Here we highlight selected innovation related articles from around the world on a daily basis. These articles related to innovation and funding for innovative companies, and best practices for innovation based economic development.
We are often asked how companies get funded, why VCs make the decisions we make and what we’re looking for in entrepreneurs. I think this is a Seriously great example of how this process works for at least one VC – Upfront Ventures. But I’m guessing the narrative is similar elsewhere.
Texas is the highest-rated state in another business-climate survey, and Houston ranked among the best cities for economic development. This is the sixth time in a row Texas took the top spot on Development Counsellors International's "Winning Strategies in Economic Development Marketing" survey. The survey, published every three years since 1996, tracks trends in economic development. New York-based DCI specializes in economic development and tourism marketing.
Image: http://www.bizjournals.com
Launching a social enterprise that will revolutionise the way we donate money to charity is a tall order. But the Dubai-based businessman Tariq Qureishy, 50, aims to raise US$1 billion in the next two years, and give the entire amount to charity through his social venture 100% Mad.
Image: Tariq Qureishy, the founder of 100% Mad. Antonie Robertson / The National
The recent selection of the PEI BioAlliance as a bioscience incubator is a testament to how far the industry has come in the province.
PEI has always had a large seasonal component to its economy – the three major industries are agriculture, fishing and tourism and they are obviously seasonal in nature. There is plenty of work in July, but January is obviously much tougher.
Successive governments, regardless of their political stripe, have tried to diversify and create more year-round jobs. Next to creating an aerospace sector at a former Air Force base, bioscience is one of their major successes. The industry has developed in tandem with a major expansion in research at the Island’s only university.
Image: Free Digital Photos
Everyone can recognize a great boss a mile away, so why is it so hard to find one? We all remember a few that are “legends in their own mind”, but that doesn’t do it. In fact, the clue here is that the view in your mind is the only one that matters, rather than the other way around.
Think back to your most productive workday in the past week. Now ask yourself: On that afternoon, what did you have for lunch?
When we think about the factors that contribute to workplace performance, we rarely give much consideration to food. For those of us battling to stay on top of emails, meetings, and deadlines, food is simply fuel.
We need more than big ideas, or pithy words, or an ultra-clear vision to invent the future.
Odd as it may seem for discussing innovation and management, I’m reminded of a sociology experiment done in the 1960s. Five monkeys were placed in a cage, with a batch of bananas hung from the ceiling and a ladder placed right underneath it. It took only a few seconds for one of the monkeys to race up the ladder to grab the bananas.
Image: Free Digital Photos
My Nana was one of those people who just seemed naturally lucky. In the 1960s and ‘70s, she regularly entered contests and won prizes that included cash, a television, a mink jacket and even a new car. She’d frequently hit the jackpot when she played the slot machines, and she always seemed to be in the right place at the right time when it came to growing her real estate business.
Image: Free Digital Photos
In early October, Atlas Venture, the Cambridge, Mass.- based venture capital firm, announced that it would be splitting its life sciences and tech practices. Prior to the announcement, Atlas Venture wrapped up a huge quarter. According to CB Insights data for Q3 2014 venture capital, Atlas was the third most active VC in the quarter.
The chart below highlights the most active venture capital investors over the three-month period. NEA led VC investors by U.S. deals in Q3 2014 including stealthy Jet.com, DataRobot and Branch Metrics among others. The top 3 was rounded out by KPCB and Andreessen Horowitz, which tied with Atlas for the third spot.
Image: https://www.cbinsights.com
2014 has already seen massive tech M&A with WhatsApp, Nest and Oculus alone being acquired for more than $24B in aggregate exit value. Using CB Insights data, we ranked the most active tech acquirers by year to see who’s snatching up the most private tech companies and how the active acquirer landscape has shifted over time.
Image: https://www.cbinsights.com
Bina48 is a robotic head that looks and speaks like a person—it moves its lips and runs conversational software. Although the robot isn’t alive, it’s hard to say there is no life at all in Bina48. In conversation, it sometimes says surprising things. Google’s director of engineering, Ray Kurzweil, says it’s “wonderfully suggestive” of a time when computers really will think and feel.
SPECIAL REPORT: Once seen as the exclusive province of a handful of computer experts, coding has moved firmly into the mainstream as policymakers, educators and business have realised its potential.
Coding is the language of computers – learn to write it and you will be able to create software, websites, and apps.
That’s no surprise to many young Europeans, who have grown up with coding and the Internet since birth. But it’s only recently that the older generation has begun to appreciate what benefits it can bring.
Image: Free Digital Photos
Seedstars World is a competition of startups across emerging markets. Last year, it roamed 20 countries to organise as many local competitions. Each city’s winner was then flown to Geneva for a grand finale where they would meet investors and secure funding.
This year, the competition is on again, curating the best startups in places like Ramallah, West Bank; Kampala, Uganda; or Ho Chi Minh in Vietnam. Among the numerous pitches, some look really bold, and all show how innovative the developing countries can be.
Image: http://ventureburn.com
We all relish the optimistic curiosity and energy of young people testing ideas and exploring better ways of doing things. However, successful new ventures are invariably formed by teams that bring together not just disruptive thinkers, but experienced people with unique knowledge of their industry. In honor of my mother having turned 80 this year, I look today at the wise “third age” or “encore” entrepreneurs and how they are shifting the paradigm of “retirement” in our society.
Image: http://www.kauffman.org
I joined J&J Consumer Companies about four years ago to start its Digital Center of Excellence. Our role initially was to build capabilities and develop strategy that served multiple brands in multiple regions, so I did a landscape overview to help develop the approach. What I saw was that we had hundreds of different websites and digital platforms that we were operating upon globally. If you want to get a message across globally on your owned assets, you need to do that in the same way across the world.
image: http://www.freedigitalphotos.net
There has never been a better time to launch a start-up in the Midwest, but growing that start-up can be a challenge.
Take Ohio as an example. While seed money is abundant throughout the state, attracting venture capital to commercialize a product or service is increasingly difficult, a new report by VentureOhio has found.
Thinking about selling your business? From evaluating your company to preparing your financials and meeting with prospective buyers, it's a long and complicated process, so it's important to be prepared.
Chuck Richards, CEO of business evaluation software provider CoreValue, discussed his tips for making sure the transfer process goes smoothly, including what to tell interested buyers and how to determine your business's value.
image: http://www.freedigitalphotos.net
One of the business ironies that many entrepreneurs have learned the hard way in the past is that ideas which are truly disruptive carry the highest risk of failure, take the longest to gain traction, and thus are the least likely to get external funding. So some entrepreneurs stick with incremental solutions, avoiding more transformational or adaptive solutions implying disruptive change.
Acronyms abound in the business world - think GFC, Ebitda, Opex, Libor, OCR. Now visiting American angel investor John Huston has added a new one - EGC. It stands for exit goal congruence and means the investor's desire to eventually sell the company and make a return is matched by that of the entrepreneur.
It's the most important thing for any angel investor to consider before they commit their money, he said. Huston became an angel investor in 2000 after retiring from a 30-year career in banking and founded the first Ohio TechAngel fund in 2004 with 50 investors. It later became a founding member of the US Angel Capital Association.
Law360, New York (October 17, 2014, 12:05 PM ET) -- Venture capital investing is on a tear this year, with more than $33 billion invested through the first three quarters, according to a new report Friday by accounting firm PwC and the National Venture Capital Association, blowing past last year’s total of $30 billion in just the first nine months of the year.
