Chaifetz Group has announced that ten companies have advanced to the semi-final round of the inaugural Chaifetz STLaunch investment pitch competition. Over the next week, Chaifetz Group will continue to meet with and diligence the semi-finalists to determine who will advance to the final round and be invited to pitch live at Chaifetz Arena on Monday, January 28, 2019.

Starting and building a company is all about leadership – formulating an idea, building a unique plan based on vision and experience, and forging a path over and through all obstacles. Yet the image of leadership in business is at an all-time low, according to national leadership experts, considering the political debacles, record business bankruptcies, and executive fraud cases.

Former Notre Dame Coach Lou Holtz carried three rules to every team he coached: Do what's right. Do your best. Treat others as you would like to be treated. To him, these simple rules would help carry an individual or a team to their highest potential.

Your life as an entrepreneur certainly has its ups and downs. Every day, fear and financial stress can create anxious moments and difficult choices. In these moments, "doing what's right" must be foundational to you.

Sea level rise puts coastal areas at the forefront of the impacts of climate change, but new research shows they face other climate-related threats as well. In a study published January 14 in Nature Communications, researchers report that the energy of ocean waves has been growing globally, and they found a direct association between ocean warming and the increase in wave energy.

As someone who is obsessed with productivity, I’m always looking for the latest book, idea, or tool that can help me accomplish more in less time. Sometimes, though, new isn’t necessarily better. Recently I found a good source of inspiration for creating a better schedule from the Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin.

Image: Library of Congress/Wikimedia Commons

MADISON, Wis. (AP) -- Gov. Tony Evers wants to make it a priority for the state's economic development agency to work with entrepreneurs and supporting innovation.

Evers on Monday announced the formation of a new committee within the Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation that will focus on helping entrepreneurs.

Gov. Evers says the new committee will work with existing programs to support startup accelerators, seed capital funds, microgrants, investment tax credits and technology development loans.

Image: Associated Press

The federal minimum wage is currently set at $7.25 per hour. However, many states and local communities have higher minimum hourly rates for workers. In fact, 22 states raised their minimum wage rules early in 2019, surpassing the 2018 total of 18. Minimum Wage 2019 To keep up with the rules in terms of your staff, here’s a rundown of where each state stands currently.

The single currency, which was officially launched on 1 January 1999, has performed its role of shielding against crises and stabilising prices. However, the insufficient convergence of the eurozone’s economies shows the fragility of this incomplete construction. EURACTIV France’s media partner La Tribune reports.

The euro is celebrating its 20th birthday and it is a survivor. Its demise, failure and explosion have been predicted many times, from its creation to the financial crisis and then the sovereign debt crisis.

As 2018 drew to a close, Crunchbase News reported on a year of superlatives. With technology impacting a broader set of industries, we’ve seen unprecedented funding amounts in 2018 (projected to be up 56 percent YoY), along with a rise in supergiant rounds. Nearly $40 billion was invested in companies with at least one female founder, representing 17 percent of invested dollars in the year.

Image: https://news.crunchbase.com

When a new year rolls around, many people make resolutions in the moment, mostly based on impulse, says Entrepreneur Network partner Mike Phillips. The truth is, in order to properly achieve your goals, you have to create a solid plan.

 After making these goals, make sure you are celebrating the little steps you are taking to get there. This may involve looking at your own progress and blocking out outside noise. Celebrate your wins and continue to recognize the progress you are making.

Teresa Amabile, professor at Harvard Business School, is approaching her own retirement by researching how ending your work career affects your sense of self. She says important psychological shifts take place leading up to, and during, retirement. That holds especially true for workers who identify strongly with their job and organization. Amabile and her fellow researchers have identified two main processes that retirees go through: life restructuring and identity bridging.

It’s January, and in many industries that means kicking off the new year with a trip to a big trade show — from Detroit’s North American International Auto Show, to the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, to the National Retail Federation’s Big Show in Manhattan.

If I were to meet with its third largest institutional shareholder, Warren Buffett, I'd tell him that he's made a bad bet on Apple (in which I have no financial interest).

The reason, I'd argue, is that just because the name of the company is the same, its strategy has changed for the worse under Tim Cook. And that shift in strategy translates into a low chance that Apple will be able to grow faster than investors expect.

Mercom Capital Group, a communications and research firm, has released its annual report on funding and mergers and acquisitions (M&A) activity for the digital health /healthcare information technology (IT) sectors for 2018.

Global venture capital (VC) funding in digital health, including private equity and corporate venture capital, saw another record-breaking year in 2018, with $9.5 billion raised in 698 deals, a 32 percent increase from the previous record set in 2017 of $7.2 billion in 778 deals. There were nine deals in that mix that had a blockchain component, the company reports, but didn’t provide specifics.

Companies considering how to invest in AI capabilities should first understand that over the coming five years applications and machines will become less artificial and more intelligent. They will rely less on bottom-up big data and more on top-down reasoning that more closely resembles the way humans approach problems and tasks. This general reasoning ability will enable AI to be more broadly applied than ever, creating opportunities for early adopters even in businesses and activities to which it previously seemed unsuited.

Two local companies – PillPack and Sqrrl – acquired by Amazon; Carbon Black’s $100 million IPO; the $500 million check from SoftBank landing in the hands of Cambridge Mobile Telematics: Definitely, Boston’s innovation economy had a lot to celebrate in 2018.

And 2019 only brings more things to look forward to and keep an eye on. Chief among them are tracking the stealthy health care initiative by Jeff Bezos, Warren Buffett and Jamie Dimon that will call Boston its home, watching how Tim Berners-Lee’s startup Inrupt takes shape and the projects that come out of MIT’s billion-dollar bet on artificial intelligence.

Since the first CES 52 years ago, the world’s largest annual tech show has served as the debut platform for a host of buzzed-about gadgets. With the introduction of Royole’s foldable phone, LG’s rollable television and UBTECH Robotics’ in-home robot assistant, this year was no different. But there’s always a subplot of bizarre devices that seem unnecessary, ultra-niche or just plain out-there. Here’s a roundup of the most head-scratching gadgets we saw at CES 2019.

With the peer-to-peer finance sector now growing at a rate of 35 per cent a year, increasing numbers of UK-based small and medium-sized enterprises are turning to crowdfunding as a viable source of investment capital. But if you’re thinking about raising money in this way during 2019, don’t assume that the platforms’ continuing expansion means you’re guaranteed to achieve your ambitions. Successful pitches require hard work – both to secure a platform listing in the first place and to persuade lenders and investors to back you with their money. Here’s seven tips for making crowdfunding work.

Major carriers around the world have set 2019 as the year they will start deploying 5G services. For AT&T this will be the case in 12 cities across the United States, and small businesses in these locations will be the first to have access to the new technology.

AT&T says it will be the first and only company in the US which will be offering a mobile 5G device over a commercial, standards-based mobile 5G network.

Where 5g Service is Live

This network is now live in parts of Atlanta, Charlotte, N.C., Dallas, Houston, Indianapolis, Jacksonville, Fla., Louisville, Ky., Oklahoma City, New Orleans, Raleigh, N.C., San Antonio and Waco, Texas.

Image: https://smallbiztrends.com

Amid a stunning slowdown in smartphone sales, what does the future hold for Apple and its global tech rivals?

I have recently had the privilege of talking with high-ranking executives at both Samsung and Huawei about the challenges that keep them awake at night. The chief concern both expressed was how to avoid becoming “the next Nokia”!