Here we highlight selected innovation related articles from around the world on a daily basis. These articles related to innovation and funding for innovative companies, and best practices for innovation based economic development.
CNote Co-Founder Catherine Berman discusses how listening carefully and understanding the needs of customers helped her redefine a service they didn’t want into a one they desperately needed. While working to get homeless people jobs at large companies earlier in her career, Berman found greater success by telling employers she could help address their diversity issues.
It’s no surprise that venture capitalists say “no” to requests for investment more often than they say “yes.” However, they’re not always explicit about why they pass on a deal. Here are a few of the top reasons why VCs decide not to back a startup.
A word that I think sounds just like it feels: ambiguous. Think about it: am-big-u-ous. To me, the word sounds wobbly, fuzzy, and kind of unsure of itself. And that’s exactly how things that are “ambiguous” often feel to me–unsettling, unnerving, and uncertain.
For me, and many other people, uncertainty leads to worry. When things aren’t known or certain, it creates room for possibilities. And, seeing as we’re wired to worry, I can invent ways those possibilities will definitely not work in my favor.
The topic of industry disruption — “a process whereby a smaller company with fewer resources is able to successfully challenge established incumbent businesses” — is rife with misconceptions. One of the biggest is that it is a mysterious, random, and unpredictable event. Another is that it happens to you in ways that are beyond your control. Those views may have been valid at one time, but they no longer apply. Industry disruption, as Accenture research has found, is reasonably predictable. And with wisdom about its predictability comes opportunity.
Amazon has set off a scrum among cities that are hoping to land the company’s second headquarters — with the winner getting the prize of a $5 billion investment and 50,000 new jobs over the next two decades. We’re offering to help, using Amazon’s own criteria to identify a winning city.
The company announced in September that it was looking for a metropolitan area in North America with at least a million people, so we’ve started with the map above.
Image: https://www.nytimes.com
Sophie Martyr was just 13 years old when she learnt she had brain cancer and was asked to make a decision about whether she wanted to have children in the future. To some, it's an obvious choice. For Sophie, feeling shaken and coming to grips with the months of chemotherapy and radiotherapy ahead, the last thing she wanted was another surgery and her first answer was no.
Image: Sophie Martyr, 20, was diagnosed with brain cancer when she was just 13. She is now in remission. Photo: Janie Barrett
SEATTLE — In a sign of just how fed up corporate America is with the country’s expensive and often confusing health care system, three behemoths — Amazon, Berkshire Hathaway and JPMorgan Chase — announced on Tuesday that they would form an independent health care company for their employees in the United States.
Image: Employees at an Amazon warehouse in Florence, N.J. The company will join forces with Berkshire Hathaway and JPMorgan Chase to try to improve health care. Credit Bryan Anselm for The New York Times
Nine US regions were announced as finalists for the 2018 Readiness Challenge Grants from the Smart Cities Council, and the five winners will be announced in early March. The winning cities will use the workshops, products and services to bolster initiatives in connected infrastructure, open data platforms, Internet of Things (IoT), public Wi-Fi, sustainability, and more.
Researchers improving the efficiency of bone graft procedures, developing drugs to address treatment-resistant cancer, and advancing research to reverse the invasive potential of cancerous cells will receive a total of $600,000 from the University City Science Center’s QED Proof-of-Concept Program. The program, started in 2009 and now in its tenth round of funding, supports novel university technologies with market potential, bridging the gap between academic research and product commercialization. The awardees were selected from a pool of 54 applicants from 12 academic and research institutions in Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Delaware.
Few fiscal opportunities are bigger than reducing revenue leakages from tax and payment abuse. Now, new sources of data and new analytics tools are giving governments the upper hand.
Rare is the government today whose fiscal challenges don’t handcuff leaders seeking to provide for the future through investments in infrastructure, education, and healthcare. Often the difference between funded and deferred policy priorities comes down to the perennial and seemingly intractable challenge of revenue lost to tax noncompliance and improper government payments.
I founded my organization on a single idea: that the world’s furthest-flung farmers deserved the same access to finance that we have in the United States and other wealthy countries. From there came the bootstrapping and start-up magic. For over a decade, it felt like my colleagues and I ran Root Capital on a combination of intuition, inspiration, and force of will. Everyone did everything, we figured it out as we went along, and somehow it worked.
Want to start a business but not sure what it should be? For starters, take a look at what’s trending in 2018.
Related: How to Start a Business With (Almost) No Money
Data analyzed by online graphic design marketplace 99designs uncovered the top four hottest emerging industries to watch in 2018 and unsurprisingly, cryptocurrency ranked in first. Today, Bitcoin has become a dinner table topic and cryptocurrency in general has picked up incredible traction with emerging currencies such as Litecoin, Ethereum and Ripple. According to the research, the term “cryptocurrency” saw a 458 percent increase since 2015 in its appearance in logos and projects created on 99designs. The top cities where crypto customers are based are Austin, London, New York and San Francisco.
As an advisor to many new venture founders, I often hear their frustration at being told by investors “I love your idea, but come back when you have more traction.” As a member of an angel investment group, I have to admit this is probably the most common rejection we issue. The intent is to indicate that founder passion is not a substitute for real customers buying the product.
The challenge is to convince investors that your business will attract real customers, before you have a revenue stream that exceeds your expenses. Even if you are funding the project yourself (bootstrapping), you should be asking yourself the same question before you have burned all your resources. Pivoting early, based on real customer feedback, is always cheaper than later.
I’m not originally from Missouri, so the first time I drove from St. Louis to Kansas City, I learned three things:
If every entrepreneur had the vision, foresight, and understanding of their customers that Ozarkland apparently has, Missouri would be swimming in millionaire entrepreneurs.
Economic development incentives often play an important role in determining whether a business decides to proceed with a major new investment. However, most companies do not understand key aspects of a multi-state incentives negotiation. In order to successfully navigate the process and land the best deal possible for your business, here are six tips.
When Julia Parsons left Carnegie Tech with a humanities degree in 1942, her career seemed prescribed: Women at that time were educated to work as secretaries, nurses, costume designers, homemakers.
But with World War II raging and all the men in the armed forces, “I thought, there’s got to be more I can do,” Ms. Parsons, 96, recalled. “I wanted to go in the service, too.”
This operating model offers business leaders the opportunity for wins in customer experience, cost reduction, and prospects for growth.
As digital becomes the way of life in industry after industry, company leaders are going to be required to reevaluate the customer journey from end to end. With the next-generation operating model, they have a new way of thinking through the necessary changes.
MADISON – The entry deadline for the 15th annual Wisconsin Governor’s Business Plan Contest is 5 p.m. Jan. 31. Don’t miss an opportunity to share in about $150,000 in cash and inkind prizes. Get started at www.govsbizplancontest.com!
Here are 10 reasons you should enter your business idea:
1. It’s free. Other than the cost of your time, there is no cost to enter the contest.
2. You don’t have to be Tolstoy. The initial entry is only 250 words, spread among four criteria – product or service description, customer definition, market description and competition. That’s about 62 words per category.
3. You don’t even need a stamp. The contest is online at www.govsbizplancontest.com.
4. You can win valuable prizes. The contest will feature about $150,000 in cash and service prizes such as office space in premier technology parks and top-notch commercial offices. Other prizes include a variety of services, such as legal assistance, accounting, video production, marketing, prototyping, graphic design and more. For many contestants, these services will provide an important jumpstart in getting their businesses rolling.
Most aspiring entrepreneurs are convinced that the strength of their initial idea somehow defines them as a leader, as well as the success potential of their derivative business. In my experience, it’s a lot more complicated than that. It takes leadership ability, as well as a good idea, to make a successful entrepreneur, and great leaders evolve from key leadership decisions along the way.
Fortunately, basic leadership and entrepreneurial skills can be acquired from experience and training. If you don’t have the entrepreneur leadership attribute or interest, but want to be an “idea person” or inventor, then I recommend that you find a partner with the requisite skills to implement and run the business from your idea.
Image: http://blog.startupprofessionals.com
Coming off the winter holidays, most of us start dreaming of, if not planning, our spring and summer getaways. It’s tempting, of course, to default to the same vacation each year: your family’s cabin, a familiar beach town, your favorite city, that resort the kids loved. We often choose to spend our hard-earned dollars for comfort, predictability, and relaxation, and there are benefits to doing so.
But as a psychologist, I believe that travel should routinely be used to achieve the opposite: to get out of your comfort zone, expose yourself to uncertainty, and eschew rest for exploration and learning. The result is personal growth — greater emotional agility, empathy, and creativity. A recent trip to Sri Lanka, with an unexpected stop in Thailand, led me to think more deeply about the positive impact of adventures that challenge us.
