As an entrepreneur, one of the hardest parts of my job is maintaining a healthy work-life balance. Like most of us, I have hobbies outside the office and a great group of friends and family that I enjoy spending time with. So, why is it so difficult to draw the line between work time and personal time?

Collaborative innovation definitely has its benefits. Whereas at first, it may seem intuitive, it is actually not so simple and straightforward to integrate your innovation practices with another company through collaboration. 

According to Akyuz and Gursoy, collaborative innovation can be defined as “the process of managing the interaction and collaboration of multiple partners to deliver new solutions within a business ecosystem.”

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The last few years of the venture capital (VC) ecosystem were defined by explosive growth and record VC fundraising.

As we start a new year, our Emerging Companies and VC Practice outlines three predictions for key developments in the Canadian VC environment in 2020. First, we expect to see a renewed focus by companies on strong corporate governance to temper headline risk. We also predict that debt will increase as a percentage of venture financials. Lastly, our practice group expects the excitement surrounding direct listings in the U.S. will not likely be replicated in Canada.

The Wuhan coronavirus outbreak is constantly evolving with new developments and reports emerging by the hour. If you want to get a reliable overview of some of the latest insights, you can check out this live map and dashboard created to track some of the latest updates from the outbreak.

Anyone looking to launch and scale a startup in this country can arguably shop around. Beyond Silicon Valley, the list is getting longer of places that have, in the past decade or so, begun to make a name for themselves as burgeoning tech hubs.

Hampton Roads, the region in Southeastern Virginia straddling the James River, is vying to be on that list.

Back in 2015, Heather Terenzio was giving a talk at a vocational school. After she provided an overview of the Boulder-based software development company she founded—Techtonic Group—a young man who helped cater the event came up to her. He told Terenzio that he’d been teaching himself to code for 10 years. He liked what Techtonic was doing, and said that if she were to hire him, she wouldn’t regret it. “We thought, well, why don’t we see what we can do with this kid?” says Terenzio. “He learned everything we taught him, and we had this epiphany that we were on to something interesting.”

The inspiration for Clayton M. Christensen’s seminal theory on disruptive technology came from watching the Digital Equipment Corporation’s fall in 1988. How could the management team that had been rightfully lauded for its brilliance by every popular business publication have stumbled so badly?

As Digital’s star fell, the business press blamed the ineptitude of Digital’s management. But Dr. Christensen observed that every other minicomputer company collapsed at the same time. Since no one colludes to fail, something more was at work. He concluded that the ultimate reason for the implosion of the minicomputer industry was not just the rise of the personal computer, but what the PC represented: a disruptive technology to which the minicomputer companies could not respond.

Image: Photo by Mathew Septimus

As a CEO and futurist in the innovation space for several decades, I constantly encounter predictions about the future. These come from experts, authors and academics who are armed with data points and connections to support their hypotheses. But the most promising prediction I’ve come across? It’s who will solve the world’s biggest problems.

Image: Student Ananya Chadha speaking in Toronto at The Knowledge Society Showcase in 2018. COURTESY OF TKS

As CEO, there’s nothing more exciting than launching a product — whether it’s a brand new offering or extension to an established line. Yet, no matter how innovative the concept, exhilaration can quickly turn to disappointment if your company’s branding strategy and rollout don’t ladder up to the same level.

All too often, companies fail to have a clear overall vision of how their new product fits into their existing brand story and how they plan to communicate that message to end-users. Once the launch hype settles, they inevitably find the new product isn’t resonating with their target audience and the result is lower than projected sales.

Congratulations. You’ve achieved success in your field. But somehow, it isn’t enough. Increasingly, community or global causes appeal to your sense of purpose, and you want to use your talent to do more about them. Or your company has decided that its future depends on demonstrating positive social impact and you’ve been tapped to lead the effort.

We all reach a point in our careers when we start getting questions about our experience or expertise. Perhaps you’ve been asked if you can do someone a favor and "look something over." Or maybe someone has even asked if they can pay you for a consulting session. Perhaps you tapped into a new way to create marketing campaigns or conduct market research that you know other people would want to know about. Whatever your expertise is, it’s likely you’ve felt the tug at one time or another to offer consulting services. 

Whether you’ve been bouncing ideas back and forth regarding the launch of a business, right now may be a good time for you to move forward. However, if it’s not the right time, and you have future plans and dreams, this article may help you decide if you should move from employee to entrepreneur.

Becoming an entrepreneur is not something mythical; it is a massive change in lifestyle. It is also much different than working for a company, and can be more demanding.

Much has been written and said in the last decade about equity crowdfunding and many platforms have emerged as instruments and enablers of this new way of financing startup companies.

Although big VC funding rounds continue to consistently make the news, crowdfunding campaigns are increasingly gathering steam in the media. Take for example the recent campaign by Cowboy on Crowdcube, which smashed its original target of €1.3 million and took home a final €4.2 million.

Psychologists call it "thin slicing."

Within moments of meeting you, people decide all sorts of things about you, from status to intelligence to conscientiousness.

Career experts say it takes just three seconds for someone to determine whether they like you and want to do business with you.

Fortunately, you have some control over the way others see you. For example, wearing tailored clothes and looking your conversation partner in the eye will generally create a more positive impression. But as for how aggressive you seem? That's largely determined by your facial structure.

The are an increasing number of medical devices that treat us by going in through the mouth (think bariatric balloon or esophageal stents) - but the process of getting them out again can be a lot more painful then putting them in.

New research offers an alternative – devices that can break down in your stomach after you've swallowed a pill of light.

Image: https://www.sciencealert.com

This year, we celebrated the 50th anniversary of the greatest achievement in the history of both humankind and technology: putting men on the moon. That we did it in 1969, just eight years after President John F. Kennedy issued the challenge, spoke mightily to what is possible when a nation takes on a supreme challenge and syncs together as a massive team.

Image: Image by Ahmad Ardity from Pixabay

Over the past five years, Green D Ventures has afforded many Dartmouth alumni the opportunity to enter the venture capital market with a Big Green twist, putting forth capital to support emerging companies largely associated with Dartmouth alumni. 

Green D Ventures managing partner Laura Rippy ’89 said the firm was founded by Mike Collins ’86 to “democratize” access to venture capital — an asset class historically limited largely to institutional investors. The firm, which according to its website takes investments of $50,000 to $1 million, requires that investors be accredited, meaning they have either a net worth of over $1 million or $200,000 in sustained annual income. 

Boston's Northeastern University on Monday unveiled plans to launch a professional graduate school and research institute in Portland, and said the school will help create a new "innovation hub" focused on technology and life sciences.

The venture is the brainchild of tech entrepreneur and Lewiston native David Roux and his wife, Barbara, who contributed a donation of $100 million from the Roux Family Foundation.

Image: PHOTO / RENEE CORDES Lewiston native and tech entrepreneur David Roux discusses plans for the new research institute with media attending the announcement Monday morning.

As an aspiring entrepreneur, one of the most important things you need is a memorable “elevator pitch,” to communicate your startup value proposition and leave a great first impression on friends, investors, employees, and future customers. As a startup advisor and potential investor, I’ve heard too many that are heavy on emotion, but light on quantifiable value and impact.

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Nearly every family-owned business leader hopes to pass the torch to a family member when the time comes. Yet, fulfilling that hope is surprisingly difficult. While exact figures may differ from one source to another, there is common agreement that fewer than 30% of family businesses survive into the third generation of family ownership.