Many of the entrepreneurs I know have preconceived ideas about how innovation happens and how a business begins. They have visions of pondering, reading books from the biggest authorities and dreaming about glimmering exits until the great white moment of inspiration begins.

It was a big opportunity for a small research university. In 2013, Xin Zhao, a prize-winning Ph.D. from the College of William & Mary, landed venture funding to commercialize some of the school’s patented nanotechnology. Zhao’s startup rented space nearby, hired local graduates and agreed to fund $1 million of new research at the Williamsburg, Virginia, campus.

Image: Applied Physicist Xin Zhao sits for a photograph at his home office in North Potomac, Maryland, on June 15. Photographer: Anna Moneymaker/Bloomberg

Back when I was a young PM, one of my managers altered the trajectory of my career. It was my second year at Airbnb. I was doing okay, but not great. My new manager, Vlad Loktev, had taken over, just as the project I was overseeing had gotten delayed by weeks. He wasn’t impressed. Although he helped me get it back on track, and we got it out the door, I knew that when performance review season rolled around, it was going to be rough.

Tucked away in this year’s motley special session package at the Legislature was a bill authorizing the creation of Launch Minnesota, a $5 million public-private program to grow the state’s innovation economy.

Amid partisan sniping over proposed increases to public education funding and the state gas tax, Launch Minnesota’s relatively modest investment drew low-key support from both sides of the aisle, emerging from the legislative gantlet with the broad strokes of Gov. Tim Walz’s original proposal intact — albeit with a slimmer budget.

Image: This past February, the University of Minnesota announced the formal launch of a startup incubator designed to help companies based on university research succeed in bringing their discoveries beyond the lab and into the marketplace. It’s one of a number of business incubators that have set up shop in recent years. (Submitted photo: University of Minnesota) 

If you've ever wanted to find out how you'll look in, say, 40 years, you can do it on a controversial app that's going viral, FaceApp.

FaceApp is an AI-powered photo editing app that can make you look like an elderly person, a kid, or it can even swap your gender (but beware, the Russian app apparently collects your data, keeping your photos for ads and other purposes).

Image: FaceApp's old age filter. FaceApp

We all have professional idols we’d like to meet. Sometimes we might luck into getting to say hello at a conference or having a mutual friend who can introduce us. But often, despite our suspicions that we have a lot in common with and could even be friends with our heroes, they remain out of reach.

The newest version of the opportunity zones program was supposed to be a game-changer for venture capital.

In April, the IRS released updated rules for the program, which clarified how operating businesses can qualify for opportunity zone benefits. The new guidelines seemed to indicate that start-ups made the cut. That was supposed to unleash a flurry of activity from venture capital firms and start-ups to join the fun the real estate industry was having. 

Contrary to the widely held belief that brainstorming sessions should be a time only of "yes, and" — that is, a time free of any criticism or judgment — the most innovative ideas are typically developed through pushback and constructive criticism.

That does not, however, mean "yes, but" should be the mantra of an innovation department. According to the Harvard Business Review, organizations should turn instead to "yes, but, and," for a combination of criticism and ideation that will lead to stronger ideas based not on compromise but on creativity and true collaboration.

We know that different cultures prefer different leadership styles. Now new research shows how different countries favour certain character traits at work.

If you’re a straight-shooter who likes to tell it as it is, you might fit in well in the Netherlands where employees like their bosses to be direct. On the other hand, if you’re a more diplomatic leader who always wants to keep business conversations affable, you might do better running teams in New Zealand, Sweden, Canada, and much of Latin America.

Image: A look at how six major leadership styles fit with working cultures in different geographical locations. Image: REUTERS/Thomas Peter

Health care and medical research may attract considerable philanthropic dollars from wealthy individuals, yet many givers question whether their dollars have an impact. 

Morgan Stanley unearthed this concern as part of a firm-wide effort to help their clients make better decisions “on where and how they are giving their money away,” says Melanie Schnoll Begun, the bank’s head of philanthropy management. 

Digital transformation represents the future of business constructs. But even after all of these years, there is no single blueprint to follow. Companies are actively investing in disruptive technologies while also trying to understand how these and emerging technologies are impacting markets and customer/employee behaviors, expectations, and trends. According to recent research, companies report that one of the biggest challenges in digital transformation is the lack of digital expertise needed to lead purposeful, swift, and successful change across the enterprise.

As technology and globalization continue to change the US economy, the workforce of 2026 will look much different than it does now.

Every two years, the Bureau of Labor Statistics publishes projections for how employment in various occupations and industries are likely to change over the next decade. The Bureau's most recent projections show how the counts of people working in 819 jobs are likely to change between 2016 and 2026. Based on the BLS' estimates, we found the jobs that are projected to have the biggest declines over that decade.

In a massive new analysis of findings from 277 clinical trials using 24 different interventions, Johns Hopkins Medicine researchers say they have found that almost all vitamin, mineral and other nutrient supplements or diets cannot be linked to longer life or protection from heart disease.

Although they found that most of the supplements or diets were not associated with any harm, the analysis showed possible health benefits only from a low-salt diet, omega-3 fatty acid supplements and possibly folic acid supplements for some people. Researchers also found that supplements combining calcium and vitamin D may in fact be linked to a slightly increased stroke risk.

Image: https://www.eurekalert.org

Venture capital-backed companies based in the United States raised a record number of mega-rounds with 64 $100M+ deals this past quarter. US Q2 funding and deal activity increased 10% and 3%, respectively, as $29B was raised across 1,409 transactions, according to the latest MoneyTree™ Report from PwC and CB Insights.

US VC funding is on track to reach record levels this year. At the end of Q2, US VC funding is at $55B, well above the mid-point for 2018, which ultimately saw $116B raised – close to the record $120B raised in 2000. The 64 mega-rounds raised this quarter account for nearly half of all funding raised

Each year, high school students across the U.S. march through campuses on guided tours, pore over course catalogs, and frantically check mailboxes and inboxes for letters granting them admission to the next phase of life: college. Most are facing significant financial questions. Research consistently demonstrates that college graduates earn more than their peers without degrees.

In the 1980s and 90s, Wall Street was the American Dream for those seeking wealth and success in the U.S., and an MBA was a rite of passage to the higher-level, higher-paying jobs. 

Not so much these days. After the collapse of financial markets in 2007-2008, ambitious college grads started looking outside the world of finance for jobs. The tech industry, still in its relative infancy, became the new Holy Grail. 

Image: Yunha Kim dropped out of Stanford business school in 2016 to launch her startup, Simple HabitYUNHA KIM

Venture capital firms in the U.S. have struggled to meet their hurdle rates even as their performance has steadily improved, research by eFront found.

Only 38 percent of VC funds tracked over two decades produced gains exceeding the traditional 8 percent hurdle, according to a statement Monday from the alternative-assets data provider. Hurdle rates are time sensitive as they’re typically calculated as an internal rate of return.

Image: Illustration by II

What can NIH offer to NVCA member firm’s life science portfolio companies? How can you get access to NIH funded companies? Since when does NIH have Entrepreneurs in Residence? Check out the answers to these questions and more in our first Q&A session with NIH investment executives, Dr. Ethel Rubin and John Sullivan. To cultivate the relationship between NIH and NVCA members, Ethel and John will be publishing a variety of Q&A sessions on topics such as NIH non-dilutive funding, resources open to investors, recent VC deals from their portfolio, and more.

The European Union (EU) will invest millions of euros in Israeli start-ups, Globes has reported, as part of a €100 million ($112.3 million) pilot scheme within the European Innovation Council’s Horizon 2020 framework.

According to the article, the European Commission will invest up to €15 million ($16.8 million) in Israeli companies “for the purposes of commercializing products, in exchange for shares”.

For our fifth annual roundup of the most influential people on the Internet, TIME evaluated contenders by looking at their global impact on social media and their overall ability to drive news. Here’s who made this year’s unranked list.