps. But in reality, launching your own company out of business school is rarer than you might think.

image: http://www.freedigitalphotos.net 

According to a report issued by Thomson Reuters and the National Venture Capital Association, 27 venture-backed IPOs raised $4.4 billion for the fourth quarter of 2014. This figure marks an 18 percent increase from the third quarter of ’14 as well as a 68 percent increase, in terms of dollars, versus the previous quarter.

Another very interesting finding: The fourth quarter of ’14 was the seventh consecutive quarter that had over 20 venture-backed IPOs, which hasn’t been seen since the fourth quarter of 2000.

In a few months, a teenager from Hill Valley, CA, will arrive in our time in a flying car, to save his family. He will use our hoverboards and our portable garbage-powered nuclear reactors, and will be there to witness the Cubs wining the World Series over Miami. OK—maybe Back to the Future Part II is not intended as prophesy, but it did get a lot of things right when it came to the technology we use in 2015. Here’s what the film correctly predicted 26 years ago that we would be doing with our lives today.

Image: Our Deloreans, sadly, do not fly.(AP Photo/Peter Morrison)

Innovation drives economic growth.

This logic has risen to dominate the discourse in development circles, with government leaders, policy influencers, and development-minded business leaders fully embracing innovation as a panacea for unemployment and economic underperformance. Looking back on 2014, it is not difficult to see this globalization of the innovation mindset at work. India’s Narendra Modi recently called for a revival in Indian manufacturing and greater innovation to stimulate growth. Nigerian businessman Tony Elumelu recently launched a $100M Pan-African entrepreneurship grant program to unlock Africa’s economic potential. Start-up accelerators are almost as likely to be found in emerging nations as in Silicon Valley. Meanwhile, NGOs are increasingly emphasizing the role of innovation in their work.

Data analytics is having a positive and widespread impact on the modern economy, spurring innovation across companies of all sizes for the benefit of customers, according to a new survey conducted by Ipsos Public Affairs on behalf of BSA/The Software Alliance. Companies are using data tools to create new products, serve customers, add jobs and move into new markets, the study reports. Moreover, it finds this trend "hugely beneficial for customers, the economy and society at large." The survey polled 1,565 senior executives and business decision-makers in the United States and Europe. "It's not just technology companies that are taking advantage of data tools to innovate and grow—it's companies of all types and sizes across the entire economy," says President and CEO Victoria Espinel of BSA/The Software Alliance. "They are using data to find insights, answers and innovative solutions to problems large and small. That has far-reaching benefits." BSA advocates for the global software industry to governments and the international marketplace.

Image: http://www.cioinsight.com