The most innovative entrepreneurs look outside of their markets and beyond their competitors. They don’t work within traditional boundaries or allow themselves to be confined by precedent. They search for new product, marketing and sales ideas across a wide variety of fields. They differentiate themselves from the competition and reap their just rewards.

ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) Economic development officials from around New York state have gathered in Buffalo as they prepare to compete for $1.5 billion in economic development prizes.

Lt. Gov. Kathy Hochul presided over Tuesday's meeting, which brought together representatives from the seven upstate regions competing in the contest created by Gov. Andrew Cuomo.

Image: New York Lt. Gov. Kathy Hochul presided over a Revitalization Conference in Buffalo, NY, August 11, 2015.

About one year ago this month, my partner and I packed our bags for Cedar Rapids to take part in the Iowa Startup Accelerator’s first cohort.

At the time, we’d both just quit our summer internships and didn’t quite know what we were getting ourselves into. When we told our friends and family that we were heading to Iowa for a startup accelerator program, we got more than a few confused looks. Iowa? Startup accelerator? School? What?

Image: Nate Matherson and Matt Lenhard, co-founders of LendEDU, participate in the first cohort of the Iowa Startup Accelerator.

Ponies grow up to be centaurs who then transform into unicorns — or at least that's one Silicon Valley investor's view of evolution.

At 500 Startups Demo Day, Dave McClure took the stage in a rainbow unicorn hoodie and introduced the audience to some new classifications of startups.

When companies find themselves in distress, turnarounds are one way to set them back on track. But turnarounds are messy and getting them right is no easy task.

It was November 2010 when Sankar Krishnan, managing director at the global professional services firm Alvarez and Marsal (A&M) and Nikhil Shah a senior director of the firm were called in to investigate claims of irregular activities allegedly involving the senior management of a textile manufacturer in India. The seriousness and potential impact of the allegations from a former employee meant they had to tread very carefully. They decided on a covert operation, since it was unclear who was trustworthy at the company and given that a direct approach might have led to evidence being destroyed that could be crucial to the investigation.

To succeed in venture capital, you can’t just throw your money at companies and wait.

The best venture capitalists provide insight and support that can make the difference between a startup failing or succeeding. And, perhaps unsurprisingly, many VCs don’t leave that advice-giving at the office, and choose to dispense their thoughts to the masses — on Twitter or on personal blogs.

Image: http://www.businessinsider.com.au

Innovation is seen as a top priority for businesses, echoed by PwC’s survey of nearly 250 CEOs around the world, almost all of whom (97%) said innovation was their number one priority to stimulate growth.

Despite this, Europe is lagging behind the US, Japan and South Korea on private sector R&D spending, even though it has a large reservoir of talented workers and successful companies. At the end of 2014, Europe’s share of global patents fell to its lowest percentage ever, just 5.8%, far behind the US at 22%. - See more at: http://www.information-age.com/it-management/strategy-and-innovation/123459997/can-formal-council-innovation-help-turn-europe-innovation-factory#sthash.NpFyrq80.dpuf

Being a parent is definitively the toughest job on earth. American Greetings captured it best in the campaign, “World’s Toughest Job,” for Mother’s Day.

Most of us have no idea what it’s like to be a parent until we are actually a parent. And then it’s too late! When that baby comes, it hits you like a whirlwind -- and that’s just the beginning for moms and dads.

As a startup investor in this age of the entrepreneur, I see many more startups, but innovation is still hard to find. The most common proposals I hear are for yet another social networking site (over 200 active), or another dating site (now over 2500 in the US alone). Startups which display real innovation, such as alternative energy sources and new medical treatments, are still rare.

There's a lot of science behind why change is so hard. But we shouldn't be so hard on ourselves; a large part of it is human nature. While what separates humans from many other animals is our frontal cortex and cognitive abilities, we still have an innate ability to follow known patterns. They tells us, "If doing something yesterday didn't kill us, then it must be safe to do today."

An article in Financial Times looks at the four nonprofits selected to participate in the next cohort at Y Combinator, the prestigious start-up incubator in Silicon Valley. Though most of the incubator's participants are for-profit companies, a handful of nonprofits have participated since 2013. One requirement is that they demonstrate a sustainable funding model.

In 2001, Fortune Magazine named Enron the “most innovative company” in the world. Shortly thereafter, the firm erupted in a financial scandal, its leaders were marched off to prison, and the company collapsed. All to say that readers of this newsletter are cautioned to review our inaugural list with a grain of salt. We were motivated to compile this list because we believe the criteria of existing lists too narrow, and therefore incomplete. Some focus solely on patents (Thompson Reuters), R&D spend (Booz and Co.), 3 year financial performance (BCG), “innovation premium” (Forbes) and in one case a popularity poll amongst the magazine’s editorial staff (Fast Company). Fair enough on the subjectivity, but we believe additional criteria are also important: visionary leadership, innovation culture, customer delight, corporate reputation (sorry Amazon, but you dropped quite badly here in 2014), unique business model, and sustainable process for innovation. Click on each company to read more about these winners, and please let us know how we did.

As the staff of the European Commission head for the beaches this August, they have been asked to ponder the future of science. Research commissioner Carlos Moedas has announced his priorities as being “open science” and “open innovation”, and invited his team to report back with its ideas on how to achieve that.

Clear communication is a hallmark of well-managed businesses, and jargon is the enemy of clarity. There are enough variations of head-scratching buzzwords to confuse even experienced business owners, so it shouldn’t be surprising that these words might baffle employees and customers. Most of us are guilty of using at least some of these buzzwords, but this comes at a cost.

A few months ago, I did a non-scientific survey on this site asking the following question of anyone who wanted to answer it: “What’s the best way to learn more about entrepreneurship?” I promised to present the results in a post. I’ve finally gotten around to doing that and have included the results below. By far, the respondents believe that the best way to learn about entrepreneurship is to start a company.

Entrepreneurs come in all shapes and sizes, from a great diversity of backgrounds and with a great diversity of different philosophies and approaches. This is evident in the spread of company cultures and growth trajectories among startups.

Considering this, if you ask 10 entrepreneurs what the most important factors for entrepreneurial success are, you’ll probably get 10 different answers.

Purchasing gifts in this day and age is a scary task. There’s no such thing as resorting to socks if all else fails, and roses are great but don’t last particularly long. In the technological era, people want gifts with screens and buttons.

But don’t worry, we’re here to help.

If you’re wondering what to buy a particularly sporty person in your life, there has never been a better time to choose a sporty gadget.

Image: http://gearburn.com

Middle and high school education is top of mind for many business leaders and rightfully so – it is the bedrock for promoting economic growth and the catalyst for more stable societies and healthy communities. Businesses are concerned about the availability of needed skills that result from shortfalls in the education system. For this reason, we know business leaders, educators, school administrators and parents need to work together to close the gap and develop our future workforce. And this development will look different than it did 20 or even 10 years ago.

Personal branding working hand in hand with online reputation management not only supports your online marketing strategy, but it can also strengthen your overall digital footprint online. Whether you are marketing your business online or simply looking for a new job, the fact is that you should build your name online so that you can be seen as the leader in your market.

Members of VentureOhio are studying the feasibility of forming a private "fund of funds" of $100 million or more to invest in venture capital groups and thus draw investor attention to Ohio startups. "Having a fund of funds in Ohio will be really important in our ecosystem," VentureOhio Executive Director Falon Donohue told me.

Image: JEFFRY KONCZAL - Falon Donohue, CEO of VentureOhio