Marvin Ammori

Startup incubators and accelerators play a critical role in today’s ever-changing economic environment. This summer, Marvin and I undertook a research project to find the country’s technology-focused incubators and accelerators, to see how they are helping entrepreneurs launch new businesses and promote innovation. Today, with the help of the great folks at Engine Advocacy, we’ve released a map showing the results of our research. As I wrote in a guest post at Engine’s blog:

The maps shows the innovation spaces that exist from coast-to-coast, in all 50 states. If you’re a startup looking for help launching or growing your technology company, check out the incubators and accelerators in your region. If you’re an incubator or accelerator but don’t see yourself on the map, fill in your information so we can add you.

Head over to the site and check it out.

As part of the roll out, the pop-up café is hosting a three day event for entrepreneurs in London, providing them advice and insight on how to launch and maintain their startups. Today’s focus is on relationships with VCs, and how best to navigate that arena. Later today, representatives of Google and Facebook will discuss the technology industry’s outlook on Europe.

Tomorrow’s focus will be on business-to-business opportunities for tech startups, and Friday will deal with how startups and government can work together.

The Journal’s Tech Europe Blog will cover the events, so keep an eye on it for the latest from London.

WSJ’s Tech Europe has a great piece on Startup Weekend – Beirut, which was held in the Lebanese capital this weekend. Startup Weekend events bring together all sorts of people for a weekend to build teams and launch new companies centered around innovative ideas. Before I started delving into the innovation “scene,” I associated startups with tech companies and web apps like Twitter or Instagram, which made people tons of money and led to new features on Facebook or the Google. But the event in Beirut, like others before it, reveals the variety and utility of products and services that these new enterprises can bring to the market:

Among the youngest participants were two 17-year-old high school students from Beirut, Osama Brosh and Omar Turk who created AID (Auditory Impairment Device), a mobile phone application that alerts deaf people to loud sounds—such as fire alarms, car horns or doorbells—through a vibration, winning them first place in the competition.

Brosh and Turk had already chosen the objective of helping deaf individuals, and their winning startup began as a high school science project. The pair is currently working on future products around the same idea.

The Beirut Weekend was one of over a dozen that have occurred in the Middle East since the region’s first event was held in 2010 in Tel Aviv.  You can find out more about Startup Weekend and future events near you at their website, http://startupweekend.org/events/.