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Collette Divitto, a 26-year-old who was born with Down Syndrome, has spent the past six years perfecting her baking skills and forming her own recipes. Her signature specialties are “Amazing Cookie” and the “Healthy Breakfast Cookie.” After completing a LIFE program at Clemson University, Divitto began applying for jobs at local bakeries — but, after three years, she hadn’t received a single offer. “I went on many interviews and thought I did very well in the interview,” she explains on her website. “But days later I would get an email always saying the same thing ‘we enjoyed meeting you Collette,...

Haiyin Capital, a leading Chinese venture capital firm, and the National Council of Entrepreneurial Tech Transfer (NCET2), an association of entrepreneurial students and university startup officers, have agreed to form a joint venture called "The American-Chinese University Growth Fund" to provide Chinese venture funding to startups formed at American universities. The expectation is that the Fund will provide at least $1 billion of funding from Chinese investors to American university startups over the next decade. NCET2 produces the "University Startups Demo Day" (TM) where American universities submit the very best startups they create based on the $37 billion of university...

President Trump and Vice President Pence recently sat down with women small business owners in America to discuss the empowerment and promotion of women in the business world. Women play a critical role in business and provide thousands of jobs to the American people, while simultaneously boosting the economy. The President and his administration were thrilled to converse with today’s women small business owners in regards to the continuation of women’s success in entrepreneurship. Women are the breadwinners in up to 40% of American households. Throughout the duration of the meeting, President Trump assured that his administration would continue to...

When Nitin Pachisia arrived in the US from India in 2005, he became one of the 8 million first-generation immigrants to land in America that year. Nearly a decade later, Pachisia has learned from firsthand experience how much support immigrants need to create their own thriving startups. In 2014, he co-founded Unshackled Ventures, a firm that invests in immigrant entrepreneurs. Pachisia is using his money to help other immigrants get their businesses started—and creating 100,000 American jobs while he's at it. Both Pachisia and his business partner have previously started companies with a cofounder who was in the US on...

In today’s hyper-partisan era, one goal crosses the political divide: the need for more entrepreneurs. Encomia are everywhere: Politicians praise them, Hollywood lionizes them, venture capitalists chase them, universities foster them. Entrepreneurs, from Henry Ford to Elon Musk, are embedded in American lore. In an earlier era they were popularized in Horatio Alger rags-to-riches terms; today it’s the garage-to-tech-titan stories that have legendary status for Millennials. Could it be, however, that we’ve hit peak preoccupation with entrepreneurship? Although entrepreneurial magic is often discussed in “tech” terms, the reality is most startups involve such things as restaurants and lawn services or...

WASHINGTON (AP) — In a rare display of bipartisanship, the Senate on Tuesday confirmed former wrestling entertainment executive Linda McMahon to lead the Small Business Administration as part of President Donald Trump's cabinet. The Senate voted 81-19 to confirm McMahon, who helped start and grow World Wrestling Entertainment Inc. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said McMahon will "prioritize growing jobs over growing government bureaucracy."(continued)

Innovation at best is like a water sprinkler on a nice healthy plant, making it grow and blossom; however, sprinkling without the plant is just like watering sand. Nothing happens. Currently, all over the world and with some 100 plus major innovation themed events yearly, complete with great photo opportunities for the local and national leaderships, most nations have little to show for these super expensive efforts. It seems that we talk a lot about innovation and find ourselves stuck in the suffocation of great ideas. And, suddenly the Trump nation erupts on a high note! Innovative excellence is the...

The soon-to-be White House chief strategist laid out a global vision in a rare 2014 talk, one where he said racism in the far right gets “washed out” and called Vladimir Putin a kleptocrat. BuzzFeed News publishes the complete transcript for the first time.

One strange US election fact is becoming clear: Donald Trump has become the favoured presidential candidate of some American Hindus. How and why are more complex questions. In June, I wrote about a small gathering of the Hindu Sena (Hindu Army) in Delhi performing a havan puja (religious offering) to Donald Trump. The erstwhile relatively unknown group attracted widespread media attention with its highly vocalised support of the Republican presidential candidate, in particular emphasising Trump’s views on combating “Islamic terrorism”. While the Hindu Sena remains a fringe phenomenon within India, I pointed then to the growing influence of Hindus for...

The Obama administration is making it easier for entrepreneurs worldwide to launch startups in the U.S. Today, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is publishing the White House’s International Entrepreneur Rule. The program grants temporary visas to startup founders from other countries if their companies meet certain requirements, like financing from U.S. investors. To qualify for what the White House calls “startup visas,” entrepreneurs must own at least 15 percent of a U.S. startup, and demonstrate the company’s growth potential, investments from qualified American investors, and “significant public benefit to the United States.” The rule would allow entrepreneurs that fit...

They're known as some of the most inspirational businessmen in history. But the success of industry giants such as Sir Richard Branson and Lord Sugar is actually putting working-class boys off of further education. A number of high profile celebrities who have gone on to make their fortunes after dropping out of education or choosing to not go to university are inspiring young men to following in their footsteps, according to a new report.

The centers are seen to help micro-, small-, and medium-scale entrepreneurs with business registration, financing, and market promotion.MANILA, Philippines — The Philippines expects to complete construction of 100 Go Negosyo centers by the end of September – 3 months ahead of target – providing micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs) extra push to expand operations. "For Negosyo centers, we have 92 up already. We continue to monitor the progress of the centers. Anecdotally, we’ve seen that they’ve been able to help micro and small entrepreneurs," Senator Paolo Benigno Aquino IV told reporters on the sidelines of P&G Leadership College 2015...

Israel trains India’s future technology and business leaders.While Europe has been busy targeting Israeli researchers, artists and filmmakers in recent days, Asian countries like India, China and Japan are taking tangible steps strengthening its ties with Israel. Last week Norwegian Film festival rejected an Israeli film dealing with disability on the grounds that it “did not deal with occupation” or “discrimination of Palestinians.” In Spain, a music festival barred the Jewish-American reggae star Matisyahu for refusing to comply with the demands of the organizers to publically denounce Israel and endorse the “Palestinian cause” — in keeping with the best traditions...

Move over, Silicon Valley. America has a new startup capital, according to a non-profit organization that studies startup trends throughout the U.S. So which city is currently home to the most startup activity in the U.S.?That honor goes to Austin, Texas. The rankings were compiled as part of the Kauffman Index, an in-depth measure of startup activity issued each year by the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation.Silicon Valley, which was #1 last year, fell all the way to #3 in the 2015 rankings. Miami now finds itself in the #2 spot in the Kauffman Index: The rate of new entrepreneurs,...

Anybody who’s watched “Shark Tank” more than once will tell you he’s hooked on the Sharks, just as much as they are on the little fishies swimming around in the tank. The Sharks—a panel of billionaire investors ranging in expertise and net worth—scowl, laugh, cry, ridicule, and jest like a bunch of frat boys (and a sorority chick or two) on steroids, 30 years post-college. If “business is the ultimate sport,” as Shark investor, billionaire businessman, and owner of the Dallas Mavericks Mark Cuban said in an interview last year with Inc., Magazine, than every episode of “Shark Tank” is...

In the good old days, if they fell in love in B-school, got married and kicked off a career, the choices were predictable — if it was an MBA in marketing, it had to be a role in a consumer goods multinational (think Hindustan Unilever or Procter & Gamble or Nestle); if it was finance, the husband-wife duo inevitably found themselves at rival investment banks on Dalal Street. These days, it's a bit different. Many couples who met in school or college — not just B-schools — are taking the long and invigorating walk down the aisle of entrepreneurship. And,...

I grew up watching Star Trek and believing that by the time I became an adult we would all be using communicators, replicators, tricorders, and transporters. I was optimistic that the world would be a much better place: that we would have solved humanity’s problems and be exploring new worlds. That’s why my first career choice was one of astronaut. I thought it would best prepare me for Starfleet Academy. Needless to say, I was disappointed. I grew up into a world filled with hunger, poverty, and disease—in which we fight wars over dwindling natural resources. It is a world...

Ditch Brooklyn, millennials. The real place to be is Des Moines, a city with a blossoming culture scene, thriving start-ups, and urban beauty.(VIDEO-AT-LINK) DES MOINES, Iowa—This is too nice a place to spawn a war cry. But if the city had one, it would be the sentiment heard across a downtown populated by baristas, tech start-up founders, musicians, and nonprofit professionals alike: "It's Des Moines against the world." Young people here know what you think of this city. It doesn't need repeating. But ambitious minds are in the process of building a new Des Moines, a tech hub in Silicon...

If you want a reason to opt out of school, you’re not alone. And Angad Daryani might just be the inspiration you were looking for. Daryani, a 16-year-old Mumbaiker, quit school in the 9th grade, frustrated by rote learning. Soon after, he built India’s first 3D printer (and possibly the world’s cheapest 3D printer). In 2013, he developed an “eye-pad” for the blind with MIT. When he was younger, he set up a miniature solar-powered boat and created an automatic watering system for garden plants. He has a longer list of hobbies that you can see here. He calls himself...

The winner of the U. S. Minority Business Development Agency's (MBDA) Lifetime Achievement Award says the economic fate of America's Black community "hangs in the balance" because "we are a fourth quarter people". Michael Grant, president of the National Bankers Association and its foundation, says, "Unlike our Hispanic and Asian brothers and sisters, we had to spend the first three quarters just getting in the game...So you see, all things being equal, our ethnic counterparts came to the game with a different mindset, a different set of circumstances, a different self-image, and already with some capital from back home." Grant...