FROM ITS CONCEPTION in LA traffic in late 2016, Elon Musk’s Boring Company has had a simple vision: blasting torturous gridlock by putting people in tunnels. “Am going to build a tunnel boring machine and just start digging…” the Twitter-loving Tesla and SpaceX CEO tweeted.

Musk went ahead and bought that boring machine, then another, and he’s using them to experiment with tunnel building techniques in Hawthorne, California, near SpaceX headquarters. And he’s been pitching government officials on his approach. The Boring Company has proposed tunneling projects in Los Angeles, Maryland, Washington, DC, New York and Chicago.

Image: THE BORING COMPANY

Kansas City’s Sprint Accelerator opened in 2013 and kicked off their first class of their Corporate Accelerator program the following year. This week, Sprint and Dairy Farmers of America (DFA) announced the nine participants of the fifth annual class. In the past, classes have focused on specific verticals like mobile health, this year’s class is covering three verticals: IoT, AgTech and food/dairy.

“We have a diverse and exciting group of companies joining our program this year,” said Doug Dresslaer, Managing Director of the Sprint Accelerator. “For Sprint, we’ve recruited companies that align with our IoT team’s core business strategies and for DFA, we’ve not only brought in cutting-edge agricultural technology companies, but we also have three dairy food product companies in this year’s cohort.

Image: http://siliconprairienews.com

SHARE TWEET SHARE SHARE PRINT EMAIL The European Commission floated the idea of issuing so-called “passports” for crowdfunding startups in an effort to drive growth in the financial technology sector.

According to news from Reuters, citing European Commission Vice President Valdis Dombrovskis, the idea is that if the startups have a license from the European Union (EU), it will help them expand in Europe.

“It will help them match investors and companies from all over the EU, giving more opportunities for firms and entrepreneurs to pitch their ideas to a wider base of funders,” Dombrovskis said.

Image: https://www.pymnts.com

The disruption over the last decade in the retail food value chain gained momentum in 2017 with the IPO of Blue Apron, and acquisitions such as Bai Brands ($1.7 billion), Sir Kensington Condiments and Whole Foods by Amazon ($13.7 billion). This wave of disruption is being paralleled in the agricultural value chain, driven by increasing land turnover and altered land use, renewed focus on sustainability and, as in retail, changing consumer preference.

Image: https://beta.techcrunch.com

When I sit down with new startup founders, most ask me about one thing: raising money.

This is smart of them, because, as I've stated previously, fundraising needs to be one of the core competencies of any young company. Yet for the many high-level conversations I've enjoyed on the subject with young entrepreneurs, rarely do we delve into the kinds of DIY steps they can take to legitimately improve their chances of actually landing an investment.

I want to spend some time doing just that on a subject worthy of much more discussion than it generally receives: the pitch deck.

As an entrepreneur, it’s never too early to set the culture you need for a thriving business, as well as thriving employees, customers, partners, and vendors. In fact, in my experience, cultures are very hard to change, so if you don’t get it right the first time, the road ahead will forever be difficult. “The Art of War” culture as an analogy for business doesn’t always work anymore.

The sad news of the passing of Roger Bannister, the first human being to run a four-minute mile, got me thinking about his legacy—not just as one of the great athletes of the past century, but as an innovator, a change agent, and an icon of success. As it turns out, when he broke through a previously impenetrable track-and-field barrier, he taught all of us what it takes to break new ground.

Most people know the basic story of Roger Bannister, who, on May 6, 1954, busted through the four-minute barrier with a time of three minutes, fifty-nine and four-tenths of a second.

From YouTube videos to Instagram posts to the article you’re reading now, we live in a content-fueled world.

Ninety percent of digital data that exists today was created within the last two years, according to data compiled by MerlinOne, a digital asset management platform. In fact, 2.5 quintillion bytes of digital data are created every day -- that’s equivalent to the storage capacity of 36 million iPads. And that’s thanks to advancements in technology and the rise of social media, digital advertising and online publishing.

Image: https://www.entrepreneur.com

In rural El Salvador, a family living on $1.90 a day might live in a makeshift house with dirt floors, thin walls, and no running water. But next year, dozens of those families will move into one of the world’s first communities of 3D-printed homes.

New Story, a Silicon Valley-based nonprofit whose leaders have spent the last few years rethinking how to build safe housing for those living in extreme poverty, worked with Icon, a construction tech company, to create a 3D printer that can build a house in a day for roughly $4,000.

Image: https://www.fastcompany.com

What do you do when water catches fire? That’s exactly what Bangaloreans are scratching their heads over – the water in their lakes is catching fire, and nobody knows how exactly to put the flames out.

By registering you agree to our T&Cs & Privacy Policy For a city that once boasted close to a thousand lakes, this is something of a problem.

Bangalore or Bengaluru, India’s Garden City, a quiet backwater once known as “The City of Lakes”, has been losing perspective lately. It’s once beautiful, temperate, lake-filled landscape has stumbled into something of a drunken stupor, frothing around the edges.

Without your health, you cannot acquire and enjoy more wealth, and you cannot love yourself entirely.

The past seven years we have been to many conferences, seminars, and retreats all around the world, and its mind blowing how many entrepreneurs put their health on the back burner to acquire more wealth. Keep in mind, we are not expecting to see people being jacked or who look like bodybuilders. We don’t even look like that and we have been fitness consultants for the past decade.

Going down history lane – however long – it is quite clear that human beings anywhere in the world have been brought to where they are by the efforts of innovative individuals who had the independence of mind, determination, courage and generosity to share their thoughts – and often their energies – with the rest of humanity.

We in Kenya – part of the so-called Third World up to now – have for most of our lives worked along the lines of innovations that have always come from other people and from elsewhere.

Image: James Mulema demonstrates how his Mega Gas invention works, during the Annual National Science Week at the KICC, Nairobi, on May 26, 2017. PHOTO | FRANCIS NDERITU | NATION MEDIA GROUP 

US war aircraft manufacturers Lockheed Martin will soon invite innovation ideas through its annual scheme meant for start-ups and university students to take forward their ideas and enable them enter the market.

"Applications for this programme, launched in 2007, will be received from March 21. It looks for start-ups and university students, who have got innovation, and they may be allowed to take their ideas to the next stage, enabling them to enter the market," Lockheed Martin India, Chief Executive Phil Shaw was quoted as saying in a release here.

In a recent exploration of the educational backgrounds of professional venture capital investors for Crunchbase News, here’s what we found:

• Investment partners at VC firms, themselves a small and exclusive coterie, tend to call an equally tight-knit group of colleges their alma mater. In a finding that will shock almost nobody, Ivy League and Ivy-Plus schools are heavily favored in the top rankings. 
• 73 percent of the investment partners had some sort of graduate education. An impressive 16 percent of the population we analyzed held an MD, PhD, or equivalent doctoral degree. 
• By just the barest margin, a majority (51 percent) of the investment partners in our dataset held an MBA.

Image: https://news.crunchbase.com

Hi, pals. I’m Kevin. I’m a columnist here at The Times, and I’ll be filling in for Farhad and Mike on this newsletter while they’re both “out on book leave.” (Read: tweeting and playing Fortnite in their PJs.) Mostly, I write about Silicon Valley and how technology interacts with the larger worlds of business and culture.

Today, though, I want to talk about the Midwest.

Image: Many of the venture capitalists on a recent bus tour of the Midwest became enamored of the area. Credit Andrew Spear for The New York Times

In today’s world, technology has taken over almost every facet of life. Across the nation, universities are creating new and groundbreaking ways to help students stay ahead of the curve.

One of Florida State University’s strategic goals is to deepen its commitment to continuous innovation. In the quest to put students at the forefront of the technology revolution and the job market, FSU has opened the new, state-of-the-art Innovation Hub.

Image: “The Innovation Hub introduced me to a lot of new technology, and it’s amazing I get to use it all for free," said FSU student Alyson Kapper (Left). (Photo: UC Photography Services)

A sawmill worker discovers gold along the American River near Sacramento in 1848. Soon more than 300,000 people rush to California, eager to take big risks in the hopes of getting rich quick.

This founding myth enshrines risk-taking as a key part of the California Dream. Most miners did not find great wealth, but the Gold Rush shaped California’s early economy, putting it on a path to becoming the world’s sixth largest today. And that acceptance of failure continues to attract the kind of entrepreneurs who keep the state’s economy growing.

Image: Gold miners pose near their camp on a hillside in El Dorado, California circa 1848 to 1853. LIBRARY OF CONGRESS

A Chicago-based firm is preparing to take the reins of a new state-backed venture fund and plans this spring to begin investing up to $250 million.

But while Gov. Eric Holcomb said in January that the Next Level Fund will “build and support more innovation and entrepreneurship in our state,” it’s not clear just how much of the money will end up in the hands of Hoosier startups.

Hart A state investment board is expected to finalize a contract this month with 50 South Capital Advisors LLC to manage the money and invest the vast majority of it in other venture capital funds, which will then invest in companies.

In their passion to succeed, too many entrepreneurs treat friends and family investments as “low-hanging” fruit, only to find out later, after a stumble, that the pain of lost relationships is greater than the loss of their beloved startup. Other entrepreneurs never start their adventure, because they can’t face the prospect of even approaching friends and family for an investment kick-start.

The only way an entrepreneur can really dodge this issue is to totally fund the startup with personal funds (bootstrapping). Then you don’t have to worry about the fact that most angel investors and venture capitalists won’t take a bet on you if none of your friends and family have given you a vote of confidence with money.

Image: http://blog.startupprofessionals.com

In many respects, the U.K. is leading the way in innovation.

London has demonstrated a noteworthy ability to attract talent and capital. That, coupled with Britain’s pro-business policies and approach to regulation, makes it a model for other governments. London often sees itself as the financial capital of the world, and its policies position it to maintain that status.