Wednesday afternoon, 14 college presidents from around the country gathered in front of their computers. On their screens they saw their peers, along with Vice President Mike Pence and U.S. Education Secretary Betsy DeVos, who asked what they needed to reopen their campuses in the fall.

The presidents spoke about the need to be able to do more testing for the coronavirus, according to those who were either on the call or were knowledgeable about the conversation. But the presidents also said they needed to know their college wouldn’t get sued if anyone got sick, which is almost inevitable.

Here’s betting you wouldn’t want anyone blowing smallpox scabs up your nose. But you might feel differently if you lived in 15th century China.

Long ago, the Chinese recognized that people who had contracted smallpox once were immune to reinfection. They came up with the idea of preserving scabs from individuals who had suffered mild cases, drying them out, crushing them to a powder and blowing them up the nostril. For boys it was the right nostril, for girls it was the left because, well, 15th century.

For all the problems with the US health system, innovation is supposed to be the one area where the country excels. America’s drug industry has been the gold standard for the rest of the world, as has the federal agency that regulates it, the FDA. The country’s intellectual property laws and drug approval process are ostensibly designed to reward breakthrough therapies, granting years-long monopolies to companies that can deliver novel cures and treatments.

The COVID-19 pandemic has upended the retail industry, forcing the closure of physical stores and causing uncertainty for the future of the in-store experience. These abrupt shifts have left many retailers scrambling to effectively serve customers through other channels. Digital-first and omnichannel retailers have pivoted more easily, but retailers that prioritized physical stores and face-to-face engagement over omnichannel strategies have struggled to respond.

As the pandemic spreads around the world, doctors are beginning to scope the coronavirus’s damage. Seen initially as a cause of viral pneumonia during the chaos of an explosion of cases in China, it’s now emerging as an enigmatic pathogen capable of harming the body in a myriad of unexpected, and sometimes lethal, ways. Clinical manifestations range from common cold-like symptoms and bronchitis to more severe disease such as pneumonia, severe acute respiratory distress syndrome, multi-organ failure and even death. The illness may occur as a direct result of viral infection, as well as the body’s response to it. Here’s a snapshot of some of the symptoms Covid-19 causes, including some you might not have heard about. 

At North Dakota State this semester, I took a course titled “Economics of Entrepreneurship”. It was a deep dive into economic theory with a focus on entrepreneurship. Throughout the course, it surprised me how often I was able to connect anecdotes from sports to the various theories we were learning about. When it came time to write a research paper for the semester, I was able to take an in-depth look at the relation between economic theory and MLB front offices, especially since Billy Beane. Following a few excerpts from what I wrote, I’ll take a look at the Levine-Falvey administration in this context.

Many experts are certain that successful entrepreneurs are the ones with the most inspiration (passion and dream), while others will assert that it’s about more perspiration (working harder). In my experience, both are always required in heavy doses. There are no “can’t fail” shortcuts or “get rich quick” scenarios.

When you read all the negative impacts COVID-19 has had on the world of business, you might not consider this to be the best time to launch your crowdfunding campaign. And you’re not the only one who thinks that. Thousands of people across the globe are reconsidering their crowdfunding plans because of various factors from manufacturing to fulfillment.

Low-population-density cities with high educational attainment could bounce back first from the impact of the novel coronavirus pandemic, according to a study from Moody's Analytics. 

Adam Kamins, senior regional economist at Moody's Analytics, analyzed which of the 100 largest US metro areas are likely to see the quickest economic recoveries after the outbreak subsides. His analysis shows that places that are less densely populated but also have a large share of jobs that require at least a college degree are likely to bounce back first, while more densely populated cities that have taken an economic hit from the coronavirus will likely take longer to recover.

In the depths of the ocean, and out of sight for most of us, there’s a quiet miracle happening. Many humpback whale populations, previously devastated by commercial whaling, are making a comeback. And no, before you ask, this has nothing to do with the coronavirus.

With more than 100 vaccines for COVID-19 now in development, it’s fair to say that never before has a vaccine been so widely anticipated or needed. Because it is now accepted that the only way to end this coronavirus pandemic, minimize loss of life and return to some semblance of normality is through vaccination.

Image: Scientists at Cobra Biologics, Keele, Britain work on a potential vaccine for COVID-19. Image: REUTERS/Carl Recine

Hello and welcome back to our regular morning look at private companies, public markets and the gray space in between.

After spending perhaps more time than we should have recently trying to figure out what’s going on with the public markets, let’s return to the private markets this morning, focusing in on venture capital itself. New data out today details how U.S.-based VCs fared in Q1 2020, giving us a window into how flush the financial class of startup land was heading into the COVID-19 era.

As an angel investor, I see plenty of startups focusing on building an innovative product, but I’m looking for the few who are also leading with an exponential growth strategy, to put them in the category of the next Amazon or Google. Traditional marketing may be adequate for linear growth, but it likely won’t catapult you to Amazon’s unicorn status, or make waves in the business world.

Image: https://blog.startupprofessionals.com

Want to help kick coronavirus to the curb?

Well, there’s a job for that, and there’s a class for it, too — coronavirus contact tracer.

And, according to the Baltimore Sun, Johns Hopkins has created a free online course that you can take to help you learn how to do the job.

The report said the course was originally created for New York, but “officials expect the six-hour class and assessment to be used by health departments around the country and maybe the globe to stem cases.”

We are at a critical point in our country’s development. As we navigate the COVID-19 crisis, we are entering an election year and unemployment numbers soar — people need to understand we still have choices. They need to know that their input matters in deciding the fate of America’s innovation economy, the startups and growing businesses that have helped power some of the biggest technological breakthroughs since the last economic downturn in 2008.

I co-founded a company 10 years ago, and in that decade we've closed seven M&As, expanded our operations, dramatically increased revenue and forged strategic partnerships. But of course this journey had its fair share of highs and lows. Here are 10 things I've learned that I think can be helpful to any entrepreneur. 

When you think of keys to entrepreneurial success, you may not think immediately of reading. And yet, maintaining a reading schedule and staying on top of trending business books and ideas can be a huge asset to you and your business. Some of the world's most respected leaders like Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerberg, and Warren Buffett dedicate huge amounts of their time to reading. Why? For starters...

Image: Image credit: Chris Benson

Sea level—perpetual flux. There is a micromillimetre on the surface of the ocean that moves between sea and sky and is simultaneously both and neither. Every known life-form exists in relation to this layer. Above it, the world of land, air, sunlight, and lungs. Below it, the world of water, depth, and pressure. The deeper you go, the darker, the more hostile, the less familiar, the less measured, the less known.

Image: https://www.newyorker.com

It was January when I first heard about the mysterious viral pneumonia circulating in Wuhan, China. I had some major worries—was this SARS redux, or something else?—but also a small, selfish lament. I was eager to go back to Hong Kong, where I had been conducting research on its protest movement. A new epidemic there would likely mean that visiting the city anytime soon would be unsafe. I worried about my many friends there. I told them that I hoped to see them as soon as the outbreak was over.

The U.S. and many other countries are stuck in, or just emerging, from stay-at-home orders that, among countless other consequences, have largely shut down the pipeline for new investment in early stage ventures. According to PitchBook, after a robust investment market in the 4th quarter of 2019 and 1st quarter of 2020, the amount of new financings since the pandemic began has fallen off a cliff, with steep declines in both numbers of completed deals and total dollars invested compared to April 2019. To those of us who lived through previous downturns, this change feels a lot like the dot com bust circa 2000 or the “Great Recession” that followed the global financial crisis of 2008 all over again.