In building successful businesses, I find that creating a new and innovative product or service is usually the easy part. The hard part is providing the leadership required to align and motivate all the constituents and players – from engineers, to investors, vendors, and ultimately customers. Great entrepreneurs are not just idea people and then managers, they are extraordinary leaders.

The rapidly evolving ecosystems associated with personal data is creating an entirely new field of scientific study, say computer scientists. And this requires a much more powerful ethics-based infrastructure.

Back in 2013, the UK supermarket giant, Tesco, announced that it was installing face recognition software in 450 of its stores that would identify customers as male or female, guess their age and measure how long they looked at an ad displayed on a screen below the camera. Tesco would then give the data to advertisers to show them how well their advertising worked and allow them to target their ads more carefully.

Image: http://www.technologyreview.com/ 

I am intending to do a series of posts highlighting interviews with Philadelphia area biotech startup CEO’s and show how a vibrant biotech startup scene is evolving in the city as well as the Delaware Valley area. Philadelphia has been home to some of the nation’s oldest biotechs including Cephalon, Centocor, hundreds of spinouts from a multitude of universities as well as home of the first cloned animal (a frog), the first transgenic mouse, and Nobel laureates in the field of molecular biology and genetics. Although some recent disheartening news about the fall in rankings of Philadelphia as a biotech hub and recent remarks by CEO’s of former area companies has dominated the news, biotech incubators like the University City Science Center and Bucks County Biotechnology Center as well as a reinvigorated investment community (like PCCI and MABA) are bringing Philadelphia back. And although much work is needed to bring the Philadelphia area back to its former glory days (including political will at the state level) there are many bright spots such as the innovative young companies as outlined in these posts.

image: http://www.freedigitalphotos.net 

Businesses always seem to take longer to succeed than an entrepreneur expects. Seth Godin once said that overnight success in startups takes about six years, and Seth is an optimist. Thus we all look for shortcuts. Execution shortcuts would be hidden strategies to achieve the endgame sooner, without losing 40 to 60 percent of the financial potential along the way.

My dad always used to tell me that the difference between the “you” now and the “you” 20 years from now will be the places you visit and the people you meet. I would also add baldness and gray hair to that, but they don’t sound as cool.

He was right. Whether you meet someone in person or read a book he or she authors, people are pivot points that enable learning and foster personal growth for others.

image: http://www.freedigitalphotos.net 

Women and men behave differently in online class discussions, at least in science, engineering, and computer-science courses, according to a new study conducted by Piazza Technologies, a company that makes a digital class-participation tool.

The company found that women use its program, called Piazza, to ask more questions than do their male peers, but that they answer fewer questions. When women do answer, they are more likely to answer anonymously.

The Innovate NY Fund has had a huge effect on the startup community in Buffalo, particularly the $5.1 million allocation that flows through Z80 Labs. Innovate NY totals $45 million — $35 million from the state and $10 million from Goldman Sachs — and is a fund-of-funds model, where smaller portions are administered by individual incubators around the state.

Answer the following questions quickly without giving them much thought. Do you expect a boss to wear an Armani suit or khaki trousers with jogging shoes? Should she travel to work on a mountain bike or in a limousine? Do you call him “Mr. Director,” or are you more likely to address him as “Sam”? How you respond to these questions depends on your individual personality. It also may reflect the country you come from.

When you strip everything off a map except the roads, most of the U.S. is still clearly recognizable. In a series of maps of every state, and the country as a whole, Boston-based design firm Fathom took away mountains, rivers, and place names to demonstrate how well we can be defined by pavement.

Image: http://www.fastcoexist.com

It is normal for cognitive function to slightly deteriorate with age. Memory capacity begins to worsen, along with processing speed and the ability to form long-term memories. Finding a way to defer the onset of these issues becomes increasingly important as life expectancy gets longer and global populations age.

This study, conducted by researchers from Italy’s University of L’Aquila and Mars, Incorporated, reinforces the results of several recent cognitive studies–throwing more light on the important role diet plays in maintaining cognitive health. Dr. Giovambattista Desideri, lead author on the paper, said, “The results of this study are encouraging–they support the idea that diet, and specifically a diet rich in cocoa flavanols, can play an important role in maintaining cognitive health as we age.”

It's no secret that people love lists. Ten ways to do this, five ways to do that. Lists are soothing. They're simple. They provide instant gratification and purpose.

"We like lists because we don't want to die," writer and philosopher Umberto Eco famously said. In 2010, Eco's fondness for the list inspired an exhibit at the Louvre in Paris. In an interview around that time he asked: "How, as a human being, does one face infinity? How does one attempt to grasp the incomprehensible?"

Greylock IL, an international affiliate of U.S.-based Greylock Partners, is breaking away from the mothership, rebranding as 83North and announcing a new $200 million fund.

With offices in London and in Herzliya, Israel, the fund focuses on investments in Israeli and European startups.

“It became clear to us that the synergy between our European and Israeli activities puts us in a unique position,” said Arnon Dinur, a partner at 83North. “We want to be the go-to address for Israeli entrepreneurs seeking to operate in Europe, and for European entrepreneurs who wish to benefit from our areas of expertise.”

Image: The 83North investment team, from left, Partners Erez Ofer, Yoram Snir, Laurel Bowden, Arnon Dinur 83North

At the Consumer Electronics Show on Tuesday, Intel CEO Brian Krzanich got very excited about something that looked like a button. Turns out, it was the company’s brand-new, open-source wearable processor, Curie, which just happened to be sized and shaped to resemble, well, a button.

Bioentrepreneurship is the process of creating customer defined value by creating, developing, deploying and harvesting biomedical and/or sick care or health and wellness innovation. The definition includes three key elements: process, value creation and innovation.

There is a difference between biomedical entrepreneurship and health entrepreneurship. Biomedical entrepreneurship refers to commercializing drugs, devices, biologics, vaccines, diagnostics or combined products. Health entrepreneurship is about creating value in digital health products or services, care delivery innovation, business process innovation, services or platforms.

"I watched the piles of feces go up the conveyor belt and drop into a large bin," Gates, the Microsoft cofounder and billionaire philanthropist, wrote in a blog post on Monday. "They made their way through the machine, getting boiled and treated. A few minutes later I took a long taste of the end result: a glass of delicious drinking water."

Image: YOUTUBE, BILL GATES

Python is huge in Idaho, and Michigan loves PHP.

That's the upshot of a map of the most-tweeted programming languages across the 50 states as measured by Experts Exchange, a network for tech professionals. Although tweeting isn't necessarily the best indicator of popularity, the map, based on activity in October 2014, does reveal a surprising geographic variation in coding languages.

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Today’s a great day to put on a smile, enjoy the blue skies and stay for a while. We have been fighting, clawing and climbing our way back from the downturn seemingly forever. But now, we have so many reasons to be optimistic. Not only for the improving temperament of the times, but also the conditions, opportunity and activity. My mantra and attitude looking ahead is all about leading with optimism — a powerful, transformative energy.

Much to his disappointment, Hayao Miyazaki is often referred to as the Walt Disney of Japan. Unlike the late Disney, Miyazaki prefers to be known as a creator and director rather than a producer and businessman.

As the head of Studio Ghibli, the 73-year-old animator has built a global fan base and critical acclaim for works such as Spirited Away and Ponyo. Despite the sparseness of his canon and his reclusive nature, a rare look into Miyazaki’s creative process—as well as the creative processes behind five other world-renowned innovators—reveals some fascinating lessons and discoveries.

Image: Hayao Miyazaki Photo: via Wikimedia Commons 

For Kickstarter and crowdfunding, it can be argued that 2012 was their breakout year, following the successful $10 million funding of the Pebble smartwatch. The fundraising proved that crowdfunding can be used to fund multimillion dollar technological, innovative projects. Since then, Kickstarter has grown; The firm just announced that in 2014 the crowdfunding platform was used to raise $529 million in pledges from 3.3 million users.

Image: http://forexmagnates.com

Connecticut Innovations (CI), the leading source of financing and ongoing support for Connecticut's innovative, growing companies, today announced that it has awarded support to 100 companies during 2014. CI’s investments and loans provide critical funding to entrepreneurs and growing businesses throughout the state.