If you plan to start a new business or already have but you don’t have an office or lab space, why should you consider working with a small business incubator? An incubator is an organization that offers assistance and resources to help newly-formed businesses get started and supports them as they move forward. Small business ...
If you are a faculty inventor, you’re likely also interested in becoming a faculty entrepreneur. Aspiring to be an entrepreneur is the first step, but what should you do next? Take Action Bruce Fischer, professor of business and economics at Elmhurst University, said in a blog post that “above all, you should take action” and ...
Let’s be honest, it’s always been difficult and now it seems even trickier to get a job in academia with a postdoc. Ending up as a tenured professor is just not in the cards for the majority of Ph.D.s. “In 2020, only 10% of engineering Ph.D. graduates and 16% of those in physical and earth ...
Are you a faculty member at a university? Are you a researcher with an invention that you want to monetize? Do you want to start your own startup company? If you answered yes to these questions, another question you need to consider is, should you leave your research position at the university to lead your company or get ...
The process of opening a small business is already stressful enough without even worrying about how to fund it. But it’s good to start thinking about business costs early in order to know where the money will go. Sammi Caramela, a Business News Daily contributing writer, said in an article to “be realistic” when considering how much starting a business is going to cost. She mentions that ...
Most inventors, whether they are university faculty or not, want to eventually start a company and capitalize on their inventions and research. For university faculty, this could be, or at least seems like a much more difficult thing to do. Why? Well, they already have a full-time job as a professor. There are several things faculty need to think about before even considering spinning out their ...
Have you ever thought about opening your own business, but you didn’t know when to do it? Maybe you’ve heard the phrase: “the best time to start a business is today.” Is this actually good advice? Yaro Starak, entrepreneur, blogger and podcaster, answers this question on his blog. Starak highlights three things aspiring entrepreneurs should do first when they decide to open a business. What to do Today 1. Get Prepared Starak believes there is some truth to ...
We all have heard “you learn from your mistakes,” so, why do a lot of startup blogs warn entrepreneurs of the mistakes they shouldn’t make when starting a business, but not very many tell them what mistakes they should be making? Some mistakes teach us more than our successes and some of those mistakes are bound to happen anyway, so why not embrace them? Ben Wiener, a startup ...
Finding balance in your professional life and your dreams can be hard for anyone. Faculty in academia, hoping to become entrepreneur and start their own companies, find this especially difficult. Finding this balance is essential to having success both professionally and in entrepreneurial endeavors. Amy J. Ko, a professor at the University of Washington Information School and Co-Founder of AnswerDash, said in a post on her Bits and Behavior blog that she ...
Trying to start a business as a faculty member in academia? Don’t fret. As daunting as starting a company can seem, this blog will aim to give any prospective entrepreneur useful insights to getting started. Jason Eriksen, Ph.D., an associate professor of Pharmacology at the University of Houston, has founded three different Biotech companies since ...
Angel Network Sees Growth Over the summer of 2020, investors hit the emergency brake on cash flow and deals. Like most entrepreneurs, the pandemic forced their hand in putting a stop to major transactions and investments. So, it is quite counter-intuitive to hear that the Houston Angel Network (HAN) saw its membership actually, now hold ...
It started with prunes. Long before Silicon Valley was the innovation capital of the world, it was a giant valley of fruit trees and verdant hills. The primary crop in the then called Santa Clara Valley was the French plum, which was sun-dried to turn into the valley’s most popular export and métier: prunes. By ...
Crisis management The great pandemic of 2020 has brought to the surface the issue of crisis management. Especially with nationwide business shut downs in the last eight months, many companies are on a rocky road of uncertainty. Entrepreneurs are unsure of what the future holds after seeing revenues slow or halt in some cases. Layoffs, ...
SEO Changes If you’re stranded on an island, it’s probably not smart to go into hiding and just hope someone finds you. You’re better off dedicating your time to making a fire, spelling HELP with logs, or sharpening your hunting skills. During this pandemic, it would best serve your company’s future to dedicate your time ...
PPP loans for startups Unless you’ve been vacationing on Mars for the past six months, you know that a $2 trillion Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act (CARES Act) was recently approved by Congress. Business owners are sifting through the fine print to see if they qualify for PPP loans for startups. The stimulus ...
Finding funding tougher than ever Almost eight months in to the pandemic and many startups are still fighting to survive. Finding funding has become harder in an era the New York Times calls “The Great Unwinding.” But not every startup is succumbing to a bleak fate. Some have shown unique strategies for attaining funding. Here, ...
Repurposing operations Companies nationwide are repurposing operations to help America overcome the pandemic. Let’s take a look at why repurposing is important and how it helps an entire country. Sometimes in sports, a new player will join the team. Sometimes that player is so good, we consider them a superstar. Someone that can do almost ...
Startup killers Startup killers destroy 90% of companies that aspire to be the next big thing in tech and science. But before we dive into that, let’s start by looking at a connection between our fascination with real life killers and those that kill startups. It’s no secret that one of the biggest “guilty pleasures” ...
Non-dilutive funding For the uninitiated, non-dilutive funding is financing where you don’t have to resort to selling a share of your startup. There are myriad benefits to using these non-dilutive resources. As James Taylor (not the folk singer of Fire and Rain fame), writer for Nature Biotechnology, put it, “Non-dilutive funds offer startup founders the ...
When to launch a startup? The reality is that there is never really a right time to launch a startup. But that doesn’t mean there aren’t indicators worth looking at to gauge a good time to launch a startup. “It might be that the right time that you are waiting for never actually presents itself. ...
Startup Hotbed Houston Cowboys use the term ‘giddyup’ to get moving. It’s a way to push horses to get going. And that’s exactly what Houston is doing when it comes to establishing itself as a startup hotbed. They’re a-movin’. Houston’s push to become one of America’s top startup destinations and an all-around startup hotbed is ...
Startup budgeting for beginners According to Jean Murray, a business professor at Palmer College where she taught business startup and finance, the most important thing an entrepreneur must meet head on is budgeting. Startup budgeting is important because it allows you to make an educated guess as to what your expected income and expenses will ...
The best city isn’t always your city Choosing the best city for your startup can mean the difference between success and closing up shop prematurely. It’s important to think outside your home city for a startup launch because your home city may not have the ecosystem set up for your particular startup. If you give ...
Intro to the lean method There are few things riskier than launching a new business. You could run through a mine field and have a better chance at living than launching a successful, long-lasting business. In fact, the Harvard Business School even reported that three out of every four startups fail. Fortunately, a new process ...
Personality traits in leaders It’s no secret that every successful business leader has multiple personality traits. It seems everyone has a fantasy about starting a business. “I’d open up a record store.” “I’d sell my famous meatball sandwiches my family loves so much.” “I would totally own a comic book shop.” In fact, according to ...
Why should your startup pivot? Imagine your startup is getting ready to present its product to the world at a tech exhibit. Right before you present, another company shows off their own product. And it’s just like yours in every way. Is all lost for your company? No. Because now is the time where you ...
Board meetings can be taxing on CEOs. Think about it. You’re standing in front of a group of suits that can fire you on the spot if they feel you’re underperforming. You’re out in the open. Naked. Vulnerable. Insecurities exposed for all to see. One wrong move and you could be back on the bread ...
Importance of the investor pitch Pitching to a venture capitalist is not only the most challenging part of building a startup, it’s also the most important. You can have the next pet rock idea, but nobody will ever experience it and you’ll never make a dime if the genius of this product cannot be expressed ...
BERT update background On October 24th, Google rolled out their Bidirectional Encoder Representations from Transformers, or BERT. To save time and lots of money, we will go with BERT. Questions immediately sprang of how this new update will affect local searches, small businesses, and startups that make their earnings at least partly due to an ...
One of the most common questions that pops up in startup circles is, “Why did they turn me down?” There are myriad reasons why a venture capitalist might turn down pitches and decline funding. Here, I’ll present the three most common. Understanding your business. Einstein once said, “If you cannot explain it to a six-year ...
Why Watch for Investor Red Flags? Venture capitalists give you plenty of reason to be on the look out for investor red flags. In The Parable of the Scorpion and the Frog, the frog entrusts the scorpion not to sting it while it helps the scorpion cross a lake. The scorpion promises not to sting ...
To walk through the valley of death means that death and misery are low points (valleys) in the human experience through which we all must inevitably walk and experience. Although not as morbid, in the world of startup businesses, the valley of death is still grim. It is a low point in your startup’s life ...
A startup accelerator provides promising companies with an opportunity to boost their chances of marketing their technologies. These programs help small companies pivot their technologies strategically, interface with industry sectors and engage with mentor network to better pitch their ideas to the market. Unfortunately, most startups will never have the chance to participate in an ...
When looking out over the commercialization landscape, the vast space a product has to travel from discovery to the marketplace appears to be growing.
