After decades of bafflement and frustration, the world is still struggling to guess the secret of Silicon Valley’s success. Sure, the towns and cities at the San Francisco Bay’s southern end have plenty of high-tech talent, but that’s scarcely an explanation: those ambitious young engineers and innovators could find work just about anywhere they choose.
You can list the features that brought so many of them to the valley, but the riddle remains. Yes, the surrounding area has its share of universities, government research centers and commercial labs. And a start-up could hardly ask for more encouraging circumstances: a large pool of highly educated workers; access to plentiful venture capital; and a highly entrepreneurial, risk-taking culture.
Ultimamente están de moda las aceleradoras, espacios que facilitan la puesta en marcha de nuevos negocios apoyados por emprendedores ya consolidados. Hay ya unas 2.000 repartidas por el mundo, ligadas especialmente a la creación de startups digitales. Lo que es menos conocido es que hay compañías industriales de toda la via que han creado la suya propia, aunque muchas veces está disfrazada de “fondo de capital riesgo corporativo”. Las más robustas en España son, a mi juicio, CAF (fabricante de trenes), Irizar (fabricante de autobuses) y Repsol.
Euskadi cerró 2014 con un incremento en el número de empresas de 620, lo que lo convierte en el primer ejercicio con aumento en la creación de empresas desde 2007, según recoge el informe sobre la 'Evolución del tejido empresarial en la Comunidad Autónoma Vasca' de Confebask.
A pesar de este "cambio de tendencia" en este indicador, así como en la cifra de autónomos, la patronal vasca ha advertido de que "el avance es aún débil" y ha instado a apoyar "la economía real" y estimular la actividad y la competitividad del tejido productivo.
Lynda Rae Harris was in her 20s and the owner of a Los Angeles–based ad agency when she met her second husband, Stewart Resnick. He was an entrepreneur who had built a successful janitorial business from scratch after his father won an industrial floor scrubber in a contest. Together, the couple made their first joint acquisition—of the floral wire service company Teleflora—in 1979. They followed it with acquisitions of agricultural land in California, and of the Franklin Mint, all chosen because of Stewart’s penchant for service businesses with repeat customers.
Do you have a million-dollar idea in your head, just waiting to be acted upon? Or will it be a complete bust -- an idea with no actual potential for return?
This question is one that stops many would-be entrepreneurs in their tracks before they even take the chance and launch their potential business ventures. Fortunately, it is possible to make a more educated guess on your idea’s likelihood of success or failure by taking the time to validate your idea before moving forward with it.
Here are 20 questions you can ask to validate your startup idea -- before you commit significant time, money or other resources to its launch:
La División de Ingeniería y Servicios de la Corporación MONDRAGON ha puesto en marcha su 7ª generación de planes de negocio para la promoción de nuevos proyectos empresariales en MISE.
Finalmente serán tres los proyectos de nuevas actividades que integrarán esta 7ª generación:
La creación de la División Internacional de Formación de MondragonLingua.
Cloud Based O&M support para plantas de tratamiento de agua, presentado por MSI.
Instrumentación y Monitorización Geotécnica y Estructural, liderada por LKS INGENIERÍA.
Las propuestas han sido evaluadas atendiendo a los siguientes criterios de elegibilidad:
I've got an important anniversary coming up. In January, I will have officially been running my own business for three consecutive years. I've been working full-time on my company, ELSA AND ME, since leaving my corporate gig for good in December 2011. Last year at this time -- my second year in business and the beginning of this year -- was most likely the toughest time since launch and it taught me a lot, not only about running a business, but also about myself.
El número de empresas creadas en Euskadi en octubre ascendió a 289, lo que supone un incremento del 8,6 % respecto al mismo mes de 2013 y sitúa al País Vasco muy por encima la media nacional, que tuvo un aumento del 2,9 %.
En octubre, sin embargo, también se disolvieron 133 empresas vascas, lo que representa un ascenso del 19,8 % comparado con octubre del año pasado, superior a la media en el conjunto de España donde la disolución de compañías se mantuvo estable.
Según la estadística de Sociedades Mercantiles que ha difundido hoy el Instituto Nacional de Estadística (INE), las 289 compañías creadas en octubre en el País Vasco suscribieron un capital de 16 millones de euros y la mayoría fueron sociedades limitadas (282).
Tech accelerators are popping up everywhere. According to a recent report, the estimated number of accelerators around the world is anywhere from 300 to over 2,000, spanning six continents. Most of the programs follow the same format: you pitch your concept, get accepted, get mentored, code for three months, and hopefully get funded. These programs have proven successful for a number of startups, but until recently they’ve all failed to address the amount of innovation that already exists and is just waiting to be commercialized.
How do you pay for solar energy if you don’t have a credit card or bank account? Thanks to Off Grid Electric, people in the developing world can pay as they go for installed solar power systems electricity the same way they top-up their phone minutes.
Now, thanks to $16 million in new funding from American solar finance and installation giant SolarCity, Off Grid Electric is pushing to grow from 25,000 customers to 100,000. “Pre-paid mobile is what really unlocked the mobile phone market in Africa, Off Grid CEO and co-founder Xavier Helgesen tells me. “Now it’s the beginning of the era of pre-paid solar.“
