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CHINA AS AN OPPORTUNITY FOR ENTREPRENEURS. Understand the trends and find the opportunities. Right now they import technology innovations faster than creating them internally. Important data point. View in LinkedIn

MAY 28th I GIVE A TALK ON BIOENTREPRENEURING: ALL INVITED!" "" "LOCATION: CEK Center" "Auditori Esteve" "C. Rossello 149-153" "Barcelona" "TIME: 18:30-20:30" "" "Other speakers also. View in LinkedIn

CATALUNUA IS BONKERS ABOUT INNOVATION! I attended a dinner of 23 of Catalan's finest innovators last night in Barcelona. What was most striking was the passion these leaders had for Catalunya, and for how many decades they had toiled to make it a technologically innovative society. They were leaders were from the universities, politics, clinics and the private sectors. I could not imagine this same passion from a similar meeting of British or US leaders. They differed in politics bur not in core dedication to their home country. View in LinkedIn

EC STARTUPS LOOKING FOR US VC MONEY: A PERSPECTIVE. In reality this is a hard task unless you do your homework and really have your act together, and in sectors like Biopharma, the deal flow has been without a pulse for years. http://lnkd.in/wS2iZi View in LinkedIn

THE TRIUMPH OF HOPE OVER EXPERIENCE is highlighted by the popularized anecdote of the swimming rat study. In this scenario, rats are put in a tank of water and swum to exhaustion, and just before drowning, they are rescued. After recovery, these same rats are again swum to exhaustion. But this time they have swum twice as long, triggered by the hopeful memory of a miraculous rescue. View in LinkedIn

INSERTING DNA MEMORY CIRCUITS INTO BACTERIA, by using the DNA like a circuit switch, in order to create a rudimentary memory model. This imaginative work is a step towards programming the most populous species on the planet to do directed work for mankind. http://lnkd.in/NdF6gZ View in LinkedIn

GRIT TRUMPS IQ IN ONE STUDY. Perhaps the key here is that Grit is a measure of the ability to withstand repeated failure and rejection. At a biological level, it may be a measure of an organism's adaptive flexibility in the face of what can be devastating environmental challenges. The edge of the Bell Curve drives the survival of the fittest. Some cultures that are highly social, like Japan and Spain, are more naturally adapted for a conformity that penalizes the edge of the Bell Curve and can make failure a devastatingly disgraceful state which is very hard to recover from. " "" "" " http://lnkd.in/anSj5W View in LinkedIn

UNIVERSITY ENTREPRENEURIAL ASSOCIATIONS ARE THRIVING, and are an exciting new element on campus (or relatively new). When I was at University the concept did not even exist. Young people today are inspired by Steve Jobs, Mark Zuckerman, and the fabulous Google founders. These icons have become heroes. Only in the darker corners of the universe remains a lingering suspicion that business and excellence do not mix, especially in the realm of science. http://lnkd.in/6Ar2Da? View in LinkedIn

BEWARE APPLES AND ORANGES: SOME BUSINESSES REALLY CANNOT BE BOOTSTRAPPED. These are the R&D intensive ventures like Biopharma and CleanTech, in particular, where a huge windfall of income only (sometimes) comes after years of super-expensive clinical or field studies. It is important not to confuse this with ventures in other fields that actually do earn early (customer) revenues, and in these instances bootstrapping is a real and important option to consider. http://lnkd.in/csK3p8 View in LinkedIn

CULTURAL QUIRKS ARE TRULY FASCINATING, and volumes have been written on this superb topic. I have been fortunate to live in many places as an adult, including Sussex, London, Boston, San Francisco, and Catalunya, and have traveled widely. Each place has been quite unique. I have found that observing these quirks for what they are, rather than leaping to judgement, can open the mind to curiosity about the historical reasons for cultural differences, and ultimately, greater tolerance, respect and enjoyment of the diversity that makes geography wonderfully spicy. http://lnkd.in/VUwCjK View in LinkedIn