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innovation DAILY

Here we highlight selected innovation related articles from around the world on a daily basis.  These articles related to innovation and funding for innovative companies, and best practices for innovation based economic development.

Startup Canada

New Brunswick Programs To Encourage More Youth To Explore Entrepreneurship  

Fredericton, NB (Monday, June 11, 2012) – Building a stronger entrepreneurial culture in New Brunswick means building programs that support the next generation of startup founders, said youth and community leaders during Startup Canada’s New Brunswick visit last week.  

One of those programs is a new collaboration between Startup Canada, the New Brunswick Business Council, the Pond-Deshpande Centre, and the Wallace McCain Institute to assess the state of entrepreneurship at local post-secondary institutions. University Enterprise Audits, an process developed and introduced by Startup Canada co-founder Victoria Lennox, will catalogue current activities and map ways to enhance the entrepreneurial culture, events, policies and support available on New Brunswick campuses. 

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Cloud computing

Venture capital is not dead. Despite the protests from the Kauffman Foundation and others about its demise, it is very much alive.

Having just returned from a trip abroad to talk to numerous investors, I sense a true tipping point in attitudes toward venture and in the appetite for investing. I’ve been traveling abroad for the last few years and meeting with investors to educate them about the U.S. venture market, and sentiments are changing regarding this asset class.

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Tax

I cringe when I hear the rhetoric about the Buffett rule in today’s politics or when I hear about job creation through tax breaks to the major corporations.

I’m afraid our politicians have forgotten the heartbeat of capitalism—entrepreneurship.

I’m guilty; the vast majority of my “ill-gotten gains” have been subject to the infamous Capital Gains Tax. Last year I made a significant sum and was taxed at 15% (at the federal level). What did I do to earn such a luxury? Here’s the laundry list…

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Entrepreneur

I get asked some version of this question, often in the form of “I’m thinking about becoming an entrepreneur”, every day. It’s awesome to me that lots of people are asking this question but it’s really hard to answer with a simple, short response. I’ve been pointing people at a number of resources to help them get a feel for what being an entrepreneur is like and two that I’m involved in top the list.

The first is the book Do More Faster: TechStars Lessons To Accelerate Your Startup that I wrote with David Cohen in 2010. There are a bunch of reviews up on Amazon – mostly good – that capture the spirit of what we were trying to convey. Whenever I’ve aimed it at someone who asks what it’s like to be an entrepreneur or wants to learn more about what’s in the mind of an entrepreneur, I usually get the feedback that it’s useful. What surprised me early on was the feedback from early employees at startups who told me it helped them understand what the founders of their company were going through. I recently skimmed through it again just to make sure it still felt fresh to me and it does.

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General Catalyst Partners

General Catalyst Partners, a venture investor behind start-ups like Airbnb, is joining the Start Fund and will now back every Y Combinator company sight unseen, VentureWire has learned.

Launched last year by Yuri Milner and SV Angel and later joined by Andreessen Horowitz, the Start Fund presents every Y Combinator start-up with a $150,000 convertible note upon acceptance to the elite, three-month program held twice a year in Mountain View, Calif.

For the Silicon Valley accelerator that spawned Airbnb, Dropbox and other comet companies that now command valuations of more than $1 billion on the private markets, adding another deep-pocket investor makes sense.

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Money

Advances in medical and surgical care are hard-won. They require rigorous, carefully interpreted laboratory research. Equally important is the painstaking clinical work to translate basic discoveries into useful diagnostics, drugs, and devices.  Despite the odds, the achievements made in the past half century are unmistakable: a 50 percent reduction in cardiovascular mortality despite an epidemic of obesity; a dramatically decreased cancer mortality rate; and the conversion of AIDS from a death sentence to survival with good life quality.

The key to such success has been the growing number and complexity of collaborations between academics, physicians, regulatory agencies, and—not least—industry. Unfortunately, over the past 20 years, a mania has taken hold that discounts the social value of collaboration and has mounted an inquisition against it, encapsulated by the epithet “financial conflict of interest (fCOI).” Critics’ unwarranted allegations that such conflicts cause bias have limited the sources of intellect that can contribute to a given project.

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bendis

BioHealth Innovation, Inc. (BHI), a regional private-public partnership focusing on commercializing market-relevant biohealth innovations and increasing access to early-stage funding in Central Maryland, announced today that its Board of Directors has named former Interim CEO Richard Bendis as the organization's first President & Chief Executive Officer.

Scott Carmer, BioHealth Innovation, Inc. Chairman of the Board and Executive Vice President of Commercial Operations at MedImmune, said, "The Board unanimously supported the appointment of Rich Bendis as BHI's President and CEO. As the interim CEO, Rich has been instrumental in establishing BHI, securing significant private and public sector support and funding, and developing and executing on long- and short-term strategic goals. Rich possesses unique knowledge and experience that will allow him to continue BHI's tremendous momentum to accelerate biohealth commercialization opportunities for Central Maryland."

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San Diego

When French molecular biologist Patrick Merel, Ph.D., decided to establish a biotech company to develop and market a smartphone software program to store and display an individual’s DNA sequence, he moved to San Diego from Bordeaux, France.

“Biotech Beach’s” genomics expertise and its growing prowess in the relatively new field of mobile health (mHealth) drew him to the city.

“Genomics is top of mind in this city, and wireless medicine also is here. Where else in the U.S. can portable genomics have a better situation?” said Dr. Merel, founder and CEO of the Portable Genomics San Diego’s large footprint in genomic science also persuaded BioNano Genomics to relocate to the area last year from Philadelpha. Early next year, the company plans to launch its first product, a novel nanochannel technology platform for high-resolution, single-molecule analysis of long DNA sequences, said Erik Holmlin, Ph.D., BioNano Genomics president and CEO.

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Silicon Wafer

Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) engineers have developed a fuel cell that runs on the same sugar that powers human cells: glucose. This glucose fuel cell could be used to drive highly efficient brain implants of the future, which could help paralyzed patients move their arms and legs again.

The fuel cell, described in PLoS ONE, strips electrons from glucose molecules to create a small electric current. The researchers, led by Rahul Sarpeshkar, an associate professor of electrical engineering and computer science at MIT, fabricated the fuel cell on a silicon chip, allowing it to be integrated with other circuits that would be needed for a brain implant.

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Angel

Raise your hand if you realized the Midwest has become a hotbed of angel group activity -- and a well-respected resource of nationally respected investment knowledge. This spring, Tony Shipley represented the Angel Capital Association, a professional alliance of angel groups in the United States and Canada, in front of a Congressional subcommittee discussing equity finance as a catalyst for small business growth. The software entrepreneur, who founded the Cincinnati-based angel network, Queen City Angels= in 2000, testified about the financial and intellectual capital angel investors provide, while making suggestions on how Congress can use legislation and public policy to bolster the entrepreneurial ecosystem.

Shipley's presence at this meeting illustrates the growing national attention given to Midwest angels, who are making the region a hub for innovation. According to the 2011 HALO Report, 79 percent of angel group investments occurred outside of traditional funding mecca California. Of these investments, the Great Lakes region received the biggest proportion of them -- 15.9 percent, a percentage greater than the shares of innovation-rich regions such as New England and the Southeast.

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NewImage

The do-it-yourself ethic typically serves small and midsize businesses (SMBs) quite well, but sometimes it's nice to have a little help.

That can be particularly true for startups that hope to grow into much larger businesses. While the concept of bootstrapping a company from day one--building it without outside investments--might embody that DIY spirit, venture capital and other early-stage equity investments can supersize the growth chart, or simply keep the lights on when cash flow is anything but positive. In the technology world the list of successful venture-backed companies reads like a Who's Who directory: Apple, Google, Amazon, and Citrix are just a few examples of companies that received venture funding at one point.

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Love

A father’s love contributes as much — and sometimes more — to a child’s development as does a mother’s love. That is one of many findings in a new large-scale analysis of research about the power of parental rejection and acceptance in shaping our personalities as children and into adulthood.

“In our half-century of international research, we’ve not found any other class of experience that has as strong and consistent effect on personality and personality development as does the experience of rejection, especially by parents in childhood,” says Ronald Rohner of the University of Connecticut, co-authored the new study in Personality and Social Psychology Review. “Children and adults everywhere — regardless of differences in race, culture, and gender — tend to respond in exactly the same way when they perceived themselves to be rejected by their caregivers and other attachment figures.”

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Research

Policy makers are increasingly recognizing the central role of technology transfer from Universities into academic spinoffs that commercially exploit the research results and new technologies developed within academic scientists. The ability of universities to stimulate entrepreneurial activity and creation of new ventures would influence the economic growth through knowledge regeneration and exploiting academic inventions.

Due to the early stage and embryonic nature of university technologies (Agrawal, 2006; Jensen and Thursby, 2001), is important to understand the predictors inside University context that influence the creation of academic spin offs.

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Scale

Every business builder I know has made sacrifices in order to start and grow their businesses. It’s a key characteristic
 of successful entrepreneurs.

By definition, a sacrifice is the act of surrendering something highly valued for the sake
 of something of even greater importance. (Guest contributor Rachel Federman talks about strategies for coping with the inevitable sacrifice of starting a business in her April 4 Forbes article here)

In today’s business environment, owners are invariably required to make sacrifices with varying consequences. Here are just a few:

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hired

From the Startup Rules of Josh James, founder and CEO of Domo, the all-star executive who also co-founded Omniture and took it from inception to IPO to sale for $1.8B to Adobe:

“Rule 45: No Unemployed Candidates. Always an Excuse. Too Risky. Top-Rated, Currently Employed Candidates Who Won’t Leave… PERFECT.”

With all due respect for your accomplishments, Josh, I disagree.

Our own company, Fishbowl, is neither public nor for sale, but we’ve achieved record growth (currently more than 70% through the last three tumultuous years), regional and national awards for product and management quality, and negligible turnover (under 2%) since we began in 2001. We’ve done all of this by doing the exact opposite of the strategy our Utah neighbor, Josh James, has described.

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Accelerator

Every startup trying to get off the ground could use some help. Whether you are just getting established or are looking to scale, learning from a team of successful founders can make all the difference. One of the best ways to give yourself the edge is by joining an accelerator.

The Basics

An accelerator is a program that a startup’s founding team uses to transform their idea into a viable product. As with all formal programs, there’s an application process with deadlines. The programs are typically 3 months long, and run anywhere from 2 to 4 times a year. Most of the programs run in only one city, but some run in more. While there are accelerator programs across the United States, you’ll find more of them situated in places that have a heavy concentration of startups, including Silicon Valley, New York, Boulder, Boston, Austin, and Chicago.

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Ariel Norling, the 20-year-old CEO of YouShouldDate.me, talks over ideas for her new online dating site.

Ariel Norling, 20, is from San Antonio, Texas. She has a lip ring and a spunky attitude to match. She majored in policy studies at Syracuse University.

Oh, and she's the CEO of her own online dating site called YouShouldDate.me. Tagline: "Online dating sucks, but it doesn't have to."

"We're trying to find the middle ground between 'casual whatever,' which generally just means people hooking up, and marriage," says Norling, describing her site.

She says she didn't really expect to become an entrepreneur - hence the social sciences degree. But last fall, after some convincing by a friend, Norling decided to pitch her idea at a local startup weekend.

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Peter Kim says his initial experience trying to obtain health insurance for his family was daunting. He ultimately found coverage online through Health Connector, a Massachusetts program.

Even a self-described data nerd like Peter Kim was nearly undone by his hunt for health insurance.

Mr. Kim left the corporate world in 2005 to become an independent consultant, losing employer-sponsored insurance for his family of four. But researching individual health plans proved astoundingly complicated, he said. And most were too expensive, to boot.

“It was impossible to compare plans,” said Mr. Kim, 42, who lives in Cambridge. “I ultimately gave up trying.”

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Question

Question:

I participated in a company’s “app challenge weekend” (which they described as somewhere between a hackathon and a startup weekend). I am excited to continue working on the product that my team built over the weekend with 2 of the team members (my brother and the guy who pitched the idea).

My preference is to formalize a relationship by forming a company.  My fear is that the guy who pitched the idea will decide in a month or two that he doesn’t need us and tell us we’re not working on it anymore.  He formed a company 2 years ago that he talks about (though from the research I’ve done has no IP or product of any kind) and thinks that this idea fits into that vision, but doesn’t want to include anyone.

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Dream IT Ventures

Startup accelerator DreamIt Ventures is extending its minority-focused entrepreneur program DreamIt Access, thanks to a renewed commitment from previous investor Comcast Ventures. Today, DreamIt announced that Comcast Ventures will invest in two more cycles of DreamIt Access, which will be a part of the Philly 2012 program and the NY 2013 program. Through the additional investment, DreamIt Access will launch up to 15 minority-led startups over the next 12 months.

DreamIt and Comcast Ventures, the venture capital arm of Comcast Corporation, first partnered on DreamIt Access in May 2011, announcing at the time a $350,000 fund to give five startups in the Philly 2011 program an extra infusion of capital (These included ElectNext, Kwelia, MetaLayer, ThaTrunk and Qwite, whose founders are African-American, Asian, Hispanic and Indian.) Later, the investment was formalized into a year-long minority accelerator program called DreamIt Access.

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