This year will go on the books as one of the best years for tech initial public offerings, but it could prove to be the exception. WeWork’s IPO fiasco stopped the flow, and it is unclear whether an Airbnb IPO could set public listings in motion again. Regardless, IPOs are no longer a must in the tech lexicon. If, in the not so distant past, the timeframe for an exit was extended from a period of five to seven years to a decade, data now suggests that 14 years is a more realistic expectation.

Image: Left to right: Yossi Vinitski, Yifat Oron, Edouard Cukierman, Aya Peterburg. Photo: Sharon Levin, Amit Sha’al, Abigail Oz 

Despite the rush in every academic institution to offer more courses on entrepreneurship, I still haven’t found it to be something you can learn in school. Of course, you can pick up the basic principles this way, but the problem is that the practical rules for success are changing so fast that no academic can keep up. The best thing you can learn in school is how to learn.

America is a massive, diverse, beautiful, and complicated place.

One of the best ways to understand a country like the US is through maps. Here at Business Insider, maps are a big part of how we cover the world, and that's because where we live and where we come from affect many facets of our lives. Maps provide a window into how places vary and how geography shapes us as individuals and as a nation. Maps like the ones below can provide a big-picture bird's-eye view of the country as a whole, illustrating what keeps us apart — and what brings us together.

Want to raise entrepreneurial children?

Mark Cuban, Tony Hawk, and nine elite entrepreneurs and "Advisors" in The Oracles share the things their parents did that helped make them become successful entrepreneurs.

1. Make them figure it out.

My parents always encouraged me to try new things and to always read and learn as much as I possibly could. Neither of my parents had a college degree or any business experience, so they were always telling me that I had to learn and figure things out myself.

U.S. politicians are fond of talking about "opportunity" and their desire to support launching and scaling businesses. Unfortunately, sometimes talking is as far as they ever get--a common cause of frustration among entrepreneurs eager to see startup-friendly legislation. 

Capitol Hill lawmakers started slowly in 2019 with yet another reintroduction of the Startup Act, doomed by its provision--amid a fractious immigration debate--for a visa for international entrepreneurs.

Selecting the most significant entrepreneurs of the past decade is a bit like picking best-of-show at a dog competition. So many great choices, but decisions differ based on one's preferences for workers or herders or hounds. Fame is a superficial metric that, too often this decade, has segued into infamy. Who wants to read an article celebrating Elizabeth Holmes, Harvey Weinstein, and Martin Shkreli? Fast growth, large scale, and financial success matter. But listing unicorn founders is a snore.

After recording a surge of over 100 per cent in start-up funding in 2018, the year 2019 ended with a mere two per cent growth in value terms, even as the number of deals dropped.

According to Venture Intelligence data, venture capital investments in India stood at $8.9 billion across 656 deals in 2019 as compared to $8.7 billion in 2018 across 664 deals. The 2018 figure was higher by 102 per cent compared to 2017, when VC firms pumped in $4.3 billion across 623 deals.

In cities and towns in all reaches of America, businesses started by immigrants are critical pieces of the fabric of our economy and communities.

My children attend a Montessori preschool started by an Indian immigrant. Like many, she did not come to this country to start a business. But after multiple college degrees in the U.S. and some years working in corporate America, she opened her first Montessori school. Nearly 15 years later, she owns two schools, employs 100 women, and touches the lives of hundreds of students each day.

As we come close to entering a new decade, what will influence business models, government policies, and drive growth all over the world in the coming years?

Of the five key megatrends listed out by a recently released infographic by BlackRock and Visual Capitalist, technological breakthroughs shines as the fastest evolving megatrend that is poised to rapidly impact how we live, work and invest in the coming years. Rapid urbanization, emerging global wealth, climate change and social change are the other four key trends listed in the report titled How Technological Breakthroughs are Shaping the Future.

This year was a doozy for brands' social media fails. Below you'll find a short list of some of 2019's worst offenders. Learn from their mistakes, and then proceed with caution on Facebook, Twitter, and elsewhere online in 2020. 

Faking a Mental Illness

After Denny's paved the way for brands to post outlandish, random (but good-natured) content for attention, it's the norm for companies to try to be funny. But some jokes don't land, especially when they make light of a mental illness that affects 300 million people worldwide.

American employees spend, on average, 200 hours a year commuting to work, and 3/4 of these commuters drive to work alone. Commuting alone by car is not just bad for the environment (24% of global energy-related CO2 emissions come from transportation), it’s also bad for business. Car commuters report higher levels of stress and lower job satisfaction compared to train commuters — in large part because car commuting can involve driving in traffic and navigating tense road situations.

When we first aired this story earlier this year, I said to stop me if you’ve heard this before: 91% of venture capital investment goes to men, and almost 80% of those men are white. It’s probably because 90% of venture capitalists are men — mostly white.

But new data shows that VCs are leaving a lot of money on the table by only investing in people who look like them. Morgan Stanley put out new information this past fall saying venture capital as an industry could be missing out on as much as $4 trillion in value by not investing in more diverse founders.

Image: https://www.marketplace.org

I look an awful lot like Santa Claus. I have the big, naturally white beard and a big belly, and most days I'm wearing a red shirt. I'm quick to smile and have an overall jolly demeanor.

So yes, adults do frequently ask: "Do you play Santa Claus?" 

I've been playing Santa for the past 17 years. In 2003, my friend Gordon got a cold and couldn't fulfill his duties as Santa at a local fundraiser. I stepped in, and I've been playing Santa ever since.  

Image: Santa Ed Taylor on a television set. Courtesy of Ed Taylor

Email has made it easier to connect with anyone — and I’ve benefited professionally from introductions to new contacts around the globe that would’ve been unimaginable before the digital age. But requesting an email introduction through a current contact isn’t without costs, especially for the person lending you their network, so I recommend asking thoughtfully and carefully.

When investing in tech startups, including BI vendors trying to get started, venture capital firms want to see more than just a good idea.

They want to see a real need for a particular product when they consider investing in tech startups, and they want to see founders who have enough management experience that they won't ruin a company with poor decisions even if what they're bringing to market could stand out.

Our top articles from the past year peel back the layers of leadership, exposing a dizzying variety of social, geographical and emotional perspectives. They also reveal the complex challenges and contradictions that leaders will likely face for the next decade, and beyond.

Here’s a New Year’s resolution for Garden State small businesses looking for funding: Apply for the New Jersey Commission on Science, Innovation and Technology’s grant programs.

The grants, through the New Jersey Small Business Innovation Research and Small Business Technology Transfer Support Program, have deadlines for application in January, according to the CSIT.

As the decade comes to a close, Crunchbase News – like all media outlets in December – is contractually obligated to publish a list of the biggest moments (we’re kidding, mostly). And since startups and venture capital are our jam, we figured we’d round up the biggest venture deals of the 2010s.

Happy Holidays from Rich Bendis and the Innovation America Team.

Every once in a while on VC Twitter, a comment or statement seems so outlandish, so completely outrageous, that it must be — certainly has to be — false. Such as it was for Primary Ventures investor Jason Shuman, who commented on the recent prices for pitch deck advice in the Valley today: