AI Podcast Interviews Articles and Reports

Why do people who use Facebook spend so much of their online time there? Why do people want to share, to comment?

If getting funding was easy, it wouldn't be called "getting funding."

Prospero Biosciences CEO Jonathan Rodriguez came on for an interview at Emerj to talk about his company and technology, as well as to shed some light on the real world experiences that a Biotech founder will face.

RockPaperRobot just sounds fun, even when you have no idea what it's all about.

When you do learn what this startup company is about, things only get more interesting, not less. The company is driven by it's founder Jessica Banks, MIT roboticist by training, now the designer of some of the world's coolest furniture and fixtures. I found Jessica's work by keeping an eye on startups out of MIT, and seeing the name RockPaperRobot, I had to check it out.

The term "Makerspace" didn't really leave the startup inner circle until later this year, and - upon studying Google Trends - I realized that 2011 is when the term actually got it's legs.

"Fitting in" isn't often what entrepreneurs do best. However, when it comes to finding an in-group of like-minded, ambitious, intelligent people, we all need some kind of crowd to help us learn, find new partners or employees, or at least have some kind of "life" amidst the hustle and bustle of startup-ness.

With a burning desire to combine his passions for digital fabrication, biology and computer science, Charles Fracchia came to MIT and Harvard eager to learn. Going to "bio to bits" (gleaning meaningful information from biological data) is something that Charles had never had an opportunity to do at such a high level, and he had high expectations. "I though: Oh, surely, I'm coming to these awesome labs here in Boston... I'm sure I'll come in and have an awesome dashboard to work with, like the movie Iron Man. I'll have my cell growth rate here, heart rate here... you know... something fantastic."

The Jetsons cartoon show of the 1960's portrayed a "futuristic" household that admittedly seems humorous to us today. An all-capable robotic maid, moving sidewalks and jet packs might have seemed realistic then, but didn't end up being the picture that seems to have taken shape.

Some entrepreneurs hop into the game without an academic pedigree, and some hit the books before they hit the street with a product or service. In fields like robotics, biotech, and artificial intelligence, the latter is usually the case, as the specialized knowledge required to form a company is pretty slim outside of an institution.