“Don’t forget to strap in your friends and family! It’s going to be a bumpy ride.”  No one can deny that starting your own venture is like a roller coaster ride, but those closest to you probably have no idea that they are also in for a stomach-churning adventure.

As you embark on your entrepreneurial journey, you, and your friends and family need to be prepared for internal turmoil and drama. Your only certainty is no paycheck, no steady income, no fixed schedule and no predictability.  Everyday something in the news, on acclaimed publications or trending websites, may send dismay through your spine. Whether it is a new well-funded competitor launching the same product as you, or perhaps an expert claiming your industry is dead, this isn’t a ride for the weak or complacent. And this is just the beginning.

Drivers who use a parking garage in Ingolstadt, Germany, could be forgiven for thinking they’ve died and gone to commuter heaven. They can pull up outside, step out of their car, and let it drive into the garage to find a parking spot for itself. Later, they simply press a button on a smartphone app and their car will obediently return to the garage entrance.

The garage is an experimental project run by the German carmaker Audi; outfitted with numerous laser systems that map the environment in 3-D, it allows specially outfitted cars equipped with radar and wireless receivers to snake their way up through the garage while navigating past other cars, sense an open spot, pull in, and shut off the motor—potentially shaving minutes off a person’s daily commute.

This past year, I’ve heard more and more about a new type of small business, called a “micro-business” (or micro-enterprise). These are usually characterized as owner-operated, with five employees or less, and less than $250,000 in sales. With the low cost of e-commence entry, and powerful Internet technologies, they require minimal capital to start, perhaps as little as $500.

I see the potential for these to become big business in this entrepreneurial economy. According to the Voice of Microenterprise (AEO) website, if one in three micro-enterprises in the United States hired an additional employee, the US would soon be at full employment. These businesses are usually run out of the home, and range the gamut from consulting services to e-commerce.

If notes crowd your desk and your phone is overloaded with reminders, you may want to consider making some dietary changes. While we often blame memory lapses on aging, poor memory can be improved by nutrition.

"A sharp memory depends on your total number of brain cells, the smooth flow of communication between the cells and the health of cells," says Joy Bauer, author of Food Cures (Rodale, 2011) and nutrition expert on NBC’s Today Show.

This memo explains the objectives of the Innovation Union Scoreboard and provides an overview of the research and innovation performance of EU Member States and associated and neighbouring countries, as measured by the Innovation Union Scoreboard 2013.

What is the Innovation Union Scoreboard (IUS)? The annual Innovation Union Scoreboard provides a comparative assessment of the research and innovation performance of the EU27 Member States and the relative strengths and weaknesses of their research and innovation systems. It helps Member States assess areas in which they need to concentrate their efforts in order to boost their innovation performance. In addition, the Scoreboard covers Croatia, Serbia, Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Turkey, Iceland, Norway and Switzerland. On a more limited number of indicators, available internationally, it also covers Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, India, Japan, Russia, South Africa, South Korea and the US.

Michael Skok, partner at North Bridge Venture Partners, on Tuesday evening continued the third edition of his popular "Startup Secrets" workshops with a session on "Raising Money from Seed to Exit." After introducing the topic by saying that "raising money is like sex" — "everyone wants to know about it, but few people want to talk about it openly" — Skok and several guest speakers offered insights on how to think about raising funding for your startup. Here are 10 takeaways from the event, held at the Harvard Innovation Lab in Allston:

That was the message Tuesday from the chair of the Creative Nova Scotia Leadership Council. Ron Bourgeois spoke before the Growing a Creative Economy conference at the Joan Harriss Cruise Pavillion. On the second day of the three-day conference, the focus was on the role of creativity within the economy. As the chair of the 15-member council, Bourgeois works with developing its vision and long-term objectives. At the conference, he also officially released Culture: Nova Scotia’s Future, a position paper two years in the making that looks at issues involving the culture sector and Nova Scotia’s ongoing development.

A week after the Congressional hearings discussed how the US Food and Drug Administration’s impending regulatory guidelines (expected by October) will impact mobile health apps, aspiring and current digital health entrepreneurs may be rethinking their path. In a report dubbed “FDA 101,” health startup accelerator Rock Health has compiled a handy report to help digital health entrepreneurs assess whether their mobile health apps would be classified as medical devices by the FDA and require 510(k) clearance.

President Barack Obama's top healthcare adviser acknowledged on Tuesday that costs could rise in the individual health insurance market, particularly for men and younger people, because of the landmark 2010 healthcare restructuring due to take effect next year.

U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius said definitive data on costs will not be available until later this year when private health plans become authorized to sell federally subsidized coverage on new state-based online marketplaces, known as exchanges.

Last week we discussed the concept of the intrapreneur and our conviction that companies must add the pressures of failure and constrained resources to get ingenuity. Real entrepreneurs have vision, resilience and fortitude. Their natural drive, focus on survival and ability to pivot with the market is what generates market winners. It is the natural selection process at work. This is why VCs think the team is most critical, and companies looking to innovate should too.

This week, the focus is on the proliferation of corporate participation in venture capital, seeking growth and innovation outside of the company. According to a new Boston Consulting Group study, standalone corporate venture capital companies are maturing and gaining momentum, “venture investing appears well on its way to establishing a firm foothold in the corporate world as companies look to nascent companies not just to generate financial returns but also to complement their R&D efforts, penetrate fast-growing emerging markets, and gain early access to potentially disruptive technologies and business models.”

The Australian government’s Innovation Investment Fund has pledged at least 100 million Australian dollars (US$104 million) to local venture capital funds, Minister for Climate Change, Industry and Innovation Greg Combet said Wednesday.

The government funding will be matched dollar-for-dollar by private sector investors such as superannuation funds and high net worth individuals. It will see M.H. Carnegie & Co.’s Carnegie Venture Capital receive a combined A$80 million, while GBS Venture Partners and Innovation Capital Associates will each receive A$60 million.

The University of Kansas issued the following news release:

The University of Kansas continues to move innovations from the laboratory to the marketplace. As part of this effort, five KU researchers have been awarded $50,000 each through the university's new Proof of Concept Fund for projects that are near the commercialization stage.

The Proof of Concept (POC) Fund supports KU projects that have the potential to produce new products, technologies and cures that improve lives in the near future. The POC Fund supports projects for one year to make the technologies more attractive for private investment, ideally within 12 months of being awarded funding. The fund supports all areas of technology, including electronics, software, communications and engineering. Supported projects must have industry involvement.

The University of Kansas continues to support the commercialization of university research. As part of this effort, the KU Center for Technology Commercialization is now accepting nominations for the inaugural Jim Baxendale Commercialization Award, which recognizes a KU researcher for excellence in commercialization and translational research.

Named after former KU commercialization director Jim Baxendale, the award is designed to recognize a KU faculty member who has excelled in translational research and research commercialization – i.e., translating academic discoveries into commercially viable products that benefit society.

Marissa Mayer’s pronunciamento banning home-based work at Yahoo reflects a great dilemma facing companies and our country over the coming decade. Forget for a minute the amazing hubris of a rich, glamorous CEO, with a nursery specially built next to her office, ordering less well-compensated parents to trudge back to the office, leaving their less important offspring in daycare or in the hands of nannies.

The real issue is how we deal with three concerns: the promotion of families; humane methods to reduce greenhouse gases; and, finally, how to expand the geography of work and opportunity.

Portland, already scheduled to host several technology conferences this year, has landed another. The State Science & Technology Institute -- an economic development association focused on technology -- will hold its annual convention in downtown Portland this September.

SSTI is a nonprofit that promotes government and industry partnerships focused on economic development around science and technology.

There are two principal ways to formulate antidilution provisions, capitalizing the terms to make it clear we are talking about the ones which have substantive bite- the "Full Ratchet" and the "Weighted Average." Full Ratchet provisions are the real killers, at least from the founder's point of view. They provide that, if one share of stock is issued at a lower price, or one right to purchase stock is issued at a lower aggregate price (exercise price plus what is paid, if anything, for the right), then the conversion price of the existing preferred shares is automatically decreased, that is, it "ratchets down," to the lower price. Depending on how many shares (or rights) are included in the subsequent issue, this can be strong medicine. A brief example will illustrate. Assume Newco, Inc. has one million common shares and one million convertible preferred shares outstanding; the founder owns all the common, and the investors own all the preferred, convertible into common at $1 per share. Newco then issues 50,000 shares of common at .50¢ per share because it desperately needs $25,000 in cash. To make the example as severe as possible, let us say the investors control the board and they make the decision to price the new round of financing at .50¢. Suddenly the preferred's conversion price is .50¢, the founder goes from 50 percent of the equity to under 33.3 percent, and all the company has gained in the bargain is $25,000. Indeed, a Full Ratchet would drop the founder from 50 percent of the equity to 33.3 percent if the company issued only one share at .50¢. This is a harsh result, indeed. When a really dilutive financing occurs, say shares have to be sold at .10¢ per share, the founder drops essentially out of sight. The company takes in $5,000 and the founder goes down under 10 percent, never to recover because he does not have the cash to protect himself in subsequent rounds. In the jargon of venture capital, he has been "burned out" of the opportunity. There is no other provision so capable of changing the initial bargain between the parties with the dramatic effect of Full Ratchet anti-dilution. When venture capitalists are referred to as "vulture capitalists," it is likely the wounded founders are talking about dilutive financings and a Full Ratchet provision.

Universities have long been touted for their role in regional and state economic development, not only for their well-established role in education and research but, increasingly, the commercialization of new technologies. New spinoff companies, based on intellectual property stemming from university R&D, offer a promising vehicle for technology commercialization and have the potential to generate jobs, and even enhance the quality of traditional faculty responsibilities. Furthermore, university, state, and federal policymakers are increasingly seeking ways to encourage the establishment of university spinoff companies and support their growth.

Women’s abilities to make fair decisions when competing interests are at stake make them better corporate leaders, researchers have found.

A survey of more than 600 board directors showed that women are more likely to consider the rights of others and to take a cooperative approach to decision-making. This approach translates into better performance for their companies.

The study, which was published this week in the International Journal of Business Governance and Ethics, was conducted by Chris Bart, professor of strategic management at the DeGroote School of Business at McMaster University, and Gregory McQueen, a McMaster graduate and senior executive associate dean at A.T. Still University’s School of Osteopathic Medicine in Arizona.

This touches a nerve. You are working hard. Nobody can tell you that you’re not. But perhaps what you’re not doing is focussing.

My name is Josh Valman; I’m 18, still studying A levels and Managing Director at Miproto. I’m a recovering obsessive workaholic.

I know exactly what it means to work hard. I’m balancing exams, a factory team in China, design & development teams in the UK, investors, partnerships, family, friends, a girlfriend, oh and supporting a local bike shop.

Getting a business off the ground may seem like hard work, but what if that business was based on something you enjoy – a hobby, perhaps? This infographic, based on what people who compare business gas & electricity with Make It Cheaper said when talking about their ideal job shows that it’s possible to do.