Here’s a useful article that looks at the fate of university-licensed startup (ULS) life sciencecompanies over the last few years. There are more and more such companies (a greater than tenfold increase in their number since 1990), but a comprehensive look at success rates (and how such rates vary according to the universities involved) has been harder to come by. A lot of work went into this overview, and I’m glad the authors were able to assemble it. They spent a lot of time digging through tech-transfer records and contacting universities to make sure that they’d covered everything, checking venture capital announcements and state corporate registrations, and searching through press releases, LinkedIn pages, and more. The data that they have produced look like the best we have on the subject.

As technologies and business models continue their rapid evolution, companies are experiencing a step change in the workforce skills they need to thrive and grow. Previous research has shown that as many as 375 million workers globally might have to change occupations in the next decade to meet companies’ needs and that automation could free employees to spend as much as 30 percent of their time on new work.

At first glance, I’m sure the site is broken. Printing Money, the result of two weeks of work by data-visualization artist Neal Agarwal, imagines various hourly rates of pay as a printing press, which streams dollar bills across the page as they’re earned.

Spotted by FlowingData, the graphic is an effective way of understanding how much money you actually earn moment-to-moment in various professions, ranging from flipping burgers to computer programming. But as I’m staring at the first row, examining the $7.25 per hour dictated by the federal minimum wage, I can swear these dollars aren’t moving at all.

Image: https://www.fastcompany.com - neal.fun

If starting your own business is looming on the horizon, you’d be joining millions of other Americans elevating the number of new businesses in the U.S. to decade highs.

But before you take the leap, remember that being an entrepreneur requires a lot of preparation: You need to consider start-up costs, learn how to properly navigate your finances and figure out the operating costs involved in the day-to-day functioning. While there are no hard and fast rules, it’s important you master some of these basics before embarking on this new journey.

hen Houston Exponential established the HX Venture Fund, the goal was to bring out-of-town capital and investors into the city of Houston. The fund of funds invests in a portfolio of venture capital funds with the hope that those funds find a way back into the Houston startup ecosystem.

After a little over a year, HXVF has invested in five funds: Boston-based .406 Ventures, Austin-based Next Coast Ventures, Boston-based OpenView Venture Partners, Washington D.C.-based Updata Partners, and Austin-based LiveOak Venture Partners.

Image: Pat Matthews of Active Capital visited Houston with a collaboration with the HX Venture Fund. Photo courtesy of Active Capital

Sometimes when traveling abroad, the biggest, most obvious differences between peoples and places can fade into the backdrop of the experience. Nature, geography, architecture, cuisine, language, dress, appearance — while these differences are some of the most immediately recognizable, they can’t seem to account for “foreignness” in and of themselves. 

It’s not uncommon to work with a leader who has big, creative ideas but doesn’t really understand operations or implementation. These people aren’t interested in hearing the countless details that go into making initiatives successful or worrying about complications that can occur: they assume success is inevitable and that their team members will handle any snags or obstacles. While it’s good to feel trusted, this lack of understanding from a leader can leave employees feeling frustrated or abandoned when they face tricky situations or encounter barriers when implementing the boss’s ideas.

Companies increasingly are setting up agile, cross-functional teams to tackle complex problems that need to be solved through teamwork and collective intelligence. Are there ways that firms can nurture these abilities among employees? According to research by Boston Consulting Group and Awaris, a ten-week mindfulness program can lead to a measurable increase in collective intelligence. This was the conclusion of a study involving 31 teams and 196 members. Christian Greiser, Jan-Philipp Martini, Liane Stephan and Chris Tamdjidi, the co-authors of this opinion piece, led the research study.

ALEXANDRIA, Va., Feb. 11, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- In conjunction today with Thomas Edison's birthday and National Inventors Day, the National Inventors Hall of Fame® (NIHF), in partnership with the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), announces it will induct 22 innovation leaders for their world-changing inventions on May 6-7 during the Greatest Celebration of American Innovation®.  

James Tan had a taste for entrepreneurship when he launched his first technology business, a stock images platform which he created in the first dot-com bubble in the 1990s. But he hit a roadblock—he couldn’t scale it outside of his native Singapore. Fast forward 30 years and James is founder and managing partner of Quest Ventures, a leading Asian venture capital firm.

Image: James Tan (left) started venture capital firm Quest after his MBA

A team of TCU MBAs recently won regionals in the invitation-only 2020 Venture Capital Investment Competition (VCIC), beating out more than 70 universities including Notre Dame, Indiana, Georgia Tech, Pittsburgh, and Brazil FGV to take first place. Now, the students are en route to the global finals to be held in March.

Image: The winning team, from left: Alejandro Velasquez, Andrew Hicks, Cadell Alexander, Lianne Yang, and Joe K. Dickerson. (Photo: Courtesy TCU)

The NIA Office of Small Business Research (OSBR) team is intrigued by startups and their unique role in research and development. Of course, we’re a bit biased — after all, we lead NIA’s Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) and Small Business Technology Transfer Research (STTR) programs, which are designed to help new companies commercialize products and technology to extend the healthy, active years of life.

“Imposing government price controls on patented products would take the fruits of the Bayh-Dole research and rip them from the hands of the inventors and investors who help transform basic research into desirable goods.”

EDA is pleased to inform you that soon we will be launching a redesign of our Regional Innovation Strategies (RIS) program. With a 40% budget increase and recent reauthorization the new program will be called Build to Scale (B2S) and embrace a streamlined application process.

Knowing when to start a project is a key factor to its success. And yet it’s a strategic talent very few companies have developed. If you begin a project too soon, chances are high that the project will miss its deadline — if it doesn’t fail outright.

Too many people, young and older, let their career and their lifestyle happen to them, rather than proactively making things happen based on their personal passions, skills, and interests. Others make decisions based on someone else’s interests, such as the father who wants his son to take over the family business, or dreams openly of having a doctor in the family. Neither of these approaches is likely to lead to a satisfying career or personal happiness for you.

Image: https://blog.startupprofessionals.com

Civic Hall is a nonprofit in Manhattan that offers technology and job training to low-income residents, while also promoting collaboration among startups, civic groups and governmental agencies. It’s been a big success, to the extent that it’s planning a move from a 6,000-square-foot space to one more than 10 times that size.

A decade ago, in the wake of the Great Recession, Lee County, Florida was dubbed “the foreclosure capital of the country” by the national media, the poster child for all that had gone wrong with the American economy.

“Homes are selling at 80 percent off their peak prices,” reported The New York Times in February, 2009. “Only two years after, there were more jobs than people to work them, fast-food restaurants are laying people off or closing. Crime is up, school enrollment is down, and one in four residents received food stamps in December, nearly a fourfold increase since 2006.

Innovation. It’s a good idea, right? In fact, it’s a great idea. If it delivers value.

Hands up who’s seen those pet projects – weeks, months, years of beard-scratching over a concept. A concept that no one completely understands, and no one seems accountable for.

So why is it that innovation so often goes nowhere? Why does so much time, effort and money pour into having-a-go at innovation? I think the word itself might be to blame. Clearly people think innovation is a lofty pursuit of something out of reach, exotic, unique, the stuff of legends. They imagine that when they track this thing down and tame it there’ll be a fanfare, fireworks and fame. So, they go big. They dress it up like they’re going after the Loch Ness Monster. They assemble the team, kit themselves out and off they go.

The funding gap in the natural products industry is growing. The funds are moving up-market. As the average fund size increases, the economics warrant that the average check size does as well. That means that a brand has to be further along in terms of revenue, distribution and brand awareness before they are able to secure institutional money. 

At the same time, the industry’s most active angels are fatigued. They are getting crushed by the onslaught of inquiries. Some whom I’ve spoken with are receiving more than 50 pitch decks a month from founders who are desperate for their support. Even at their most active, these angels are likely to make less than 10 investments a year. As they find themselves buried by inquires, many have decided to make fewer but larger investments. 

Image: https://www.newhope.com