I discovered the theory of disruptive innovation in 2004, when I heard Clayton Christensen speak about “The Innovator’s Dilemma.” As a sell-side analyst at Merrill Lynch, covering telecom and media in the emerging markets, I immediately recognized that Christensen’s theory explained why mobile penetration was repeatedly beating my estimates — mobile was disrupting fixed-line telephony.

The tech press, financial analysts, and the Apple Faithful are all eagerly anticipating Apple’s September 9th media event.

Expectations are running high as Apple prepares to announce it’s 8th-generation iPhone, alongside a wearable and services that aggregate health data and manage connected homes.

Winter is on the way and perhaps you’re thinking about moving south. Whether you’re looking to Latin America for new markets, hoping for cheaper rent or running from shoveling, the southern half of the Americas have a few promising hubs full of new accelerators, incubators, and increasingly, success stories.

When software giant Oracle announced in July it had purchased TOA Technologies, Cleveland-area investors weren't the only ones cheering. The acquisition was another victory for the $150 million Ohio Capital Fund, the state program that launched in 2003 to attract more venture capital into Ohio.

Image: http://www.cincinnati.com 

Can you name an influential woman in computer science?

If you're well-versed in your history, you might think of 19th-century mathematician and programmer Ada Lovelace. Or, more recently, computer scientist Grace Hopper, who coined the term "debugging."

Two women across two centuries makes for a scant supply of role models. There are more—many more. And some women are working to make sure future generations of programmers will know their names.

Earlier this week, MACH37, a business accelerator for cybersecurity start-ups in Virginia, welcomed a new group of companies one year after it was launched to help establish the state as a hub for cybersecurity firms. The three-month program, funded with state money, offers a $50,000 investment and access to a network of mentors to companies that can turn their ideas into viable businesses.

With endless possibilities, new opportunities and receiving conflicting advice, it can be hard for some entrepreneurs to stay focused on their vision. We should know.

At Zady, our ethical-fashion startup, there are many little things that we have not gotten perfectly right along the way. For example, we didn’t have a newsletter sign up when we first launched and therefore missed an important way to connect with the earliest traffic to our site.

Image: MAXINE BÉDAT AND SORAYA DARABI 

Entrepreneurship is a conundrum. Deciding to strike out and give an idea a shot is one of the scariest, loneliest things someone can do. But it’s also impossible -- absolutely, positively impossible -- to do it alone. No one finds success without help along the way, and it’s foolhardy to suggest otherwise.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

HONOLULU – The University of Hawai’i is launching an entrepreneurial springboard for its world-class research. 

The UH has achieved numerous accolades in research: from the cloning of green mice to the recent launch of a student-designed and built small satellite. Building upon these achievements, UH now aims to transform its world-class research and talent into an equally viable commercial success.  With XLR8UH, UH joins a growing movement of universities around the country in creating "proof of concept centers" (POCCs) focused on investing in innovative ideas and providing a launch pad for commercialization.

Great entrepreneurs. Sophisticated and committed investors. Capable management talent.

The three elements to make a thriving, high-performance entrepreneurial ecosystem, at least according to the Triangle's resident data scientist and entrepreneurship expert Ted Zoller of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Mariner Holdings remains an active business acquirer, this time gathering a majority stake in a Leawood-based venture capital fund called Flyover Capital. Flyover Capital was formed about 18 months ago and according to regulatory filings, is currently in the process of raising about $50 to $70 million for the fund. The firm will invest in early-stage technology companies in areas such as mobile, healthcare and agriculture, which are mainly based in the "flyover" country between New York and California.

Image: Mariner Holdings Mariner Holdings and its CEO Marty Bicknell (center) acquired venture capital fund Flyover Capital, which has four partners: Michael Peck (left to right), Keith Molzer, Thad Langford and Tom DeBacco. 

These days, with the many Internet articles and new courses available, most new entrepreneurs readily cross the gap from lack of business knowledge to knowing, but many never make it over the knowing versus doing gap. Investors I know highlight this problem with the mantra that they fund founders and teams who can execute, rather than ones who just talk about their great ideas.

We’ve all heard it before, we are facing another crisis. This time it’s one of mammoth proportions, and not the wooly kind. Public education isn’t making the cut as high-tech jobs across the nation go unfilled. What’s a country to do? Knowing this challenge will only compound with time, policy leaders have acted.  To compete in a global market place, our leaders are doing everything in their power to push a focus on STEM education. Sure, it’s great to see our leaders unite under a common goal, but are they going the wrong way down the field?

Image: Math and science matter, but that’s not all. (Edmund D. Fountain for The Washington Post) 

An epicenter of the burst of the dot-com and the housing bubbles, California’s economy had a rough time during the 2000s. The state lost 40 percent of its manufacturing jobs, saw unemployment spike and faced severe budget challenges. However, indicators are finally pointing in the right direction. Unemployment is under 8 percent, the state has posted three straight years of manufacturing job gains, and California saw 3.5 percent GDP growth in 2012 after a 5 percent contraction in 2009 and anemic gains in 2010 and 2011.

image: http://www.freedigitalphotos.net 

Crowdfunding is taking the entrepreneurial financing world by storm, changing the way everything from startups to art projects get funded. When traditional bank and VC financing leaves many entrepreneurs and projects high and dry, crowdfunding can bring in much-needed cash.

image: http://www.freedigitalphotos.net 

U.S. Secretary of Commerce Penny Pritzker today announced the launch of the Economic Development Administration’s (EDA) $15 million 2014 Regional Innovation Strategies Program competition to spur innovation capacity-building activities in regions across the nation. Under this program, EDA is soliciting applications for three separate funding opportunities, including: the i6 Challenge, Science and Research Park Development grants, and cluster grants to support the development of Seed Capital Funds.

WASHINGTON - The US Department of Commerce’s United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) and the Smithsonian Institution have signed a memorandum of agreement (MOA) establishing a five-year collaboration to develop programs and exhibitions showcasing American innovation. According to the USPTO, some upcoming joint efforts will include a major new intellectual property (IP) exhibition at the National Museum of American History, as well as an Innovation Festival and educational programs at the Smithsonian’s American Art and National Air and Space museums. The first joint event as part of the MOA will be a weekend festival at the National Air and Space Museum Nov. 1 – 2. 

“The customer is our boss,” says Michèle Armiel, Executive Vice President of Givenchy. She was speaking on July 11 at the Paris launch of the Sixth Global Peter Drucker Forum, which will take place in Vienna Austria on November 13-14, 2014, and whose theme is “the Great Transformation” of management.  “At Givenchy, we have no choice but to be creative,” she said. “Our challenge is to keep a balance between creativity and profitability.”

WESTERVILLE, OH—SSTI celebrates the Department of Commerce announcement that it will award $15 million in new funding for Regional Innovation Grants via the 2014 Regional Innovation Strategies (RIS) program. With this announcement, the Department will begin soliciting applications for three separate Regional Innovation Strategy funding opportunities, including the i6 challenge, Science and Research Park Development Grants and Cluster Grants to support the development of Seed Capital Funds.

Establishing funding for the first time through the RIS marks a great legislative victory for SSTI. Despite its creation by Congress in the America COMPETES Act of 2010, the program had never been funded.

A group of UC Berkeley students launched what they call the first-ever student-run health tech incubator Thursday at the office of Downtown Berkeley’s Skydeck, which fosters campus startups.

The incubator, Catalyst@Berkeley, aims to provide a framework for students to bring viable prototypes to the market and open doors of entrepreneurship to undergraduate students interested in health care innovation.

Image: http://www.dailycal.org/