The recent college admissions scandal showed the extent to which parents and students are obsessed with getting into high-profile universities and making the right connections to land an amazing job right after graduation. The stories of Mark Zuckerberg, Steve Jobs and Bill Gates — prodigies who became billionaires before the age of 30 — get a lot of media attention. Less attention is paid to those whose success comes a little later in life. Forbes publisher and columnist Rich Karlgaard considers himself one of those people — a late bloomer. He’s the author of the new book, Late Bloomers: The Power of Patience in a World Obsessed with Early Achievement. He visited the Knowledge@Wharton radio show on SiriusXM to share his story and discuss the power of maturity. (Listen to the podcast at the top of this page.)

Image: https://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu

NEW YORK — One cold New York morning a few weeks ago, a motley group of businesspeople got together at the offices of the startup incubator Silvertech Ventures. They included Charlie Federman, a seasoned high-techie, Maya Komarov, an Israeli who’s always shuttling between Tel Aviv and New York, and two Satmar Hasidim named Yedi and Abe, who arrived holding a bag of cookies.

A well-chosen entrepreneurship course can equip you with the skills you need. They help you develop your idea or concept into a viable business venture. Many courses also provide ongoing resources. They help turn your dream into reality. And they help you avoid many of the common pitfalls that affect new start-up owners.

While startup and venture performance in the Bay Area is a valuable datapoint that provides meaningful insights into our industry, I recommend a different strategy for evaluating our respective ecosystems’ health. To get an actionable — not to mention less daunting — perspective of our performance, we must look beyond the Bay and across all of the country’s innovation communities. My firm HPA recently did this by partnering with PitchBook, Silicon Valley Bank, and CBRE to analyze a broad spectrum of data, which culminated in the development of our 2019 Midwest Startup and Venture Capital Market Analysis.

Gov. Phil Murphy has made New Jersey’s innovation economy a cornerstone of his administration. While New Jersey has been a leader in many industries, competition from other regions, changes in market dynamics and the costs of living and business climate in the state have combined to erode New Jersey’s long-held leadership position. In response to the changing economy, New Jersey must focus on supporting small to middle-sized companies as well as the larger corporations. We believe, as does the Murphy administration, that reenergizing the innovation economy will provide both an immediate and long-term jolt to New Jersey’s workforce, job growth and tax base, and we applaud these efforts.

Image: http://www.roi-nj.com

Prospects that the trade war could rip apart the global auto industry are scary, perhaps even for President Donald Trump. Good thing it could just turn out to be bluster.

Toning down his rhetoric, Trump is expected to give the European Union and Japan 180 days to agree to a deal that restricts the U.S.’s imports of autos and car parts, Bloomberg News reported Wednesday. The Commerce Department found that American innovation capacity was at risk; low research and development spending posed a national-security threat; and “imports continue to displace American-owned production,” according to the report, which cited people familiar with the matter. 

Image: https://www.washingtonpost.com

IN EARLY APRIL, the European Commission published guidelines intended to keep any artificial intelligence technology used on the EU’s 500 million citizens trustworthy. The bloc’s commissioner for digital economy and society, Bulgaria’s Mariya Gabriel, called them “a solid foundation based on EU values.”

Over the past five years, there has been a clear drop in seed investing. Between 2010 and 2014 there was an influx of “micro” VCs, perfectly equipped to deploy seed capital. Since then, we have seen a gradual decline.

I love first-time founders. They’re true believers focused on creating a better future powered by better ideas. They're ready to start a business, possessed with the passion and the grit to enter the arena and do battle with the specters of failure and loss.

When they succeed, they often really do change the world—and the bank balances of a lot of people around them. And it’s because I love them that I say, with all due respect: They make a lot of mistakes. And a lot of times, they make the same ones a thousand other first-time founders have made before them.

Founder Institute, based in Palo Alto, Calif., is opening a chapter in Houston, bringing its business accelerator program for entrepreneurs and startups that have not yet received financing.

Founder Institute started in May 2009 in a small classroom at Stanford University. It has since expanded to more than 180 cities, helping 3,724 companies that have raised more than $850 million.

Image: Photo: Founder Institute

Accel, a venture capital firm with offices in Silicon Valley, London and Bangalore, has raised a new $575 million fund aimed at early stage companies in Europe and Israel.

The fund, which is Accel’s sixth since the firm opened a London office in 2000, will primarily back early-stage companies, Philippe Botteri, an Accel partner, said in an interview ahead of the announcement. Botteri said each portfolio company invested in from the new fund would receive $5 million to $15 million, with money reserved for follow-on investments.

Every February for the last 35 years, the National Football League has run a scouting camp, called a combine, to assess the skills of college players before its annual draft. With scientific precision, the players are evaluated on a number of tests, including the 40-yard dash, bench presses, and vertical leaps. Performance at the combine can affect how early a player is selected in the draft, which is assumed to be a leading indicator of career trajectory. However, many studies (pdf) have shown that although the combine measures the table stakes of athletic skills, it misses the intangibles that make a player stand out come game time. That helps explain why Tom Brady, one of the greatest quarterbacks of all time, was not picked until the sixth round, and star cornerback Richard Sherman was not drafted until the fifth round.

Image: Illustration by Lars Leetaru - https://www.strategy-business.com

President Michael V. Drake announced today at the Columbus Metropolitan Club the findings of a new economic impact analysis showing that The Ohio State University generates $15.2 billion annually in economic impact for the state of Ohio – which equates to more than $1.735 million in economic impact every hour.

Ohio State’s research enterprise, medical complex, construction projects, athletics events and status as Ohio’s fourth-largest employer combined in Fiscal Year 2018 to support more than 123,000 jobs across Ohio. Putting that in context: One in every 57 jobs in the state is directly or indirectly supported or sustained by the university.

Image: https://news.osu.edu

I see more and more entrepreneurs who seem to have everything going for them – vision, motivation, passion, even a good business plan, product, and money, and yet they can’t close customers. Maybe it’s time to look harder at the mantra of a new breed of gurus and successful entrepreneurs, including Steve Blank and Eric Ries, called “nail it then scale it” (NISI).

Image: Steve Blank via Flickr by jdlasica 

Garlic and onions are staples for many home cooks. But do these plants actually add any health benefits to your dishes? Or are they purely for flavor?

People who try to eat colorful fruits and vegetables in order to get a wide range of vitamins and minerals may think that pale foods like onions and garlic don’t offer many nutrients. But although they may not look like nutritional powerhouses, experts say they are.

— Facial recognition forbidden: San Francisco’s decision to ban the use of facial recognition technology by police could set a precedent for how other cities adopt artificial intelligence — or don’t.

— Hawley takes on China: Amid the ongoing trade war, Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) introduced a bill addressing China’s intellectual property theft and trade practices and urging American companies to reconsider their work there.

Recently, Steve Forbes, Chairman and Editor-in-Chief of Forbes Media, interviewed George Gilder, tech philosopher and author of Life after Google: The Fall of Big Data and the Rise of the Blockchain Economy.

Of his guest, Forbes says, “Few men or women in modern times have been so consistently farsighted in fathoming the future of high technology as George Gilder has been. Over a quarter-of-a-century ago, for instance, he foretold in stunningly accurate detail the characteristics of today’s smartphones.

Image: https://mindmatters.ai

Today’s technology tidal wave is filled with startups that have successfully raised capital and gained traction regionally but fall short when trying to enter the global market. The problem is that the worldwide demand for new technology necessitates entrepreneurship without borders. Too many startups take an isolationist approach to team building and marketing, which doesn’t work – especially outside of Silicon Valley. But, whether your company originates in the U.S., Zimbabwe, Moscow, or elsewhere, if you focus your time and money on recruiting international talent and assimilating into the international community, you stand an equal chance of success.

Startup ecosystems are the key to growing a vibrant regional economy. Time and time again, these clusters of talent and science drive job creation, new business formation, and attract investment capital. Ultimately, these are the elusive ingredients that lead to greater prosperity and equity in our communities. The Amazon HQ2 opportunity was a wakeup call for many business and civic leaders. Despite all the applications from smaller and mid-size cities, Amazon chose to invest in two metro superstars...

Now this is the real Game of Thrones… See how top 10 most valued companies in the world changed in the past 22 years. My favourite bit is the second half of the video.  What will the world's top businesses look like in the next 22 years?