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Strikeforce: Inside Silicon Valley's Most Unusual Apprenticeship

Futurist Peter Diamandis offers a deal to young entrepreneurs: Help him for two years, and maybe build the next billion-dollar company at the same time.

By Andrew Leonard

Courtesy of Abundance Group

Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

As robots go, the three telepresence machines that wheeled themselves into a conference room in Culver City, Calif., in mid May were not exactly what one would call lifelike. Flatscreens mounted on stilts rising from a mobile base, operated from afar by flesh-and-blood humans sitting in front of keyboards, the robots were functionally little more than sophisticated teleconferencing gear. Some people Skype into business meetings, but that's not forward-thinking enough for Peter Diamandis. So when he gathers the dozen or so employees of his company PHD Ventures for their monthly meetings, the off-site participants send robot stand-ins.

Related: The Power of Innovation

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