Thursday, May 28, 2015

Nation’s Startup Activity Reverses Five-Year Downward Trend, Annual Kauffman Index Reports | Kauffman.org

Nation’s Startup Activity Reverses Five-Year Downward Trend, Annual Kauffman Index Reports | Kauffman.org:

Business Startups are up.

That's great. Entrepreneurship and new business formation is a great advantage to the economy.

The olde adage:  the worst time to start a business is at the onset of a recession. The correlate to that is: the best time to start a business is at the end of a recession. Well, it has taken 6 years but the end of the Great Recession has finally past. Those people who had jobs didn't want to give them up. Now maybe they are willing to step out on their own. Those people who didn't have jobs, may have formed companies out of necessity, not out of strength.

It is interesting that 63% of the new startups were by men. Part of that would be because of the rebound in construction and factories where men dominate. But also, women are generally more risk averse than men. Maybe they will just take another year of healthy economy before they take the plunge.

Minorities, especially Hispanics were up. Blacks and whites, not so much so.

They are saying that 3 out of every 1,000 adults started a business in 2014. That must be annually. (Something said monthly which seems very high; that would be 3.6 out of 100.)

No matter the number, better and more quality businesses that survive and thrive is always better than a large number of startups when most of them fail.

It is always good to see strong healthy signs of progress in an economy that is sputtering a bit.

'via Blog this'

Sunday, May 17, 2015

Intel science winners... cool inventions... and patents

Meet the teen who just won $75,000 for inventing a system to keep germs from spreading on airplanes http://wapo.st/1d3L2Eo
Wang, the young winner, created a way to give everyone on an airplane their own space, with kind of  air walls around them.
His simulation shows a 55 times reduction in the air transmittable diseases. The retrofit for an existing airplane? It takes one evening and cost a whopping $1000! With the reduction in sick time, the airlines will make it back from employees in one single trip.
And what does Wang want to do when he grows up? He wants to go to college and study engineering and business!