Government-funded research has been behind a slew of life-changing technologies (hello, Internet!), but, as with a lot of R&D spending, the dollars may not always generate optimal outcomes and worse, some amazing potential technological breakthroughs never see the light of day. Encouragingly, the federal government is injecting an entrepreneurial, yet...

Is your doctor putting your health at a risk?

According to a recent study published in the New England Journal of Medicine, your doctor could unintentionally be offering you and your family sub-optimal care if he/she is still using paper records to document important medical and patient...

On the face of it, the recent bankruptcy of U.S.-based solar panel maker Solyndra, which occurred two years after receiving $535 million in federal loan guarantees, is a perfect opportunity for those seeking to discredit President Obama and cast his green jobs program as a bust. My hope is that...

"Leading the cleantech revolution," or "Leveraging the intellectual property of our major research universities" -- such hopeful and visionary statements are just a sampling of various mantras that have echoed the chambers of Midwestern capitals and filled the pages of local newspapers for the past several years. In the face...

My prior post, "Saving the Planet with the Flick of a Switch," was getting a bit long-winded so I thought it would be best to split my thoughts into two pieces to make the concept a bit more digestible (I think only my mother and employees at our...

I'm beginning to think that even Sarah Palin's "real Americans" are starting to get it. Granted, it is taking manmade ecological disasters like the BP oil spill to nudge the masses along, but even from my perch on the outskirts of traditionally enviro-resistant Motor City, it is apparent to me...

Before the "Great Recession," the state of Michigan was in its own one-state recession of sorts thanks in part to our well-documented over-dependence upon the struggling auto industry. Yes, the economy is still recovering, and things are still dark, but I can see the light! Yes, dear readers, I have...

There is plenty to gripe about these days, and one need not be Rush Limbaugh or Sandra Bullock to have something to complain about. I desperately try not to be a complainer (especially after the quietest girl in my entire high school once called me out in front of the...

The Beatles, "The Office," James Bond and Kate Beckinsale are some of my favorite British imports. But there's one British innovation I really wish we'd import that would significantly revive and accelerate our economic growth - venture capital trusts, or VCTs. They're certainly not as sexy as Kate Beckinsale, but...

The romantic vision of weaning the Midwest, and ideally the U.S., off the fossil fuel-powered electricity grid is appealing to many. Yet, perhaps equally as many believe it to be an elusive or perhaps unobtainable goal. I am not one of those skeptics - I am a believer.

A...

As a Midwest-based venture capitalist, I focus on rapid growth sectors for the Midwest (particularly in Michigan), and one sector I have recently fallen in love with is wind energy. Okay, maybe not love, but certainly lust.

It is lust not solely for the wind industry's rapid rate of...

I received a humbling and personally overwhelming response to my debut Huffington Post blog entry that described my recent decision to move myself and my family from Southern California to Michigan. Of the hundreds of emails, phone calls and letters, the vast majority were from Michiganders welcoming me to...

As a venture capitalist in sunny (and smug) Santa Monica, who happened to often travel to Michigan, I'd heard every possible joke and put-down about the Michigan economy (you know, how it's cheaper to buy a foreclosed house in Detroit than a decent used car, but at least you can...