Give The Gift Of Entrepreneurship

Readers, as we go into the holiday season, I hope you will make Entrepreneur Journeys a part of your gift-giving plans. It’s very important this year to spread inspiration and encouragement widely, as we work towards rebuilding the crumbling economy through entrepreneurship.

And as I have reinforced constantly, this is a good time to start a company for people who have lost their jobs. And also for struggling entrepreneurs, the messages of resilience from those who have come before are very important.

Deal Radar 2008: NewsGator

NewsGator provides individuals and businesses with a way to communicate internally and externally via RSS aggregators for users on the web, desktops, mobile devices and email clients. Headquartered in Denver, Colorado, the company was created to give consumers a way to use content being produced through the proliferation of weblogs, which often use RSS feeds to distribute new posts. >>>

Engineering Algae-based Bio Fuel: Valcent CEO Glen Kertz (Part 4)

SM: Are you the only algae-based bio fuel company in the US?

GK: No, a lot have popped up. There are four or five I think are in the same ball park as we are in terms of scale, and then there are a lot of little companies with a couple of stock tanks or small ponds. >>>

Designs of the Week: The Movie Theater Experience

By guest authors Charley Bush and Kathy Hwang of design and business consultancy 3Strand Innovation

When was the last time you went the movies? Was it an experience worth remembering? The movie theater industry has been facing stagnating revenues for a while now. So why have industry players continued to put little effort into innovations that will improve the user experience?

We think that walking into a theater should feel a lot more like an immersive experience and less like waiting in line to get onto a United Airlines flight. We’ve looked around the world and found some interesting examples of how movie theater designers have attempted to pave the way in this arena over the years. >>>

Design that Moves Business: Apple’s “Overnight” Success! (Part 3)

By guest authors Charley Bush and Kathy Hwang of 3Strand Innovation

DESIGN-DRIVEN BUSINESS – From Creative Idea to the Marketplace

In the first two parts of this series we explored how a design-driven business prioritizes the user experience and holistically incorporates design thinking into all parts of the business. The last part of our discussion traces how Apple’s commitment to a design approach resulted in marketplace success

So what really happened when Apple threw its first iPod design into the market? Was the iPod an overnight success? >>>

Engineering Algae-based Bio Fuel: Valcent CEO Glen Kertz (Part 3)

SM: How did you finance your initial ad campaign to allow you to obtain $2 million in sales?

GK: I have some friends in the venture capital world. I showed them what I had and where I wanted to go, and they decided they wanted to join. >>>

Forbes Column 08: Healing Health Care

Zero-In this week takes a look at one of the most daunting issues of our time, health care, and calls for a bubble for that industry, so that capital, entrepreneurs and jobs flow into it over the next decade. Read Healing Health Care on Forbes.

The biggest issue plaguing this industry is its broken business model. Incentives are not aligned appropriately to serve the best interests of the key stakeholder: the patient. In the upcoming months, we will look closely at various entrepreneurial and policy level efforts to course correct, and solve the problems.

Engineering Algae-based Bio Fuel: Valcent CEO Glen Kertz (Part 2)

SM: What was your next step after Agristar?

GK: I started my own consulting company and pursued other interests such as painting. I essentially took a break from the business world for two years, which let me think about what I wanted to do next. During that period I started developing innovative technology, some of which is being applied now. >>>