Over the last decade, perhaps the most significant strategic notion in advertising has been to create work that breaks through and becomes a part of culture. However, this is an increasingly difficult mission given that it’s coincided with a major shift in public behavior and technological advancement that has allowed and encouraged us to take any and every opportunity to skip and avoid that very advertising.

Image: https://www.fastcompany.com

It’s common on the beaches of Hawaii to see a crowd of surfers taking advantage of a powerful wave to accelerate themselves to high speed. Could extraterrestrial civilizations try to do something similar by “surfing” on the flash of light from an exploding star?

A light sail weighing less than half a gram per square meter can reach the speed of light even if it’s a hundred times farther away from a supernova than the Earth is from the sun. This is because a typical supernova has a luminosity equivalent to a billion suns shining for a month.

Image: https://hubblesite.org/image/3885/category/35-supernova-remnants

Hear me out. Yes, I teach entrepreneurship at Princeton and it’s not uncommon for professors to see their discipline as the one indispensable part of the curriculum. But I don’t think I’m engaging in special pleading when I say that a course in entrepreneurship should be required for all undergraduates. Here’s why: 

Over the past 60 years, the venture capital industry has expanded from a few, small partnerships primarily located in Silicon Valley and Boston into a global industry that invests more than $250 billion per year. By nearly every measure, the venture industry has boomed. Firms are raising funds 10x the size that they used to and opening offices around the world. Venture-backed startups are raising rounds that are 10x the size of rounds a decade ago, creating an ever-larger group of unicorns around the world. If there is one word that can sum up the state of the venture industry it is: growth.

Image: PETE GAMLEN FOR QUARTZ

These days, everyone wants to be an entrepreneur, pitching their latest and greatest new idea, and looking for someone to give them money. Angel investors, like me, have long figured out that asking to see the prototype is a quick way to separate the ‘wannabes’ from serious players. Talk is cheap, but entrepreneurs who show you a working model of their idea know how to execute.

Image: https://blog.startupprofessionals.com

Corporate boards are under increasing pressure to diversify their ranks – adding more women and minorities, as well as executives with different cultural and functional backgrounds – to better represent the people their organizations employ and serve. At the same time, the bar for “board readiness” has never been higher: directors are scrutinized for their ability to understand more complex businesses, demonstrate technical know-how, deliver effective governance, and generate sustainable long-term performance.

Over the holidays, my sister and brother-in-law went to the Netherlands, and they were floored by the work-life balance was there. I found that the Netherlands has put considerable thought and worked on this issue, and data from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development found that it’s the best country for work-life balance: “In the Netherlands, full-time workers devote more of their day on average, to personal care (eating, sleeping, etc.) and leisure (socializing with friends and family, hobbies, games, computer and television use) than the OECD average of 15 hours.”

In my work with new startups, I often find people who believe that the terms “entrepreneur” and “inventor” are interchangeable. Yet I find a big difference between “starting a new business” and “creating a new product.” In my experience, most successful entrepreneurs have indeed created a new product, but most people who claim to be inventors have a hard time starting a business.

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WASHINGTON — Banks could invest heavily in or even sponsor venture capital funds under a proposed change to a post-crisis rule that was intended to limit their risk-taking.

The proposal, unveiled Thursday by the Federal Reserve and other banking agencies, would revamp the Volcker Rule, which was created as part of the 2010 Dodd-Frank law. The rule restricts banks like Goldman Sachs and J.P. Morgan from making risky bets with customer deposits and generally prevents firms from sponsoring or investing in private equity and hedge funds.

TORONTO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--New programs and expanded support for connectivity between urban and emerging ecosystems are driving growth for The National Angel Capital Organization (NACO) across Canada. This spring NACO is launching a Western Canada Regional Headquarters in Calgary, AB. As well, Canada’s industry association for angel investors is expanding its investor education programming in Atlantic Canada and collaborating on new programs with the 40+ regional angel groups and 45+ innovation hubs in the NACO network to support the emerging trend of syndicated angel investing.

Image: https://www.businesswire.com

Some people are born to be entrepreneurs.

In my experience, they’re usually the ones who come from entrepreneurial families and pursue their own ventures guided by the wisdom of eager mentors. Often, they end up in business school, where they learn the fundamentals of the industry so nothing catches them off guard. They know how tough the business world can be, so they make it a point to build character and resilience. And they have this inherent, unwavering confidence that no matter how many times they are told no, they will eventually succeed if they keep on going.

Probably the biggest myth about innovation is that it’s about ideas. It’s not. It’s about solving problems. The truth is that nobody cares about what ideas you have, they care about the problems you can solve for them. So don’t worry about coming up with a brilliant idea. If you find a meaningful problem, the ideas will come.

The problem with ideas is that so many of them are bad. Remember New Coke? It seemed like a great idea at first. The new formula tested well among consumers and even had some initial success in the market. Yet what the marketers missed is that many had an emotional attachment to the old formula and created a huge backlash.

Image: https://www.innovationexcellence.com

The Daniel K. Inouye Solar Telescope (DKIST), the world's largest solar telescope, captured its first image of the sun — the highest-resolution image of our star to date — last month.

The image begins what scientists hope will be a nearly 50-year study of the Earth's most important star. The new images reveal small magnetic structures in incredible detail. As construction on the 4-meter telescope winds down on the peak of Haleakala on the Hawaiian island of Maui, more of the telescope's instruments will begin to come online, increasing its ability to shed light on the active sun.

Image: https://www.livescience.com

Home to 30.7 million small businesses in 2019, the U.S. offers bountiful opportunity for entrepreneurs and self-employed individuals. Our economy relies heavily on these businesses; however, building a business of any size takes more than opportunity. According to a decade of research, it takes a leader who possesses a relatively specific set of personality traits.

Several researchers collaborated on a paper published by Harvard Business Review in 2017. The objective was to investigate and define the regularities and differences in the personalities of entrepreneurs. 

One of Asia’s first smart city Proof of Concept is set to be launched in the Cyberjaya area in Malaysia this February.

The concept will be launched by technology company NTT Group in partnership with the Japanese Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications, the US City of Las Vegas and Telephone Corporation.

The concept has been developed as part of the "Research on Smart City Model for Solving Social Problems in Malaysia" project designed to help Malaysia to address critical challenges around water, energy, sanitation, transportation, climate change etc.

2018 was a year of excess. 2019 was a year of reality checks. And 2020 is the year of sustainable growth?

According to Silicon Valley Bank’s State of the Markets report, the markets are still flush with corporate cash and record dry powder. SVB anticipates M&A activity to remain strong in 2020. Already, more and more companies are seeking out acquisition opportunities. Below are several predictions from SVB’s report for the year ahead:

They say that what happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas. But that is certainly not the case with autonomous vehicles, which are proliferating on the Strip faster than Elvis impersonators.

Having already passed the 60,000-ride mark for Lyft runs in Vegas this year, Aptiv is taking what they’ve learned on the Strip and using it to perfect the technology that one day will power self-driving cars and trucks worldwide.

Image: A self-driving Lexus SUV operated by Torc Robotics makes its way through the streets of Las Vegas. PHOTO Courtesy of Torc Robotics

Congratulations to the Kansas City Chiefs for winning Super Bowl LIV!!!!!

Entrepreneurs and business executives seem to be even more focused on their technology than the rest of us, and less inclined to listen to the voice of the customer, even if they remember to ask. Real two-way conversations with real customers, including the all-important body language, are unheard-of these days. Being connected to the Internet many hours a day is not enough.

Image: https://blog.startupprofessionals.com

Vodnjan, a speck of a place on the Croatian peninsula of Istria, is the unlikely home to a European unicorn, a startup valued at US$1 billion–plus. The town has about 6,100 people, cobbled streets, a medieval clock tower, and a reputation for great olive oil. Today, it also has a new high-tech campus on its outskirts, home to Infobip, the brainchild of Silvio Kutić, whose family is from Vodnjan.

Image: Courtesy of Infobip