Adopting Best Practices is NOT Innovation

Many consultants and organizations confuse adopting best practices with true innovation. While researching and adopting best practices can improve corporate performance, it should not be confused with true innovation. Adopting best practices involves selecting from the past.  Innovation is very different because is forward looking. True innovation is when you create the best practices that other organizations then study and adopt.
Read More

Bah Humbug! to Customer Discovery!

Crain's coverage of the the North Coast Angel Fund 'One Crucial Thing' Charles Stack, a serial startup entrepreneur who is now CEO of Flashstarts Inc., a business accelerator that is transforming itself into a consultancy, said that while investors and entrepreneurs should pay attention to what the market thinks it wants, that shouldn't deter people from what they believe is a better business idea. To emphasize his point, Stack closed his two minutes with a quote often attributed to auto pioneer Henry Ford. "If I had asked my customers what they wanted, they would have said a faster horse," Stack said, before…
Read More
Flashstarts Closes Accelerator and Tackles the Maelstrom of Innovation

Flashstarts Closes Accelerator and Tackles the Maelstrom of Innovation

CLEVELAND, OH.  December 3, 2019  – Flashstarts is pleased to announce that they will focus on innovation consulting for corporations beginning in January 2020. Flashstarts is taking their hard-won, startup-proven, deep practical knowledge of how to deliver effective, meaningful innovation to the world of mature businesses. After seven years of serving as an accelerator and micro-vc fund, Flashstarts is evolving.  From 2013-2019 Flashstarts supported hundreds of entrepreneurs through their labs and accelerator programs; and have helped their portfolio companies raise over $45 million in follow on capital. In addition to their investment funds, they developed one of the largest startup…
Read More
Levels of Technology Adoption

Levels of Technology Adoption

We track a wide array of emerging technologies: blockchain, bitcoin, lightning network, IoT, Machine Learning, Robotics, many others. We are continually adding new technologies as they begin to emerge. Emerging technologies generally follow a similar adoption curve. The Flashstarts Levels of Technology Adoption (FLOTA) is a simple means of placing technologies on the curve. The value of FLOTA is that it allows organizations to categorize. track and manage each technology and apply the appropriate level of attention and resources at each stage. This ensures that companies don't overinvest and risk failure or underinvest and risk falling behind their competitors. The…
Read More
Video Tutorials

Video Tutorials

We are launching a new YouTube Channel focused on helping you become an Innovation Champion within your organization. Here's the video introduction to our new channel: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pfdFpsZbn_o
Read More
Charles Stack Selected to Represent 1994 in Global Celebration

Charles Stack Selected to Represent 1994 in Global Celebration

  Charles Stack selected to represent 1994 for the Web30 Birthday Celebration March 12, 2019 Charles Stack is one of a select group of people in the world to be asked by the World Wide Web Foundation to celebrate the Web’s 30th birthday on March 12, 2019. The World Wide Web was created on March 12, 1989 by Sir Tim Berners-Lee. As part of the celebration, 30 innovations will represent a timeline of the web’s most significant moments. These moments will be posted on twitter over the course of the thirty hour celebration. Stack will present the sixth tweet representing the year 1994…
Read More

New ‘roadshow’ to share information about blockchain possibilities

By Emily Bamforth, cleveland.com CLEVELAND, Ohio -- Charles Stack, the founder and CEO of Flashstarts, knows it’s hard to explain blockchain. So Flashstarts, a local venture fund and business accelerator, is sponsoring a blockchain “roadshow” to travel around Northeast Ohio and expand the idea. Blockchain is a online ledger system which can be used to record transactions securely. Advocates laud the potential of the new technology for applications in government records, banking, hospital administration and more. If you’re interested in blockchain but don’t know how it works or how to get involved, you can attend blockchain roadshow sessions at venues…
Read More

Case Western Reserve University will be home to ‘Cleveland Blockchain and Digital Futures Hub’

Cleveland.com | Full Article Case Western Reserve University President Barbara Snyder announced Tuesday the formation of a new “Cleveland Blockchain and Digital Futures Hub." The think tank will not only address blockchain technology, but also build on research in other areas, such as the Internet of Things and augmented and virtual reality. The hub will bring together business, academic institutions, government and tech accelerators across the region to develop research and build applications. Read More
Read More

U.S. Rep. Warren Davidson announces legislation to regulate initial coin offerings

Cleveland.com | Full Article U.S. Rep. Warren Davidson of Ohio announced Monday a plan to regulate cryptocurrency and initial coin offerings through the federal government. An initial coin offering is when a company begins to sell a cryptocurrency in the form of tokens. There are a limited amount of these tokens, which is what gives them value. Investors can pay for these tokens with money or existing cryptocurrency. Because these tokens sell quickly and run out, it gives the company a wave of money that it can use to build a product. Read More
Read More

Blockchain Investment

Ideastream | Full Article Listen to Flashstarts CEO, Charles Stack, talk about Blockland and the initiative to make Cleveland a hub for blockchain technology. Listen here at 36:40  
Read More