Technology is evolving at a faster pace than ever, and each change affects the consumer market in different ways. Every year, innovations are introduced that impact the market in ways some people never would have imagined. 

Now that 2021 has come to a close, professionals in every industry are anticipating the tech innovations that will take the market by storm in the coming year. Below, eight members of Young Entrepreneur Council weigh in to share which tech innovations they believe will have the greatest impact on the market in 2022. 

Image: https://www.forbes.com

I was surprised when we released our Ladders Quarterly Remote Work Report last week.

Two years into the pandemic, I expected the growth rate in remote work would slow down. Or at least level out.

Instead, we found that 3 million additional jobs went permanently remote in Q4 2021.  That’s up from 2 million jobs that went remote in Q3.

The trend is accelerating, not slowing down, and that has huge implications for all of us.

Image: https://cenedella.substack.com/

As a long-time mentor and advisor to new business owners, I can attest to both the need for mentoring, and the satisfaction that comes from watching an aspiring but tentative entrepreneur grow into someone capable of changing the world. Business is not rocket science, and one-on-one guidance face-to-face, with a real project, trumps the classroom and mistakes every time.

Image: https://blog.startupprofessionals.com

How do the most effective innovators—of all shapes and sizes—think and act? How can we give ourselves a meaningful creativity upgrade, elevating our performance in both business and life? 

The following eight core mindsets are used by the world’s most prolific innovators—and by ordinary people, like you and me—to elevate creative output, topple pesky problems and seize new opportunity. Incorporate them into your own life, and you’ll quickly see the results.

When I started my PhD in 2012, I knew from the very beginning that I didn’t want to be in academia. However, I had no clue what else was out there beyond working in pharma, and I didn’t have any sort of road map to help figure things out.

As years went by, I started to realize that there was a whole world of opportunities for PhDs beyond the bench – careers that were just as intellectually stimulating and still scratched that scientific itch without ever having to pick up a pipette. However, the road to reach these careers was a bit foggier compared to academia. Did I need to do a postdoc? How important are publications? How do I make myself stand out?

Image: https://biobuzz.io

All the commotion around autonomous cars has prominently featured Tesla, with a side of reports from General Motors and Ford. But a surprise contender has said it plans to sell something closer to an autonomous car than anything currently on American roads. Volvo’s in the mix. There are several important caveats to the news, however.

Image: https://www.kbb.com

This year’s Consumer Electronics Show hosted an autonomous race car competition at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, where self-driving race cars took to the track to battle at speeds of more than 170mph. 

Five teams from around the world developed autonomous racing software to take control of their cars, with the winner - the PoliMOVE team from Milan - receiving a $150,000 prize. 

Image: https://www.autoexpress.co.uk/

It's no secret, COVID massively accelerated the future of work timeline. It's hurled us out of an outdated industrial-age model and into a distributed one that's optimized for the internet era. HR tech no longer sits on the back burner, it is now front and center in the minds of employees, executives and boards. This flash-flood transition has very quickly accelerated what we used to call the "future of work" into the "now of work."

The worst days of the global health crisis seem to be behind us. Though the world is seeing another terrible surge, here in California the availability of vaccines has meant that many of our freedoms have been restored, and people are both grateful and relieved. And who can blame them?

I was hesitant, however, when I saw articles about how remote work will endure as the way of the future. While I recognize the benefits of such an arrangement, I know that there are also clear advantages to having people working together in a shared space. Why do I say that? Because our startup, Nexkey, went back to the office in July two days a week, and it was one of the best decisions we made all year.

Startup accelerator Y Combinator announced this morning that it has updated its terms, providing participating companies with more total cash. The group will now invest $500,000 in batch startups.

The money comes in two different forms. The first is the well-known Y Combinator equity deal, worth $125,000 for 7% of accelerated startups. The group will now also offer $375,000 in the form of an uncapped SAFE note — a simple agreement for future equity — with a “most favored nation” clause.

The news: A pig’s heart has been transplanted into a human being for the first time. David Bennett Sr., a man with terminal heart disease, received the genetically modified heart during an eight-hour operation on Friday January 7 at the University of Maryland Medical Center, which issued a statement last night. The operation was a last-ditch effort on behalf of Bennett, 57, who had been deemed ineligible for a conventional heart transplant. He had been in the hospital for more than six weeks before the procedure with life-threatening arrhythmia. “It was either die or do this transplant,” he said in the press statement. “I want to live. I know it’s a shot in the dark, but it’s my last choice.”

Image: Surgeons operate on Bennett in the procedure on January 7 UNIVERSITY OF MARYLAND

Existing research has shown that moving up the socioeconomic ladder is becoming more difficult, and class bias has been shown to impact lifetime earnings. Few studies have investigated the workplace experience of those from different socioeconomic backgrounds. Do wealth differences influence the paths through which people enter and progress through their professional careers? Do patterns of barriers and privilege exist, and if so, what do they look like? To fill this knowledge gap, the authors conducted a study on first-generation professionals (FGPs). Here’s what they learned about FGPs and what company leaders can do to support them

With the cost of entry at an all-time low, and the odds of success equally low, more and more entrepreneurs are starting multiple companies concurrently. This “parallel entrepreneur” idea has been around since at least the days of Thomas Edison, and for the new generation of entrepreneurs, who have been multi-tasking since birth, it’s probably not even a stretch.

Image: https://blog.startupprofessionals.com

It’s easy to say to people on your team that they must be accountable for their actions, but it’s not so easy to tell them how to do it. It’s even harder to give them the mindset of wanting to be accountable. In fact, many business leaders forget that they are the role model for accountability, and don’t audit their own actions to make sure that they always practice what they preach.

Image: https://blog.startupprofessionals.com

SALT LAKE CITY — The University of Utah last week released its 2021 Innovation Report, detailing how the university has a seemingly golden touch when it comes to startup companies.

A precedent-setting $884 million in investments was raised by U. startups in 2021 and technologies developed by University of Utah faculty and students contributed to the launch of 14 startup companies last year, according to the report.

Image: Kristin Murphy, Descret News

Launching a business is hard enough, but scaling it to a successful and lucrative exit is even more difficult. Securing early-stage venture financing is usually the best way to accelerate and sustain growth, but with various funding options available, how do you figure out the best course of action? What is the best alternative to VC, and at what point in your company’s growth do other funding sources make sense?

CES is full of announcements for different products and services you will be able to buy and use later in the year. It’s also full of things you’ll never be able to purchase (or otherwise won’t see for some time, and in very different forms). Concepts run rampant at CES, and even if they aren’t always realistic, they’re always compelling.

Image: https://medium.com

This new year, there’s a resolution we’d like you to consider. More than 1.5 million people in 180 countries now fund our fearless, independent journalism. Will you support us? This vital support means we can remain independent of shareholders or a billionaire owner, free to report relentlessly on world events. It means we can keep Guardian reporting open for everyone, so millions more can benefit. Every contribution, however big or small, powers our future. Support us for the new year and beyond, from as little as $1. Thank you.

The small town of Morrisville, North Carolina, has just landed a mammoth economic victory, with developers committing to build a $1B mixed-use life sciences campus this week.

But the development, one of the largest of its kind in the Southeast, wouldn't have happened without a coordinated effort to change the town's zoning in time to secure the project. Morrisville Mayor TJ Cawley said the land use changes, along with a new access road, were critical to avoid the 400-acre property turning into another warehouse.

The U.S. Economic Development Administration announced last month the winners of $500,000 planning grants to 60 jurisdictions across the country for the $1 billion Build Back Better Regional Challenge. Winners of Phase 2 Build Back Better will be eligible for federal grants of up to $100M to create new science and technology parks and districts, accelerators, and other technology infrastructure across the country.

Funding for the technology infrastructure must go to a nonprofit, such as a university, but the nonprofit will need the commercial real estate industry to design, build and manage this technology infrastructure.

The District of Columbia/Maryland/Virginia (DMV) region submitted some very good bids, including ones in quantum technology, biotechnology, advanced manufacturing, and other topics but only Howard County for cyber security, Richmond, Virginia in bio manufacturing, and rural Southwest Virginia in transportation logistics won planning grants.