While higher education has been considered as both an ‘engine’ for innovation and a ‘catalyst’ for sustainability development, the integration of both the ‘innovation engine’ and ‘sustainability catalyst’ roles are discussed in a recently published special issues on the theme of Higher Education in Innovation Ecosystems for the journal of Sustainability.

When Paul Landau’s wife Lucy was diagnosed with Hodgkin Lymphoma, he was shocked at how little technology was involved in the day-to-day management of her illness.

While the hospital treatments were top notch and the care excellent, there were a lot of in-between times at home when Paul and Lucy were left trying to keep track of symptoms with little more than pen and paper.

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- As state economies across the U.S. are gradually reopening, workers are slowly returning to their workplaces, yet it is far from business as usual for most. Majorities of workers whose workplaces have employees on-site report that their employers are taking precautions to keep people from catching or spreading the coronavirus.

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All of the founders I’ve talked to in the past have, if not startup experience, a fair amount of life experience upon which to draw. So it was uniquely interesting, and a bit surprising, to talk to a serial entrepreneur with multiple ventures to his name before he reached legal drinking age. 

Brendan Cox is the founder of Cox Visuals, the All Up In Ur Business Podcast, Teen Assistant, Kicks Cases, The Booth Pennsylvania, & Cox Social Media Management, all based out of both New Jersey and Pennsylvania. 

WASHINGTON, DC – The National Venture Capital Association (NVCA) announced today that Barry Eggers, Founding Partner at Lightspeed Venture Partners, will serve as the 2020-2021 Chair of the NVCA Board of Directors. His appointment was made official at NVCA’s virtual June board meeting today.

Aspiring entrepreneurs who rely only on traditional learning vehicles (teachers, classrooms, and risk-free practice) are doomed to failure in anticipating change today. Either they are never really ready to commit, study an opportunity until it has passed, or fail with tools and techniques from a bygone business era. The Internet and the current information wave have changed everything.

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Amid the deepest economic crisis since the Great Depression, it has been reported that startups overall face an "existential threat." But while life science startups have slimmer pickings than before, they stand to benefit from the industry's more conservative investment approach.

In 1940, Harvard Business School professor Georges Doriot was drafted into the US Army for World War II. Once the war was over, he had different plans than teaching at Harvard. War had taught him the important role of science and technology in a country’s progress. And he decided to pursue a new path. He set up the American Research & Development Corporation (ARDC) to facilitate the investment of private money into businesses started by soldiers. He raised money from sources other than wealthy families (very different from the norm then) with the aim to “encourage commercialization of technological innovations”.

Amidst the gloom and doom of the early months of the Covid-19 crisis, something surprisingly uplifting started to happen: Companies began to come together to work openly at an unprecedented level, putting the ability to create value before the opportunity to make a buck. The German multinational Siemens, for instance, opened up its Additive Manufacturing Network to anyone who needs help in medical device design.

In my experience with entrepreneurs, there seems to a wealth of self-proclaimed “idea people” who aspire to start businesses, but only a few who are willing and able to dig in and get the job done. All the great ideas in the world won’t make a business, if the ideas never get implemented. Only rare great entrepreneurs, like Bill Gates and Elon Musk, have proven to be both.

Image: https://blog.startupprofessionals.com

More than $50 billion of corporate venture capital (CVC) was deployed in 2018 and new data indicates that nearly half of all venture rounds will include a corporate investor. The CVC trend is heating up and the need for founders and startup executives to stay informed is higher than ever.

A study from Salary.com released this week said a survey they conducted in mid-April shows that only 10 percent of managers expect layoffs will be permanent.

The survey data is more optimistic than many analysts who foresee longer-term economic pain from COVID-19, but fits in with those that think a V-shaped recovery is possible.

(It should be noted managers came from Canada and the U.S., but for purposes of this Econometer question we will make it for the U.S. only.)

Image: Maintaining hygiene rules, Leucadia Barber Shop manger Emiliano Zermeno (right) wipes down his barber chair after spraying a sanitizer in preparation for his next customer on May 27, 2020 in Encinitas, California. This was the first day salons have been allowed to reopen since the shutdown.(Eduardo Contreras / The San Diego Union-Tribune )

As an entrepreneur-turned-investor, and having survived prior downturns, I have my share of bumps and bruises that serve as reminders and motivators. But I also like to remember that some of the most successful tech companies were funded during the last big downturn, such as Dropbox, Airbnb and Credit Karma. With that in mind, our venture capital firm is staying the course during the COVID-19 pandemic and continues to aggressively look for great entrepreneurs to fund.

The COVID-19 pandemic has brought about unprecedented challenges for small- and medium-sized Canadian businesses, and as the economy slowly reopens across the country, uncertainty about what lies ahead is keeping some entrepreneurs on edge.

Joshua Lipsey runs CORE, a Toronto-based boutique fitness studio with 4,000 clients. He’s concerned about the trajectory of his business and what it will look like to open his doors again once given the green light.

Image: Photo Illustration by Robert Lewis for BNN Bloomberg  

The coronavirus pandemic of 2020 has launched us into an uncertain world, one we never imagined.

Our usual ways of communicating, socialising and celebrating have changed entirely, forcing us all to adapt to different routines and formats while creating the need and space for self-reflection.

As COVID-19 has given us the opportunity to take a step back from the hustle and bustle of daily life and focus our energy on what is considerably more important to us during a challenging time, such as our family and loved ones, a number of our scholars have demonstrated that adversity drives the inspiration for creative innovation.

Seen from one angle, “The Fourth Industrial Revolution” is a marvel of enlightened scientific objectivity. It promises to replace obsolete habits and mind-sets with frictionless, data-driven solutions. Unshackled from analogue-era limitations, organisations and employees alike should be freer than ever to follow pathways to their own flourishing.

The long-term toll of the coronavirus is unknown, but its effects on our health care system and the economy have already been catastrophic. And while the immediate concerns of skyrocketing unemployment and a stalled economy must be addressed today, employers also need to begin considering how to rebuild for the employees returning to the workforce — or entering it for the first time.

For more than 35 years, Ben Franklin Technology Partners has remained focused on supporting revolutionary technological developments that improve the human condition and address critical challenges now and in the future. Everything Ben Franklin does, in conjunction with our clients, is about innovating against the pandemic and supporting our community.

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Description: Menlo Park-based Robinhood is a stock brokerage that allows customers to buy and sell U.S. stocks, options, ETFs, and cryptocurrencies with zero commission. Founded by Baiju Bhatt and Vlad Tenev in 2013, Robinhood has now raised a total of $1.2B in total equity funding and is backed by investors that include Sequoia Capital, Andreessen Horowitz, DST Global, Index Ventures, and New Enterprise Associates (NEA).

In my experience as a business mentor, one of the biggest challenges I see is a failure to focus. Most of you aspiring entrepreneurs have new ideas on a regular basis, and find it hard deciding which to pursue, or try to tackle several at the same time. The result is that nothing ever really gets done well, or you burn out trying to address too many opportunities, all at the same time.