Cities and banks can mostly agree on at least one point: there should be more dollars spent on or invested in community development. But how those dollars find their way to those purposes? That’s a never-ending debate.

Image: 401kcalculator.org

Hundreds and hundreds of crowdfunding programs come across our desk every year and hundreds fail. But, many are successful. Whether it’s due to grit and great marketing or truly remarkable designs, watching a great campaign succeed is always exciting.

At Gadget Flow, we love nothing more than a successful campaign. Check out these 19 incredibly cool crowdfunding projects which have really caught our attention so far this year.

Image: KOSMOS ink Magnetic Fountain Pen

In recent years, an increasing intensity in collaboration between incumbent companies and startups has been observed. Meanwhile, close to 80% of corporations and startups have already been or are collaborating. The mutual – actually complementary – benefits seem pretty obvious:

Tech analyst Mary Meeker is leaving venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers LLC to start her own firm, Kleiner said on Friday.

It said Meeker was creating a separate firm with her colleagues Mood Rowghani, Noah Knauf and Juliet de Baubigy.

Kleiner said the split, which was first reported by Recode, could be attributed to shifts in the funding ecosystem.

Image: https://tech.economictimes.indiatimes.com

The U.S. workforce is continuously in flux, and American businesses struggle to match their talent needs with the available labor pool.

Educators and policymakers study advancing markets and project the types of jobs that will be most in demand. Others focus on retraining the existing labor pool to give them high-demand skills and greater upward mobility. All markets, industries, and communities are dynamic which is great for workers who want broader opportunity, but not so great for employers that need talent now.

There’s no doubt that we have shifted from a resource-based economy to one rooted in innovation. Companies are increasingly looking to the start-up ecosystem to remain competitive - as they should be. And it’s no longer simply about trading on start-ups’ cool factor; corporations want a deeper understanding of the culture of collaboration and partnership that drives start-ups’ success - and, in the long run, invest in and benefit from their future success.

Andamio Games has landed $1.1 million in Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) funds from the National Institutes of Health. 

The startup, spun out of Minneapolis-based Adventium Labs, said it will use the money to develop its BrainAware mobile application; an interactive educational tool designed for adolescents and young adults to improve success with substance abuse treatment. 

In Mission Impossible: Fallout, we see the villain sitting in a room watching the destruction of society play out on a news report. Seeing the success of his plan, he starts to gloat and confess. Once he finishes, the walls come down. It turns out the whole scene was a façade–and he had been tricked the entire time.

Root Insurance, SafeChain and several Central Ohio entrepreneurs were among statewide winners of 2018 VentureOhio awards celebrating tech companies backed by risk capital.

Image: The 2018 VentureOhio Dinner on Sept. 13 packed a COSI ballroom with 600 attendees. - CARRIE GHOSE

Technology is so key to every business these days that experienced business-smart but non-tech entrepreneurs are feeling deeper and deeper in the hole. Even if they realize that they need real technical strength at the top, they are not sure how to attract and select the talent and expertise they really need. Should they go after high-tech nerds for partners, or professional technologists?

Ambitious dreams have now become a reality as the Ocean Cleanup deploys its $20 million system designed to clean up the 1.8 trillion pieces of trash floating in the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. Check out another Forbes piece on how Ocean Cleanup aims to reuse and recycle the ocean plastic.

Image: A floater from The Ocean Cleanup.THE OCEAN CLEANUP

What does it take psychologically for a talented businessperson to reach entrepreneur status?

Nicolette Wilson-Clarke is a master coach and founder of Embodied Entrepreneur who helps creative executives reach their full potential by not letting insecurities get in the way of what they want to achieve.

"My role really as a master coach is to ask powerful questions to get to the core of the issue," Wilson-Clarke said, adding that she tries to empower her clients and aid them on their entrepreneurial journeys by helping them stay focused, powerful and balanced — in both mind and body.

It's no secret that choosing the right college can have a big impact on where you end up later in life.

If you're hoping to launch a startup, chances are you'll need some funding down the road -- and, according to the data, the university you attend can be one factor that impacts the amount of funding you'll receive after graduating.

NEW DELHI - Singapore, South Korea and Japan are the most innovative countries in Asia whereas Pakistan and Bangladesh are the least innovative, according to the Global Innovation Index 2018 report.

The report  analyses the energy innovation landscape of the next decade and identifies possible breakthroughs in fields such as energy production, storage, distribution, and consumption. It also looks at how breakthrough innovation occurs at the grassroots level and describes how small-scale renewable systems are on the rise.

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Before you start down the long hard road of an entrepreneur, it pays to look inside yourself to see what you love to do, and what would fit your definition of success. For some, it’s all about the chance to run your own show, or advance a cause that you are passionate about. Others dream of being a billionaire, or proving that they can satisfy a need by starting and growing a business.

Image: https://blog.startupprofessionals.com

In early 2015, Tyler Handley had an idea he was sure would be a money-maker: temporary tattoos that look indistinguishable from permanent ink and fade within a few weeks. He had neither a business degree nor entrepreneurial experience, so he wasn’t exactly the typical startup whiz, but he knew this much: he would need money to get his idea off the ground. 

Image: https://www.canadianbusiness.com

KANSAS CITY, Mo., Sept. 13, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- The Angel Capital Association released today the Angel Funders Report, a new study of angel group investments. The ACA report provides an initial picture on angel groups' investments, the startups they support and the factors that lead to business and investor success. The goal is to build the most comprehensive and actionable database on angel investing. These insights are important because angels provide 90% of equity capital to startups - $25B in 70,000 companies every year, yet few detailed data reports are available. 

Each of us respond to different drives and motivations, but there are many drives we can choose from that not only make our careers more fruitful but also more enjoyable. Those people who experience the “Sunday Blues” are in careers which may provide security and certain freedoms, but they lack joy and fulfillment. Sunday comes around and many of us immediately begin dreading our work week; thereby, ruining the rest of their weekend for ourselves and those we are close with. There is no point in staying in careers that make us miserable. There is so much opportunity in the world. We have to find the correct motivations to go out and make these opportunities happen.

Though it might be a tough sell to convince your employer to change corporate policy from a 40-hour workweek to a 4-hour one (sorry Tim Ferris)–what about a four-day schedule? Or, work-from-home Fridays? As summer comes to both an unofficial and official close, so do summer Fridays for those offices that allowed them. Though not a standard across all industries, many feature this perk between Memorial Day and Labor Day, giving employees bonus “vacation” days or the opportunity to meet deadlines and dial-in to meetings remotely. Apart from the obvious reasons professionals look forward to this time of year, some experts rave about a shorter week year-round, saying that it not only fosters productivity but can bolster a positive work ethic.

Duke’s Office of Licensing and Ventures, which licenses ideas from Duke faculty and staff to commercial partners is reporting another record-setting fiscal year in its 2018 annual report.

Duke employees filed a record 329 invention disclosures and started 16 new companies, 15 of which are staying here in Durham and the Triangle. Medical school researchers were granted 69 patents and Pratt Engineering researchers received 32 patents.