Trends

Suz Mac Cormac and Kaela Colwell spoke to the Daily Journal for an article featuring the Bay Area Small/Social Enterprise Task Force (BASE Force), which is a group led by Morrison & Foerster with other legal, financial, and nonprofit professionals who are guiding small businesses through emergency resources.

As the number of days during which the U.S. remains under stay-at-home orders increases, the mental health of individuals has become a growing concern.

Payments have historically been thought of as a 'cost of doing business' among retailers – a necessary activity that ultimately chews up margins and adversely impacts the bottom line. By that virtue, retail payment strategies have traditionally centered on reducing the cost of acceptance.

In this report we opine on 5G’s potential to foster new and improved user experiences in the financial services sector including retail payments, personal banking, and e-commerce.

AI, machine learning, deep learning and all the other variants will place huge demands on IT infrastructure. Whether you are an enterprise with your own datacenter, a datacenter operator or some other form of cloud provider, organizations are becoming cognizant that AI is a resource hog, for reasons we will explore shortly.

A company’s legal structure establishes the framework and governing rules for operations and growth, which can have a material impact on the ability to balance social, humanitarian, and/or environmental goals with financial sustainability.

Selecting the right entity structure for a mission-driven business can be daunting. For-profit social enterprises can now choose from a variety of forms that enable them to balance social and environmental benefits with the pursuit of profits. Each entity type offers different mechanisms to ensure a focus on impact and economic sustainability.

As fund sizes have increased significantly, the growth of smaller funds continue. In 2018, more sub-$100 million funds were raised in the U.S. than ever before.

A look at key observations in the last decade outlining trends in deal volumes and round sizes.

Before expanding entrepreneurial interests in other countries, it is best to review and plan ahead by taking notes from what works and does not in Silicon Valley

Venture capitalists warn how the Trump Administration’s new export restrictions could adversely affect American start-ups projection for growth overseas.

Much like personal relationships, it is important to set realistic expectations when starting a new business, this all starts with carefully choosing a great business partner.

Fintech startups in the Middle East have continued to grow and with it transforming the banking system in the area.

Growth in emerging markets are set to grow at a rapid rate, three times faster than developed nations according to the International Monetary Fund.

The United States International Development Finance Corporation’s is slated to enter Africa’s emerging-markets and private equity sectors, promising a large generation of growth beginning in the fourth quarter of this year.

A small Middle Eastern country known as Bahrain has once again become a prominent player of the financial sector by way of entering the cryptocurrency industry as it generates new ways of regulating this throughout the country.

Morrison & Foerster partners David M. Lynn and John M. Rafferty explain the impact that the government shutdown could have on companies looking to go public in the Washington Post article, “The Technology 202: The shutdown is over, but companies trying to go public are still in limbo.”

Morrison & Foerster partner Charles C. Comey and associate Jim Ryan outline the latest developments that companies need to be aware of before investing in China or the U.S. in their Law360 article “Navigating Geopolitics In US-China Investments.”

Fueled by the dozens of accelerators that have popped up in recent years, accelerator funding doubled at the end of the third quarter this year compared with the total raised in all of 2017.

U.S. News recently reported on why Chicago has become a top city for startups and entrepreneurs, highlighting the organization that works to promote the city’s technology industry, ChicagoNEXT.

Venture capital funding for fintech startups has ballooned over the past several years, rising from $1.9 billion in 2010 to $27.5 billion in 2017. While some fintech trends like lending and mobile payment wallets have fizzled out, others are on the upswing.

Its founders make an unlikely pair. But in the fast moving-intersection of capital and cryptocurrency, a new $100 million fund is looking to turn that into a big advantage.

Take heart, because there are other paths to take to launch a company — some very popular, and others virtually unknown.

The type of funding you should pursue depends on your business’s value and scalability.

Entrepreneurs who are able to conduct STOs, and not spend the millions of dollars required for an ICO, will enable more startups to enter the market.

More and more entrepreneurs are setting up offices in Latin America where they can still hire talented foreigners without any visa hassle.

In the second quarter, big banks were more willing to lend to small businesses whose growth was tempered, in part, by wage competition.

This groundbreaking benchmark offers a by-the-numbers look at current U.S. entrepreneurial activity.

A top venture capitalist grades the state of his industry – from payments to crypto.

Asia is aggressively pursuing artificial intelligence. Across the whole region, companies with an AI-focus are raising more money than ever before, with many Asian companies largely leading the way.

Over the last decade, consumer technology and the sharing economy has revolutionized almost every aspect of our lives.

Since this evil has grown along with this otherwise marvelous structure, spending on cybersecurity has skyrocketed, bringing many legitimate business opportunities with it.

AI-powered product and service creation is right around the corner. What does it mean for you?

To find the right opportunity around which to build an AI business, startups must apply the “Goldilocks principle” in several different dimensions to find the sweet spot that is “just right” to begin — not too far in one dimension, not too far in another.

What is becoming more and more apparent to the consumer is the idea that these services, while appearing to be free, are actually pay-to-play with the pay being their data.

While artificial intelligence was once heralded as the key to unlocking a new era of economic prosperity, policymakers today face a wave of calls to ensure AI is fair, ethical and safe.

ReGen village, in the Netherlands, will collect and store its own water and energy, grow its own food, and process much of its own waste. Also: no cars.

VR journeys into the molecular level aren’t just fun—they reveal important details of how nature is built and behaves, and could hold keys to engineering nanosystems, combating antimicrobial resistance, and making progress to understand neurodegenerative disease.

There were 274 French companies at the latest CES, up from 13 less than a decade ago.

The design and operation of cities is the province of urban planning. But an explosion of startups in cities means a lot of new products and services for urban areas. The problem is, we don’t really know how people are going to use these new products and services.

After many stops and starts it finally appears that we are on the verge of a true convergence explosion between Internet of Things (IOT), AI, and blockchain. Or in other words, the production of data, the consumption of data and the distribution of data.

Research is now starting to show how smartphones are empowering customers to seek and discover richer, more personalized information.

From smart home appliances to connected cars, consumers are increasingly experiencing the benefits of the internet of things (IoT). Although much attention has been paid to consumer and business IoT applications, many people remain unaware of the ways the IoT is delivering positive economic and social impacts, transforming our societies, the environment and our food supply chains for the better.

In the nascent world of cryptocurrencies and blockchain technology, gender and ethnic diversity are hard to come by. Men dominate “About us” pages of crypto projects across the globe.

Tech investors agree there is money to be made in cryptocurrency. They just don’t agree on how to make it.

The market is attracting startups and traditional automotive suppliers alike.

AI can do brain-draining menial tasks flawlessly, so you can focus on the higher-level work no machine can do.

By 2027, half the U.S. population will be freelance. If cities focus on that, attracting independent workers and startups suddenly seems a lot more important than, say, courting Amazon.

Instead if trying to attract talent from other states, New York founders should work with their local government to support the existing talent pipeline.

If you want to start a company in Germany, most of the action is in Berlin. But Munich is assembling the elements for a lively startup hub. Munich’s momentum depends in part on whether a local startup can create a snowball effect through a successful exit.

It’s no surprise that more funding for women entrepreneurs coincides with an increase in the number of women angel investors.

How innovators, investors, managers, and policymakers can come together to make change.

Puerto Rico was struggling long before Hurricane Maria devastated the island in September 2017. The Puerto Rican government had been looking for potential solutions toward economic recovery, and it had turned to Chile with the goal of emulating its successful government-funded accelerator, Startup Chile.

Researchers have been asking “How big is the freelance economy?” for years now. It might be time to start asking different questions.

Co-working spaces are creating prosperity for many more people than the entrepreneurs renting offices.

In just one year, the estimated value of the impact-investing sector has roughly doubled. There are now $228 billion in assets under management, according to a recent survey from the Global Impact Investing Network, which is up an estimated $114 billion since mid-2017. Placing bets that provide both a financial and social or environmental return is booming.

Nashville may be known as the country music capital, but a slew of ethical fashion brands, Pinewood Social, and an $84 billion health care economy are transforming its reputation as an emerging tech hub.

Silicon Valley is still under fire for its lack of diversity. At tech giants like Apple and Google, women still comprise less than a third of employees, and female founders drew just 2 percent of VC dollars last year. One group of female angel investors is working on a plan they hope will help close those gaps by honing in on the nexus of power: the allocation of shares to founding employees of startups.

Roughly five years after the launch of its first fund in 2013, Female Founders Fund (F3) has closed on $27 million for its latest seed fund — backed by some of the startup world’s top women entrepreneurs and investors.

Some experts predict a boom in jobs meant to ensure that AI systems keep in step with legal and regulatory obligations, ethical responsibilities, and community standards.

We sat down with Katherine St. Onge, Director, Syndications and Institutional Partnerships, at Calvert Impact Capital, and discussed what new issue areas are attracting impact investors – and why.

Take a centrist president with a private sector background, the country’s top tech billionaire and the world’s best incubator, and the potential is tantalizing: Can they transform Europe’s perennial economic underperformer into an entrepreneurial hotbed?

Leadership advice for those brave souls heading into the great unknown.

In its annual Banking Tech Vision research, Accenture looks beyond current, visible trends and identifies what’s next in terms of the technologies that could disrupt the retail and commercial banking industry.

The venture will focus on consumer media and artificial intelligence.

Wharton professors, venture capitalists, and entrepreneurs are fueling an entire generation of Warby Parkers. Now there are more than 400 startups tackling products from toothbrushes to bras. What could go wrong?

Twenty-something founders are crowding around health food, influencer marketing, and services for minority groups, according to the results of Inc.’s annual 30 under 30.

Business accelerator Techstars is on the hunt for brilliant minds behind explosive new ideas. And while it has historically worked more often with men, it’s actively working to engage more women.

A simple question you can ask about new startups: Are they building a gizmo or app to bring American consumers more joy or convenience? Or are they building a product or service that radically improves the lives of the poor and disenfranchised around the world?

Around the world, in places like Barcelona, Paris, Buenos Aires and New York, there’s an exciting new co-location concept spurring innovation: Multi-sector innovation hubs that span a range of business models, ownership structures, and physical layouts.

SVLink is on the Santa Clara campus of UC Santa Cruz, where it hopes to work with as many as 27 startups. It is the third accelerator or incubator opened by the school in the past year.

In a period of convulsive turmoil for the media industry, job-one for executives is to stay ahead of disruption and avoid catastrophic strategic mistakes. Which makes a look at a quiet arm of Hearst—Hearst Ventures—timely and illuminating.

New data shows female entrepreneurs in the UK were offered less investment last year than in 2016

Helping medical professionals to more easily interact with such databases is just one possibility.

Blockchain is good for a lot more than just Bitcoin.

Only 2% of venture funding went to female founders, and just 8% of partners at the top venture capital firms are women.

Harlem Capital Partners is part of the growing wave of investors who bank on influencing the industry’s color paradigm.

Y Combinator hears from thousands of founders every year who want to follow in the footsteps of Dropbox, Airbnb or other “unicorns” the Mountain View startup accelerator has produced. But there are opportunities that remain unsolved that YC’s partners say they would like to hear more pitches about, like the problem of fake video.

Tech industry employees in the city made 7 percent more money on average in 2017 than they did the year before.

Hardware is hard. These investors know how to make it work.

Grammy award-winning artist John Legend and venture philanthropy fund New Profit have teamed up to support eight formerly incarcerated entrepreneurs from across the country — and three are growing their businesses in Washington. The 20-year-old Boston-based nonprofit, which supports social entrepreneurs with access to capital and leadership, has launched the Unlocked Futures accelerator, a program to help returning citizens from prisonbuild their organizations.

New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio’s initiative to turn the city into a hub for the development of cybersecurity technology is beginning to attract technology startups. The mayor has said he wants to see 10,000 cybersecurity jobs created in the city over the next decade, and the city is preparing to open a startup accelerator focused on cybersecurity.

NYU Tandon School of Engineering’s FutureLabs – a network of startup business hubs that includes the Data, Urban, Digital, and recently launched Veterans Future Lab – today reported an estimated economic impact on New York City’s economy of $4.06 billion since launching in 2009 as the first incubators with city support through the New York City Economic Development Corporation.

The San Mateo, California-based accelerator kicked off its eleventh “tribe” this week with a cohort of 20 startups, and announced the close of its third fund of $38.6 million. Even though Boost VC initially focused on Bitcoin, it has now expanded to include other verticals, such as virtual reality (VR), jetpacks, and space startups.

In a game of word association, the prompt “entrepreneur” might elicit responses like “Silicon Valley,” “venture capital,” and (pick one) “Zuckerberg”/”Musk”/”Jobs.” But, in actuality, the large majority of fast-growth companies are not in tech at all. That’s according to a new study from the Brookings Institution, which took a deep dive into the Inc. 5000, Inc.’s ranking of America’s fastest-growing private companies.

As the world falls behind on some of the Sustainable Development Goals–inequality, consumption, climate change, and clean oceans–there are also places for aspiring social entrepreneurs to find a niche.

World’s largest startup accelerator, Plug and Play Japan, yesterday announced the launch of Mobility as a new genre for its startup accelerator program in addition to Fintech, IoT, Insurtech for the Batch 1 program. This new Mobility program is being launched in partnership with Nissan Motor Co., Ltd. As a leading partner.

ICOS have gained tremendous popularity as a funding method for many investors and startups. What does this mean for accelerators?

Kathleen Griffith, the founder behind Build Like a Woman, plans on forging connections and community with female entrepreneurs.

Losing sight of the values that comprise your company culture makes organizations less successful, efficient and effective. It can even cause companies to fall apart. Don’t undermine or undervalue your company’s values or mission.

AI superstar Andrew Ng has spent the past year launching a handful of new initiatives, and now he’s at it again with the AI Fund, a startup incubator that will back small teams of experts looking to solve key problems using machine learning.

Virtru is an email encryption and data security company that was founded by brothers John and Will Ackerly.

Founded in 2014 and funded with $80 million in venture capital from Google Ventures, the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative and others, Andela supplies developers who work remotely from Africa for companies around the world.

With the accelerator industry now booming around the world, giving thousands of entrepreneurs access to cash flow, mentoring and the potential to network, governments in Latin America have seen how this industry can be fruitful and, in the long run, helpful to their economies. Here are three leading public accelerators in Latin America helping to push the region forward.

Three small business owners share insights on how they scaled their business.

Artificial intelligence is starting to permeate the technology that we use everyday. That's especially true in smartphones, where apps that rely on machine learning and AI are increasingly common.

The technology can be used for much more than cryptocurrency.

Startups around the world are beating their much larger competitors for market share by plugging holes, thinking locally, and staying current.

IBM and Comcast Ventures, the telco giant's VC arm, have announced that they will provide support services and funding, respectively, for MState, a new accelerator and investment fund for startups developing blockchain solutions for large enterprises.

Building on the success they’ve had over the past two years, the Dodgers and R/GA announced the launch of the Global Sports Venture Studio. The platform is designed to enable and support collaborations between forward-thinking organizations and emerging startups under a new year-round format.

No single entity has veto power over the rest of the network in a blockchain, eliminating top-down corruption and manipulation while empowering the community.

You’ve had the idea for a while. Now is the time to act. This startup guide will get you up and running fast.

2017 has been another good year for the venture capital industry from a financial perspective. However, 2017 will be far more memorable for the negative headlines the industry generated (Erin Griffith – The Other Tech Bubble). For many of those in Silicon Valley and beyond perception has become reality.

Hong Kong’s tech innovation scene has evolved and developed into a thriving community and a lot has already been written about its successes and challenges. One recurring question is what will it take for it to hit a tipping point that catapults it into the realm of a true global tech center?

Hartford InsurTech Hub, an initiative established in 2017 by Hartford, Conn.-based insurance companies, the city of Hartford and CTNext, has selected the 2018 group of 11 startups that will participate in its inaugural acceleration program, The InsurTech Accelerator.

Youngstown Business Incubator and Germany’s Innogy team up with The Junction to bring disruptive Israeli startups to their markets.

A few hours after the company opened trading on Friday, Jason Del Rey visited Nasdaq for a candid discussion with founder and CEO Katrina Lake about their path from start-up to IPO.

More than 25 million Americans were starting or running new businesses in the United States in the past two years, and more than half see opportunities for starting companies, according to the new Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) 2016 United States Report from Babson College. More than ever, the people seizing those opportunities are women.

On the search for unique holiday gifts? Few websites boast more fun, unusual and interesting products than UncommonGoods. The founder, Dave Bolotsky, got the idea for the site while visiting a Smithsonian Museum craft show in 1999.

The University of Utah is helping redefine how entrepreneurs are created on the collegiate level.

The co-founder of sheet company, Brooklinen learned to stay focused, determined, and motivated to make her startup a success.

Indiana and North Carolina are among the states seeing the fastest growth within the software industry.

UC Berkeley is the top-ranked public school in the country and renowned venture firm Accel is making an effort to get to know its community. The team is launching Accel Scholars, a program to mentor a select group of electrical engineering and computer science students.

With a shortage of machine learning developers bearing down on the industry, startups and big tech companies alike are moving to democratize the tools necessary to commercialize artificial intelligence. The latest startup, Petuum, is announcing a $93 million Series B this morning from Softbank and Advantech Capital.

Eight fellow entrepreneurs share insight that changed the way they thought about their business.

Tyler Haney has a motto: "Doing Things." And it's how this runner kept going, despite the setbacks.

Get your business and promotion schedule prepped for the busiest shopping season of the year.

Anu Duggal, who started Female Founders Fund, gives her advice for getting over one of the biggest barriers to entrepreneurship.

After an incredibly fierce competition in Nairobi, Kenya, here are the winners of TechCrunch’s first ever Startup Battlefield Africa.

You can take advantage of incredible marketing opportunities across the world and rapidly expand your market range simply by translating your product or service.

It’s still possible to create a Silicon Valley success story. But to do that, your company is going to have to be scrappy.

Israel’s Ministry of Economy and Industry said Sunday it was setting up a first China-Israel accelerator program in Beijing together with Chinese partner ShengJing Group, a fund-of-funds manager and consulting firm. The program aims to help Israeli technology companies penetrate the Chinese market by providing five selected Israeli firms with the knowledge, mentorship, and fundraising resources necessary for a successful foray.

Accelerators are increasingly selling a range of services to generate ongoing revenue, without waiting years for startups to be sold, including charging for mentorship, subletting office space, hosting events and working with corporations.

For decades, we have heard that emerging markets are poised for huge growth that will yield even greater prosperity. But a long list of obstacles always seems to be getting in the way of realizing this potential. Startup accelerator programs have been touted as one path to faster progress. Much like their famed Silicon Valley counterparts, emerging market accelerators aim to boost startups’ potential for raising growth capital.

Singaporean government agency International Enterprise Singapore (IE) has signed two new Memoranda of Understanding (MoUs) with tech partners in China to help local startups tap into the Chinese market and the country’s resources for innovation.

Local nonprofit Connect, San Diego’s oldest startup accelerator, has won a contract to partner with the city on a new publicly-funded accelerator program for startups.

Are we beginning to see a shift when it comes to female founders receiving venture funding for tech startups? These women are a strong indicator that we are.

How many tools does it take to run a company today? The answer might shock you.

There’s no market research like going into people’s homes and seeing how they live.

Almost 70% of the 2017 Next Billion Dollar Startup List, produced by Forbes and TrueBridge Capital, are concentrated in just five industries: fintech, healthcare and biotech, “new space,” data and analytics, and logistics.

Maggie Callahan has found fortune as a newcomer to an industry whose biggest players boast storied histories.

Here are the most common tasks to delegate to a VA.

Government support of small business and investments in women-owned startups could do much to keep America on the forefront.

Nicholas Horbaczewski divulges five things he wishes he knew when starting Drone Racing League.

SparkLabs Group, which claims to be the largest startup accelerator group in Asia, is stepping into agricultural tech with a new program created in partnership with the New South Wales Department of Primary Industries.

SENREVE founders reveal the importance of staying true to your vision even when it goes against expert advice.

Microsoft's recent decision to motivate its value-added partners to sell third-party solutions has created several openings for small businesses to gain big revenue advantages.

Stacy Brown-Philpot discusses the future of work, the gig economy, and how she runs TaskRabbit, the online and mobile marketplace to match freelancers with local demand.

So you have a product in the pipeline, and finally—after months of development—you’re ready to launch. You want some publicity, so you’re going to approach media. Here are three things to keep in mind.

With 200 travel tech businesses attracting £2.5 billion of funding in 2016 according to CB Insights, and online bookings rising all the time—76% of UK holidaymakers booked a holiday online last year—the travel tech industry is booming.

Jane Lu’s path to success was a winding road that took her halfway across the world — and through a significant rough patch —before taking her to the top.

In a shift from its origins, the storied Silicon Valley accelerator that backed Airbnb and Reddit is now funding more business-to-business (B2B) startups than consumer startups.

From micro-scholarships to FAFSA tools, college financing startups are on the rise.

Driven by startups bent on innovation, fintech is giving the traditional financial services model a run for its money. The resulting disruption has made a lasting impression on five distinct aspects of the financial industry.

The Emerald City is booming, driven by its homegrown tech giant. But Amazon is trying to keep Seattle livable.

Even under Facebook ownership, Jan Koum says that the simplicity and efficiency that made WhatsApp a hit in the first place remain all-important.

The developers behind Proactiv, Dr. Katie Rodan and Dr. Kathy Fields, share their success strategies and routines.

Former blogger Emily Weiss had a hunch: If she could translate women's real needs into products, she could build a beauty company unlike any other.

According to a study by FactSet, the technology sector leads the U.S. in R&D spending.

Who are the emerging fintech companies that will change the face of financial services? The Fintech 250 identifies and recognizes the 250 most promising, private fintech companies from around the world.

Successful Silicon Valley entrepreneurs have entered the impact investing space. This article provides an overview of who is involved and what they've done to pursue social and environmental missions.

Conscious Venture Lab put out the call this week to apply for its first cohort in West Baltimore. The accelerator that helps on impact-minded businesses is planning to fund up to 10 companies for the four-month program, which begins in August. Companies get an investment of $50,000 and access to office space and mentors in exchange for eight percent equity.

In a region that’s fertile ground for new businesses and the mentoring programs that support them, MergeLane always has been a bit different. Next year, the woman-centered accelerator will build on those differences.

How much support is out there for growing UK businesses? The short answer is plenty – if you know where to look for it.

Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) on Monday unveiled a three-year incubator programme in Singapore to partner local companies to create and commercialise new technologies.

Menlo Park-based investor Stephen Forte, of Fresco Capital, is launching an accelerator in Rome for social impact startups. Forte says he was inspired to do so by Pope Francis, who in a TED Talk last month challenged tech companies to act with thoughts of equality and social inclusion in mind, and has been an advocate for action on climate change.

A new food tech accelerator, the first of its kind in China, hopes to help tackle the problem of food safety–along with a long list of other challenges in agriculture and health in the country, from sustainably meeting a growing demand for protein to addressing the fact that there are now more overweight people in China than in the U.S.

Read about new and innovative strategies you can employ to make your business stand out from the rest.