WRAL Tech Wire

Defending older entrepreneurs: VCs wrong in preferring the young

STATE OF VENTURE: In a story written for MIT's Technology Review, former Triangle entrepreneur and current Duke academic says innovation is limited by age. "Young stars dominate the technology headlines," he writes. "But outside the Internet, research shows, innovators are actually getting older as complexity rises."

Defending older entrepreneurs in MIT Technology Review

BusinessWeek: How Software is Harming Science, Engineering

Marc Andreesen's recent contention that the software industry is ready to "take over broad swathes of the economy" is delusion because software is slower to develop than other aspects of technology.

Word wars: Columnists debate what makes an entrepreneur

Former Triangle tech executive Vivek Wadhwa's column in The Washington Post "Five myths about entrepreneurs" ignites a pointed response from a venture capitalist - the "worst analysis of entrepreneurship and VCs ever."

A new Information Age is upon us; opportunity beckons

"This period of history has been called the Information Age because it makes available instant access to knowledge that would have been difficult or impossible to find previously. I would argue that we are way beyond this; we're at the beginning of a new era: the New Information Age," writes Triangle entrepreneur and academic Vivek Wadhwa.

How to fix oversize executive compensation

A new study recommends a tweak to the tax code: Let companies deduct bonuses only if they give all their workers the same incentive packages

NCAA trash talk- with facts from StatSheet's 'StatSmack'

Want to smack down a rival? The Durham startup mines data to launch a new service that compares teams, their histories and their schools.

Startup Visa bill changes could spark surge in entrepreneurship

Analysis from Vivek Wadhwa: This new legislation is even better than I had hoped for. If it gets through both houses--and doesn't have bureaucratic constraints--I expect it to unleash a flood of entrepreneurship.

StartUp Visa website calls for action

Why high-tech entrepreneurs return home: Visa woes

Commentary from Vivek Wadhwa: At a time when our economy is stagnating, some American political leaders are working to keep the world's best and brightest out. They mistakenly believe that skilled immigrants take American jobs away. The opposite is true: skilled immigrants start the majority of Silicon Valley startups; they create jobs.

Immigration

America no longer has a monopoly on the American Dream

Analysis from Vivek Wadhwa: A new book by Sarah Lacy argues that the U.S. should heed entrepreneurs pushing "Big Ideas" in developing countries, from China to Brazil.

Brilliant, Crazy, Cocky

Small companies are the big job generators

Policy help for giant corporations will not rev up the job-creation engine enough. Small businesses are where the power is.

Venture or angel capital isn't the end - It's the means

With the attention that new investments receive and the fanfare for business-plan contests, it is easy to believe that once you've raised capital, you've made it. The reality is far different.

Our government can’t prevent a digital 9-11 – Entrepreneurs must step in

Analysis: “The National Security Agency and some branches of government have brilliant computer scientists working for them and can defend their own systems; but the rest of us are our own,” writes tech entrepreneur Vivek Wadhwa. “The government simply can’t innovate fast enough to keep pace with the pervasive threats and dynamics of the internet or Silicon Valley’s rapidly changing technologies.”

Men and women entrepreneurs: Not that different

Editor’s note: Guest writer Vivek Wadhwa is an entrepreneur turned academic. He is a Visiting Scholar at the School of Information at UC-Berkeley, Senior Research Associate at Harvard Law School and Director of Research at the Center for Entrepreneurship and Research Commercialization at Duke University. You can follow him on Twitter at @vwadhwaand find his research at www.wadhwa.com.

Women in business

Startups' decision: Go for all of the gold or just enough?

It matters how big entrepreneurs want to get before cashing out because it affects the way you grow your company, and the focus you place on products and customers.

Can Russia build its own Silicon Valley?

Analysis: Russia has many challenges. Foreign investors are discouraged by rules of law that fail to match countries such as the U.S. and Western Europe; bureaucracies are confusing and cumbersome; corruption is rampant and is even seeping into the education system; powerful oligarchs dominate key industries; and secrecy in R&D is the norm. Until these problems are fixed, tech entrepreneurship simply can’t flourish.