Having a piece of content go viral is a dream for most marketers. It’s the ultimate reward because viral content, after all, means something was so popular that it snowballed into more shares, clicks, visibility, etc. and a few extra sales are bound to come from it all. Unfortunately, creating viral content isn’t easy.

When people think of the term “viral,” funny YouTube videos come to mind. Unless it makes sense for your company to create another Gangnam style video, this type of popularity seems out of reach for many.

If you’re considering starting a side business while in college, we’re sure you’ve asked yourself the following question:

Do I have the time and energy to devote to a small business while still doing justice to my studies?

This might seem like a valid concern; however, consider this: How is it that even while in college, most students are able to catch every sporting event or keg party they wish to attend while maintaining that 3.5 GPA that keeps mom and dad at bay?

“Level Playing Field Institute is committed to eliminating the barriers faced by underrepresented people of color in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) and fostering their untapped talent for the advancement of our nation.”

If your only source of information about millennials comes from articles about millennials written by the generation that directly preceded it, an image of a person aged roughly 18 to 30-years-old might look like a self-absorbed monster--a kid on a couch whose dead brain cells leak through his nose and onto his iPhone while he refuses to get a job. Illustrator Matt Bors recently published an excellent piece summing up why these generational generalizations say more about the people writing them than the people written about, but there are real ways to track generational values. And for what it’s worth, some of the kids might be alright.

Researchers at the University of California, Los Angeles looked at Monitoring the Future, a long-term, nationally representative survey of 12th graders (66% to 80% of schools participate) that has most often been used to measure drug attitudes since the mid 1970s. The researchers were curious to see what kind of effect the recession has had on social consciousness (based on a theory developed by UCLA psychology professor Patricia Greenfield), and predicted that kids who graduated high school during economic hardship (2008 to 2010) generally might be more community-minded and place less emphasis on materialism than those who graduated before (2004 to 2006).

A new federal rule could decrease the number of angel investors, a trade group for such investors said in a press release this week, but one Des Moines lawyer doesn't think it will stop local investors.   The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) ruled last week that businesses can raise money through private offerings by advertising to investors. The move, which was a provision of the Jumpstart Our Business Startups Act passed by Congress last year, is intended to make it easier for startup companies get their message in front of more potential investors.

Ask any venture capitalist to sign your NDA prior to pitching; all you’ll get is their laughter.  That’s because ideas are a dime a dozen (likely below your asking price). A startup’s success is determined by the people behind the idea, with those at the top having the greatest influence.  Finding the right cofounder is the most important decision you will ever make.

That’s why this week, we reached out to our friends at the YEC to weigh in on the following question, “What is the number one quality you should you look for in a startup cofounder and why?”  Their insights are below.

At a time when most teens are trying to fit in with peers, Joerod Collier started his own business, Surreal Styles, designing unique sneakers when he was 15.

"I knew that I liked cool sneakers. I liked to be different, and my friends were always requesting that I design things for them," Collier said. "That's when I realized that Surreal Styles could be a lucrative business," said Collier, now 24.

Venture-capital funding for U.S. companies fell sharply year-over-year in the second quarter, marking the lowest level of venture investment in three years.

In the second quarter, 801 U.S.-based companies raised $7.22 billion from VC firms, according to Dow Jones VentureSource, a research unit of News Corp. A year ago, 959 companies raised $8.91 billion. The level of VC investment last quarter marked the lowest level since the second quarter of 2010.

Detroit Venture Partners LLC, a venture capital firm that has filled the Madison Building in downtown Detroit with startup software companies, has closed on a first round of nearly $21 million as it raises its first formal fund

But DVP has ambitions far beyond what it can accomplish with $21 million. It hopes to finish its first fund at $60 million this year or early next year and soon after that begin raising a second fund of $120 million or more.

Can patents give scientists or companies the rights to ‘life’? In June this year the US Supreme Court ruled that genes cannot be patented in the States. To say this ruling was controversial would be a massive understatement; this mixed ruling has led to equally mixed reactions from the public, academics and pharma/biotech companies.

Without wanting to take sides, I think high profile cases like this are brilliant because they get people talking about what may be owned by whom, where, and under which conditions. A lot of innovation and scientific discoveries are largely paid for and protected by patents. And since scientists are becoming ever more creative with synthetic biology, I think the questions around whether ‘life’ is patentable are increasingly important.

Too many CEOs pay lip service to “work-life balance” in an effort to attract top talent. Here in Silicon Valley, the notion of balance is basically a joke.

Software developers accustomed to coding all-nighters in college are hired by employers expecting them to continue working 12 to 15 hours a day. The pace is relentless. What strikes me is that in the software industry, startups and established companies alike have fully accepted that work overload is just normal.

The GoPro camera has revolutionized the way that people capture the world around them. The ultralight and portable device provides an easy way to record amazing, high definition images, and has become the standard for many video producers as a cheap alternative to buying or renting expensive camera equipment. 

“Investors want you to hire a rock star CEO to make (your startup) magically successful. There is no magic, it is just a lot of hard work.”

That’s Paula Long, current founder of DataGravity, an early-stage enterprise data management company, on one of the basic lessons she learned about startups during her career. A veteran entrepreneur who started and sold EqualLogic to Dell in 2008 for $1.4 billion, Long adds, “If you are passionate about the company and the product, you can learn the rest if you have a good team around you.”

Venture capital funding for health IT totaled $623 million during the second quarter of 2013, according to a report by Mercom Capital Group, FierceHealthIT, reports.

The report found that there were 168 health IT-related venture capital deals in Q2 2013, compared with 104 the previous quarter. At the half-year mark, health IT-related venture capital funding was nearly equal to all of such funding in 2012, the report found.

Biotechnology companies can access financial and management resources through venture capitalist (VC) firms. An analysis of 1,490 VC investments shows that country-of-origin (CO) of biotech companies has an effect on the participation by VC firms in various biotech subsectors. Specifically, it is found that US biotech companies tend to have higher amount received per VC firm, greater number of VC firms investing in them and greater biotech investment experience of the investing VC firms. Asia-Pacific biotech companies have consistently less VC firms investing in them and these investing VC firms tend to have less biotech investment experience. VC firms with greater biotech investment experience are also investing in European biotech companies more than those from the Americas less US. CO also correlates with outcomes in the four of the six key biotech subsectors studied. These findings suggest a strong CO effect of VC investment in biotech companies.

At a recent FundingPost event gathering together investors and entrepreneurs in Philadelphia, crowdfunding, provisions in the JOBS Act, and angel and venture investment trends were on attendee minds.

It’s an interesting time to talk about funding opportunities for startups, particularly in Pennsylvania. Gov. Tom Corbett signed a bill last week for a tax credit program that will make $75 million available for technology investments and effectively restores funding to pre-recession levels for the state’s economic development arm Ben Franklin Technology Partners. That was particularly good news for Emerald Stage2 Ventures, which counts Ben Franklin as its largest investor.

Angel investment networks tend to stick to metropolitan cities on the East Coast and West Coast. Why? Most angels see themselves as philanthropic investors and want to invest locally. Startups tend to sprout in places that encourage entrepreneurship and reward it. Traditionally, that has been in cities on the coasts but that is beginning to change.

A recent Kauffman Foundation report on entrepreneurial activity included places like Montana and New Mexico.

Newly hired employees of an Indian call center were at least 60% less likely to leave within a period of a few months if they went through an onboarding process that, instead of emphasizing conformity, focused on their individual strengths, for example by highlighting what was "unique" about them, says a team led by Daniel M. Cable of London Business School. In a related lab experiment, new hires whose individual strengths were highlighted ended up performing more efficiently and making fewer errors. Thus the best way for an organization to develop early organizational commitment may be to encourage employees to make daily use of their unique strengths, the researchers say.

When we first decided to move the headquarters of our software company from Atlanta, we didn't think of Silicon Valley. In fact, Silicon Valley wasn't even on our short list. At Infor, we chose New York City.

There are many reasons why Silicon Valley might have been a top contender: for years, it's been the premier technology hub of the world. Talent flocks to companies like Google, Facebook, and Oracle, just as it does to the slew of start-ups looking to become the next big thing. Universities like Stanford, Caltech, and UC Berkeley continue to churn out the next generation of founders and engineers. Why would we turn to any other place to start Infor's next chapter?