Category: Entrepreneurs and Innovation
-
Disrupting Education and Health Care
by James A. Bacon Education and health care are the two most moribund economic sectors in the U.S. economy, plagued by lagging productivity and poor outcomes. Not coincidentally, both sectors are joined at the hip with government. Democrats are determined to preserve the status quo, while Republicans offer no clear market-based alternative. Is there any reason…
-
Gramercy District a Game Changer
by James A. Bacon Northern Virginia technologist and developer Minh Le is partnering with Microsoft Inc. to build Gramercy District, a $500 million “smart city” development adjacent to the planned Ashburn Metro station on the Silver Line, reports the Washington Business Journal. Not only will Microsoft contribute technology it will participate as an investor. (Details on Microsoft’s…
-
Another $100 Million for Venture Capital? Who Is Accountable at Inova?
by James A. Bacon In February Inova Health System announced its intention to create a $100 million venture fund dedicated to precision medicine, an initiative timed to coincide with an Obama administration event highlighting the nascent science, and designed to support Inova’s own $300 million plan for a center for personalized health just outside Tysons Corner.…
-
J. Stewart Bryan III, R.I.P.
by James A. Bacon J. Stewart Bryan III, long-time chairman of Media General Inc., died Saturday at age 77 from complications stemming from a fall at his home. Born and bred as a newspaper man, he presided in recent years over the transformation of Richmond-based Media General from a newspaper-dominated conglomerate into a pure-play corporation owning 71…
-
Who Needs a Chauffeur When Your Favorite Driver Is a Click Away?
by James A. Bacon The Uber revolution continues apace, spawning a host of competitors, imitators and add-ons. An interesting example comes out of Richmond, where four former Uber drivers are developing an app for passengers who want to reserve specific drivers at specific times. Uzurv (pronounced YOO-zerv) is beta testing an app that lets customers reserve…
-
A Moral Choice: Economic Development or Lower Medical Charges?
by James A. Bacon Building on its plans to establish a Center for Personalized Health, Inova Health System is forging a partnership with George Mason University that will allow physicians, researchers and clinicians to work together on personalized medicine research, the two institutions announced yesterday. (See the Washington Business Journal article here.) Inova will contribute $2.5 million…
-
The “Anti-College”
MIT drop-out Jeremy Rossman moved to California and started an “anti-college.” Students don’t pay tuition — they pay a percentage of future earnings. They don’t get grades or take exams. They make stuff. Will it work? Who knows. But wild-and-crazy experiments like this are both a symptom of the higher ed crisis and an indicator…
-
The Rise of the New Artisan Class
Cathy Vaughn took the big leap a couple of years ago of going into business for herself as an artisan working in copper. While fabricating trellises, tryptics, candelabras and chinoiserie, she developed a new technique, which, as far as she knows, is a first — creating images upon copper plate from the chemicals found in leaves.…
-
Best Cities for Small Black Business
I don’t know how valid these findings are, based as they are upon only 1,663 responses to a national small business survey, but they are encouraging. Nine of ten of the cities rated highly by African-American small businessmen (and women) are located in the South and two — Richmond and Virginia Beach — are located in…
-
Yes, Richmond Is a True Foodie Town
Richmonders like to think of Richmond as a serious “foodie” town. But we tend to be parochial and prone to self-delusion, so I do wonder if we’re just kidding ourselves. Well, our friends at WalletHub have ranked 150 American cities for foodiness — combining 18 metrics of affordability (weighted 30%) and diversity, access & quality (weighted…
-
Amherst Ordinance Violates Basic Human Right
by James A. Bacon I have little sympathy for criminals. I don’t buy into the Officer Krupke school of thought that people “are depraved on account of they’re deprived.” And I’m all in favor in getting tough on crime. But I also believe that once a criminal has served his sentence , government policy should be geared…
-
The New Wave of Wealth Creation: SNL
by James A. Bacon When most Virginians hear the letters “SNL,” they think Saturday Night Live. Perhaps in the future, they’ll think SNL Financial, the Charlottesville-based market research firm just purchased by McGraw Hill Financial for $2.225 billion. New Mountain Capital, the New York-based private equity firm that purchased 60% of the company in 2011,…
-
The Ironies of Virginia's Growing Diversity
—
by
in Business and Economy, Demographics, Economic development, Education (higher ed), Education (K-12), Electoral process, Entrepreneurs and Innovation, Environment, Federal issues, Government Finance, Government workers and pensions, Immigration, Infrastructure, Labor and Workforce, Media, Money in politics, Politics, Poverty & income gap, Race and Race Relations, Regulations, Gov’t Oversight, UncategorizedBy Peter Galuszka Suddenly immigration is popping up as a major issue in Virginia and the nation. Virginia Beach has been dubbed a “sanctuary city” for undocumented aliens by Fox News and conservative Websites. GOP presidential hopeful Donald Trump is scarfing up poll number hikes by calling Mexicans trying to enter the U.S. illegally “rapists”…
-
The Ironies of Virginia’s Growing Diversity
—
by
in Business and Economy, Demographics, Economic development, Education (higher ed), Education (K-12), Electoral process, Entrepreneurs and Innovation, Environment, Federal issues, Government Finance, Government workers and pensions, Immigration, Infrastructure, Labor and Workforce, Media, Money in politics, Politics, Poverty & income gap, Race and Race Relations, Regulations, Gov’t Oversight, UncategorizedBy Peter Galuszka Suddenly immigration is popping up as a major issue in Virginia and the nation. Virginia Beach has been dubbed a “sanctuary city” for undocumented aliens by Fox News and conservative Websites. GOP presidential hopeful Donald Trump is scarfing up poll number hikes by calling Mexicans trying to enter the U.S. illegally “rapists”…
-
Why Can't Dominion Do Big Wind Projects?
By Peter Galuszka Down in the swamplands and farmlands of northeastern North Carolina, construction has begun on a huge new wind farm that will be the largest so far in the southeastern U.S. Iberdrola Renewables LLC, a Spanish firm, has begun construction on the long-awaited $600 million project with financial help from Amazon, which also…