At a Time of Plenty, Some Technologies Are Shut Out
New funding methods claim to democratize investment in innovation, but important technologies still struggle.Today there are more ways to fund a new company than ever—from crowdfunding platforms to...
View ArticleDoes Corporate Research Still Matter?
Even with steeply declining revenue, IBM continues to invest billions in its massive R&D efforts. Can it pay off?In January 2015, IBM and one of its clients, candy maker Mars, announced an...
View ArticleGoogle’s Research Boss on Turning Exploration into Products
Google’s head of research and machine intelligence says that the company turns breakthroughs in artificial intelligence into products faster than ever.In April 1998 two Stanford grad students in...
View ArticleChina’s Latest Growth Market: Venture Capital
China’s first-generation Internet entrepreneurs are now venture investors in the next generation, placing big, sometimes risky bets on early-stage startups.In 1999, when China’s per capita income was...
View ArticleVC Bill Gurley Tries to Bust the Bubble
A prominent Silicon Valley VC argues that tech startups are overvalued, profits are underrated, and a bust is coming.Since last year, Bill Gurley—a partner at the venture capital firm Benchmark, known...
View ArticleWhere’s the Money for Energy Startups?
Early-stage energy companies that want to manufacture hardware or produce fuel are still facing a so-called valley of death that few have figured out how to cross.For energy technology startups in the...
View ArticleVCs Try to Find Answers in Algorithms
Already influential on Wall Street, algorithmic investing has begun to make inroads in Silicon Valley.Correlation Ventures and WR Hambrecht Ventures, both small to midsize firms, started using...
View ArticleAn Innovation Case Study: Pittsburgh
Can a midsize Rust Belt city compete with Silicon Valley?Shortly after Luis von Ahn helped launch Duolingo, his popular language-learning app, he started to receive the same piece of well-meaning...
View ArticleVC Reid Hoffman on VC’s Evolution
Silicon Valley entrepreneur and investor Reid Hoffman wants venture capital to adapt to an era in which startups must grow faster.Reid Hoffman has worked the entire tech-startup ecosystem: he cofounded...
View ArticleKenya Tries to Build Its Silicon Valley
The country hopes a budding digital technology industry will help drive its economic ambitions, but is a multibillion-dollar government-built “Silicon Savannah” the key to success?Mombasa Road, the...
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