If you live in Texas or Louisiana, your community will be harder hit by climate change than cities in New Hampshire or Oregon. By the end of the century, if emissions continue unchecked, some parts of the U.S. will see far greater economic damage from climate than others–and because the communities that will be affected most tend to be poorer, the shift will also widen income inequality.

Image: https://www.fastcompany.com

Amid the bloodshed in Venezuela, the corruption scandal in Brazil and the stream of bizarre statements coming out of President Trump’s Twitter feed, a very important news item has gone almost unnoticed in Latin America: A new study says the region is failing miserably in innovation.

The Global Innovation Index 2017, a ranking of 130 countries across the world, says that African, Eastern European and Southeast Asian countries are doing much better than Latin America when it comes to modernizing their economies and producing more sophisticated goods and services that help their economies grow faster.

Steve Case, the co-founder of America Online, said technology start-ups in the "third wave" of the Internet will boost businesses in the Midwest.

Case has presented that idea for three years in the Rise of the Rest initiative, USA Today reported.

He said he feels he can help cities outside Silicon Valley and New York "to attract more media and attract more investor attention." He hopes technology can create "economic growth and jobs everywhere, not just in a few places," he told USA Today.

Houston—Houston has all the ingredients to be an economic powerhouse, but the city won’t be able to become one unless civic and business leaders support the city’s fledgling tech community.

That finding, and other recommendations on how to support an “innovation strategy” for the city, were presented today to the Houston City Council task force members who were last year asked to uncover ways to boost Houston’s tech scene.

THE collaborative efforts of aspiring entrepreneurs and start-up innovators in regional areas gives them an edge over metro developers, and it shows in the strength of business pitches.

Australia Post's general manager for small business Rebecca Burrows said the "whole ecosystem” of investment, collaboration and sheer drive of start-ups was a credit to the innovators.

Ms Burrows, a judge at the PitchFest regional finals in Toowoomba this week, said the five finalists showed how valuable collaboration is for innovators from conception and development through to investment and commercial success.

Image: PITCH PERFECT: Australia Post's Rebecca Burrows and David Crane. - https://www.thechronicle.com.au

Social networks present new opportunities for SMEs to grow. But some worry that privacy requirements are stifling that growth.

Victor Dik and Felix Ermer were a German duo hanging out in Brooklyn, New York in the summer of 2012 when they stumbled upon a gap in the beauty product market.

They wanted to look and feel good, without feeling bad about it. But they found that there weren’t any natural, plant-based and cruelty-free male grooming products on the market. They decided to make some.

How will the venture capital model or approach likely change in the next twenty years? originally appeared on Quora - the place to gain and share knowledge, empowering people to learn from others and better understand the world.

Answer by Russell Siegelman, former Microsoft and KPCB, currently GSB professor and angel investor, on Quora.

The venture capital industry has changed quite a bit since I entered about twenty years ago. In my comments below I will use “VC” or “VC industry” to refer to the larger firms who have traditionally done Series A-C rounds, and not the relatively new “micro-VC” funds that raise smaller funds and chiefly do pre-seed, seed, and occasional follow on rounds.

Do you suffer from allergies? Follow the dendritic cell and the entire Scientific American Allergy Orchestra to discover how allergens from pollen to pet dander can change the body's tune. Full Transcript Sneezy? Itchy? Perhaps your seasonal allergies have your immune system playing the wrong tune. Your immune system is like an assembly of musicians, each with a job to do. 

Steve Jobs famously said that building a company is so hard that “if you don’t have a passion, you’ll give up.”  In fact, to this day, it remains a question if passion is really a key component of entrepreneurial success. Chen et al. analyzed the way venture capitalists (VCs) evaluate business plan presentations to give us answers to the question: what does passion mean in entrepreneurship, and do VCs really care about it?

The United States needs to regain its competitive edge in manufacturing while also grappling with its two-tiered labor market and finding ways to make economic growth more inclusive.

The United States always assumed that its forward momentum would carry the next generation toward greater prosperity, just as it took for granted that its technical prowess in manufacturing would guarantee its global market share. But now those assumptions have been upended. Although unemployment is down and wages are finally ticking up again, these indicators can distract from the bigger picture. Tens of millions of workers are struggling to make it in America, and even a full-time job does not guarantee a decent standard of living.

Image: http://www.mckinsey.com

Whether it’s Yahoo! buying Alibaba, or Google gobbling up Nest and Skybox Imaging, the acquisition of startups by tech giants are no longer just fodder for the business section. In today’s screen-lived age, they are increasingly the top news stories of the day.

But while entrepreneurship in the tech sector can sometimes seem like a race to cash in from the moment a startup is founded — OK, for some, that’s exactly what it is — acquisition isn’t always the goal.

Image: http://ecorner.stanford.edu

"If you want to start something, you have to be prepared to sacrifice," says Derek Belch, co-founder and CEO of STRIVR Labs. He describes how those at his startup are committed to their product's success, not high pay. Belch also talks about how a business's ability to bring in revenue is a better measure of its success than how much investor money it has raised.

Image: http://ecorner.stanford.edu

Instagram’s Kevin Weil describes how a startup can independently build products for its customers and still enjoy huge benefits within the larger company that acquired it. Now owned by Facebook, Instagram leverages the parent company’s infrastructure, sales operation and business network, says Weil, in conversation with Tina Seelig of the Stanford Technology Ventures Program.

Image: http://ecorner.stanford.edu

It’s summer internship season, but, beyond gathering a few project credentials, work examples, or industry-related experience, interns should be working on learning other essential skills that will help them in their professional lives.

“People hire for competence and fire for character,” says Todd Davis, chief people officer, FranklinCovey, and author of the upcoming Get Better: 15 Proven Practices to Build Effective Relationships at Work. In other words, job skills are great, but they can also be taught.

I am so proud and humbled to be able to formally announce that Upfront Ventures has raised its 6th venture capital fund in the past 21 years. Upfront VI is our latest core fund and is $400 million to invest in early stage entrepreneurs. This brings our combined funds under management to nearly $2 billion.

Image: https://bothsidesofthetable.com/

Millennials are finally jumping into the home market. Data from the National Association of Realtors show that millennials now represent the largest share of the home buying population nationally, at 34%. At the same time, however, the share of homeowners under age 35 shrunk 5 percentage points between 2001 and 2015, according to a new study real estate information site ABODO. The ADOBO study also shows that millennials are having an especially hard time buying homes in certain parts of the country, at the same time that they're buying a disproportionally large percentage of homes in other regions.

Image: http://time.com

Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker announced a legislative proposal that would provide $500 million over five years for the life sciences sector, extending the state’s commitment to the biotech and medical technology industry. The money would be used for strategic investments in public infrastructure, research and development, workforce training and education. The proposal includes a $295 million bond authorization to provide capital funding,  up to $150 million in job-creating tax incentives, and $55 million for the Investment Fund, which would be provided through the annual consolidated net surplus, the same funding mechanism as the current initiative.

Ray Sharma loves Toronto, and he's willing to bet entrepreneurs around the world will love it, too.

Sharma is the CEO and cofounder of Extreme Venture Partners, a Canadian VC firm that recently assembled a fund for paying startup founders and their families to relocate to Toronto.

Finland heads the charts in European venture capital investments in startup and early stage growth companies as a percentage of GDP between 2012 and 2016. Ireland, in a class by itself, ranks first, while Sweden comes in third. 

Image: http://nordic.businessinsider.com/

No one ever sees the hockey stick coming. Just as burly ice-skating Canadians and Scandinavians can miss that curved piece of wood used to cross-check one another at high speeds, economic experts also often fail to anticipate hockey sticks. I’m talking about usage, or customer uptake, or growth in a market sector that charts at a generally staid pace and then suddenly shoots sharply upward and to the right.