When I’m advising startups, I often hear the question: “which accelerator is the best fit for me?” (Besides the obvious YC or Techstars.)

First off, I’ll ask if your company would benefit from an accelerator, or if you need to pursue something for early early stage companies before you achieve more market validation, like an incubator. (Side note: If you’re curious about incubators, here is a comparison of the two.)

One of the challenges for Houston energy startups is not knowing what potential big corporate partners want from them. At the recent Global Venturing Conference, two corporate venture execs shared what all they're looking for and the challenges they are facing.

Angel investors aren't exactly like their heavenly namesakes, but they can swoop down from above -- at least in a financial sense -- and provide emerging companies with some much-needed cash to grow their businesses.

Overall, the Western part of the US has historically been a big destination for Americans seeking opportunity.

But not every part of the West has recently been benefiting from that historical trend.

Using data from the Census Bureau's Population Estimates program, we found the metropolitan areas located in the Western states with the most negative net migration between 2010 and 2018, adjusted by the size of the 2010 metro area population.

The Global Innovation Index 2019 provides detailed metrics about the innovation performance of 129 countries and economies around the world. Its 80 indicators explore a broad vision of innovation, including political environment, education, infrastructure and business sophistication. The GII 2019 analyzes the medical innovation landscape of the next decade, looking at how technological and non-technological medical innovation will transform the delivery of healthcare worldwide. It also explores the role and dynamics of medical innovation as it shapes the future of healthcare, and the potential influence this may have on economic growth. Chapters of the report provide more details on this year’s theme from academic, business, and particular country perspectives from leading experts and decision makers.

As of yesterday, the XBI biotech index has not only reversed last month’s slump but reached the full-year high it set in April. And that’s despite the fact that drug pricing rhetoric has hardly subsided, and next year’s presidential election remains as unpredictable as ever.

One potential (and potentially simplistic) explanation: Drugs have been working lately. The likes of Karuna Therapeutics, Myovant, Constellation Pharmaceuticals, and NextCure have all had positive data in recent weeks. And while some of the individual stock reactions might not age well, the cumulative effect has perhaps reminded generalists that there is quite often a lot of money to be made in biotech.

A consortium of leaders from Boston’s biggest research institutions are joining forces on advancing biological manufacturing and innovation. 

Executives from Harvard University, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Fujifilm Diosynth Biotechnologies, GE Healthcare Life Sciences and Alexandria Real Estate Equities will serve as the board of directors of a planned $50M center of advanced biological innovation and manufacturing, the group announced Monday.

 Image: Wikimedia Commons/Joseph Williams Harvard University's Widener Library

NORMAN — Oklahoma has lagged behind other states in receiving Small Business Innovation Research funding, but a program founded at the University of Oklahoma seems to be turning the tide.

With help from Oklahoma Catalyst Programs, now in its second year, companies based here have a win rate of about 40% when applying for SBIR grants. The national average is 15%.

Is American innovation sputtering? The data suggests so: Productivity growth in the United States, which is powered by innovation, has been decelerating. Total factor productivity grew substantially in the middle of the 20th century, but started slowing in 1970. This slow growth continues today, with productivity lower than it was more than 100 years ago.

AAA estimates that more than 55 million people will be traveling on Thanksgiving. To put that into perspective: that's a lot of people.

Most of those trips will involve travelers being in a car at some point, which means being stuck in traffic. Unless we trust our handy GPS apps to expertly direct us through back streets, sketchy neighbors and dirt paths that maybe aren't really roads, to shave off a few minutes of our trip. Or lead us to even more congestion.

SAN FRANCISCO, Nov. 26, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- The Silicon Valley Venture Capitalist Confidence Index™ for the third quarter of 2019 registered 3.58 on a 5 point scale (with 5 indicating high confidence and 1 indicating low confidence). This quarter's index measurement fell from the previous quarter's index reading of 3.76 and below the nearly 16 year average of 3.70. 

Thanks to grants from the state’s Advance Industries program, 24 Colorado startups will receive funding to further their missions.

A total of $5.2 million in Proof-of-Concept and Early Stage Capital and Retention Grants were awarded to fuel the growth of Colorado’s advanced industries, which include things like advanced manufacturing, aerospace, bioscience and electronics, among others.

My team at the University of Illinois just developed the first high-resolution map of the U.S. food supply chain.

Our map is a comprehensive snapshot of all food flows between counties in the U.S.—grains, fruits and vegetables, animal feed, and processed food items.

Image: Flickr user Robert Couse-Baker

According to a recent Forbes article, America ranks as the best country for female entrepreneurship. That's "good." On the other hand, the "bad" is that companies founded by women entrepreneurs are less likely to be funded by a venture capital firm than the Earth being struck by an asteroid, as I discussed previously in this space.

That's "not so bad," though. Women entrepreneurs are not missing out on much by not being funded by venture capital firms => since venture capital firms fund only approximately five of every 10,000 startups in America, according to Entrepreneur.com.

Image: Image: Amur leopard, a critically endangered species. Source: World Wildlife Fund

You’re excited to start your own business, and dying to quit your day job, but you may be wondering: How long will it take me to become an entrepreneur? Weeks? Months? Years?

This is a hard question to answer because, well, you don’t become an entrepreneur like you become a doctor. Becoming a doctor is challenging but clear cut—at least eight years of schooling and then a residency. Once you pass your licensing exam, you’re a doctor. It’s a set path with predictable outcomes.

Happy Thanksgiving from Rich Bendis and the Innovation America Team!

Image: https://wallpapercave.com/w/tfW8MPu

From Greta Thunberg’s student-led climate strikes to the youth-driven protests in Hong Kong and Chile, the next generation is increasingly demanding a voice on pressing issues. Youth movements are reenergizing paralyzed debates among adults with fresh perspectives, inconvenient questions, and the rhetorical power of having to live with the long-term fallout of our short-term thinking.

Five nations accounted for nearly half of all scientific activity around the world as well as the great majority of patents issued during the three years to 2017.

According to the latest World Intellectual Property Report, China, Germany, Japan, the Republic of Korea and the United States were the dominant countries.

Published by the World Intellectual Property Organization or WIPO, the World Intellectual Property Report is a biennial publication that examines the worldwide creation and flows of knowledge.

From predicting the weather to possible election outcomes, forecasts have a wide range of applications. Research shows that many forces can interfere with the process of predicting outcomes accurately — among them are bias, information and noise. Barbara Mellers, a Wharton marketing professor and Penn Integrates Knowledge (PIK) professor at the University of Pennsylvania, and Ville Satopӓӓ, assistant professor of technology and operations management at INSEAD, examined these forces and found that noise was a much bigger factor than expected in the accuracy of predictions. The professors recently spoke with Knowledge@Wharton about their working paper, “Bias, Information, Noise: The BIN Model of Forecasting.” (Listen to the podcast at the top of this page.)

Many entrepreneurs still don’t understand that building a business culture today of doing good, like helping people (society) and planet (sustainability), is also a key to maximizing profit. Employees and customers alike are looking for meaning, not simply employment and commodity prices. Every company needs this focus to attract the best minds and loyalty in both categories.

Image: https://blog.startupprofessionals.com