The heart of New York’s Silicon Alley won itself another tenant this week, but this one was not Google, Facebook or Amazon. New York landed a deal to construct a 21-story high-rise for what will become the NYC Tech Hub, an imaginative hybrid space — part incubator, part skills training center and part office for technology startups.

It should be no surprise that the Washington, DC and Baltimore areas are considered strong for life sciences. This is BioSpace’s BioCapital Hotbed. This is, after all, the location of the National Institutes of Health. The NIH is made up of 27 separate institutions. The National Center for Biotechnology, the National Cancer Institute (NCI), the National Genome Research Institute (NHGRI) and the National Institute on Aging (NIA) are just a few.

In honor of the new JLABS @ Washington, DC – a 32,000 square foot facility located on the new Children’s National Research and Innovation Campus from Johnson & Johnson Innovation, LLC in partnership with Children’s National Health System[1] (“Children’s National”) - Johnson & Johnson Innovation – JLABS announces the JLABS @ Washington, DC Children’s QuickFire Challenge.

Visionaries within the fields of pediatric oncology, pediatric surgery and influenza are invited to submit innovative ideas for a total of up to $150,000 in grant funding*; one year of residency at JLABS @ Washington, DC with the use of a bench, workstation, and access to the JLABS @ Washington, DC community; and mentorship from experts at the Johnson & Johnson Family of Companies.

The venture capital industry is under attack. Prominent VC firm Andreessen Horowitz is “blowing up the venture capital model,” transforming itself into a “financial adviser” so it can beat “antiquated rules about what is and isn't a ‘venture capital’ investment.” The customers are also dissatisfied: VC funding isn’t right for most startups says Indie.vc founder Bryce Roberts, voicing the concerns of a growing number of entrepreneurs who are “jaded by the traditional [VC] playbook.“ And millions of participants in the stock market (about half of U.S. households own stocks) watch haplessly as a number of “unicorns” finally go public this year, “after large gains have been captured by elite early investors.”

Introducing Scale-Up NZ: the gateway to New Zealand’s innovation ecosystem

A free online platform connecting New Zealand businesses with funders, incubators, multinationals and other collaborators launches today.

Scale-Up NZ, from Callaghan Innovation, shines a light on our thriving innovation ecosystem. It delivers accurate insights on ambitious, innovative New Zealand companies, removing information gaps that too often prevent our businesses from achieving their potential.

Image: https://new-zealand.globalfinder.org/

RICHMOND HILL, ON, April 15, 2019 /CNW/ - The success of Canada's economy and our ability to create good, middle-class jobs depends on the capacity of Canadian businesses to innovate and take those innovations to market. The Government of Canada, through the National Research Council of Canada Industrial Research Assistance Program (NRC IRAP), is delivering on its commitment to support the growth of Canadian businesses and create jobs by making significant investments in innovation.

My latest piece will be in this Sunday’s Philadelphia Inquirer but is already available online now. It’s about the nascent revival in Philadelphia over the past decade, and its relevance, or rather lack of relevance, to many other struggling cities in Pennsylvania. Here’s an excerpt:

In many ways the city has been ideally positioned for new economy success. The Philadelphia metro area is a very large region of 6.1 million people in an era in which larger cities have been growing faster.

Image: http://www.newgeography.com

Scientists at Tel Aviv University (TAU) have printed the world’s first 3D vascularized engineered heart using a patient’s own cells and biological materials. Their findings appear (“Printing of Personalized Thick and Perfusable Cardiac Patches and Hearts”) in Advanced Science.

“Generation of thick vascularized tissues that fully match the patient still remains an unmet challenge in cardiac tissue engineering. Here, a simple approach to 3D-print thick, vascularized, and perfusable cardiac patches that completely match the immunological, cellular, biochemical, and anatomical properties of the patient is reported. To this end, a biopsy of an omental tissue is taken from patients.

Image: A 3D-printed, small-scaled human heart engineered from the patient's own materials and cells (Advanced Science. © 2019 The Authors.)

Most economic development programs follow a similar pattern. Typically, governments offer a mix of tax breaks, exclusions, and fewer regulations in the hopes of enticing new investments to economically distressed communities. The new federal opportunity-zone program, established by the US Congress in the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of December 2017, also follows that model. In this case, the government hopes that a lower effective capital-gains tax will lure investor capital to projects in approximately 8,700 economically disadvantaged US census tracts.1

They tell you not to judge a book by its cover — but investors will absolutely be using your pitch deck to evaluate your company's potential, so you'll want to make a stellar impression.

To that end, we asked a series of successful entrepreneurs and investors for their best advice on creating an impressive pitch deck:

In mid-November 2018, Amazon grabbed headlines when it announced it will build part of its new headquarters in Northern Virginia.1 The site for HQ2 had been long-awaited after a national "beauty contest." Amazon decided to place major new office complexes in the Crystal City section of Arlington, which is being renamed National Landing. This will rejuvenate an area filled with office buildings that were developed in the 1970s, and once housed the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office and various patent law firms that have now relocated to Alexandria.

Image: http://www.mondaq.com

At one time or another, we have all been frustrated by trying to set a password, only to have it rejected as too weak. We are also told to change our choices regularly. Obviously such measures add safety, but how exactly?

When author and environmentalist Bill McKibben wrote The End of Nature in 1989, the world was a very different place. The science behind climate change was not as sophisticated, the public’s understanding of the issue more limited, and the real-world effects of global warming far less obvious to the average person.

Image: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_McKibben

Every era is defined by the problems it tackles. At the beginning of the 20th century, harnessing the power of internal combustion and electricity shaped society. In the 1960s there was the space race. Since the turn of this century, we’ve learned how to decode the human genome and make machines intelligent.

After a record-setting year, signs point to a strong 2019 in the up-leveled venture capital landscape. Activity in 1Q highlights a new reality where everything—from deals and funds to IPOs—is bigger. Explore the datagraphic below for more on the latest US venture capital trends in fundraising, deals and exits; click on the graphic to see a larger version of the image.

Image: https://pitchbook.com

Starting a new venture still costs real money, even though the entry price has come down dramatically in last few decades. For example, I come from a software background, and back in the early PC days, it could easily cost half a million dollars for a team of professionals to produce a commercial product. Now, with powerful high-level tools and open source software, winning smartphone apps can be built by a good hacker for a few thousand dollars.

Image: Image via Flickr by Phil Gyford 

Recently, I related to Entrepreneur readers how awful 2018 was for my business: ups and downs, mostly downs: My business partner Dan Foley and I were taken on a veritable rollercoaster ride of big bets and big busts.

One of the only good things that happened last year? We learned a lot from lawyers. The reason was that all of our blockchain clients and security token offerings (STOs) needed legal counsel. So, we went looking for the folks who could help them.

Alexandria Real Estate Equities is accepting applications for two $125,000 Alexandria LaunchLabs Innovation Prizes for entrepreneurs who can win support for their emerging businesses and a year’s worth of space at the Cambridge, MA, startup facility by showing what the urban life-sciences real estate investment trust says is excellence in early-stage science, leadership, and business strategy.

(MENAFN - Newswire.com LLC) PHILADELPHIA, April 12, 2019 (Newswire.com) - Angel investors continue to fuel innovation and economic growth, as well as reap the highest returns among any investment class. Keiretsu Forum Mid-Atlantic seeks accredited angel investors looking for a global network and rigorous due diligence process that has produced funding to over 70 percent of the approved deals.

The term "angel investing" dates back to early 20th-century New York. Investors in Broadway shows would make investments to ensure shows would launch. Today, angel investors are more likely to be lauded for launching innovations across business sectors. As recently reported in Pitchbook, Keiretsu Forum was the No. 1 most active investment firm in early-stage deals in 2018. 

Seed stage capital provider Ben Franklin Technology Partners of Southeastern Pennsylvania (Ben Franklin) has launched its blockchain-enabled onboarding and tokenization platform for Global Opportunity Philadelphia Fund.

Ben Franklin, an initiative of the Pennsylvania Department of Community and Economic Development, is one of the nation’s longest-running technology-based economic development programs. For over 30 years, it has been the leading seed stage capital provider for the region’s technology sectors, investing over $175 million in more than 1,750 regional technology companies, many of which have gone on to become industry leaders.