Alexandria Real Estate Equities, the nation's largest owner of life science properties, is expanding its Silicon Valley footprint, buying two buildings in Palo Alto, California, for more than $290 million and planning a new office campus in San Carlos.

Image: Life science property owner Alexandria Real Estate Equities acquired two office buildings in Palo Alto, California. (CoStar) - https://www.costar.com

Whether it’s a lemonade stand, mowing lawns or even — these days — developing a new app, there are plenty of ways kids can become entrepreneurs.

They don’t even necessarily have to be a big success. Just developing an entrepreneurial mindset can help them form necessary life skills, as well as teach them important financial lessons.

Deep convolutional neural networks have taken the world of artificial intelligence by storm. These machines now routinely outperform humans in tasks ranging from face and object recognition to playing the ancient game of Go.

The irony, of course, is that neural networks were inspired by the structure of the brain. It turns out that there are remarkable similarities between the broader structure of the deep convolutional neural networks behind machine vision and the structure of the brain responsible for vision. One of these evolved over millions of years, the other came about over the course of just a few decades. But both seem to work in the same way.

Imagine you were fortunate enough to have bought 100 shares of Apple stock in 1999. If you had then reinvested any dividends and sold your shares 20 years later, you would have made an annualised return of 27 percent, well above the market average of 6 percent. This is surely a healthy return, but hardly as spectacular as one would expect. In fact, in terms of total shareholder returns (TSR), Apple’s performance ranks 3,175th amongst companies worldwide. Does this mean that Apple’s success hasn’t been as exceptional as is often claimed?

Trump‘s choice to lead the Food and Drug Administration has ties to both Wall Street and drug makers

A conservative doctor-turned-pundit with deep ties to Wall Street and the pharmaceutical industry is President Donald Trump‘s pick to lead the Food and Drug Administration.

Dr Scott Gottlieb, 44, would be tasked with Trump‘s goal of cutting red tape at the FDA, which regulates everything from pharmaceuticals to seafood to electronic cigarettes. 

I recently worked with a newly minted CEO who, faced with an upcoming presentation, worried about his “lack of charisma.” He was an engineer by training and an introvert who felt uncomfortable speaking in front of groups. One of the reasons he was chosen for his position was that he was considered a masterful listener. So we practiced bringing listening into his speaking. Soon he realized that his greatest strength as a speaker was not his ability to charm his audience, but his ability to pay attention to their needs. Employees walked away from his presentations motivated and “feeling understood.” This CEO may have lacked charisma, but he had a far more valuable skill: presence.

Winning customers as an entrepreneur in a startup has many parallels to a young army trying to penetrate some formidable new and unfamiliar territory. You need a strategy as well as a goal, and you need to pick your battles well. Even in this age of purpose before profits, a business won’t survive by pretending there are no competitors out there to worry about.

Image: https://blog.startupprofessionals.com

One of President Donald Trump's most commonly discussed topics is the strength of the American economy.

Trump has written tweets highlighting strong stock and other market results and the general state of the economy, and frequently mentions the strong jobs market during campaign speeches and rallies. On Friday, Trump announced progress on a trade deal with China, reducing some of the tariffs his administration imposed earlier this year.

The brain is endlessly fascinating. Despite the amount of time we spend thinking, few of us learn much about the way our minds and brains work. As a result, there are some persistent myths about the brain. It is worth highlighting them, because you’ll think more effectively if you work with your brain rather than against it.

2019 saw a new record set for a list price of a prescription therapy—$2.1 million for the gene therapy Zolgensma® launched by AxeVis, a Novartis Company—and resulting renewed concerns over the price of treatments and whether politicos will ever be able to address the issue as the nation’s presidential election campaign season heats up.

The word entrepreneur is used so often in so many different contexts these days that pinning it down is virtually impossible.  Everyone has their own definition, and the one you adopt—or unconsciously accept—can determine your aspirations, dictate your behavior, and in some instances cause you to underperform or fail outright. It’s a classic self-fulfilling prophecy—you’re likely to get what you expect to get.  

Welcome back to Startups Weekly, a weekend newsletter that dives into the week’s noteworthy startups and venture capital news. Before I jump into today’s topic, let’s catch up a bit. Last week, I wrote about U.S. VC activity in Europe. Before that, I noted Chinese investor activity in Africa.

Remember, you can send me tips, suggestions and feedback to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or on Twitter @KateClarkTweets. If you’re new, you can subscribe to Startups Weekly here.

So you could use a little cash injection for your small business, but you’re not sure you can get a traditional small business loan. Short of winning the lottery (or draining your personal savings), what options do you have for funding? Crowdfunding may be for you.

If it seems like all your friends have smartphones, you may be on to something. A new report by Common Sense Media, a nonprofit that reports on technology and media for children, found that by the age of 11, more than half of kids in the U.S. have their own smartphone. By age 12, more than two-thirds do, and by 14, teens are just as likely as adults to own a smartphone. Some kids start much younger. Nearly 20% of 8-year-olds have their own smartphone!

It’s two pieces of bread, a piece of chicken, dill pickles and a squirt of mayo.

People have been eating chicken sandwiches ever since they’ve been eating poultry and bread, said Psyche Williams-Forson, an associate professor and chair of the Department of American Studies at University of Maryland College Park.

So how did this simple sandwich set off a national food fight this summer?

We’re all familiar with the old phrase “what got me here, is not going to get me there”, and this is even more important when things are moving so fast and changing so quickly. The things that got us to success yesterday, or even today, aren’t working anymore, or they’re not working as well as they used to be. A report by Mackenzie also predicts that for six out of ten jobs, 30% of their activities can now be done by technology.

In the lines from Charles Dickens' immortal novel A Christmas Carol, the old miser learned his eventual fate from the Ghost of Christmas Future. As Dickens wrote:

"Scrooge crept toward it, trembling as he went; and following the finger, read upon the stone of the neglected grave his own name, Ebenezer Scrooge." (Emphasis added.)

A propensity for personal growth is one of the most valuable attributes one can have. To be a successful entrepreneur, you are going to face a lot of challenges throughout your life. Learning and growing from them is the only way to continue moving forward, improve your situation and stay motivated. Therefore, you have to develop mental toughness and a willingness to adapt to life. There are countless ways to develop this toughness by enacting certain mental exercises.

When you are starting a new business, every resource is precious, including time, funding, and people. Yet we can all look back, after the fact, and realize that we could have been more memorable. Obviously you can’t go back for a do-over, but you can certainly learn from your mistakes as well as all our successes. Most challenges you have are not unique to your business.

Seattle is among the handful of metro areas that have seen almost all the nation's tech job growth in the past 15 years – and the wealth that comes with it.

That's according to a new report by the Brookings Institution.

But the authors claim there are some big downsides, even for cities like Seattle that are booming.