In the search for the next bright idea towards a greener earth, together with some of the best-known venture capital firms, GE’s Ecomagination Challenge opens the floor for people to send in their innovative ideas for a smarter power grid. The contest is open to all businesses, innovators, entrepreneurs and students who can brew ideas for harnessing energy in a more efficient manner. GE and its partnerships have allocated $200 million for the innovations they choose to fund.

Ultimately, breakthrough ideas from the Ecomagination Challenge will be put to use to creating a cleaner, more efficient and economically viable power grid. Also, this would take grid technology a step closer towards a digital upgrade, as the system has long been aging and analog. Selected participants from the Ecomagination Challenge will be offered an opportunity to develop a commercial relationship with GE through investments for promising start-ups and ideas and other benefits in connection with the company. Those who intend to participate in the challenge can enter as many ideas as they wish in three categories: Renewables, Grid Efficiency and Eco Homes/Eco Buildings.

Already, ideas have been flowing in not only from all over the nation, but from around the world as well. The ideas from the challenge will also be open for the general public to vote on for the first round, although ultimately, the final say is with the company and the panel of judges.

With the urging of a company as big as GE, I think that this challenge goes beyond solving a problem of the present. Perhaps it’s also a challenge to all of us to realize that just about anyone can make a difference with innovative ideas and a passion for the environment.

A program by Tel Aviv-based Soluto targets a widespread source of frustration – computer boot-up time – and earned a TechCrunch Disrupt award in the process. “We are working to solve one of the biggest problems in modern life – the frustration users feel every time they switch on their PC and wait for it to load,” shares Soluto Chief Product Officer Roee Adler. “And when you’re talking about 1.5 billion people, you can appreciate and understand how we won TechCrunch.”

Representing the firm’s lead product, Soluto’s program is a software download that examines a PC’s boot problems and suggests ways to make the boot-up process work more smoothly. Adler elaborates, “Our software analyzes the interactivity between applications and processes, delving deep into the Windows kernel, and informs you of what’s going on behind the scenes. You can determine which processes or applications are slowing you down, and take the appropriate action.”

The results are highly encouraging – informal tests show that Soluto’s software may be able to cut boot time by as much as half of the norm.

Soluto was founded in 2007, and to date has about $8 million in financing from investors like Proxima Investments, Giza Venture Capital and Bessemer Investments, among others. It is, however, interesting to note that the company won over some very strong competitors. This illustrates just how high the need for something like Soluto’s program really is.

At the end of it all, technology is meant to improve peoples’ quality of life. Annoyance at boot times that may reach a minute or more is definitely not a boon that technology brings. Soluto’s award-winning program once again shows that if a startup thinks out of the box and looks at issues at ground level, success is practically sure to follow.

View a previously written post by Mouli Cohen about Startups.

According to the unique chef-scholar, “conventional agriculture has never succeeded in feeding the world, and it’s never produced anything good to eat. For the future, we need to look toward alternatives.”

His talk, “How I fell in Love with a Fish” presented at the world famous idea sharing conference, TED Talks, garnered a standing ovation.

In his talk, he chronicles his pursuit of sustainable ways to farm fish. This came out of his struggle as a chef to keep fish on the menu. He mentions that 90% of large fish including tuna, halibut, and salmon have collapsed in terms of sustainability. Although fish farming or aquaculture is one solution that the world has been forced in to because of the depletion of wild fish sources, fish farming only has a feed conversion rate of 15:1. This means that it takes 15 pounds of wild fish to get you one pound of farmed fish. Most fish farms also contribute to environmental pollution.

He found the answer in a sustainable method used to farm fish in southern Spain. Despite being “overcooked twice over,” Dan says, the fish was still delicious.

Ironically, the fish farm began with an ecological disaster that came about when farmers drained the water from a vast area of wetlands into the ocean, planning to use the land to grow cattle. In an effort to reverse the effects of the dirty water in the ocean, a new company bought the land and re-flooded it, creating a vast sustainable fish farm in the process. The difference is that in this fish farm, there is no need to feed the fish. The environment is so rich that it has become totally self renewing.

This is a story of ecological karma. A company that originally sought to reverse the effects of disaster ended up creating an innovative and ecologically sustainable way to farm delicious fish.

View a previously written post by Mouli Cohen about innovation.

In general, entrepreneurs and green tech investors believe that putting a price on carbon emissions will act as an incentive for businesses to develop low-carbon energy. Many also argue that utility regulations need to change so that all utilities have an incentive to use energy more efficiently. Meanwhile, financing remains a challenge for many green tech startups because many businesses require hundreds of millions of dollars to produce their products at scale.

The ARPA-E agency was first funded last year with a $400 million budget with the goal of nurturing breakthrough energy technologies. ARPA-E Director Arun Majumdar said the agency is structured to yield “home runs” by focusing research in different areas, such as grid storage or carbon capture and storage, which can be developed within the next three to five years.

In my opinion, the success of early companies such as Tesla Motors, A123 Systems, and solar firm Solyndra show that new technologies are penetrating the market faster than many would have predicted five to eight years ago. But to make a large-scale impact, the industry still needs a handful of enduring success stories. I think we need a moment as a nation when a company goes public and its potential and success infects the average American, so that there’s a change in attitude toward this market.

View a previously written post by Mouli Cohen about clean technologies

The report found that the performing arts supported nearly 5,500 businesses and over 100,000 jobs in 2008/09 – a 20% increase compared to 2006/07 – with over a third of those employed in on-stage occupations. Between the two periods, the number of dancers and choreographers increased by half, while directors, producers, and administrators grew by 17 percent.

But despite nearly half of arts organizations reporting a rise in turnover in 2008/09, 55% did not invest in staff training, while 40% claimed they lacked time to implement training programs.

Just over 10% had accessed public funding designed to aid professional development, with nearly half of the staff receiving no training at all during the same period. ICT, technical, and administration skills showed the most severe shortages.

Pointing to the report’s findings, CCS chief executive Tom Bewick said: “The cracks are beginning to show. If this situation continues, there’s a real risk that the performing arts sector won’t have the skilled staff it needs to take full advantage of future business opportunities and this will prevent it from fulfilling its economic promise.”

With over 150,000 new jobs expected in the sector before the decade draws to a close (over half of which will be in “associate professional and technical roles”), I believe it is vital that performing arts businesses begin to invest in training for these roles as soon as possible.

View a previously written post by Mouli Cohen about arts & culture

I-GATE was submitted to the state by the city of Livermore in partnership with Sandia National Laboratories/California (Program Lead), Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory and several others. Its mission is to maximize the economic impact of green transportation and clean energy technologies through expedited technology transfer, entrepreneurial assistance, collaboration opportunities, academic alliances, and a technology incubator for the development of high-growth green businesses.

The i-GATE initiative is designed to drive the Livermore Valley as the core of an energy resource cluster that would expand to benefit the regional economy and the state of California, create jobs, mitigate climate change, increase energy security, and form an interlocking innovation web.

The i-GATE hub will be leveraged by LVOC, a joint venture between Sandia and LLNL that will promote greater collaboration between the scientists at those laboratories and their partners in industry and academia. According to Energy Secretary Steven Chu in a press release last year, the LVOC will maximize the return on the nation’s investment in nuclear security. Chu stated, “By leveraging the groundbreaking research of our nuclear security labs through private sector collaborations, we will bring breakthroughs to the market faster and find new solutions to the energy problem.”

I think these developments represent an exciting opportunity to both advance technology in the transportation arena and to increase partnerships with the city of Livermore and local businesses.

“Respected companies aren’t going to fall as far in the bad times, and they come back better,” says David Hartzell of Cornell Capital Management, a participant in the survey that helped produce Barron’s list.

In 2009’s roller coaster market, the top-ranked stocks generally experienced lower volatility and outperformed during the bear leg. And now, even after the market’s rally, the value of respect is still understood: For the most part, shares of the most respected companies are either above or not much below their bankruptcy levels, and have beaten the market since that crisis erupted. Indeed, Apple, which topped Barron’s list, is above its pre-crisis stock price.

It’s not uncommon to see a few changes at the top of the list’s annual rankings, and this year is no different. Johnson & Johnson, a perennial leader, slipped from No. 1 to No. 2, and Berkshire Hathaway dropped to fifth place from second. The ever-steady Procter & Gamble remained at No. 3, while IBM jumped 10 notches to fourth place.

Survey participants say respected companies have strong management, good governance, valuable products and services, and strong stock returns. They act ethically and treat their shareholders, customers, and employees well. And while some money managers name respect as the first cut in their investment process, others say respect is more often the result of a sound investment process.

For my part, respect answers the question ‘Is management going to be a good steward of the clients’ money?’ In my experience, I have seen that respect takes a long time to build and can quickly be destroyed.

View a previously written post by Mouli Cohen about innovation in business

The term ‘contagion’ is accurate in the context of investment because it frequently leads to irrational or impudent behavior. Contagion prevents ‘healthy’ evaluations of investment opportunities, and gets in the way of sound judgment in decision making.

Contagion leads to the classic blunders associated with following the crowd – buying into the market when prices are high, and fleeing in panic when the prices drop. Contrarian behavior, generally the safest way to make money, is completely undermined by emotional contagion.

Emotional contagion is common because people tend to imitate those who seem to be successful. Envy and greed attract others into the same activities. The problem is that by the time contagion sets in when it comes to ordinary people investing, it is usually too late in the cycle to make money. Prices and the risks of a crash are too high at that stage.

So how do we overcome this contagion? The key is emotional neutrality – only invest for coldly rational reasons, and never because other people are buying and making money at the moment. Heated emotions, euphoria, and excitement are the enemy of prudent and profitable investing. Make sure you don’t get carried away with the crowd. In fact, it is almost always best to do just the opposite. When the crowd is cheering and buying, look to sell; when it is moaning, groaning, panicking and selling, it is generally time to make your move.

View a previously written post by Mouli Cohen about emotional investing

Start-up companies range from two-person teams raising seed money to well-financed firms with several hundred employees. Typically the range is somewhere in the middle, but one thing is always true: they are always looking for money. Depending on your background and career interests, you may be interested in working either for a biotechnology start-up or a high-technology start-up.

Biotech companies typically remain in the start-up mode far longer and take longer periods of time to get to market than do high-tech companies. These companies generally do not move forward and get a product into clinical trials without substantial financing. This does not mean that there is guaranteed capital to get the product into commercialization, but at least there is money in the bank to hire key employees and move forward.

On the other hand, a high-tech company often starts in a garage atmosphere funded by founders, family, and friends. After the business plan has been written, there is a simultaneous process of moving the technology forward and raising money. Key employees are brought on board for minimal cash but lots of equity and the sharing of the dream. Depending on the product, sales could begin the same year because clinical trials are not part of their process. In all probability, the company will start with venture capital backing and be on a fast-track to meet the first goal.

Biotech and high-tech start-ups are also different in the employees who are hired after the funding is in place. Most biotechs do not need a marketing or sales component because that may be handled by a corporate partner, whereas this position is pivotal for a high-tech company. Start-up biotech companies usually use contract services such as clinical research organizations, contract manufacturers, and other consultants, and this is compatible with outsourced high tech. Both types of companies may have several people providing services, but the services are on an “as needed basis.”

View a previously written post by Mouli Cohen about start-ups

Time To Know is one man’s vision to thrust teaching methodologies into the 21st century. The entrepreneur is Shmuel Meitar, co-founder of Israeli hi-tech poster child Amdocs. Meitar’s commitment is obvious – he is Time To Know’s sole investor, and the $60 million the company has taken in funding has come entirely out of his pocket.

The basic idea Time To Know is operating from is that today’s classrooms are following an archaic paradigm designed in the 19th century – the teacher standing in front of the classroom, a blackboard on the wall, and the students at their desks.

Time To Know believes there are three main reasons why today’s classroom is ineffective: First, irrelevancy. Kids are living in a digital world with a tremendous amount of stimuli, and expecting them to embrace passive learning is simply unrealistic. Second, variance – there is no such thing as a homogeneous level of learning and comprehension in a classroom of students. Third, assessment – in today’s classroom a student could have gotten lost with the material three weeks back, but the teacher wouldn’t have known it.

Time To Know sets out to create a holistic solution designed to migrate from instructional to constructivist learning, in which learning and knowledge are experience driven. Due to the nature of the work environment (the classroom), and the content (curriculum), Time To Know has set certain infrastructure and operational prerequisites schools must commit to including infrastructure, support and professional services, and learning management systems.

To learn more about Time To Know and the first interactive core curriculum with a digital teaching platform, please visit Time To Know.

View a previously written post by Mouli Cohen about Israeli start-ups