A lot of people make news in the biopharma business. Few of them are influential.

Influence, simply put, is the ability to make your mark in such a way as to get other prominent people in this business to rethink the way they do business. Last year, that definition caused us to put GlaxoSmithKline's ($GSK) Deirdre Connelly on the list for her plan to do away with sales quotas in the U.S. The influential idea then was that ethics had to come before numbers--a big issue at a company that has been challenged time and again by an unethical approach to business that spurred a series of sordid messes and a second take at a painful reorganization.

Image: http://www.fiercebiotech.com

T he tech startup scene in Colorado these days looks a little like heaven.

Starting a company has never been this easy, and everywhere you look there are angels.

Angel investors — individuals funding startups with their own money — have supplanted venture capitalists as the source of money for most first-time tech entrepreneurs in Colorado.

You’ve got a great tech idea; one that you think tons of people could use in their everyday lives. You want to launch your own tech startup but, first, you’ll need to raise the capital to turn your entrepreneurial dream into a reality.

Fortunately, you have numerous options. Which option you select is dependent on your tolerance for risk, how much control of your company you’re willing to relinquish and your financial projections.

A tech entrepreneur recently was celebrating his good fortune at a penthouse party overlooking the Las Vegas Strip, but the scene could well have unfolded in New York, San Francisco or any other city where entrepreneurs are feeling the glow of success.

"It's spectacular, befitting this conference and the people here," gushed Joe Liebke, CEO of Villaway, a luxury-vacation company that hosted a party during the recent tech-centric Collision Conference here. "Enjoy it."

Gov. Rick Snyder is traveling the country, touting Michigan's economic comeback.

But while he's ringing the opening bell at the New York Stock Exchange and wooing the national media, some of his Republican colleagues in the state Legislature are plotting to cripple, or maybe even kill, the entity charged with carrying out his economic development strategy.

Image: The Michigan Economic Development Corporation's Pure Michigan brand has won more awards. (Courtesy of MEDC)

In the wake of another scathing audit of his flagship job-creation agency, Gov. Scott Walker called on lawmakers Friday to eliminate all loans the agency provides to encourage business development.

He also called for scrapping a proposed $55 million revolving loan fund for the agency included in his budget and using the money for education and worker training programs.

Apple chief executive Tim Cook delivered the commencement address to the graduating class of George Washington University today. His speech spoke directly of justice, injustice, and his optimism that values belong in the workplace.

Cook mentioned Martin Luther King, Jr. three times in his address, including at the very beginning and at the very end. He called King and former president John F. Kennedy two of his early heroes from childhood, at a time and place in Alabama, where Cook grew up, where those two were not held in high regard by most of the people around him.

Image: Apple CEO Tim Cook delivers the commencement speech to the 2015 graduating class of George Washington University, in Washington, D.C. Image Credit: Screenshot from GWU video

If you want to predict your chances of getting ahead at work, answer this one question: Are you well liked?

Likable people receive more job offers and promotions, they’re more likely to be forgiven when they make a mistake, and people do what they say because they’re deemed to be more credible.

Luckily, likability doesn’t rely on being the best-looking, smartest, or most outgoing person in the room. It’s much easier than that, and it’s something anyone can attain. You can improve your reputation by practicing these seven habits of likable people.

In 2009, Google embarked on an ambitious project to build a better manager. Dubbed Project Oxygen, the company turned its typically robust analysis and data mining capabilities inward, mining feedback surveys, employee awards, and performance reviews for clues to find out just what kind of behavior makes a good manager. The outcome of all this work was a list of "Eight Good Behaviors And Three Pitfalls."

Creating good strategy is more important (and more challenging) than ever. Powerful global forces—game-changing technologies, unprecedented growth in emerging markets, and rapidly aging populations, to name a few—are transforming the world economy, and with it, the way companies plan for and conduct business.

During National Small Business Week, Sen. Mazie K. Hirono (D-Hawaii), a member of the Senate Small Business and Entrepreneurship Committee, introduced legislation to help small businesses in Hawaii and across the country grow and succeed.

The United States needs to support new entrepreneurial ventures in order to create jobs, sustain innovation and remain competitive in a global economy. But lumping small business owners and innovative entrepreneurs in the same category will only serve to mask the problem.

Startups got a lot less money from angel investors last year; instead, these business funders placed more bets on companies that were expanding. That’s according to an analysis of 2014’s angel investing by the Center for Venture Research at the University of New Hampshire.

We all dream of adventure. We muse about the day we'll break free from our day-to-day grinds and journey to a far off land with a blank slate and a whole new environment to explore.

But even if the opportunity surfaces, uncertainties hold us back, and the biggest uncertainty is often employment. Will I be able to find a job? What if I don't enjoy it? Even if the work is okay, what if the food doesn't agree with me or I find cultural barriers just too big to overcome? It seems all too likely that an adventure could turn into a disaster, leaving you unemployed, broke, and stranded in a strange place with no friends.

Startup companies may go through various stages of external funding throughout their lifecycle. Typically, the first stage consists of seed funding, which is usually earmarked for developing the company’s product or technology and achieving marketplace fit. Seed stage companies usually raise $500,000 to $1.5 million and typically do not have institutional capital or venture funding. Seed funding is generally easier to raise, due to the smaller investment size and lower risk profile to the investor.

What’s the difference between a “good” state for telemedicine and a “bad” one?

The American Telemedicine Association released two reports at its annual conference earlier this month in Los Angeles, a state-by state analysis of coverage and reimbursement policies for telemedicine services and another on physician practice standards and licensure in each state.

Empowering a Billion Women by 2020, a program started by Dell's entrepreneur-in-residence, is launching a software and financing package to help grow women-led startups.

The "Business in a Box" launch was announced Thursday morning with a further unveiling during EBW2020's workshop later at Galvanize's 1644 Platte St. offices in Denver.

Officials from the U.S. Patent and Trademark office and business partner Xero flew in for the Denver event.

The most common killers in the United States are well known — heart disease and cancer. But there are other, less common causes of death that are actually much more typical in certain states compared with the nation as a whole.

Now, a new map shows these so-called "most distinctive" causes of death for each state.

Image: http://www.livescience.com

Small companies in six provinces will be allowed to raise capital through crowdfunding websites, but Ontario says it will not participate in the new rules and will develop separate standards.

Provincial securities regulators in British Columbia, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Quebec, New Brunswick and Nova Scotia announced Thursday that they will allow startup and early-stage companies to issue shares to investors through crowdfunding websites, providing a new source of financing.

Since Kickstarter and its chief rival Indiegogo launched, the tech and web industries and have seen a wealth of entrepreneurs make their case before the crowd. Looking to fund everything from tech gadgets to movies and charitable causes, entrepreneurs of all stripes have turned to the crowd to bring their ideas to a mass market.

Simply launching a crowdfunding campaign isn’t a recipe for success. While many campaigns achieve incredible success, many only hit their goal by a slim margin, and even more never even pass their goal. Crowdfunding is simply the first step of a much longer process and one that is mirrored in the day-to -day competition that any new business faces when it comes to market.