When you think of the U.S., you often think of the word “opportunity”.  For hundreds of years, people have immigrated to the U.S. because it was the “land of opportunity”.  That isn’t to say that there aren’t many hurdles – you need an idea, skills, drive, sometimes capital, a dash of luck, and that is just the tip of the iceberg.  But generally speaking, with enough of those ingredients you stand a chance of being successful.
You also need to be conscious of the laws that apply to your business.  If …

Now seems like a good time to remind you that you can’t ride on your past accomplishments for very long.  If you aren’t working to stay ahead of the curve, your company is going to be left behind.
Years ago I was bemoaning to a friend about how I had missed the opportunity to invest in BlackBerry maker Research in Motion (RIM).  They were on top of the world.  Now app developers are leaving them, and everyone believes they are dead.
This shouldn’t be shocking, especially to those people that study and …

There’s something big about LinkedIn’s recent news that no one is talking about yet.
According to a report, LinkedIn is expected to announce their “Apply with LinkedIn” button (via GigaOM).  It enables companies to place a button on their websites and online job postings so that applicants can apply by submitting just their LinkedIn profile, instead of needing to fill out a separate application.  This is a great idea, and I’d be shocked if there wasn’t significant adoption of this feature, especially among professional services businesses.   In one action, LinkedIn (1) …

Consumers are frustrated.  As innovations lead us to newer, better, faster, more powerful products and services, we keep finding a disparity between our purchase of those products and services and the rights we have to them.
Google and Amazon both recently announced online music “lockers” that allow consumers to upload music – that they have legally purchased – for backup purposes and to stream via a web browser or mobile app.   But the music labels think they should be paid to allow this type of service.   As a result, …

By @RoccoTarasi
In the last month the SEC has said that it will consider changes to certain capital markets regulations, including:
1. Raising the 500 shareholder threshold that triggers a public disclosure of financial results (and usually results in a public stock offering);
2. Adjusting the ban on general solicitations that prohibit or restrict publicizing share offerings; and
3. Allowing some form of crowdsourcing to raise smaller amounts of capital from a larger group of investors.  (via Mashable and VentureBeat)
Changing these and other rules are long, long overdue.  Our capital markets operate under some …

There I was, 2 weeks ago sitting in an auditorium on a Sunday attending TEDxCMU.   It was an inspiring and emotional day with 12 fantastic talks from local and national presenters.
One of the talks was by Luis von Ahn, a CMU professor.  It only took me a minute to realize that I was in the presence of an amazing innovator, and that I had the privilege of being one of the first people to hear about his latest project.
All the confirmation I needed that what I witnessed was important came …

Four Hollywood studios are rolling out a “Premium VOD” service on DirectTV and some Comcast markets that allows you to rent a movie that was just in the theaters for $30.
Is $30 too high or too low?  Probably both.  On the one hand, I could wait to buy the DVD for $20, or wait to pay $6 for regular on demand service, or wait even longer to get it on Netflix.  On the other hand, paying for movie tickets, popcorn, drinks, and babysitters can be a lot more expensive than …

Two years ago, in the second post I ever wrote on Innovation Minute, I wrote about the Flip Video camera:
Add video recorders to the list of industries being disrupted by “good enough” products that, with less features than the established players, become both easier to use and less expensive.  Have you seen the Flip Mino?… Seriously, you couldn’t make something easier to use.  It is fantastic.
But, I ended with this paragraph:
The problem is that the Flip is also a great example of a product that quickly disrupts an industry, only to itself …

Changing user behavior is really, really hard. It has to be one of the biggest obstacles to reaching innovation success. I’ve seen it with my start-ups that have introduced new products, and I’ve seen it with companies that make seemingly insignificant changes to what a user has already learned about a product. It is impossible to underestimate the effort and risk at asking a user to do something new.
I was reminded of this golden rule when I came across a Quora article titled “Why hasn’t another product …

The biggest news in the world of start-ups in the last 24 hours is the announcement that investor Yuri Milner of DST is partnering with famed angel investor Ron Conway on a new innovative start-up investment vehicle called Start Fund.  The Start Fund is offering $150,000 loans to every one of the 43 start-ups in the Y Combinator class.
Some background here.  Yuri Milner runs the Russian investment firm DST, which has already been a force of disruption in the venture capital world by making very large investments in Facebook, Zynga, …