Unicorns ~ Mapping Emergent Gigaventures...

The WEForum spotlights Visual Capitalist's latest Chart of the Week looking at the Unicorn Landscape in 2019...

Revolutionary Ventures ~ Bold Ideas ~ Fall 2019

My MIT Media Lab colleagues Ed Boyden, Joe Jacobson and I are co-hosting the latest version of our Revolutionary Ventures class this Fall 2019 in a new bigger classroom at the Media Lab -- top-floor E14-633 -- starting Thursday afternoon September 5th from 2-4pm.

This offering is the closest MIT comes to having an "Institute-Wide Elective" and is listed in four of our five Schools. Revolutionary Ventures is a project-oriented Action Lab course on envisioning and building ideas and organizations to initiate and/or accelerate engineering revolutions. The overall course focuses on emerging technology domains -- such as synthetic biology, materials, energy, neurotechnology, imaging, AI / machine learning, gerontechnology, and bio-and-nano fabrication -- and their commercialization. The most promising class projects have formed the basis for real ventures, including such alumcos as Elektra, Hive, C16 Bio, Leeruniek, BioBright, and more. Those interested are invited to join us at our kickoff class session on 9/5/2019!

Founding Terrafugia ~ Building Real Flying Cars!

MIT co-founders of Terrafugia recall their start! But is it a flying car or a roadworthy aircraft? Hmm.

Startup Ecosystem ~ Five Fostering Ingredients...

Brad Feld spotlights UP Global's new white paper Fostering a Startup and Innovation Ecosystem...

"This white paper underscores the five critical ingredients that support flourishing entrepreneurial ecosystems: talent, density, culture, capital, and regulatory environment."

SterraClimb ~ Stair-Climbing Robotic Shifter...

Check out SterraClimb robotic hand truck goods shifter...

"A Princeton-based Robotics company that has Invented the World’s First Robotic Stair-Climbing Transporter that Solves the Problem of Transporting Heavy Goods Up and Down Stairs."

Here's a video of founder Steven Kamara speaking about the inspiration and market opportunities.  And video of usage cases.

JIBO ~ Breazeal's Family Robotics Startup...

MIT Media Lab colleague Cynthia Breazeal launches JIBO on Indiegogo...

"The World's First Family Robot [...] JIBO is the perfect robot for everyone in the family. Because JIBO is an open platform, his skills and applications will grow, helping and delighting in ways even we haven’t even imagined. [...] We have an amazing team to make Jibo a reality! While not everything in the video will necessarily be there at launch, the JIBO skills described above are part of the core skill set. The core skill set will be released in 2015. And, because of the rich platform and ecosystem we're building, everything in the video beyond the core skills will be possible -- and more! With our developer community, we will continue to improve the product and add new and exciting features over time."

See also Scott Kirsner's InnoEco piece Robot startup Jibo unveils a multi-purpose ‘social bot’ for the home.

Versaball ~ Empire Robotics Jamming Gripper!

Globe Innovation Economist Scott Kirsner spotlights the very cool work done by Empire Robotics on their Versaball jammable gripper...

"It's a kind of robotic hand that looks and feels a lot like a stress ball. Filled with a granular material, in one mode it is squishy enough to envelop an object it's trying to grab. Then, when a vacuum is created inside the ball, the granules get pulled together, solidifying around the object. The unique design enables the gripper to pick up a wide range of different objects, which can weigh up to 20 pounds. Empire has dubbed its product Versaball."

Global City Startups ~ Mapping Venture Geos...

Thanks to Brad Feld for spotting Richard Florida's piece in the Atlantic on The New Global Start-Up Cities and embedded maps by Martin Prosperity Institute's Zara Matheson...

"The world [...] is spiky, with its most intensive economic activity concentrated in a relative handful of places. Global tech is no exception -- and it is taking a decidedly urban turn."

Custom Earscans ~ Lantos Enables Smartbuds...

MIT spinoff Lantos Technologies custom earscans enable smartbuds!

Stretchable Electronics ~ MC10's Skin Patches+

Technology Review's David Talbot and Kyanna Sutton write about MC10 Making Stretchable Electronics which can conform to skin...

"Gold electrodes and wires just a few hundred nanometers thick are deposited on silicon wafers by conventional means, then peeled off and applied to stretchable polymers. The serpentine wires elongate when the polymers stretch, either when the balloon inflates in the heart or as the patch moves around on the skin. The electrodes measure electrical impedance to detect the electrical signals in cardiac tissue or moisture levels in the skin. The company is building on lab prototypes made by University of Illinois materials scientist John Rogers, a company cofounder. [...] In addition to its hydration patch, it is working on patches that use sensors to detect heartbeat, respiration, motion, temperature, blood oxygenation, and combinations of these indicators. MC10's skin patches can wirelessly transmit information to a nearby smartphone."

Check out embedded photos by Ken Richardson...

From the Heart ~ Bill Warner on Startups @ TEDx

Check out Bill Warner at TEDxBoston speaking on How to Build a Startup Company from the Heart...

Money Game ~ Kedrosky @ Kauffman on Funding

Thanks to Brad Feld for spotting this Kauffman Sketchbook featuring Paul Kedrosky on the sources of start capital for newcos...

"...Most [...] are funded by the entrepreneur’s savings, cash flow, credit cards, friends, and family."

Startup Scene ~ Bussgang on Boston Ventures...

Thanks to Jason Ethier for pointing out presentation by Flybridge's Jeff Bussgang from back in 2009 reminding us What Makes the Boston Start-Up Scene Special?

View more presentations from Jeffrey Bussgang

Weightloss Coachbot ~ Cory & Autom @ TiECON

MIT Media Lab alum Cory Kidd showcases Autom -- the Intuitive Automata weightloss coachbot -- at TiECON East 2010...

Tim Rowe ~ Kendall, Cambridge Venture Leader!

Awesome to have MIT alumnus entrepreneur Tim Rowe join me on MaximizingProgress.tv tonight! Proud father of three, co-founder & CEO of the Cambridge Innovation Center (CIC), partner with New Atlantic Ventures (NAV), incubator of the Venture Café, and co-founder & President of the Kendall Square Association (KSA), Tim is a key venture leader and orchestrator of entrepreneurial serendipity. We've known each other since his time as an MBA student at MIT Sloan where he created the first school website. Since then he's gone on to found the 320 company-strong innovation epicenter that is CIC and extend his interests into building up ever larger communities of venture action.

Thiel @ MIT ~ MIT Enterprise Forum Event 11/16

Peter Thiel, co-founder of PayPal, Clarium, Founders Fund and early FB investor speaks at MIT Enterprise Forum of Cambridge Innovation Series this Tuesday 16 November 2010 6-8pm...

"Today he is known as the mentor of the PayPal mafia of entrepreneurs, as well as for his warnings of a coming technology deficit with severe economic consequences. He works to accelerate innovation to prevent such a crisis by identifying and funding promising technology ideas and by guiding successful companies to scale and dominate their industries. Peter recently launched the Thiel Fellowship to foster the next generation of tech visionaries. The Thiel Foundation will award 20 people under 20 years old cash grants of $100,000 to further their innovative scientific and technical ideas."

Startup Mentors ~ VC Brad Feld on TechStars...

TechStars continues to rock the new venture world in Boulder, Boston, Seattle and soon city #4. See here MIT alum nerd-entrepreneur-VC Brad Feld explain how... Probably the most concisely dense description of effective entrepreneurial cluster-crafting and new venture catalysis I've ever seen.

Startup Bootcamp ~ Inspiring Lessons Now @ MIT

The student-run Startup Bootcamp is happening now at MIT! Great lineup of folks speaking, including Robin Chase, Alexis Ohanian, Dan Bricklin, Angus Davis, Dharmesh Shah and more. Tune in via Justin.tv (whose co-founder Kyle Vogt is also speaking, as I write this, literally right now, Mon 11:45am;-) Sponsored primarily by Hemant Taneja and colleagues at General Catalyst venture capitalists. The big challenge for me listening in is answering "Where's the Boot in this camp?" since it's mostly just warstories and venture remembrances so far. Ah, Hemant kicks in with some good tips about VC funding. And Dan Bricklin shares his suits, lawsuits that is! Nuts & Bolts getting busted out as should happen in any good Bootcamp!

NeuroVista's Dan DiLorenzo in Neurotech Ventures

It was excellent to have NeuroVista founder Dr Dan DiLorenzo speak tonight in our MIT Neurotechnology Ventures class on The War Story Behind a Venture to Revolutionize Epilepsy Treatment. Dan first got interested in control systems and robotics in Junior High and ended up at MIT working on neurostimulation and rehabilitation. Six degrees later, he had won the Lemelson-MIT Inventor Prize, created his first commerical product, Sleep-Dry, to help kids avoid bedwetting, and begun patenting his product and method ideas for neuro-solutions. By 2003 he and team won second place in MIT $100K Entrepreneurship Competition (then merely $50K!) for their NeuroBionics idea. Two name changes (and ~$40M in VC financing) later, the NeuroVista business is blossoming. And Dan has started his next venture, DiLorenzo Biomedical!

The Innovation Epicenter ~ CIC at Kendall-MIT

Very nice article today in Globe by Robert Weisman entitled The Idea Factory spotlighting the Cambridge Innovation Center (CIC) in Kendall Square's One Broadway building just next to MIT... Founded by MIT Sloan alumnus Tim Rowe and colleagues in 1999 at the height of dot.communism, this space for startups and emerging growth companies endured and has thrived through flexibility and friendliness and mostly through extremely competent and creative execution. Various Boston-metro spinouts from MIT got their start in CIC, including ThingMagic, Ember, Mok3, and dozens more. Among the compelling aspects of the space are sharable conference rooms across multiple floors, centrally managed IT and infrastructural support, and well-maintained and attractive kitchen areas which help orchestrate serendipity by maximizing the odds that interesting people from the CIC venture community connect with one another... Weisman's article mentions a few more tenants, including InVivo Therapeutics, born of MIT Sloan Fellows collaborating with biotechnologists. Bigco's like Google started their local presence in CIC and other key members of our larger venture community have had a presence there, including various law firms, venture funds, and even swissnex, the pioneering technology-business consulate which hosts entrepreneurial visitors and special events. As I wrote about recently, the Technology Venture Zone surrounding MIT is the result of the tremendous economic and urban regeneration of the near-neighborhood around the Institute (partly seeded by MIT itself, as I noted in an Xconomy article entitled How Kendall Square Became Hip: MIT Pioneered University-Linked Business Parks). Take a look where CIC fits into this larger mix... Despite these business parks all competing for clients, the CIC really stands out for its focus on young ventures, university spinouts, and a commitment to the ultra-innovative. It is truly the Innovation Epicenter of Kendall Square, Cambridge, and for that matter, Massachusetts.