There seems to be a lot of “yeah, sure”-ing going on in my circles of entrepreneurs these days.

Like, “did you hear about how well Sally’s company is doing right now during the pandemic?” 

“Yeah, sure, she sells expensive wine to rich people;” or,

“Yeah sure, she works with law enforcement customers;” or,

“Yeah, sure, they already had that contract before the economy tanked.”

Rick Terrien, a Pittsburgh serial entrepreneur and author of the new book “Ageless Startup,” is a firm believer that you’re never too old to launch a business. In fact, he thinks becoming an entrepreneur — either full time or part-time — in your 50s or 60s may be the best time of life to do it. Yes, even in a pandemic.

Based on Terrien’s experience and success, I think he’s worth listening to if you’re considering launching a business in midlife. I recently spoke with him for his tips; highlights of our interview are below.

Viewed through one set of  lenses,  American innovation burns bright.  We have always benefitted from our unique cultural values - belief in possibility, tolerance of failure, openness to the unconventional.  We put a man on the moon, invented video games and social media, the internet, stealth and so much more.  People from around the world continue to visit Silicon Valley in search of its secret sauce.  Institutions such as the National Science Foundation and DARPA have kept creative flames burning bright.  More than half of the top 50 universities in the world are American.  And we still remain at the top of the WIPO Global Innovation Index, currently behind only Switzerland and Sweden.

It may seem counterintuitive, but downturns and bear markets present an opportunity for entrepreneurs to start a new business.

Why? Because the “uncertainty” that traditional businesses, not to mention financial markets, reputedly hate, isn’t an issue for entrepreneurs. They aren’t worried about trying to assess and meet demand for existing goods and services. They are busy inventing or creating something you never knew you wanted or needed.

In early March, when we published our HBR article “8 Questions Employers Should Ask About Coronavirus,” there were fewer than 100,000 cases and 4,000 deaths globally. Now, not quite three months later, infections exceed 5.5 million and employers face a whole new set of questions as they consider how to reopen the workplace after weeks or months of restrictions. As always, employers must remain nimble, and play close attention to local conditions and changing guidelines and practices. Here are eight questions they must now address.

Venture capital, like other alternative asset classes, is often viewed by institutional investors as a way to diversify their portfolios and achieve returns that are uncorrelated to public markets. But venture capital activity may not actually be so uncorrelated to stocks — at least in the earliest stages, according to a new working paper from the National Bureau of Economic Research.

With vast swaths of the globe under social distancing restrictions, networking may be the furthest thing from your mind. But just because you can’t connect in person doesn’t mean your business relationships have to languish.

We regularly co-host networking dinner gatherings in New York City, which — for the time being — are no longer an option. We’ve pivoted to organizing virtual networking events instead. Here are some best practices that have worked for us to keep connections active, even at a distance.

Videoconferencing has been around for more than 20 years. Until the pandemic, though, you would find that many if not most people needing to attend a meeting remotely would be calling from a real conference room full of their teammates. Today, we’re routinely holding videoconferences that are 100% virtual. And that introduces a problem technology can’t fix.

All around the world, medical supplies have been the most sought-after commodity due to the COVID-19 pandemic, as countries rush to secure what they can due to the shortage of protective masks, reliable test kits and other equipment needed by doctors and nurses. However, South Korea's health sector has received global acclaim for its rapid response to the pandemic as well as its fast tracing abilities and its development of test kits, and it has been supplying them to some 110 countries.

Image: http://www.arirang.co.kr/

Every new business quickly realizes that revenue coming in every period on a committed basis is the Holy Grail to survival and growth. Based on traditional research, getting new customers is five to ten times harder than getting additional revenue from existing customers. Thus the subscription model (low fixed monthly payments), has become the norm for new products and services.

Image: https://blog.startupprofessionals.com

Because of the Jumpstart Our Business Startups (JOBS) Act – which was passed in 2012 – it’s now possible for anyone to invest in early-stage startups. Although, there are certain restrictions, such as on the amounts of the offerings. But for the most part, equity crowdfunding has certainly democratized the process.

Image: https://investorplace.com

Despite the many conveniences of modern-day life, not to mention the invention of anti-anxiety medication, anxiety levels still continue to soar. In fact, a 2018 survey conducted by the American Psychiatric Association found that over half of all Americans struggle with anxiety. And almost 40% of Americans said that they are more anxious now than the year before.

In Sydney Finkelstein’s classic study of corporate collapses, Why Smart Executives Fail, the evidence that business leaders would have needed to avoid fiasco was available to them in every one of the cases that the author and his team examined. The book was written in 2004, yet the problem it highlights persists. My colleagues and I have spent almost 20 years examining crises, including Hurricane Katrina and the current coronavirus pandemic. In these situations, too, the cracks in organization, system, and community foundations have often been clear to see, if leadership had been looking. But despite warnings, leaders have been unable, or unwilling, to give credence to the risks. They overlooked or ignored them — and the cost of their inaction has been high.

From snorkel masks turned into protective gear for COVID-19 affected patients, to shipping containers repurposed as ICU pods, there’s no shortage of clever examples of human ingenuity in fighting the pandemic. And there’s actually much more, if you go beyond the headlines; so much more, in fact, that StartupBlink, a company specialized in tracking and geolocalizing innovation ecosystems, put together the Coronavirus Innovation Map, listing hundreds of innovations and solutions that help people cope and adapt to life at the times of the virus.

Image: Global Map of Coronavirus Innovations THE CORONAVIRUS INNOVATION MAP - https://www.forbes.com

The world is currently running a forced mass experiment in remote working – and some of the most important technology companies have decided that there’s no going back. In the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic, Facebook, Twitter, Shopify and others have announced that they’ll offer a permanent option to work from home to most employees. It’s a shift that, if sustained, will have profound consequences – not least for how we think about innovation.

Dr. Mark Sklansky has always hated shaking hands. He can think of about a dozen better ways to greet patients than the icky exchange. “Hands are warm, they’re wet, and we know that they transmit disease very well,” says Sklansky, chief of pediatric cardiology at UCLA Mattel Children’s Hospital. “They’re a phenomenal vector for disease.” He’s also tried to avoid this form of greeting because he knows that some patients don’t want to shake hands for religious or cultural reasons but feel compelled to when their doctor sticks out a hand. For a long time, though, being anti-handshake was fringe thinking. The handshake is such an ingrained part of the doctor-patient relationship that it happens 83% of the time, according to one 2007 analysis of more than 100 videotaped office visits.

Aren’t your 20s the years to have fun and go on adventures? Yes, they are. And the adventure could be entrepreneurship. According to Meg Jay in her book The Defining Decade: Why Your Twenties Matter, doing something later does not automatically mean doing something better. You do not have to wait until you are older and more equipped for entrepreneurship to venture into it. And if you are in your 20s and raring to go, pick up the book while at it. 

The ways NASA's astronaut office picks a crew from the members of its esteemed corps is something of a mystery.

But with the space agency's 2018 selection of Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley to fly SpaceX's now imminent rocket launch of its new Crew Dragon spaceship, the process seems obvious in hindsight.

Each man graduated from the same crop of astronaut candidates in 2000. Each is an engineer and flew military aircraft. Each has flown to space twice aboard a space shuttle. Each married a fellow astronaut who's journeyed to space and fathered a son with her. Each spent years working with SpaceX, founded by Elon Musk in 2002, to perfect the commercial spaceship they will now attempt to ride to orbit.

Image: NASA astronauts Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken are scheduled to be the first people that SpaceX launches into orbit. SpaceX

One of the best things about being an entrepreneur is that anyone with the right knowledge and talent can do it.

However, while having a degree isn’t a technical requirement for being an entrepreneur, having a degree to your name will benefit you in a number of ways, no matter what the degree is in. Here are three degrees that are particularly valuable for entrepreneurs.

For Karl Ulrich, vice dean of entrepreneurship and innovation at Wharton, the existential threat to small businesses struggling through the coronavirus pandemic isn’t just an academic exercise.

Ulrich owns MakerStock and Xootr — two small businesses housed under the same roof in Scranton, Pennsylvania. MakerStock supplies plywood, acrylic and other materials to university labs, engineering and architecture schools, and individual buyers. Xootr makes foldable scooters, the kind often used to zip around city streets.