Earlier this month, Brex, a credit card provider to startups, announced it had raised $125 million at a $1.1 billion valuation.

The round was impressive for a couple of reasons: The founders are a pair of 22-year-olds that had set out to build a virtual reality company before pivoting to payments, and they had only completed Y Combinator, a well-known Silicon Valley startup accelerator, the year prior.

Organizations need to invest in the cultivation of capacity for innovation and recognize innovators with varying talent and strengths. Innovation is about the future, without it, you lose sight of tomorrow. Innovation is an exceptional, exclusive, and realistic idea that separates you from others without a second thought. Innovation can happen anywhere in the organization and its ecosystem.

Image: http://www.innovationmanagement.se

First Round Capital is raising around $220 million for its seventh venture capital fund, according to SEC filings.

No changes to the partnership since First Round raised $175 million for its sixth fund two years ago, save for the previously-announced addition of BirchBox co-founder Hayley Barna.

Certain fats found in seafood may help keep you healthy for years to come, according to a new study published in the BMJ.

Higher blood levels of omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids — healthy fats found in foods such as fish, nuts, leafy greens and vegetable and flaxseed oils — were associated with a greater chance of healthy aging, according to the observational research. Omega-3s found in seafood seemed to have the strongest effect, says study co-author Heidi Lai, a postdoctoral fellow at Tufts’ Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy.

Across the country, there are nearly 6.9 million scientists and engineers, representing 4.8 percent of the nation’s workforce. There are 20 states having at least 100,000 workers in these occupations. Scientists and engineers are concentrated around the nation’s capital, making up the largest share of the workforce in Washington D.C., Maryland, and Virginia. From 2003 to 2017, the number of scientists and engineers grew the fastest in Arkansas, North Dakota, and Utah. With an interactive map and downloadable spreadsheet, this article breaks down the changes in the science and engineering workforce across the United States over the last 15 years.

The Henry Ford is looking to help make tomorrow’s workforce stay on the cutting edge. The organization announced a $150 million campaign to “launch the workforce of tomorrow.”

The Innovation Project will help The Henry Ford build digital and experiential learning tools, programs and initiatives to advance innovation, invention, and entrepreneurship.

Patricia Mooradian, president and CEO of The Henry Ford, announced the project on Oct. 17.

Image: Young inventors from across the country will converge on the Henry Ford Museum of American Innovation in June for the 2018 National Invention Convention and Entrepreneurship Expo. Photo courtesy of The STEMIE Coalition

Ted Graham, head of Open Innovation at General Motors, joins BNN Bloomberg to discuss innovation at the company, including work it's doing in the autonomous vehicle space.

The age of consumer genomics has arrived. Nowadays you can send a vial of your spit in the mail and pay to see how your unique genetic code relates to all manner of human activity—from sports to certain diets to skin cream to a preference for fine wines, even to dating.The most widespread and popular companies in this market analyze ancestry, and the biggest of these are 23andMe and AncestryDNA, both with more than five million users in their databases. These numbers dwarf the numbers of human genomes in scientific databases. Genetic genealogy is big business, and has gone mainstream. But how accurate are these tests—truly?

Pharma hasn’t traditionally been known as a sector that welcomed innovation from the outside. But now companies are putting “not invented here” bias aside as they seek to widen their aperture for innovation.

This month saw the launch of two open innovation initiatives by drugmakers. Novartis opened the first of a series of planned innovation labs, this one in San Francisco, as part of a larger project to collaborate with startups and tech companies to fuel innovation. Novo Nordisk kicked off an innovation challenge, asking startups to create digital tools to help manage diabetes.

Image: Novartis is opening a series of innovation labs, starting in San Francisco, as part of a project called Biome that’s designed to foster open innovation. Above, winners of a recent innovation challenge the drugmaker sponsored received membership in Biome. Photo courtesy Novartis.

Getting stuff done and being more productive as a small business owner doesn’t have to be complicated. And when a change requires little effort, it’s easier to stick with than one that requires a lot of preparation or special tools. In fact, you’ll find that some of these productivity-boosters are simple enough to try as soon as you’re finished reading this, and their effectiveness is backed by science. So here are seven simple tricks to becoming more productive – starting now.

What is the definition of traction for a business startup today? According to most investors I know, traction is some clear evidence that the “dogs are eating the dog food” – usually meaning that you have at least one customer paying full price for your solution. If your phone app or service is free, then the number of users or downloads better be impressive and growing exponentially.

Image: https://blog.startupprofessionals.com

Certain seeds, like chia and flax, tend to hog the nutritional spotlight. But the less-trendy sunflower seed has plenty of qualities worth highlighting. Here are the health benefits of sunflowers seeds, according to dietitians.

Are sunflower seeds healthy? Sunflower seeds are rich in nutrients. One serving of shelled sunflower seeds is usually an ounce, which is about 1/4 cup or 4 tablespoons (one to two thumb-sized portions.) They’re particularly high in healthy fat: A serving delivers 14 grams of fat with a mix of monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fats.

Image: http://time.com

Venture capital is the window to the innovation economy, but investment is increasingly centralised, with a handful of funds accounting for the bulk of investment, a panel of experts said at the Fiduciary Investors Symposium at Stanford University.

Venture capital also represents an investment opportunity outside the highs and lows of the market, they told delegates.

“Innovation happens all the time, no matter what markets are doing,” said Todd Ruppert, Chair of the INSEAD Endowment and venture partner Greenspring Associates. “Today is a golden era in venture capital.”

Image: https://www.top1000funds.com/

A new venture capital fund unveiled in Youngstown is designed to act as a conduit for connecting coastal and Silicon Valley investors with angels to fund the development of Midwestern startups.

The $2.25 million Comeback Capital Fund was publicly announced and touted during a press event at the Youngstown Business Incubator on Oct. 16 led by U.S. Reps. Tim Ryan, D-Youngstown, and Ro Khanna, D-California.

America is becoming less mobile than in the past, but there are some major metropolitan areas --- and areas within them --- that have fewer people move in and out than others. US households tend to live longer in their present residences where population growth has been more modest. The data also indicates that across all major metropolitan areas, households tend to have lived longer in suburbs and exurbs than in the urban core.

The Census Bureau’s American Community Survey (ACS) reports on the length of time that residents have been living at their current address. This article describes the length of residence tenure data, focusing principally on the 53 metropolitan areas with more than 1,000,000 residents. This includes the latest data (for 2017) at the metropolitan area level as well as the latest data at the small area level using the City Sector Model (Figure 12). This permits examination of length of residential tenure within major metropolitan areas.

If you’ve ever played with a carbon footprint calculator and plugged in your flight history, you’ve seen how a trip just an hour or two away ballooned your total impact on the environment.

All that jet fuel takes a toll, but electric planes may swoop in and help — one day. Instead of those 176 pounds of carbon emissions for one measly roundtrip flight from San Francisco to Los Angeles, an emissions-free aircraft could fly that same distance. 

Image: Ampaire plans to retrofit a six-passenger plane, called TailWind. This rendering shows the plane high above the clouds. AMPAIRE

Venture Café connects about 325 entrepreneurs and investors at its weekly Thursday Gathering. Since its founding in 2016, it has offered more than 1,500 educational sessions, 40 percent of which were led by women and 70 percent by people of color.

Image: https://www.bizjournals.com

Traditional top-down business models based on knowledge dominance and mass-market approaches are under pressure from more open, collaborative models that directly and continuously involve customers. In a fast-moving global economy where customers are more digitally connected, informed and empowered than ever before, the co-creation model works best for organisational success, according to the new book, The Seven Principles of Complete Co-Creation.

Authors Stefanie Jansen and Maarten Pieters are co-founders of TheCreators, a consultancy specialising in co-creation. Stefanie was earlier at market research firm IPM KidWise, and Maarten is Head of Co-Creation and People Insight for the Design and User Experience Department at Philips Lighting.

A new United Nations report warns that the severe impacts of global warming would occur by 2040, or in the lifetime of today’s working-age people. In order to avert that scenario, global warming must be contained at 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial era levels, the U.N.’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) said. The report has been met with a mixture of hope and despair. Some point to the dramatic changes that would be required to hit that mark – even as the U.S., the world’s second-largest emitter of carbon dioxide, rolls back measures designed to slow climate change — while others say that the report affirms that meeting the target is still possible.

What do Verafin, Radian6, Kinduct, Coconut Software, Vendasta, AbeBooks, GranDuke Geomatics and New Horizon Interactive all have in common?

They are all very successful Canadian technology companies that emerged in mid-sized cities, which for the purposes of this article are defined as Canadian census metropolitan areas with anywhere from 50,000 to 500,000 residents.

Image: Downtown Saskatoon across the South Saskatchewan River. Founding a technology business in a mid-sized city is increasingly an attractive option for entrepreneurs. JACQUES BOISSINOT