Governing boards might seem like the last place for innovation. They are, after all, the company’s steadfast guidance system, charged with keeping an even keel in rough waters. Corporate directors are the flywheel, the keeper of the flame, the preserver of tradition.

All that is true, or least should be so, but companies are also forever having to reinvent themselves — IBM, Nucor, and Wipro bear only the faintest resemblance to their founding forms — and boards ought to be at the forefront of those transformations, not rearguard or resistant.

Image: http://www.freedigitalphotos.net

This month, thousands of college seniors are tossing their mortarboards in the air – and getting ready to start paying off their student loans.

But will they be able to? A recent National Bureau of Economic Research working paper by Lance J. Lochner and Alexander Monge-Naranjo takes a closer look at the problem, going beyond simple default rates and looking at repayment patterns, and the total amount owed, more closely.

Image: http://www.freedigitalphotos.net

The National Business Incubation Association headquartered in Athens will be establishing a training center, but it apparently won’t be in Athens. Jasper Welch, president and CEO of NBIA, said the organization will maintain a presence in Athens, but said he could not be more specific because details have not been worked out. The association, which moved its headquarters to Athens in 1988 from Pennsylvania, promotes business incubation and entrepreneurship, providing information, education and networking resources. It has 930 member organizations consisting of 2,200 professionals, according to Welch.

Image: http://www.freedigitalphotos.net

The Angel Capital Association has launched a campaign to protect a potential loss of capital if the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission increases the financial qualification for accredited investors. ACA, based in Kansas City, described the “Protect Angel Funding” initiative as a call to action to the startup eco system and said that proposed changes could eliminate about 60 percent of angel investors.

Image: http://www.bizjournals.com/ - Catherine Mott, Blue Tree Allied Angels. 

Where else do people in uniforms look at you as though you could be a criminal, force you to wait in line, examine your naked image, and then--suddenly--you must pull yourself together and sprint to a place unknown, where you are then forced to wait again?

The Airport Of The Future Is Actually Fun To Be In The airport, of course. It’s often an ordeal, another stressful experience in our tightly wound lives. But as architects and designers who create airports, we believe significant change is in the air--and on the ground.

Image: www.fastcoexist.com 

Two year’s ago this month the Fourth Economy team completed an assignment for the Pennsylvania Life Science Leadership Advisory Council. At a news event in May 2012 we participated in the release of “Life Sciences Leadership for the Next Decade: Nurturing a Life Science Ecosystem for Job Creation and Economic Development in Pennsylvania”. This report highlighted five steps and related actions that the life science community could undertake to maintain the economic impact of the life science industry in the state.

Image: http://fourtheconomy.com/ 

Science and the arts are often pictured as polar opposites: Scientists methodically pursue facts and truth, while artists soar over the landscape of everyday detail to imagine their own worlds. But there are actually great similarities. Scientists and artists both challenge the current maxims of their fields. And many young people have struggled to choose between a career in science and a calling in art or music.

Image: http://www.xconomy.com/ 

The term innovation ecosystem is more than a convenient description. The means by which ecosystems are formed and developed provide a practical model for reshaping Europe’s innovation processes, says Didier Schmitt

Image: http://bulletin.sciencebusiness.net/ - Didier Schmitt 

Billy Gasparino and Jenna Dillon-Gasparino were savvy enough to wait out the housing boom of a decade ago as renters. Not until 2010, well into the bust, did they buy a house in the Venice neighborhood of Los Angeles, less than a mile from the beach, for $810,000.

Image: Jenna Dillon-Gasparino, her son, William, and Rocky the dog in their house, which they are selling at a sharply higher price than they bought it for, just four years ago. Credit J. Emilio Flores for The New York Times 

The other day I had lunch with a young woman who interned with my company a few years ago and now works for a large educational institution. Our conversation ran the gamut: observations on organizational restructuring, ruminations on how technology is changing the way we work and discussions on the merits of seeking a second advanced degree.

Image: http://www.freedigitalphotos.net

Just last week Crowdfund Insider was sharing an article by Attorney Tom Sharbaugh on how many states have found a way to go ahead with crowdfunding without the delay and burdens involved with the Federal crowdfunding exemption.  This week we have another attorney, Anthony Zeoli, who has taken it upon himself to reform securities laws in his native state of Illinois.

Image: http://www.crowdfundinsider.com/ 

Doctors have always had a love/hate relationship with the Internet, and some bristle at the fact that many patients now shop for caregivers in the same way they shop for restaurants and plumbers: using online review sites.

A recent study by researchers at the University of Michigan says 25 percent of Americans now look online for doctor reviews before making an appointment. The study, which was published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, says a third of those people make a decision to see or not see a particular doctor based on reviews they read.

River Cities Capital Funds, a growth equity firm investing in high-potential healthcare and IT companies, is pleased to announce the final closing of its fifth fund. Fund V has reached a $200 million hard cap.

Dan Fleming, Managing Director of River Cities, says,

“With a $200M fund, River Cities is a significant player pursuing investments in small, relatively underserved growth equity rounds. The larger fund allows us to continue to expand the investment team as well as our opportunity set.”

 

Hey graduates, your parents didn't lug the whole family to your ceremony to stare into a sea of caps and gowns with no idea where to point their cameras.

Decorated graduation caps are a creative way to set yourself apart from the crowd.

Image:  @_GISFORGEN ON INSTAGRAM 

Wiley Cerilli started his sales career peddling coupons door-to-door. Unsurprisingly, he describes it as “pretty much the worst job ever.” “People would generally hate you no matter what you said,” he remembers. But he did take one valuable lesson from the experience: If you knock on enough doors, eventually someone will say yes.

Image: http://www.freedigitalphotos.net

There is a belief in the business world that founders can’t scale. Put another way, a company’s growth curve will eventually outstrip the capabilities of its founder’s ability to remain CEO. And the statistics seem to bear this theory out: Only 50% of founders remain CEOs after being in business for three years, 40% after four, and a sadly low 25% of founders actually make it through their company’s IPO as CEO.

Image: http://www.forbes.com/ 

Yes, we’re all exhausted after our DataBeat 2014 conference wrapped up Tuesday night. But we’re also excited.

A few startups launched impressive tools. And a new integration startup announced hints at the future of cloud software.

Perhaps most important, DataBeat showed how the conversation about big data has evolved. We’re no longer talking so much about how much data companies have and what cool stuff they can do over time. Now, it’s more about how companies can achieve business goals — like preventing fraudulent money transfers, making sure companies finish filing their taxes, using humans sparingly in the customer-support process

Image: http://venturebeat.com/ 

In the 1920s, New York hotel owner Raymond Orteig offered a $25,000 prize to the first person to fly non-stop between New York and Paris. Several unsuccessful attempts were made before an American airmail pilot named Charles Lindbergh won the competition in 1927 with his plane, the Spirit of St. Louis. Lindbergh’s achievement made him a national hero and a global celebrity, but it also sparked the interest and investment that led to the modern aviation industry.

Image: The non-stop flight between New York and Paris by Charles Lindbergh, center, was motivated by a $25,000 prize. (Andrew A. Nelles/AP) 

In almost every case, the scientist-entrepreneurs approaching LSN are falling victim to one or more fallacies that are propagated through the industry. LSN is in a dialogue with over 5,000 investors around the world, and the reality is that what many entrepreneurs believe to be sound business logic could be dooming their companies. This article compiles the top 10  fundraising misconceptions so that you can avoid these pitfalls.

Providing shared space, services, equipment, and expertise to budget-conscious scientist-entrepreneurs who are looking to prove a hypothesis and launch a company is the mission of life science incubators. And they have helped many start-ups.

However, increasingly, scientist-entrepreneurs are disappointed with what they’re finding. LSN hears a lot of complaints because we are in dialogue with a lot of the firms that populate these incubators. They acknowledge that incubators are less expensive than going it alone. Still, they say the lab space is too expensive, the promise of seeding seasoned players who can augment the founding team often goes unfulfilled, and there’s little to no tactical fundraising support.