In entrepreneurship and venture investing, “what if” is the cornerstone of our industry.

Entrepreneurship is built on promise and possibility — the willingness to imagine the unimaginable and take the risks to make it real. We all engage in the “what if” game.

Oklahoma bought into “what if” in the late '80s with the creation and funding of the Oklahoma Center for the Advancement of Science and Technology (OCAST) to diversify the state’s economy.

Image: https://i2e.org/staff/scott-meacham/

COVID-19 changed how we live and work in ways that will alter our behavior long after the pandemic subsides. Companies moved rapidly to deploy digital and automation technologies, dramatically accelerating trends that were unfolding at a much slower pace before the crisis. Work went remote, shopping, entertainment, and even medicine went online, and businesses everywhere scrambled to deploy digital systems to accommodate the shifts.

Soon you should be able to ask your browser or smart phone context-specific questions like "Where should I take my wife for a good movie and dinner?" Your browser would consult its intelligence of what you and she like and dislike, take into account your current location, and then suggest the right movies and restaurants. If you are the first to deliver this, your startup might be the next Google!

Image: https://blog.startupprofessionals.com

Money talks, actions speak louder than words, and both adages are about to play out in Pittsburgh with the promise of invigorating what some consider a stifled ecosystem and cliquish culture.

Pittsburgh has had a shortage of locally-based venture capital funds that do early stage investing for several years, but now the landscape may be changing. Four have been announced since last fall — Black Tech Nation Ventures (BTN), The Fund Midwest, Magarac Venture Partners (MVP) and 412 Venture Fund LP. Just two — 412 Venture Fund and The Fund Midwest — have reached first close, the halfway point where they can begin investing, although neither has done so yet. But few doubt that the money will be raised.

Image: Magarac Venture Partners founders stand outside their office in downtown Pittsburgh. Clockwise from front left, Will Allen, Michael Stubler, Jay Katarincic and Zach Malone. JIM HARRIS/ PBT

Let’s say you have an idea for a new business. It’s a solid idea with the capacity to fill a niche in the marketplace. Your business plan has potential, but there’s one problem… money.

You don’t have the capital to get your idea off the ground. You need funding to execute your early-stage business plans. This is where a seed investment can make all the difference. Let’s take a closer look at seed funding…

Over my years as an advisor to new businesses and startups, I have learned that the only certainty that I can offer entrepreneurs is the fact they will face many uncertainties. So my first advice is that if you can’t handle uncertainty, don’t even start down that road. On the other hand, entrepreneurs have a reputation for being one of the happiest and healthiest career paths around.

The major players in crowdfunding include Indiegogo and Kickstarter. Crowdfunding is the process of raising money for your business or project (often referred to as a “side hustle”)  from individuals, who are known as the crowd.

Crowdfunding is an absolutely massive industry. The global crowdfunding market was calculated to be at $14.2 billion in 2019 and is determined to reach $28.8 billion by 2025.

While there are multiple crowdfunding platforms, I did the research and chose Indiegogo as the crowdfunding platform that I wanted to use. As you read this, I have an active crowdfunding campaign on Indiegogo, so I’m able to share some of my experience here.

National Geographic announced this week that it would now officially recognize a fifth ocean called the Southern Ocean. Geographers says the swift current circling Antarctica keeps the waters distinct and worthy of their own name.

This episode is the first of a new podcast series, where we will visit with different leaders striving to grow economic development in their areas or regions of interest. We will be discussing new initiatives, new models, the interest and investment in Technology Parks, Incubators and Accelerators as well as other creative economic development platforms being implemented throughout the country within public and private initiatives.

America’s convoluted and highly politicized immigration system puts roadblocks in the way of foreign-born founders. As two dozen other countries woo them with startup visas and other perks, the U.S. is at risk of losing its edge in the global battle for talent.

Image: These foreign-born entrepreneurs scaled Fortress America’s hostile immigration system to become billionaires, but it’s gotten even tougher and the next generation might not be so fortunate. ILLUSTRATION BY EMMANUEL POLANCO

Overland Park has been named this year’s best place to raise a family by WalletHub, which reported that the Kansas City suburb earned the top ranking for its high median income and affordability.

The Johnson County city earned the title five years in a row as of 2019. But WalletHub, a personal finance website, did not publish the report last year.

Image: https://www.kansascity.com

The entire D.C. region is poised to work together on economic development efforts to reverse its widening gap between the rich and the poor, according to a group of government, business and academic leaders — but the hard part will be actually making all of the region’s localities play nice together.

Image: Fairfax County Economic Development Authority CEO Victor Hoskins is leading Connected DMV's efforts to build regional cooperation. JOANNE S. LAWTON

The promise of innovation lures many multinational firms to well-established vectors of novel ideas, like Silicon Valley, Tel Aviv or Shenzhen. That pull to an entrepreneurial ecosystem doesn’t always yield the fruit expected back at the head office. Because setting up a full innovation hub that absorbs new ideas and also creates prototypes so far from headquarters is expensive, some MNCs use “innovation outposts” instead. While these often small offices aren’t designed to create innovations, they pick up the latest signals about cutting-edge trends and send them back home. Innovation outposts connect different worlds, that is the novel entrepreneurial cluster and the established firm.

SAN FRANCISCO, June 2, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- With a large influx of entrepreneurs in 2021, a fine balance of home life and work life need to be obtained to avoid burn out. One solid idea that has worked for years for Upuia Ahkiong, an entrepreneur with over 3 businesses and newly engaged; is to create a 24-hour personal retreat.    

Upuia Ahkiong During Upuia's first year of life as an entrepreneur, even with wellness as her goal she found herself needing to restart her energy. "Becoming burned out even in a short amount of time, especially as someone is starting, happened to me," she said.  She started her personal retreat and determined these 11 steps. "A relaxed mind, a creative mind has helped me return to my business and solve problems with more ease and excitement," states Upuia.

Image: Upuia Ahkiong - https://www.prnewswire.com

Being an entrepreneur takes a lot of time, effort and resources, and all that work can sometimes be a major drain on your energy and your happiness. While the overall achievement of being an entrepreneur is fulfilling enough to many, sometimes it can be difficult to look at the big picture when feeling stressed by day-to-day problems.

Image: https://www.forbes.com

Washington, June 02, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The U.S. Small Business Administration announced its 6th Annual Growth Accelerator Fund Competition (GAFC) with the addition of a new component aimed at spurring investment in underrepresented communities within the innovation economy at scale. The 2021 Growth Accelerator Fund Competition and Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Catalyst programs will recognize the nation’s most innovative organizations with inclusive approaches towards supporting entrepreneurs in research and development (R&D). New to this year’s competition, two tracks will run totaling over $5 million in cash prizes.

Are you a newly minted college grad searching for an in-demand job in Houston? If you're a petroleum engineer, you're in luck.

A study published May 27 by RentCafé, a platform for apartment rentals, shows the hottest job in Houston for college grads is petroleum engineer. RentCafé based its list of hot jobs on two factors: median pay and jobs per 1,000. The median pay for petroleum engineers in Houston is $178,240 and the rage of jobs per 1,000 is a mere 2.77

Image: https://houston.innovationmap.com

RALEIGH & DURHAM — Even NASA conducts economic analyses of metropolitan areas and regions.  Why?  It’s working to license its patents to startup founders, for free.

Though the NASA mission is to pioneer the future in space exploration, scientific discovery and aeronautics research, and the agency is congressionally mandated to pursue this mission, the agency recognizes that it can play a role in fostering startup companies and ecosystems.

A survey of the southern sky has reconstructed how mass is spread across space and time, in the biggest study of its kind. The data provide striking evidence that dark energy, the force that appears to be pushing the Universe to accelerate its expansion, has been constant throughout cosmic history.

Image: Inside the dome of the Víctor M. Blanco telescope, which surveyed the Southern Hemisphere sky between 2013 and 2019.Credit: CTIO/NOIRLab/NSF/AURA/D. Munizaga

The rapid proliferation of special-purpose acquisition companies that began last year and peaked early this year seems to have tapered off, but billions of dollars worth of investment are still waiting for an acquisition.