For many years, remote work was an amenity. It was something startups and young companies offered as a way to attract top-flight talent and stand out in a crowded job market.

Now? Remote work is an expectation that is transcending the traditional at-home setup. Just look at Hyatt’s “Office for the Day” package as evidence of this shift. The hotel chain offers workers a refreshing opportunity to change their scenery and work in a way that benefits their well-being. But better remote working isn’t just about being able to afford a private beach — it’s about subtly shifting your environment to boost your mood and creativity.

Although every startup is unique, there are certain common avoidable mistakes that can lead to legal complications which jeopardize the long-term success of the business. I’m not suggesting that every startup needs a lawyer, but you should definitely pay attention, and not be afraid to consult legal counsel if any of these raise qualms for you.

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In 2013, ITIF found that America was no longer the lead nation in terms of funding university research—nowhere near it, in fact—despite having world-leading research universities that have been key to driving American technological supremacy since World War II.1 According to the latest data available at that time, the United States ranked 24th out of 39 nations in government funding of university research as a share of gross domestic product (GDP). Since then, according to data provided by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), the United States remained in 24th place out of 36 nations, with the nine governments investing more than double the U.S. level. In addition, in terms of change, U.S. funding as a share of GDP fell by 0.06 percentage points. The only nations in the sample with larger declines were Lithuania, Estonia, Singapore and Ireland.

Seemingly overnight, COVID-19 has triggered a radical reworking of work. Long-percolating digital transformation plans accelerated from months to days, as companies scrambled to move customer-facing operations online, reconfigure supply chains, set their people up to work from home, and create new protocols and practices for safety and productivity on the factory floor. The urgency, scope, and scale of the switch to a remote working environment have pushed many areas of organizations to the breaking point.

“Most of the startups I give advice to about how to raise venture capital shouldn’t be raising venture capital,” an investor recently told me. While the idea that every startup isn’t venture-backable might run counter to the narrative to the barrage of funding news each week, I think it’s important to double click on the topic. Plus, it keeps coming up, off the record, on phone calls with investors!

The Economic Development Administration (EDA) is pleased to announce that it is now accepting applications under its FY 2021 University Center Economic Development Program competition. Open to accredited institutions of higher education or a consortium of accredited institutions of higher education in EDA’s Chicago and Philadelphia regions, EDA University Centers provide technical assistance to build regional economic ecosystems that support innovation and high-growth entrepreneurship, resiliency, and inclusiveness.

Last week, we talked about the 400 year history of Boston innovation. Thursday, we continue the conversation, focusing on the present and future of Boston's innovation economy. We're joined by Boston Globe columnist Scott Kirsner, author of "Innovation Economy: True Stories of Start-Ups, Flame-Outs, and Inventing the Future in New England."

Lisa couldn’t stand it any longer. Every time she met her colleague Peter, one of the senior executives at the large retail chain where they both worked, he would begin an endless lament about his work, the government, and his personal life. After listening to Peter’s moaning, it didn’t take long before she experienced a claustrophobic reaction. It didn’t help that whenever Lisa tried to reframe Peter’s situation more positively, he would revert back to his negativity. Peter’s constant grumbling, whining, and lamenting was toxic for everyone, himself included.

Exercise-induced rhinitis: you may not have heard of it, but you might have experienced it. EIR is a common disorder associated with one or more symptoms including sneezing, a runny nose, nasal congestion and an itchy nose brought on by exercising. It isn’t as well-documented as other allergic responses to physical activity, such as asthma or urticaria (hives), but studies have shown that it commonly occurs in athletes, even if they don’t have an underlying nasal allergy. In fact, between 27 and 74 per cent of athletes are known to have some type of rhinitis. If you find you get a runny nose every time you go for a run, EIR could be the culprit.

This is the annual startup competition run by Pepperdine University. Founders of U.S. based companies that make the Most Fundable Companies List will be invited to our gala event in Malibu in October and your startup will receive significant national recognition.   You do not need to be affiliated with Pepperdine to participate. All companies that advance to the second round of the competition will receive a free detailed feedback report on how they can make their company more attractive to investors.

Is there COVID-19 on this train car? Is there COVID-19 in this restaurant? Is there COVID-19 at this grocery store? Is there COVID-19 . . . in me? These are the questions we’ve been asking ourselves every second of the day over the last year of this pandemic, ever fearful of an invisible enemy that could be floating in the air anywhere.

The University of Chicago’s Polsky Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation and the Chicago Quantum Exchange today announced the launch of Duality, the first accelerator program in the nation that is exclusively dedicated to startup companies focused on quantum science and technology—a rapidly emerging area that is poised to drive transformative advances across multiple industries.

In mid-February 2020, I became the CEO of Care.com. I expected a lot would change, but I didn’t expect — nor could I have predicted — that everything would. A global pandemic completely upended the way we work and clouded even the most well-thought-out strategic plans.

“You have inherited a system which took a lot of blood, sweat and tears to create. Its benefits are clear to anyone who cares to look, but we need to constantly educate our policy makers, the media and the public because what they often hear is a quite different message.”

Dear Secretary Raimondo, Dr. Olthoff, and Dr. Lander,

In 1980, lawmakers passed the groundbreaking Bayh-Dole Act and ignited four-plus decades of American innovation.

The bipartisan law enabled universities and non-profit institutions to secure patent rights on government-funded breakthroughs. Before the Act, there was no simple path from academic laboratory to consumer. By encouraging technology transfer from universities to the private sector, this seemingly simple reform laid the groundwork for extraordinary economic growth.

Every entrepreneur wants to know how they can improve their odds on the road to success, and why some entrepreneurs seem to be able to squeeze success out of even a marginal business case. Most experts agree that is has lot to do with your level of passion, determination, and innovation, modulated by a strong focus on reality, common sense, and street smarts.

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Venture capital firms this year have begun raising hundreds of millions of dollars that they plan to deploy into proptech startups aimed at taking on climate change by making buildings more sustainable. 

The surge of investment, taking place across the U.S., Canada and Europe, comes as experts see multiple coinciding forces that will push developers and landlords to adopt green building technologies in the coming years. 

The Internet and social media have totally destroyed the meaning of the word “friend” and even changed it from a noun to a verb. On Twitter and Facebook, many young people follow hundreds of friends before age twenty, all without ever having physically said or heard a word from most of them. Facebook users with “whale” status (5,000 friends), are not even rare any more.

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Florida will start allowing people age 16 and older to be vaccinated on Monday. It’s a moment that Michael Lauzardo, deputy director of the University of Florida’s Emerging Pathogens Institute, has been thinking about for 14 months, since the scope of the coronavirus pandemic started to become clear.

Image: JESSE S. JONES, U. OF FLORIDA Health-care employees at the U. of Florida. On Monday the university will begin an ambitious campaign to vaccinate students and local residents.

The Committee on Science, Space, and Technology in the U.S. House of Representatives recently introduced the “National Science Foundation (NSF) for the Future Act,” which would more than double the budget of the NSF in the next 5 years, devoting a significant portion of the funding to a new directorate that would accelerate the process of turning basic research into new technologies and products.