America’s 328 million people are spread across a huge amount of territory, but the population density of various regions is far from equal.

It’s no secret that cities like New York have a vastly different population density than, say, a rural county in North Dakota. Even so, this interactive map by Ben Blatt of Slate helps visualize the stark contrast between urban and rural densities in a way that might intrigue you.

Image: https://www.visualcapitalist.com

Akhila Satish is the CEO of Meseekna, the company that works with executives and their teams at top organizations (such as NASA, the National Institutes of Health, Daimler, Network Rail and more) to understand their decision making and metacognition (in layman's terms, "how you think"). Prior to being the CEO of Meseekna, Akhila was an entrepreneur in residence in Silicon Valley at a venture capital firm.

Image: Akhila Satish, CEO of Meseekna A. SATISH

Have you ever considered running your own business, but doubts assail you and uncertainty stops you? It is not for less because only a small percentage of the new businesses that are created manage to survive: " 82% of the new companies do not reach four years of life" . This is what the economists Oriol Amat and Pilar Lloret indicate in their book “Advancing, keys to survive and grow”.

In the passage above, the playwright’s tragic antihero Brutus enviously reflects on the timeless truth that people without worries and anxieties (in this case, his servant Lucius) generally enjoy the most peaceful and uninterrupted rest.

Some senior business people skillfully and consciously manage their sleep, emerging refreshed and alert after crossing multiple time zones or working late into the night. Yet we all know caffeinated and careworn executives who, after hours of wakeful slumber, struggle to recall simple facts, seem disengaged and uninspired, lack patience with others, and can’t think through problems or reach clear-cut decisions.

COVID-19 changed everything about work. And no one knows exactly what the office of tomorrow will look like—not even the storied American design brand Herman Miller, a company that has been furnishing offices for decades. Which is why the Herman Miller’s latest furniture collection is designed precisely for uncertainty.

Called OE1, the new line is colorful, modular, and adaptable. Instead of being prescriptive, with interlocking pieces that are architected to convince people to work one way, just about everything in OE1 is made to move. The collection is available now.

Image: Herman Miller

Following the launch of the European Innovation Council (EIC) and the announcement of the first funding opportunities, today the Commission opened the first EIC Accelerator calls. The funding worth over €1 billion aims to help scale up start-ups and small and medium-sized businesses that have the potential to achieve high impact. While over half of the funding is open to breakthrough innovations in any field, €495 million are earmarked for innovations that support the European Green Deal as well as digital and health technologies.

Entrepreneurs often have formidable technical expertise, key to developing a new product or service, but a great naïveté in management skills. They run into difficulty when their business reaches the $1-2 million annual sales range, or their employee count exceeds 5-10. It’s here that entrepreneurs must shift their thinking from tactical and operational, to strategic and managerial.

Image: https://blog.startupprofessionals.com

Yimaj “Steve” Kalifa has mastered the art of reinvention – and, he has been so successful at it, that executives from major corporations and federal agencies now seek him out for advice. Often life has chapters, he likes to say, but sometimes you have to write whole new books to succeed. 

Image: Yimaj “Steve” Kalifa. COURTESY OF YIMAJ KHALIFA

WASHINGTON – U.S. Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo today announced that a total of $29 million would be awarded to 44 organizations as part of the Economic Development Administration’s (EDA) Scaling Pandemic Resilience Through Innovation and Technology (SPRINT) Challenge.

Last year, the SPRINT Challenge was launched to harness America’s entrepreneurial potential to address the economic, health, and safety risks caused by the coronavirus pandemic through entrepreneurship and innovation.

COLUMBIA, Md. (April 13, 2021)—TEDCO, Maryland’s economic engine for technology companies, announced today the Maryland Entrepreneur Hub (The Hub) launch in collaboration with the Maryland Department of Commerce and the University System of Maryland. The Hub, https://marylandentrepreneurhub.com/, was designed with the entrepreneur in mind, to provide a platform that gathers all of Maryland’s resources and funding information in one place. 

"It's so important for entrepreneurs and the entities that support entrepreneurs be connected, especially during COVID-19,” said Claire Broido Johnson of the University of Maryland, Baltimore, managing director of the University System of Maryland's Momentum Fund. “We want to make sure there is a resource connecting providers and suppliers with tools, funding, mentors, space, and more and hope this new platform is really efficient!" 

Life isn't back to normal just yet. As states begin to reopen, experts recommend avoiding spots where coronavirus is most likely to spread.

After more than a year of dealing with coronavirus and shelter-in-place mandates, some good news: Millions are getting vaccinated every day, and people are eagerly venturing out as states begin to reopen. But don’t ditch your mask just yet—even if you are fully vaccinated—and make the mistake of thinking life is back to normal. Cases of COVID-19 are climbing nationwide, raising fears of a fourth wave of infections. If you haven’t been vaccinated yet, here’s what you need to know about the COVID-19 vaccine and how to get it at Walmart, CVS, Kroger, and Costco.

As I’m sure you are aware, surviving that first couple of years as a new business is a huge challenge, waiting for cash flow to turn positive. In my experience as a business advisor and occasional investor, many of you won’t make it that far, succumbing to the high costs of getting those first customers, funding an initial inventory, and building an operational support process.

Image: https://blog.startupprofessionals.com

The idea of “agile” thinking or innovation, along with its close cousin “lean,” has spread far beyond its product development and manufacturing roots. It’s not uncommon now to hear about the agile approach to budgeting, talent management, or even running a family meeting.

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (April 8, 2021) – Dr. James Crowe, Professor of Pediatrics and Pathology, Microbiology and Immunology in the School of Medicine, has been named winner of the 2021 SEC Faculty Achievement Award for Vanderbilt University, the SEC announced on Thursday.

A board certified pediatric infectious diseases physician and viral immunology researcher, Dr. Crowe is a member of the National Academy of Medicine and the National Academy of Inventors. He is a named inventor on approximately 100 patents and patent families for vaccines and antibodies. His research interests are in the human immune response to infection, and his work has been supported by the National Institutes of Health, agencies within the U.S. Department of Defense and numerous foundations. He has been published in journals such as Nature, New England Journal of Medicine and Journal of the American Medical Association.

Image: https://www.thesecu.com

Politicians on both sides of the aisle have expressed a desire to bring the country together and work on a bipartisan basis to help the economy recover as we emerge from the COVID-19 pandemic.

If they are serious about this goal, they must act to protect an important tax provision that encourages American innovation, manufacturing, and competitiveness.

At the outbreak of the pandemic, no one could have predicted that Americans would have access to three highly effective vaccines within a year.

No one, that is, except our nation's scientists. Researchers at Pfizer, Moderna and Johnson & Johnson were uniquely prepared to fast-track the development of these breakthroughs, thanks largely to the legal infrastructure that encourages companies to make risky bets on cutting-edge technologies.

Image: J&J Covid 19 Vaccine - The Associated Press

If you are a new business owner or entrepreneur, you are likely to be creative and willing to take a risk, and you  robably assume that most potential team members have the same mindset. Unfortunately, the reality is that not everyone has that mindset, and one of your toughest jobs is to find the right hires to make your business a success.

Image: https://blog.startupprofessionals.com/

The military wants to stop pandemics. Many of the innovations and breakthroughs deployed to combat COVID-19 began years ago as Pentagon-funded research programs to protect soldiers, some spearheaded by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency. Bill Whitaker and 60 Minutes cameras were allowed in to report on some of the technologies the Department of Defense is developing to defend against future pandemics -- including a single vaccine to ward off all coronaviruses. Whitaker's report will be broadcast on 60 Minutes, Sunday, April 11 at 7 p.m. ET/PT on CBS.   

It’s no secret that entrepreneurs think differently than the average person. After all, it takes a lot of ingenuity (not to mention guts) to launch your own business and build it from scratch to turn it into a success.

But even then, there’s a fine line that separates the most successful and innovative entrepreneurs from the rest. Yep, you don’t just need to think differently from the average Joe. You also need to think differently from your fellow entrepreneurs — time to start using your brainpower!

Image: "Impatient Enlightenment" STEVE WASTERVAL

Many people are tempted by the prospect of starting their own company. Entrepreneurship brings the opportunity to be your own boss, solve your own problems and create your own rules. Entrepreneurship can also be a very lucrative career choice — just look at companies like WeWork, Instagram and Slack, which all started as side hustles. On the flip side, however, pursuing entrepreneurship can be one of the most challenging and risky decisions you can make, especially if you already have a stable corporate job.