Given the prominence of Uber, Facebook, and other tech super-brands in our lives, the current moment may seem like a golden age for startups. These companies’ success in rising from nothing would seem to indicate that we’re living in an economy that embraces change and continues to innovate.

Adding senior female partners to venture firms hasn't resulted in an increase in funding for female-founded startups, according to a report published this week.

The analysis of 17 top firms by Bloomberg showed that those with senior women partners funded startups founded or co-founded by women at about the same rate as firms with no senior women partners.

An investor contacted me recently to take issue with a perpetual bee in the Atlantic Canadian bonnet — the perma-complaint that there’s no funding available to startups in the region.

I’ve heard it for years. So has this investor. As a result, he dove into the data in CrunchBase, the American databank affiliated with TechCrunch that has information on startup investments from around the world. The investor, who asked not to be named, wanted to find data that would determine what proportion of our startups received funding compared to (a) the global startup community, and (b) the Top 20 global startup communities (such as Silicon Valley, Tel Aviv, etc.) as listed by the Startup Genome.

It’s tempting to check email and maybe even do a little bit of work on vacation, but those stolen minutes could be hurting you more than you think. A study conducted by the University of Texas and vacation rental site HomeAway found that working on your trip for just one hour a day can make you 43% more likely to have trouble remembering your vacation.

There aren’t many leaders who would disagree with the idea that a healthy, productive culture is a defining element of business success. Yet I’ve seen so many companies with lofty-sounding “mission statements” and “core values” that have the most toxic workplaces imaginable. I’ve met so many leaders who are brilliant when it comes to product design and capital structure but who treat the people in business as an afterthought, a matter of sound administration as opposed to daring innovation.

Venture capital funding doesn’t stretch very far — geographically, that is.

California, Massachusetts and New York drew 75 percent of venture capital last year, Revolution CEO Steve Case told Walt Mossberg Thursday at the Code Conference in Rancho Palos Verdes, California.

That left 47 states to fight over the remaining quarter of funds, he said. And the division was similar if you looked at how VC funding was split between states that went for Hillary Clinton versus Donald Trump in the 2016 election.

Image: Asa Mathat - https://www.recode.net

Older Adults Form a Growing Segment of the U.S. Entrepreneurial Population According to the report, entrepreneurs aged 55 to 64 made up for 25.5 percent of all new entrepreneurs in 2016, up from 14.8 percent in 1996. The number of younger entrepreneurs (aged 20 to 34), on the other hand, has witnessed a decline, down from 34.3 percent in 1996 to 24.4 percent in 2016.

Starting your career with your own business is an exciting, yet scary, adventure. It can be difficult to know where to start, who to turn to for advice, and how to manage your personal life on top of a rapidly growing business. Here’s the best I’ve gathered throughout my years as an entrepreneur:

Image: Tony Stark played by Robert Downey Jr and Happy Hogan played by Jon Favreau in Marvel's Iron Man. Made Rosenthal - http://fortune.com

If you want to land job interviews, your entire resume needs to be great, but only one part of it has to be really great. Think of it this way: recruiters and hiring managers are most likely to encounter your resume as an email attachment or a PDF you submit through a company’s online submission form, right? When they open the file, only the top half—at most—is going to fill their screen. That’s the part you need to lavish the most attention on. If you don’t give them a reason to scroll down and read more, it’s all over for you.

In a dream world, you’d spare no expense to spoil your dad on Father's Day. Your bank account balance isn't exactly in the six digits though.

Thankfully, there are still plenty of presents to shop that are within the realm of possibility — and that aren't the all too predictable tie or set of cuff links retailers will have you think he wants and needs. 

I am an immigrant who, like many of my immigrant colleagues, feels proud to be contributing to my new country by working hard and creating new jobs for others. Yet our stories — indeed our very existence — make some people in government uncomfortable.

Not long ago, Democrats and Republicans alike talked about building our country’s economic competitiveness by stapling green cards onto the college diplomas of immigrant STEM graduates. That was before the immigration issue got hijacked by a nativist “stealing our jobs” narrative that couldn’t be more wrong.

Image: Dr. Johannes Fruehauf accepts the Life Science Business Award at the 2017 Immigrant Learning Center Immigrant Entrepreneur Awards Dinner. IMMIGRANT LEARNING CENTER - https://www.statnews.com

Chinese products could soon be 'Made in America'   Tuesday, 23 May 2017 | 8:20 PM ET | 02:08 It's Chinese-made in America.

Yes, you read that right. Contrary to widespread belief, China isn't the cheap place to manufacture that it once was, and rising costs have been forcing manufacturers to explore new countries to make their goods.

The U.S. may not be top of mind for all industries, but some manufacturers are taking a second look at the country — and many of them are Chinese. Throw in the possibility of lower corporate taxes under President Donald Trump, and more will likely come looking.

When people are presented with a problem the first urge is to resolve it. If the computer does not work, they want it fixed. Then they can move on to what they were trying to do in the first place. But quite often the source of the problem did not go away. People also need to understand how the problem was created. This requires time and effort to learn. But when the problem is gone, there is little incentive to learn about the implications and complexities that created the problem.

IBM recently informed its thousands of remote workers that the jig was up: They’d either have to relocate to one of the tech company’s offices or find new jobs. To be fair, only 56% of employers offer any kind of flexible work arrangements, but the move was met with criticism all the same. Even so, when big companies back away from remote work, it sends the message that remote workers aren’t as productive—a preconception that many need to go the extra mile to dispel.

In an effort to incentivize large-scale industry partnerships, Innovation, Science and Economic Development (ISED) Canada will invest up to C$950 million (US$708.5 million) between 2017 and 2022 in superclusters as part of the nation’s Innovation and Skills Plan. ISED Canada defines superclusters as “innovation hotbeds” that build on the advantages of clusters, “dense area of business activity containing a critical mass of large and small companies, post-secondary and other research institutions.” Grants, expected to be in the order of C$125 million to C$250 million (US$93.2 to US$186.5 million), will be distributed to three to five industry-led consortiums in Canada working around industries where the nation has pre-existing strengths (e.g., advanced manufacturing, agri-food, clean technology, digital technology, health/biosciences, clean resources, or infrastructure and transportation). Awarded consortiums will implement market-driven strategies across topics such as increased industry partnerships, collaborative research and development, and the commercialization of new products, among others.

Recently I received an email request from an entrepreneur to help figure out how to drive traffic to his fast-casual Indian restaurant without spending a boatload on marketing. The establishment had received favorable reviews by critics in local papers and by patrons on Yelp. He had drawn his own conclusion that his fundamental problem was the restaurant’s location. I gave him some blunt feedback:

Image: http://review.chicagobooth.edu

Kids who grow up in particularly impoverished, discriminatory, and conflict-ridden places may die early or see their own chances of success drastically reduced because of preventable health issues, malnutrition, poor schools, violent home lives, or early pregnancy. It’s an issue that affects 1 in 4 youngsters worldwide. Such problems often exist in developing countries, but they’re also largely present with the United States, which came in 36th out of 172 counties audited in Stolen Childhoods, a new report from Save The Children, a nonprofit working to improve young lives.

Almost a decade ago, Jonathan Zittrain, a Harvard professor, warned us that the internet may go in one of two directions.

The favourable outcome, he describes, is a system where ownership of content is decentralized and individuals are free to generate their own content. The alternative, Zittrain warned, is that we may be headed towards a closed system in which the means of production of content would be concentrated within the hands of just a few big players, effectively limiting the power of individuals both socioeconomically and politically.

Are you an NIH-funded investigator focused on medical device innovations? NIH recently announced the availability of administrative supplements to parent awards for a number of different activity codes with participation by four ICs (see lists below). Both SBIR/STTR awardees as well as recipients of a number of different research grants are eligible.

The Concept to Clinic: Commercializing Innovation (C3i) Program is designed to provide NIH-funded medical device innovators with an entrepreneurship training program to include specialized business frameworks and essential tools for successful translation of biomedical technologies from lab (concept) to market (clinic). The curriculum and customized mentoring provided by the program are intended to guide investigators in assessing the commercial viability and potential business opportunity for their innovation.

The suburbs are back. In April, New York Magazine sounded the alarm that “more and more people are fleeing New York.” Time discovered just a few weeks ago that millennials are moving to the suburbs in droves. Recent studies have shown that millennials associate homeownership with the American dream more so than Generation X or baby boomers. As the world rapidly urbanizes, suburban migration presents an opportunity to define what this growth will look like — and how it might fit in more synergistically with urban cores and rural communities.

Image: http://www.newgeography.com