entrepreneurship

What Ronaldinho and soccer can teach you about innovation

It's been a lackluster soccer season so far, especially in my favorite league, the Spanish Primera Division. The performances of the two top teams, Real Madrid and FC Barcelona (Barca), have been inconsistent, and while both have displayed some exceptional skills in their best matches, the passion, the surprise, and the big drama, all of which crucial elements of soccer's unique appeal, have been largely missing.

There is hope that this will change on Sunday when the two archrivals battle each other for the first time this season, in the derby of derbies, "El Cl?sico," … Read more

MIT launches contest to fire up energy entrepreneurs

The Massachusetts Institute of Technology is kicking off a competition to award $200,000 to entrepreneurs in the green-energy field.

The MIT Clean Energy Entrepreneurship Prize, announced Wednesday, combines two existing prizes and increases the prize money.

The revamped contest pulls in sponsorship from the U.S. Department of Energy and NStar, an electric and gas utility based in Massachusetts. In addition to receiving cash or services, competitors will also get mentoring from experts as they develop their business plans.

Sponsors hope the competition will accelerate the pace of innovation and energy.

"We want to help these entrepreneurs get … Read more

Skateboarding for eco-conscious riders

My colleague Hunter Smith of frog design has used his entrepreneurial spirit to launch a budding start-up based on his two greatest passions: eco-design and skateboarding. Hunter's company, aptly named SuperGreen Boards, employs some of the most advanced eco-friendly technologies for producing custom longboards, slalom, and speedboards.

SuperGreen Boards uses bamboo, which is not only beautiful, strong, and flexible but is also sustainably harvested. Maple wood, known as the gold standard for skateboards because of its strength under the pressure of the rider, takes a minimum of 100 years to mature before it can be used. Bamboo, in comparison, … Read more

Wealth Base Camp, for those who want to climb the financial ladder

Wealth Base Camp, a recently-launched social networking site that I originally heard about at the New York Web 2.0 Meetup, encourages its user base to "live up to your dreams." The site is geared toward folks who have caught the entrepreneurial bug and are looking to figure out how to get themselves off the ground--and then make some bank.

Basically, it's like a "niche" version of LinkedIn--instead of a social networking site for business users in general, it's specifically for those with a particular set of needs and objectives ("creating wealth&… Read more