Tech
Before You Prototype a Tech Product, Ask These 5 Questions
The impulse may be to rush to market, but taking the time to understand your potential customers will go a long way.
By Sam Gaddis
Inventions | Page 7
Business Accounting
The Hard Truth About How Much Your Invention is Really Worth
Investors don't want to invest in a product, they want to invest in a business. Here are seven reality checks to apply.
Business Ideas
The Case for Consumer-Centric Innovation
Finding inventive product ideas from nontraditional sources can help companies stay ahead of the competition.
Tech
Boston Installs Phone-Charging Solar Benches Across City Parks
The Soofa not only charges devices on-the-go, but captures environmental data such as weather, noise levels, air quality and number of passersby per hour.
By Geoff Weiss
Business Ideas
These Siblings Feed Off Each Other’s Input to Drive Their Entrepreneurial Success
A serial entrepreneur recalls her early collaborations with her brother and gives tips on how to encourage enterprise-building traits.
Business News
5 Awesomely Entrepreneurial Artifacts That Will Soon Live at the Smithsonian
From one of Henry Ford's experimental tractors to Planters' iconic Mr. Peanut mascot, a look at some of the objects in the museum's upcoming American Enterprise exhibit.
By Geoff Weiss
Thought Leaders
You Have Good Ideas — Don’t Let Them Disappear
A good daily habit to develop is to capture your thoughts. Who knows? It might just lead to a big breakthrough.
Building a Business
How Do You Bring Innovation to Market?
We asked some of the leading idea people in business to define how new products, technologies and commodities come into being.
By Corie Brown
Tech
Elon Musk: ‘Maybe We’ll Make a Flying Car, Just For Fun’
Making a flying car is 'not the hard part,' said the automotive visionary. Making one that's quiet and safe is a different story.
By Geoff Weiss
Building a Business
Oklahoma Company Creates Bulletproof Blanket to Protect Kids During School Shootings
The backpack-like bulletproof shield may represent one of the most tragically apropos inventions of our time.
By Geoff Weiss
Building a Business
13 Accidental Inventions That Changed the World
These products came to be by chance -- spawning businesses and changing lives the world over.
By Drake Baer
Building a Business
Eureka — a New Product Idea! Now Ask These 5 Questions.
Before you quit your job and cash in your 401(k), take a step back and evaluate.
Tech
Photo-Taking Contact Lenses, Giant Crab Robots and Radiation-Blocking Underwear
A roundup of the 10 most interesting new technologies that make us scratch our heads and say, 'What the heck?'
By Jason Fell
Marketing
Would You Sip on Drinkable Sunscreen?
Gross as it may sounds, a cosmetics company claims to have created a drinkable sunscreen that can block the sun.
By Kate Taylor
Building a Business
Learning to Say No to Interruptions to Foster Creativity in Business
What if Galileo or other great thinkers had tried to develop their ideas amid a barrage of email and calls? Set boundaries to inspire innovation at work.
Building a Business
Far Out: Radiation-Blocking Underwear Also Protect Men’s Fertility
Sorry, dudes. Your smartphone, tablet and laptop are hurting your manhood. You can help protect yourself with these high-tech undies.
Tech
How a 3-D Printer Called ‘Mink’ Could Completely Make Over the $55 Billion Beauty Industry
A new invention purportedly churns out eye shadow pods in absolutely any color found on the internet.
By Geoff Weiss
Business Ideas
Innovators, Watch Out for These Invention Killers
Don't be caught off-kilter by unexpected roadblocks and setbacks. Acquaint yourself with these keys for ushering new products into the marketplace.
Building a Business
The 3 Building Blocks Every Successful Product Shares
Use the 'Perfect Product Pyramid' to turn your ideas into success.
Building a Business
9 Entrepreneurs Reveal How They Validated Their Business Idea
The author of a new book tells how several inventive types tested their product's premise. A catchy concept won't score profits for a startup if no one wants the device.
Business News
Etsy Just Bought an Electronics E-Tailer Called Grand St. Here’s Why.
In a deal rumored to be worth just under $10 million, Etsy has acquired Grand St., an online marketplace where indie hardware makers vend cutting-edge tech.
By Geoff Weiss
Tech
How Do You Take Your Eggs? This Startup Likes Them ‘Golden’
The Golden Goose, a kitchen gadget that scrambles raw eggs within their shells, has nearly surpassed its $34,500 Kickstarter goal in one week.
By Geoff Weiss
Tech
This Contraption Transforms Houseplants Into Musical Instruments
A device called the MIDI Sprout, which transforms plant biorhythms into a sort of music, is sowing major seed funding on Kickstarter -- to the tune of over $27,000.
By Geoff Weiss
Tech
What Invention Would You Most Like to See in Your Lifetime?
According to a new Pew study, if you're like a lot of Americans, you'd like to own something that gets you places faster, lets you time-travel or somehow prolongs your life.
By Laura Entis
Thought Leaders
Think Your Job Sucks? New MTV Show Profiles Strange and Awesome Career Paths
MTV's new series, which profiles snake venom milkers, beer keg inventors and junk food bloggers, represents the network's first foray into business-centric content.
By Geoff Weiss
Building a Business
Is Competition a Catalyst for Innovation?
The products of rival firms can prompt and motivate a company to differentiate its offerings and invent new solutions.
Building a Business
Don’t Have Great Ideas? Work With Someone Who Does.
Creative people oftentimes aren't great at selling their ideas. That's where you come in.
By Stephen Key