Many of you will know something about angels because most deals that venture capitalists fund have received at least some money from individual investors. Frequently these investments are considered the "friends and family" round, despite the fact that they often include neither friends nor family but rather simply individuals known to the entrepreneur and willing to bet on making a monetary return by investing in him or her.

These "angels" have been a large source of investment dollars for startups, and yet they come from a source which has been historically diffuse and unbranded and therefore difficult for VCs to work with in a professional and consistent way. But, about 15 years ago, angel investors began to become more organized.

With proper backing, cultural and creative industries can also provide a significant contribution to the economy, Finance Minister Tonio Fenech said on Wednesday.

Mr Fenech was speaking at the launch of a consultation process as part of the Creative Economy Project, an initiative originally announced in the 2010 Budget speech.

In line with the Budget, a working group was set up to help draft the regulatory and fiscal organisational framework to promote a creative economy.

The creative industries include a wide variety of activities, including, among others, fireworks manufacture and software design. The working group classifies creative industries under 4 headings: heritage, the arts, the media and creative business services, although they are nevertheless related to and dependent on each other. A group of experts for each heading is to be set up, and each group will hold a number of consultation meetings to develop a strategy for creative and cultural industries.

President Obama railed recently against critics of his administration’s handling of the BP crisis by arguing that the government has done all it could to get control of the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. But clearly the public doesn’t think so — recent polls show the spread of the oil stain across the Gulf of Mexico is also staining his presidency.

No one thinks Obama can fix the leak, but there appears to be a hunger for him to become the adult in charge and take action. Action is the essence of crisis leadership, and the main reason why I think Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal is one the few political leaders whose reputation is gaining in this mounting mess.

(WASHINGTON) June 10, 2010 – Chairman Lipinski and Members of the Subcommittee, thank you for this opportunity to testify before the Subcommittee focused on the role that improving technology commercialization of government-funded research can play in driving economic growth and job creation. If there is a silver lining to the economic crisis our country now faces, it is that policymakers and academics, as well as citizens, are now paying tremendous attention to job creation and economic growth. For far too long, the sources of job creation have been taken for granted. The Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation has been interested in economic growth through the mechanisms of innovation and firm formation, and we welcome the renewed focus on these issues generally, as well as the more narrowly focused conversation we will have today on technology commercialization.

In my testimony today, I will highlight three main policy proposals and review the Kauffman Foundation's current thinking on best practices in technology commercialization. First, we call for an increase in the transparency of research resulting from federal funding through the creation of an "Innovation Exchange." Second, we encourage federal agencies funding research to become more involved with driving university-specific improvements in technology commercialization. Third, we call for an increase in funding allocations for proof-of-concept centers and commercialization education programs through federal agencies funding research.

The summers are hard for a lot of people. Business slows down and the calls of the beach and BBQs make it mentally difficult to stay inside and focus on growing our businesses. And even though you love your business and providing value to your customers, you start to feel a little burnt out and you’re less productive than you should be. We’ve all be there. But here are 7 ways to help avoid the summer burnout, so that you can enjoy your business and the nice weather.

Put more focus on the things you value: Go grab pen and paper and write down everything that you did last week. Note how many times you tweeted, how much time you spent on email, every task that you completed during the day. Then cross off everything that you did that didn’t provide value to your business. By doing that you’re likely to find that you waste a lot of hours doing work that you don’t really have to do, stuff you just picked up along the way. Use the summer months to rid yourself of these “extra” tasks to help you re-focus your effort on the things that do provide to your business. Doing so will increase your productivity and make you more excited about the work you’re doing. Re-adjust your work and your priorities to focus on bringing direct value to your business.

Think your company must innovate to stay ahead of the competition? Imagine being a product manager at Gillette.

Beset by competitive forces from all sides, whether it’s rival manufacturers looking for an edge or fickle consumers looking for the next best shave, the Procter & Gamble subsidiary is forced to innovate – or go dull.

In its mandate to “innovate or perish,” the company this month introduces the Fusion ProGlide. The new, multi-blade razor features seven new “innovations.” Whether this is the next – or the last – step in shaving innovation remains to be seen.

The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) says that broadband funded through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) will improve the quality jobs of life for half a million Americans living in rural areas. Over 5,000 immediate and direct jobs will be created as a result of the funding.

"The Obama Administration supports the expansion of rural broadband so that all areas of the country have access to the tools necessary to spur economic development and job creation in the 21st century economy," said Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack in a statement. "These broadband loans and grants, provided through the Recovery Act, are critical to building and revitalizing the economy and infrastructure of rural America."

New research has suggested that larger wind turbine blades are more efficient at generating electricity in certain circumstances, such as in lower wind speeds. But wind developers at New Energy World Network’s Wind Energy Investor Forum said there is a limit to how large a blade on a wind turbine can be.

‘Are we going to continue to grow blade size?’ said Vestas Wind Systems’ senior power sector specialist, Per Holmgaard when speaking at the forum.

Researchers at the University of Glasgow in cooperation with Gaia-Wind recently found that larger blades are more efficient at generating electricity in lower wind speeds.

Pitching your startup to investors is a deeply personal matter. More often than not, they––politely or not––call your baby ugly. And that hurts. Good founders, I think, learn to not take the criticism too personally. But in the end, it is personal. They are judging you. And your baby. Thumbs up, or thumbs down.

And such is life. But how should we, as founders, judge them? Not all investors are created equal, after all. Once betrothed, the investor––unlike the entrepreneur––is unfirable, a step-father to your newborn startup, an undivorceable spouse in an epic marriage.

Like any proud founder, I am extremeley protective of my newborn startup. She’s my baby, after all.

ST. PAUL — In today’s economy, entrepreneurs and public leaders alike are focused on identifying areas of growth, and the green economy is an area everyone is eyeing. In fact, venture capitalists and the federal government are already putting money into green technologies. If that’s any indicator, the green economy is the place to be in this economic recovery.

Minnesota is uniquely positioned to lead the green revolution. In fact, Minnesota could be the Silicon Valley of the green economy. But, if Minnesota stands a chance, our state must move quickly.

Minnesota is leaps and bounds ahead of some other states and countries, giving us the luxury of ramping up quickly. Historically a leader in areas such as wind power, ethanol and innovation, Minnesota has the skills, the workforce, the infrastructure and the determination to lead the green revolution.

Shared problems, new technology and better communication all mean innovation is ready to drive development, say Gordon Conway andJeff Waage.

Science innovation’s potential to boost international development has never been greater.

Rich and poor increasingly face shared problems. We are all facing agricultural insecurity, infectious and chronic diseases with global spread, and the challenges of developing a low carbon economy and adapting to climate change.

And while rich and poor will take different paths, common problems will have elements of common solutions, particularly in science and technology.

The Army wants to develop a massive virtual world populated by 10,000 avatars that are managed by artificial intelligence and operate over a 32-mile square simulated landscape.

Officials at the Army Research, Development and Engineering Command's Simulation and Technology Training Center said they want a systems integrator to put together a virtual world that includes soldiers, vehicles and weapons that can move around a landscape built from Defense Department digital terrain elevation data.

The Simulation and Technology Training Center also said in its request for information that it wants to incorporate technologies used in massively multiplayer online games and offer classified and unclassified versions.

Diagnostics for All, a nonprofit startup in Cambridge, MA, has designed a cheap, disposable blood test for liver damage. The device uses a stack of paper the size of a postage stamp for a test of toxicity for drugs to treat HIV and tuberculosis.

Some antiretroviral therapies and many TB drugs are toxic to the liver. Patients on HIV and TB medication in rich countries are typically monitored every month for liver damage and taken off the treatment if liver damage becomes imminent. "In the U.S., [testing] is routine. It's expected, it's standard," says Nira Pollock, a faculty member at Harvard Medical School and infectious diseases expert at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston.

On May 26, 2010 the Initiative for a Competitive Inner City convened a roundtable on Anchor Institutions to help shape the agenda for the 2010 Summit of the Inner City Economic Forum. The Summit this year will focus on where and how jobs will be created in the inner city economy during the next decade. The roundtable discussion convened a diverse group researchers and practitioners to discuss emerging trends in the role of critical economic development anchors (universities and hospitals).

Advertising needs to send a clear message that users can easily grab. At the same time, the message must to intrigue and entice the customer to purchase the product.

Most of advertisements that we can see on TV or magazines are still elaborates. Instead, I think that simple and minimal advertisement is easier to understand for users and capture their attention in less time.

Create an advertisement minimalistic, and at the same time, clean to understand isn’t easy to do. This post contains a collection of 30 advertisements where minimalism is the main feature.

The figures for venture-capital funding for the first quarter of this year are in, and it's a mixed bag. Some sectors are seeing funding increase while others are losing ground. Interestingly, the two biggest sectors didn't gain any ground, while traditionally less-funded industries moved ahead.

When we look at the psychology of human behavior we can begin to understand certain motivations which draw adults to social media.

Abraham Maslow published his theory of human motivation in 1943. Its popularity continues unabated. Like his colleague Carl Rogers, Maslow believed that actualization was the driving force of human personality, a concept he captures in his 1954 book, Motivation and Personality Maslow’s great insight was to place actualization into a hierarchy of motivation.

MENTION the name of a big European technology firm in Silicon Valley and chances are the reaction will be a mixture of pity and disparagement. SAP, the German software heavyweight? Past its prime. Finland’s Nokia, the world’s biggest maker of handsets? Missed the boat on smart-phones. Ericsson, of Sweden, the leading vendor of gear for mobile networks? Clobbered by the Chinese.

Turn the conversation to start-ups, though, and ears prick up. When will Spotify, a popular London-based online music service, be available in America? Why did Playfish, whose online games attract tens of millions, sell out to Electronic Arts, an American giant? And what will happen to Skype, whose software handles nearly 10% of international telephone calls, after its divorce from eBay, an online auctioneer?

According to data from the US Census Bureau, San Francisco has more people with bachelors' or graduate degrees per square mile than any other city.