Honeywell on May 17 unveiled a roughly $100 million corporate venture capital (CVC) effort to invest in early stage, high-growth technology companies that match the Tier 1 provider’s portfolio and software ...

RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK - The NC PACES Act investment crowdfunding exemption is now in effect. Please see the Secretary of State Crowdfunding website to review the FAQs and rules. Investors will want to start by reviewing the excellent Investor FAQs there.

Investors should also review the investment process, investment types, vetting process, and risk analysis on the localstake.com website. Experienced crowdfunding platforms like Localstake.com that support PACES Act offerings do things that help reduce investor risk such as vetting of the businesses, background checks, checking on compliance with the rules, document management, escrow funds transfer management, and follow up reporting on your investment.

I have been thinking a lot lately about the best way for angels interested in making pre-seed stage investments to put money into start-up companies. I’ve come to the conclusion that investing in accelerator funds is better than joining an angel group. Angel groups are investor collectives that pool funds and management. Back in 1994, when the first angel group got started, they were an important organizational innovation in early stage finance.

It’s time for more entrepreneurs to reset their focus, and shift their thinking to completely different ways of doing things. Everyone talks about innovation, but the majority of business plans I see still reflect linear thinking – one more social network with improved usability, one more wind-farm energy generator with a few more blades, or one more dating site with a new dimension of compatibility. Serious changes and great successes don’t come from linear thinking.

Anyone who’s celebrated a significant work anniversary knows just how a company can change over the years—who has a seat at the table, what customers expect, the most coveted skills. But there’s just as much that stays the same: what your brand stands for, the shared lexicon, your unique culture. We use the term organizational DNA as a metaphor for the underlying organizational and cultural design factors that define an organization’s personality and determine whether it is strong or weak in executing strategy. (See Exhibit 1.)

On May 16 of last year, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) finally allowed both accredited and non-accredited investors to engage in regulation crowdfunding. Under the new SEC rules, startups and other private companies could offer equity in return for capital to help support business growth. As of May 2017, total contributions under the regulation crowdfunding into startups and small businesses are over the $40 million mark with an average investment of $833 per investor. Using data from the Crowdfund Capital Advisors, Catherine Yushina from Crowdfund Insider highlighted several data points about the first year of regulation crowdfunding:

MAY 10, 2017 —What if I told you that, contrary to the alarming headlines and eye-catching infographics you may have seen ricocheting around social media, new technologies aren’t shaking up the labor market very much by historical standards? You might think I was as loopy as a climate-change denier and suggest that I open my eyes to all the taxi drivers being displaced by Uber, the robots taking over factories, and artificial intelligence doing some of the work lawyers and doctors used to do. Surely, we are in uncharted territory, right?

New York will start approving applications for self-driving car permits this month, making it the latest U.S. state to open its roads to driverless vehicles.

Governor Andrew Cuomo announced the year-long pilot program, aimed at exploring the possibilities of self-driving cars in New York and figuring out if they’re safe.

MIT has been a prolific generator of entrepreneurs for decades. But in recent years, the Institute has ramped up campus resources for would-be company builders, thanks in part to a more supportive attitude from administrators.

Xconomy chronicled those efforts and culture shift in an in-depth story in May 2016. Now, as the latest school year comes to a close, it seems like a good time to recap some of MIT’s new entrepreneurship initiatives from the past year.

Image: http://www.xconomy.com

States “have made progress in gathering evidence on the results of their economic development tax incentives,” but challenges remain for policy leaders seeking to understand and improve economic development outcomes.

Ellen Harpel of Smart Incentives and Josh Goodman from The Pew Charitable Trusts discussed “Evaluating and Improving Tax Incentives” as part of the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy’s seminar on Economic Perspectives on State and Local Taxes.

The complex life cycle of a biotechnology product, pharmaceutical or medical device demands a broad range of legal expertise across many practice specialties. From intellectual property protection to corporate and regulatory advice, the leading law firms in the life sciences space combine sophisticated legal counsel with deep scientific knowledge.

Lake Whillans established the Life Sciences Law Firm Index to help identify which law firms are the most active and relevant for life science companies. The index was created in collaboration with our research partners at Breaking Media, the publishers of leading industry sites MedCity News and Above the Law.

Kansas City has a new venture fund focusing on early-stage tech firms.

With $25 million in its coffers, Leawood Venture Capital has already made several investments in tech firms around the nation, including Kansas City-based Pepper IoT. Led by seasoned businessmen Brendan Fallis and Karl Gemperli, Leawood Venture Capital will provide equity investments and growth advisory services to tech startups around the U.S.

Image: Karl Gemperli, left, and Brendan Fallis, both managing partners of Leawood VC. - http://www.startlandnews.com

Candy Brush, Vice Provost of Global Entrepreneurial Leadership and the Franklin W. Olin Professor of Entrepreneurship, and Patti Greene, the Paul T. Babson Professor of Entrepreneurial Studies and the Academic Director Goldman Sachs 10,000 Women, were among the speakers at the Entrepreneurship Research: Past, Present & Future symposium held May 10-12 2017 at PSB Paris School of Business in France.

It was announced today that a new consortium called The Bridge Network has been launched at University College Cork. 

Led by UCC, the consortium comprises four technology transfer offices from University College Cork, Teagasc, Cork Institute of Technology and Institute of Technology Tralee and represents the largest consortium with a combined research revenue of €145 million. 

Image: https://www.businessworld.ie

There's plenty of great advice out there about what hopeful entrepreneurs need to do in order to succeed.

But avoiding pitfalls is another big part of achieving success. So what's the biggest mistake a new entrepreneur can make?

Innovators make products that push people to change their behavior. Often, this change happens fluidly. Skilled innovators deliver technologies so alluring — so sexy — that people want to adapt their behaviors so they can enjoy them.

But every now and then, innovators ask too much behavioral change of people too quickly, and people balk. 

Driverless Cars. Everywhere you look. Programmed and prepared to take you wherever you need to go.

Tony Seba, a RethinkX think tank cofounder and Stanford instructor, and James Arbib, a tech investor and philanthropist, published a report predicting that in 15 years only 20% of Americans will own a car. The main reason? Lots of autonomous cars will be roaming around ferrying us to and fro at less cost and with more ease than owning and driving your own car.

No business is untouched by red tape. That’s especially true when you’re starting a small business. You may have your business concept and plan prepared. You may already have your eye set on a prime office location and have done your homework on which small business insurance to choose. But before you can make your mark, or even earn a dime, you’ll have to get better acquainted with a few forms and registrations to make your business a reality.

Business may be booming, but like 33% of small business owners surveyed in the 2015 Small Business Success Study, you may not be hiring. If money is tight, but keeping all of the small business balls in the air is a challenge, consider hiring an intern.

Often students, interns work for a stipend or even for free in order to gain valuable experience and resume credits.

If you’re curious at all about the mobility industry this is a podcast you’ll want to hear. Rose Bellanca, president of Washtenaw Community College (WCC) joins Ann Arbor SPARKS’s senior vice president of marketing and communications, Donna Doleman, for a quick podcast to talk about WCC’s, Advanced Transportation Center.

Rose explains WCC’s focus on meeting the major talent needs of the region and the types of jobs that are in demand in those fields. With help from the state, WCC was able to update its labs and equipment, and partner with University of Michigan to provide training to engineers and other students interested in the mobility industry. Rose describes the importance of the local transportation triangle and the partnership between WCC and Ann Arbor SPARK.