It seems counter-intuitive: Some of the venture capitalists backing tech startups are now boosting  a seemingly competing money source for their portfolio companies: equity crowd-funding. But leveraging equity crowd-funding alongside more traditional money sources can be a powerful combination, especially for consumer-facing companies.

Americans are living longer than past generations, and for many that means working longer, too. While for some this might be a choice, for many it is a financial necessity, according to a new report published Oct. 22 by the Stanford Center on Longevity.

Over the past century, Americans have added nearly 30 years to their lives. But about 50 percent of Americans are not financially prepared for these extra years, said Stanford psychologist Tamara Sims, who is the lead author of the report.

Sneakers are quickly growing into a $90 billion business–but they’re all built the same way, more or less, constructed out of a combination of soles and uppers. Nike has React and Flyknit. Adidas has Ultraboost and Primeknit. What if we could replace just part of a shoe, rather than the whole thing? It could be greener, cheaper, and more customizable, too.

Image: https://www.fastcompany.com

How many media sectors have seen their revenues, driven primarily by advertising, rise nearly ten-fold in the previous four years? And how many expect their revenues to nearly quadruple from their current level by 2022? At least one. According to the latest PwC’s Global Entertainment & Media Outlook 2018-2022, podcasting is poised to grow into a nine-figure component of the global media landscape.

Stanford university economics professor Paul Romer explains how the knowledge economy is creating monopoly power and changing the nature of competition. This stems from the ability of knowledge-based industries to generate increasing returns by capturing as much market share as possible. Unlike traditional monopolies, however, information age giants will face being superseded by new entrants and little danger exists of permanent monopolies -- even in an industry like software.

Image: https://www.strategy-business.com

A few weeks ago, I had a short, sharp argument with a colleague about a decision I had made. This wasn’t the first time we had quarreled, and I found the exchange upsetting. The main thoughts I had at the time and for days afterward were that this person was irremediably difficult and that I didn’t want to work together anymore.

This is not an unusual situation. I’ve had a lot of encounters, in both my professional and personal life, that I’ve found to be annoying, frustrating, or distressing, and that have caused me to stew for a long time on the transgressions of those “difficult people.” Many of us have such experiences.

The man was 66 when he came to the hospital with a serious skin infection. He had a fever and low blood pressure, as well as a headache. His doctors gave him a brain scan just to be safe. They found a very small bulge in one of his cranial arteries, which probably had nothing to do with his headache or the infection. Nevertheless, doctors ordered an angiogram to get images of brain blood vessels. This test, in which doctors insert a plastic tube into a patient’s arteries and inject dye, found no evidence of any blood vessel problems. But the dye injection caused multiple strokes, leading to permanent issues with the man’s speech and memory.

There are 10,000 baby boomers turning 65 every day in the US, but that doesn’t mean they are all retiring. For those boomers with the entrepreneurial spirit, Lending Tree has identified the best places in the 50 largest metropolitan areas in the country especially suited for this demographic. Lending Tree generated a score for each city based on both average (mean) and median business incomes and percentage of new businesses founded by boomers.

Cloud giants Amazon, Google, and Microsoft are all touting their artificial intelligence bona fides.

But the companies that are already embracing AI technologies are more frequently turning to the likes of SAP and Salesforce for such capabilities.

Although many of those early adopter corporations are tapping into the AI technologies of the cloud service providers, more of them are getting such features from enterprise software companies, according to a new study from consulting firm Deloitte. For many corporations, that's "perhaps the easiest path" to incorporating AI into their businesses, analysts Jeff Loucks, Tom Davenport, and David Schatsky said in the report.

While recent headlines have blared about the Trump administration’s multi-front trade war with Canadian dairy farmers, Chinese manufacturers and the European Union’s steel, aluminum and automotive industries, a much larger economic threat has gone virtually unnoticed. The high-tech startups that have provided the U.S. with a powerful edge in fields such as computers, software, mobile devices, biotech, the internet and an array of digital platforms now face rapidly increasing pressures from foreign competition.

There's always something slightly sinister and ghostly about X-ray images, showing the white bones and dark shadows within us. 

But this set of animal X-rays from the Oregon Zoo in Portland are taking ghostly to a new level.

Image: https://twitter.com/OregonZoo/status/1052596867962298368?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1052596867962298368&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fmashable.com%2Farticle%2Fzoo-animals-xray-images%2F

In my experience in large businesses as well as years of advising startups, I see far too much focus on product skills, and too little on people and process skills. In my view, this focus on the wrong skill set is the primary reason why over half of new businesses fail in the first five years, and only one out of a hundred startups get their requested funding from professional investors.

Image: https://blog.startupprofessionals.com

The Ember electronic mug–which can automagically maintain your favorite poison at exactly your favorite temperature for as long as there’s liquid inside–has a new superpower: Thanks to an app update, the mug now integrates with Apple Health to keep track of how much caffeine you drink.

Image: https://www.fastcompany.com

One of the most important skills for every entrepreneur is timely and effective decision making. In a startup, any decision is better than no decision. One of the primary roles of every founder is to solve problems, make a decision, and manage the decision to results. The best entrepreneurs relish this role, while others struggle mightily and ultimately lose their health and their company.

Just getting to work can be a bacteria-ridden experience. The subway is full of it, as are stair railings and revolving doors. But once you finally sit down at your desk for the day, you’re still exposed.

The germiest places tend to be high-traffic areas where a lot of different people touch the same surface, and your office is no exception. But by taking one main precaution—washing your hands regularly—you’ll reduce your risk for getting sick. Here are five of the most bacteria-filled spots in your workplace.

ROCKVILLE, Md., Oct. 22, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- TaiRx, Inc and BioHealth Innovation, Inc. (BHI) announced today the formation of TaiRx US, a new joint venture.  The mission of the new company is to develop therapeutics and precision medicine diagnostics focused on the Nodal protein, a critical mediator of aggressive cancer progression and treatment resistance.

TaiRx, Inc and BHI have formed TaiRx US, which will be based in Rockville (Montgomery County), Maryland, to develop and commercialize a unique monoclonal antibody with the potential to reverse drug resistance in various tumor types. The company is also working to develop a companion diagnostic to accurately identify those patients who can best benefit from the therapy.

Children benefit from little of the $156 billion annual U.S. market for medical devices, but a “Shark Tank”-inspired partnership between the University of Maryland and Children’s National Health System is looking to change that.

The Food and Drug Administration has awarded $5 million over five years to the National Capital Consortium for Pediatric Device Innovation to push the development of new pediatric devices, from implants to support failing organs to low-cost incubators for preemies in the developing world.

Image: A 3D-printed model of a child's heart helped prepare for a difficult surgery at Children's National Medical Center, UMD's partner in the National Capital Consortium for Pediatric Device Innovation. (Photo by John T. Consoli)

As $1 billion-plus valuations become more common in Silicon Valley, so do some key legal protections intended to keep venture capitalists from utter destruction should one of their investments turn sour.

The percentage of unicorn financing deals that use safeguards, known as IPO downside protections, rose sharply in 2017 and the first half of 2018, according to a report published Thursday by the technology law firm Fenwick & West.

Image: When Jack Dorsey took Square public in 2015, it triggered a key protection for late-stage investors who bought shares at a higher valuation than the company got in its initial public offering. REUTERS/Lucas Jackson

A start-up is a new business venture that aims to meet a marketplace’s need, want or solve problems by developing a viable business model around products, services, processes or platform. It goes without saying that almost every tech start-up has an idea that’s probably worth protecting. An idea is nothing but an intellectual property (IP). An idea can take form of codes, algorithms, research findings etc. A start-up that relies on IPR must ensure that their IP is fairly protected. Unfortunately, this area remains neglected in the race of giving best products or services to satisfy clients. As a result, an IP on which a start-up actually relies is not sustained longer. The question looms that “do they really know about the legal rights while protecting IP?”

Today, 790 million people — 11 percent of the world's population — live without access to clean water.

Two years ago, XPrize, an international nonprofit organization, announced a global competition enticing innovators to find a sustainable and affordable way to bring potable water to those who aren't privileged enough to have it now.

Skeptics told the competition organizers that it was impossible. 

Image: XPRIZE/SKYWATER/SKYSOURCE ALLIANCE