Silicon Valley and the media industry that surrounds it values youth. The culture is driven by the 20-something irreverent founder with huge technical chops who in a “David vs. Goliath” mythology take on the titans of industry and wins. It has historically been the case that VCs would rather fund the promise of 100x in a company with almost no revenue than the reality of a company growing at 50% but doing $20+ million in sales.

Gaithersburg, MD. (May ____ 2021) miRecule, Inc. (“miRecule”), an emerging biotech company focused on the development of cutting-edge RNA therapeutics, announced today it has closed over $5.7M in seed funding. The funding round was led by Alexandria Venture Investments, along with Boutique Venture Partners, Pathway Bioventures, Alumni Ventures Group, and national angel investors, with additional funding coming from the Maryland Momentum Fund and the FSHD Society. This funding includes a non-dilutive $2M Phase II SBIR grant from the National Cancer Institute.

The shift to remote work has taken its toll on us all, but middle managers have faced particular challenges over the last year. A global survey of over 3,000 remote knowledge workers found that middle managers (defined as those managing 1-6 people) are 46% less satisfied with their jobs than senior executives (those managing at least 15 people), they have struggled more than twice as much as executives when it comes to maintaining a sense of belonging, and they feel more stressed and less productive than their more senior colleagues.

It has been suggested recently that European universities and their technology transfer offices (TTOs) operate a broken commercialisation system that stymies growth and holds back entrepreneurs.

The system isn’t broken — it is specifically designed to back public — and charity-funded research and innovation over the long haul, something that many traditional investors are not set up to do. Whether it’s Cambridge’s Silicon Fen or London’s burgeoning artificial intelligence talent, universities’ access to industry, combined with the right levels of investment, has led to great success. 

Anyone who works with entrepreneurs will tell you that all are different. Some are really inventors, who view the challenges of building a business as a necessary evil. Others are really marketers out to make money fast, and believe that they can entice customers to any offering. Some just want to change the world and make it a better place. But none have any lock on success.

A little more than a decade ago, Seattle’s South Lake Union neighborhood was a low-rise industrial district with a sea of surface parking lots. Fast-forward to today, and the grid of high-rise office towers, nicknamed Amazonia, underscores how the growth of Amazon and its fellow tech giant, Microsoft, has transformed the city’s real estate market.

Image: Peter Holland Photography The forthcoming Dexter Yard life sciences development underscores the industry’s growth in Seattle.

States are witnessing a resurgence of life science research, technology commercialization and advanced manufacturing as construction of wet lab space takes place in research parks and tech incubators to provide space to attract and grow bio tech companies, and innovate state policies to support bio tech entrepreneurs emerge.

Over the past year, we have all become used to working in dispersed teams.  But now that it’s becoming possible to go back to the office and work side-by-side with colleagues, it’s natural to ask how much we actually will.

Venture capital is back, better, and younger than ever. 

Start-ups that survived the pandemic are raising venture financing rounds at valuations well above the period before the coronavirus shut down global economies. At the same time, investors are increasingly placing capital in early-stage deals, according to a new PitchBook report. 

Image: Jason Alden/Bloomberg

Based on my experience with startups, trust is the most valuable asset you can have, especially when asking people to step into the unknown by funding your innovation, by joining your team, or just buying your new product as an early customer. You need to understand the unfortunate fact that, due to the realities of life struggles, trust does not come by default from anyone these days.

Image: https://blog.startupprofessionals.com

SEOUL, South Korea--(BUSINESS WIRE)--May 26, 2021--

As one of the most important global bio-health conventions, BIO KOREA 2021 International Convention has garnered great attention from home and abroad. To facilitate the discussion on the future bio-health industry in the ‘COVID-19 era’, the BIO KOREA 2021 to be held on June 9 to 21 will evolve around the theme of “New Normal: Breaking Barriers with Bio Innovation”.

The effects of the COVID-19 pandemic are being closely monitored, and what happens to employer businesses during and after this downturn is an important part of the recovery. Research shows that employer startups have accounted for substantial net new job creation (Haltiwanger et al, 2013). There have also been notable declines in the share of new businesses that become employers within eight quarters (Desai et al, 2020), average job creation by startups in their first year (Fairlie and Desai, 2020), and the relative job creation contribution of young businesses (Decker et al, 2014). It is difficult to predict the magnitude of the impact and likely recovery trajectories among entrepreneurs and potential entrepreneurs, as well as their businesses across different sectors, industries, and regional economies.

We’ve heard all sorts of analogies about the earliest days of building a startup — it’s similar to building the plane while you’re flying it, or like learning to share your legos, or it often feels like a monster chewing on your leg. 

Irving Fain adds a new one to the list. “It’s like a video game where pieces of the game map only illuminate as you walk around the different regions,” he says. “Building a startup is in some ways like staring down this map that is mostly dark — so you don’t know if you’re maneuvering off a cliff.”

Anew partnership led by University of Maryland researchers has entered a cooperative agreement with the U.S. Army Research Laboratory (ARL) that could provide up to $68 million to drive advances in artificial intelligence and autonomy. 

An interdisciplinary research team from UMD and the University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC) aims to create a new generation of technologies and devices—from wearables to unmanned aircraft—able to intelligently work alone or in teams with other devices, as well as safely and effectively collaborate with their human operators in different environments.

Image: A new five-year agreement will accelerate the development and deployment of safe, effective, and resilient capabilities and technologies that work intelligently and in cooperation with each other and with human actors across multiple environments, including intelligent aerial and ground robots that can assist in hazardous jobs. (Image by University of Maryland)

Most organizations have faced the need for large-scale transformation in the wake of uncertain economic and social conditions. While some companies have struggled to adapt, others have effectively altered their DNA to work in smarter ways and drive innovation. According to a recent Fortune/Deloitte CEO survey, the current environment has fast-tracked digital initiatives that were set to begin or already underway, with 85 percent of CEOs agreeing that the pandemic has significantly accelerated digital transformation—up from 77 percent in June 2020. If technology today is a source of competitive advantage for some organizations and a threat to ongoing survival for others, boards need to better understand the macro technological forces that form the backbone of innovation and transformation, and take a more active, strategic approach to influencing technology decisions for the long-term health of their organization. Here are a few of the issues boards should pay attention to in 2021 and beyond.

The venture capital industry successfully adjusted to the new normal, and even thrived, after an initial period of pandemic paralysis.

Why it matters: Many feared the crisis would wreck large swaths of startups. Instead, 2020 birthed a new cohort of companies shaping how we live and work in entirely new ways — especially since they matured during a period of societal shifts.

Flashback: On March 5 of last year, VC firm Sequoia Capital sent a memo predicting that COVID-19 "is the black swan of 2020" and that companies need to brace themselves and "question every assumption."

Image: Illustration: Aïda Amer/Axios The

Chaitanya Ramalingegowda, Co-founder and Director, Wakefit.co

The emergence of Covid meant that countries all over the world had to go under a full-fledged lockdown. Some of the companies fell to a slump whereas some startups made the most of this lockdown and became profitable. Internet frenzy took over the World. One of the D2C brands present in India was providing top-quality mattresses and they carved in their niche. They really came to life during the Lockdown as people started understanding the importance of good mattresses as for that time period their homes would become offices, libraries, schools, movie theatres, etc.

Image: Image credit: Wakefit

Almost exactly a year ago, software developers rushed to build technologies that could help stop the pandemic. Back then, the focus was on apps that could track whether you’d been near someone with covid. Today the discussion is about digital vaccine credentials, often called “vaccine passports,” designed to work on your smartphone and show that you’ve been inoculated. 

The latest launch came on May 17 in England, with the National Health Service’s new digital credential for crossing borders. Here’s what we know about it: 

Image: KIRSTY O'CONNOR/PA WIRE

According to World Economic Forum's (WEF) latest Global Gender Gap Report, a systemic lack of access to capital, credit, land, or financial products prevent women from starting a company. This only adds to another perpetual factor impeding female entrepreneurship – lack of care infrastructures. The WEF concludes that women spend at least twice as much time on care and voluntary work in every country where data is available. Global markets are missing out on a substantial economic and social growth potential. It is striking to know that, in the UK alone, up to $350 billion of economic value could have been created if female entrepreneurs started and developed new businesses at the same rate as men. 

The Roche Accelerator was officially launched today at the Roche campus in Zhangjiang High-tech Park in Shanghai. At the launch ceremony, Roche signed strategic partnership agreements with Hillhouse Group and Zhangjiang Group. Severin Schwan, chief executive officer of Roche Group, William Pao, head of pharmaceutical research and early development at Roche, Zong Ming, vice mayor of Shanghai, officials from related Shanghai and Pudong governments and representatives from Zhangjiang Group, Hillhouse Group and Roche China management team attended the launch ceremony and witnessed this milestone moment.

Image: https://www.shine.cn/