Gov. Tom Wolf’s proposal to invest $12.35 million in innovation, including a $5 million increase in the line item that funds Ben Franklin Technology Partners, comes at a critical time. In the nation’s highly competitive high-tech economy, every dollar matters.

Building an ecosystem that fosters innovation and drives entrepreneurial success isn’t easy, or cheap. But smart investments like this can drive economic growth and ensure Pennsylvania continues to capture its share of emerging high-tech developments.

Graduating from university is a thrilling time for many young millennials as they prepare to enter the job market for the very first time and kickstart their careers. According to research, they represent a cohort of new talent who have different sets of demands, preferences, and beliefs than previous generations.

However, fueled with ambition and enthusiasm, many find themselves puzzled between choosing whether to join a startup or a well-established company. These two choices lead to extreme differences in their future career and personal goals as well as in the quality of life.

The Net Promoter Score (NPS), which has long been used to measure the loyalty of firms’ customers, is under fire for becoming the false god of corporate America. In a searing article, the Wall Street Journal last week labeled NPS “a dubious metric” — one that is routinely cited by CEOs in earning calls and that somehow, magically, never declines.

Image: Illustrated by Karolin Schnoor

What started as slang has grown to be pervasive across the financial industry. 

In the private markets, dry powder refers to the amount of committed, but unallocated capital a firm has on hand. In other words, it’s unspent cash that is waiting to be invested. 

A venture capital firm, for instance, could use some of its dry powder to invest in a promising healthtech startup. A private equity firm could use its dry powder stockpile to buyout a distressed company. Even a corporation can reserve its dry powder in preparation for an add-on acquisition.

It may be the driver… or is it the engine? Here’s how professional racing constructors trace performance problems to their source.

In an ideal world, managerial priorities would drive business outcomes. In the real world, though, we know the reverse is very often the case. Underperformance commonly comes as a surprise to managers, triggering a race to solve the problem. First, however, they must do a root cause analysis.

Innovation is an essential ingredient for economic growth. But what exactly do we mean when we speak of innovation? At its core, it’s economic evolution – the process of taking what has been discovered and applying those discoveries to create improved ways of using finite resources to get things done. 

Innovation can be in the form of a process or a product. For example, learning ways to use available technologies to produce things more quickly, or cheaper, or with less energy consumption are types of innovation. 

Image: Richard Kasmin, Chief Economist at the NJEDA | Courtesy NJEDA

Last month, SpaceX became the operator of the world’s largest active satellite constellation. As of the end of January, the company had 242 satellites orbiting the planet with plans to launch 42,000 over the next decade. This is part of its ambitious project to provide internet access across the globe. The race to put satellites in space is on, with Amazon, U.K.-based OneWeb and other companies chomping at the bit to place thousands of satellites in orbit in the coming months.

Image: CubeSats fly free after leaving the NanoRacks CubeSat Deployer on the International Space Station on May 17, 2016. Credit: NASA

Fears continue to mount as the number of coronavirus cases rise worldwide, The United States recorded its first death from the coronavirus in Washington state Saturday,

According to the World Health Organization statistics released Saturday, there are 85,403 confirmed cases of the coronavirus worldwide and 2,838 deaths.

But how dangerous is the coronavirus? Is it worse than the flu?

Image: Fears continue to rise as the coronavirus continues to spread worldwide. (Andy Wong/Associated Press)

With concerns about the novel coronavirus COVID-19 rising in the U.S., consumers are racing to stock up on cleaning products, disinfectants and hand sanitizers—to the extent that retailers like CVS are reportedly concerned about shortages.

But can these products do anything to prevent the spread of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19?

“Standard cleaning products that will kill other viruses will be presumptively fine against [SARS-CoV-2],” says Dr. Aaron Glatt, chief of infectious disease at Mount Sinai South Nassau in New York. Still, Glatt notes that as this is a new virus, “we obviously don’t have a ton of data on it.” And an important caveat is products must be used correctly.

Image: https://time.com - from video.

Technology — including smartphones, social media and fast and reliable internet connectivity — seems to have come together in such a way as to capture our attention during every waking moment. Although such technology can harm those who misuse it, for many it has become an invaluable resource, dramatically improving their lives.

The editors of TIME for Kids spoke with six innovators who are making the planet a more sustainable and accessible place for future generations. From Saieshan Govinder’s work tackling the youth unemployment crisis in South Africa to Srilekha Chakraborty’s initiatives that help girls in rural India learn and talk about their health, these game-changers are leading the way to a better world.

Image: Illustration by Aiste Stancikaite for TIME 

In an ideal world, our promotion potential would have less to do with our personalities and more to do with our objective work performances. However, human nature makes that a somewhat unrealistic goal. Certain personality types tend to receive better work opportunities than others ... and these six frequently find themselves overlooked when advancement possibilities arise.

The Midwest and Great Lakes region continues to fall behind at a time when venture capital is funding fewer firms with larger exits, said John Austin, senior fellow with the Brookings Institution, a Washington, D.C.-based research group.

Austin visited Milwaukee last month to share findings of his most recent report, entitled, “As the venture capital game gets bigger, the Midwest keeps missing out,” with members of the Rotary Club of Milwaukee.

Image: https://biztimes.com

Most people in their lives will experience a sense of burnout, whether facing it in their careers or their personal lives. However, entrepreneurs can often feel this at a much more intense level due to the nature of their very work, and the drive it takes to succeed as an entrepreneur. Entrepreneurs are often seeking success, no matter the cost or the hours needed to do so. 

Burnout can be extremely costly if not recognized and handled at the first signs. In order for entrepreneurs to truly succeed, they must find that perfect balance. 

A buoyant venture capital (VC) industry has arrived into the new calendar year with $7 billion of dry powder, or capital left to invest, having already deployed a record $10 billion across India’s startup ecosystem, according to a study undertaken by Bain & Company.

In its India Venture Capital Report 2020, the global management consultancy firm predicted the pace of investments by risk capital players in Asia’s third-largest economy to remain strong despite continuing economic uncertainty across the world, indicating the robustness of its emerging digital economy.

Some daft tech is being proposed to help combat the spread of coronavirus, from a facepalm-inducing advice bot in Times Square to personalised face masks that promise to help you unlock your smartphone.

But there are dozens of tech startups pioneering health projects to really help fight the virus, Covid-19, which has now spread to six continents and has triggered more than 85,000 cases of respiratory illness and 3,000 deaths.

If you are struggling to have money left over after paying for bills, then you may want to move to one of these cities.

Clever Real Estate calculated how much money the average American in several major metro areas spends on different necessities after receiving their biweekly paycheck. The real estate referral site subtracted living expenses and income tax from the city's average pre-tax income using Bureau of Economic Analysis spending and income data and IRS state tax data to calculate the amount of money leftover from a biweekly paycheck.

We’re obsessed with acceleration. How much time does it take a car to go from zero to sixty? How fast can we hit a million users? How quickly can we finish this project so we can fit more stuff into our day?

Acceleration is forward movement. It’s building momentum to get you where you need to go. The faster you’re going, though, the harder it is to slow down. Slamming on the brakes when you’re going eighty on the highway can give you whiplash.

Apple celebrated the 10th anniversary of the iPad a few weeks ago. And even though the iconic tablet’s biggest days are probably behind it, it continues to have a lot of influence the way computer makers design laptops, tablets, and hybrids today.

I was privileged to be at the iPad launch and to hear Steve Jobs talk about the new device’s potential impact on the mobile computing market. He said that the iPad is the real computer for the masses. If PCs and laptops are like trucks, he argued, then iPads would be like cars.

Colleges and universities are feeling the economic pinch -- a dollar doesn’t go as far up the ivory tower as it once did. The cost of conducting research is increasing and will continue to do so.

What's more, student budgets are stretched to the limit. To remain relevant -- or just to keep the doors open -- post-secondary institutions have been seeking ways to turn their scholarly efforts into revenue streams.