Many VCs will tell you the qualities they look for in a successful entrepreneur, but not many will tell you the red flags that keep them from investing in a company.

That latter are probably equally if not more important than the former, because many successful venture capitalists see hundreds of proposals for every one they fund. Getting yourself into an entrepreneurial mindset if you don’t naturally have one is part of your early-stage work.

In 2014, wearable health tracking devices continued to get more creative, going far beyond simple fitness tracking. The K-Goal, a "Fitbit for your vagina," promised to help women do kegel exercises correctly, while the Emotiv EEG headset offered the prospect of mental acuity, measured by a device that tracks the brain's concentration.

Of course, kids came up with some of the most unique health innovations of the year. One 15-year-old came up with a wearable device that triggers an alert when his grandfather with Alzheimer's gets out of bed. Another young scientist put the finishing touches on a gel that can stop bleeding almost immediately—an invention that he first came up with as a teenager.

Image: http://www.fastcoexist.com/ 

What advice would you give students interested in your field?

That’s a question we posed to our network of Xconomists around the country. They range from academic leaders to startup founders to venture capitalists. What we found was that their answers were generally bigger than their particular field of expertise. Taken together, the tips provide a framework for getting ahead in an increasingly competitive era of technology and business.

In the breakneck pace of digital culture today, our attention span has been whittled down to the length of a two-second GIF. Deciding to click play on a longer video often seems like too much of a commitment. But sometimes, you have to devote your full attention to a video, because it's just too damned good, whether it's a visual explanation of a woolly scientific concept, a history of video-game graphics, or plain old eye candy. What follows are the videos we couldn't take our eyeballs off of in 2014.

Ten core tenets for a successful global strategy in the coming year.

The changing global brandscape is indeed a double-edged sword. It confers unheard of opportunities on companies while at the same time bringing in hitherto unheard of challenges. Top executives and CEOs should actively manage such a volatile environment by following some fundamental features of any corporate strategy.

There are ten crucial aspects that CEOs should focus on in 2015 in order to create winning strategies and global brands.

Most businesses spend big money testing their brand logo, catchy marketing phrases, and demographics, but spend little time training and validating that their employees can and do deliver memorable experiences to their customers. The result, according to a recent Gallup survey, with 70 percent of workers not fully engaged, is unhappy workers and poor customer experiences.

A new business incubator in Baltimore's Inner Harbor will cater to startup companies launched through universities. The Institute of Marine & Environmental Technology in January is opening a 4,300-square-foot incubator in its offices at the Christopher Columbus Center in Baltimore's Inner Harbor.

How would you use your very own drone? Would it benefit your small business in any way? Drones may not be much of a reality now except as a way to neutralize potentially dangerous combatants in battlefield situation overseas. But over the next decade drones may become common place and as personal as the smartphone.

Looking for your the best people to hire, but don't know where to start? Get a grip on the big picture with these tips.

390 SHARES It begins with the right people—hiring credible people and keeping an open mind about what they'll bring—and never really ends, if you're doing it right. The training and motivating continues for the life of your company.

image: http://www.freedigitalphotos.net 

Most people who set New Year’s resolutions don’t follow through on them.

Annual business goals often fall by the wayside as well. Consequently, late December brings a crush of articles on why we fail, and how we might reform the process to boost success. Among the best suggestions I’ve heard lately? Forget year-long resolutions and focus on 90-day goals. Several small business owners who tried this over the past year as part of an accountability group they participated in explained to me why this tweak helped their businesses, and lives.

Ready to launch your own business in 2015? You're not alone: Each year at CorpNet we see an uptick of new businesses formed in January. The New Year marks a new beginning, and what can be more fulfilling and exciting than making things happen with your own business?

As a serial entrepreneur myself, I wouldn't trade the opportunities and exhilaration for anything in the world, but I also realize that launching and running a business isn't for everyone. While you can't prepare yourself for every aspect of the entrepreneurial lifestyle, here are six important questions to ask before you quit your day job and dive in:

image: http://www.freedigitalphotos.net 

Chinese smartphone maker Xiaomi Corp. is now officially the world’s most valuable tech startup, worth $46 billion—the exclamation point on a year of extraordinary valuations.

Valuations placed on tech startups world-wide stretched to record heights in 2014 and accelerated at an exceptional pace, even when compared with the late 1990s dot-com boom.

Image: Lei Jun, founder and CEO of China's mobile company Xiaomi Corp., which venture-capital investors value at $46 billion. REUTERS 

I went to college, and grad school. (More than once, each.) I’ve attended the training programs and read the books and listened to the podcasts. And despite all of that, when I think about it, I actually learned some of my most important leadership lessons from my kids. So thanks, Andrew and Marni. I’m going to share your primo contributions to my leadership education with the rest of the world.

Kisses are at a premium in the capital of Liberia. Even a hug or a handshake between friends is often out of the question. That’s the new normal ever since Ebola began ravaging communities throughout Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea. For much of the past year, residents of these west African countries have wondered if daily life will ever be able to return to the way things once were. And at the heart of the matter is a scientific question: has Ebola now found a permanent foothold among humans? The answer, however, is not easy to suss out. In fact, it’s a guessing game. Even for top scientists.

Image: Morgana Wingard/Sarah Grile   

This is the first layer we have added on top of Startup Key Stages in collaboration with LawBite, an online legal platform that aims to address the issue of inaccessible law for SMEs.

Our common aim is to bring more transparency and efficiency to entrepreneurs and startups in regards to legal aspects, providing legal resources and services for entrepreneurs at every stage in the startup journey. By introducing this simple legal layer, we aim the startup entrepreneurs never get lost with legal aspects and get right services to time they are presently in.

Image: http://www.startupcommons.org/ 

We're all aware of the amazing research and technologies that universities are doing to improve people's lives. What makes many angels excited is that these new innovations can lead to great companies - if universities can connect with the right startup entrepreneurs.  

What is often surprising to learn is how difficult it is for angels and universities to work together to bring these technologies to market. While Google, started by Stanford graduate students Sergey Brin and Larry Page, is forever connected to the university through licensing agreements, many successful companies such as Facebook, Microsoft and Dell weren't. Although they were conceived of by college students, they were started after the founders left school.

Crowdfunding has helped creative entrepreneurs get the funding they need to see their inventions come to life! 

This year, we saw a variety of awesome items from tricked-out coolers to clever cat toys! 

Check out our list of the seven best crowdfunded inventions from the past year.

“Every time a bell rings, an angel gets his wings.” We all remember this saying from “It’s a Wonderful Life.” It’s a powerful image for how we earn just rewards when we apprentice well and learn how to help each other. Like the mythical angel in the movie, angel investors need to put in their time and seek out proper training to become full-fledged, high impact angels—especially when sitting on a startup board of directors. Having the right angel on a board can be the difference between a startup’s success and failure, and by extension, the success or failure of an angel investment.

‘Light’ will be the buzz word next year. The UN has proclaimed 2015 the International Year of Light and Light-based Technologies, with the goal of raising global awareness of how such technologies can help development by providing solutions to challenges in energy, education, agriculture and health.

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Gallup in 2014 published more than 80 articles about the attitudes and behaviors of residents in more than 140 countries. Through its World Poll, Gallup systematically tracks and reports on well-being, leadership approval ratings, confidence in national institutions, employment rates and other important issues affecting people's daily lives. The following list includes Gallup editors' picks for the top 10 most fascinating world discoveries of the year.

image: http://www.freedigitalphotos.net