It’s no secret that crowdfunding has transformed itself from an indie fundraising platform for personal projects to a complete corporate validation tool. But given the considerable evolution the concept has already undergone, what can we expect for its future? First, The Crowdfunding News According to crowdfunding research firm Massolution, crowdfunding grew 167 percent in 2014. To put that into dollars, crowdfunding platforms raised $16.2 billion in 2014, escalating to $34.4 billion in 2015. For 2016, crowdfunding trends are predicted to pass VC funding for the first time.

As startup accelerators multiply, some argue that they do a better job of serving their own interests than those of the businesses they're supposed to help launch. But that suspicion glosses over the diverse range of business models that more and more accelerators are adopting—even though they may not be getting quite as much attention.

Traditionally, accelerators tend to see money as the driving force behind startups' success, and make cash their top focus. Talent and technology become secondary priorities. In reality, though, those two things are more often what leads to success for accelerators and startups alike—then the money follows.

Image: Flickr user Canadian Film Centre

Many successful entrepreneurs embrace the mantra of Jeffrey Hayzlett’s best-selling book Think Big, ACT Bigger: The Rewards of Being Relentless. In scientific terms, this is the thought-action theory in effect, great achievement is preceded by a positive, ambitious idea. How can a young entrepreneur learn to build this type of muscle into their daily life and business model? Here are insights from Hayzlett, CEO of the Hayzlett Group, 2015 National Speakers Association’s Hall of Fame winner and C-Suite Network Host.

LINCOLN — The Nebraska Legislature’s Venture Development and Entrepreneurship Task Force will have a town hall meeting at 1:30 p.m. Thursday in the Paradise 1 Room at Ramada Inn at 301 Second Ave. Six state senators are the task force’s members: Dan Watermeier of Syracuse, Matt Williams of Gothenburg, Paul Schumacher of Columbus, Al Davis of Hyannis, John Stinner of Gering and Mark Kolterman of Seward.

I recently attended a Geek Girl Dinner, which raised, again, the extraordinary challenges of talking about women and entrepreneurship without getting sucked into a black and white discussion about how it ‘should’ be done.

The topic for the evening was ‘The Leap towards Entrepreneurship’, with the panel made up of Aisha Pandor (co-founder of SweepSouth), Jess Mouneimne (founder of Jam Media), Richard Bezuidenhout (founder of e-magination) and Nwabisa Mayema (co-founder of nnfinity).

Women can do more with less. That’s one takeaway from the most recent U.S. version of the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor, an annual survey that tracks entrepreneurial activity worldwide. Last year, female entrepreneurs in the U.S. reported needing only half as much as their male counterparts to start a new business, according to the report by researchers at Babson College and Baruch College.

SAN FRANCISCO — Private companies like Uber and Snapchat are not legally required to share financial information such as their valuation or the number of shares held by investors. For investors, that lack of transparency is something of a hazard.

Now Equidate, a market for trading shares of private companies, plans to lift the veil on some of that information. The company, based in San Francisco, said on Monday that it would make a host of data about private companies free and open to the public, drawing from corporate filings that include the prices that investors have paid to invest in the companies. Equidate also plans to release tools that shareholders can use to calculate the value of their private-company stock holdings.

Serial entrepreneur and tech expert Steve Sammartino built an MVP for his new startup in just 31 minutes and with just a few tricks, he says you can too.

The Melbourne-based founder has teamed up with former Lonely Planet CTO Gus Balbontin to launch the new company looking to disrupt the $13 billion global surfing market.

The duo launched the app, which connects surfers around the world, after quickly mashing together an MVP and had active users by the end of the same day.

China has long been known for its exports, for manufacturing items quickly and cheaply for sale abroad.

But the culture of mass production and copycatting technology has changed as the world's most populous nation has grown.

Image: Baidu is China's version of Google.AFP

While women and minority venture capitalists are still few and far between, the industry is making some progress -- particularly by admitting that diversity is an issue -- according to the National Venture Capital Association's first report on the subject.

It's been a year and a half since the NVCA launched its Diversity Task Force, making it an official priority to broaden the pool of investors -- typically white men -- who fund Silicon Valley's tech industry. During that time, former Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers partner Ellen Pao lost her high-profile gender discrimination trial against the storied Silicon Valley VC firm, and investors and tech companies have faced mounting pressure to diversify their teams.

Image: File photo: Aspect Ventures Jennifer Fonstadt, left, speaks to Women 2.0 CEO and co-founder Shaherose Charania, center, and National Venture Capital Association Diversity Task Force co-chair Kate Mitchell, right, after a panel discussion on diversity in the tech industry at Intel Corporation's Executive Briefing Center in Santa Clara, Calif., on Tuesday, June 9, 2015. (LiPo Ching/Bay Area News Group archives)

(Venture capitalists could learn something from Olive Garden.AP) It turns out that corporate governance is about more than just lawyers endlessly droning on about Delaware law after all. Everywhere in the capital markets, large institutional investors are laser focused on what’s going on (or not going on) in boardrooms of public companies. BlackRock, CalSTRS, and CalPERS, among others, have substantive resources devoted to assessing governance quality in their portfolio companies, and depending upon which source you believe, there is upwards of $200 billion under management by activist investors predominantly focused on effectuating boardroom changes.

1) What problems did you see in the angel investing/venture capital space that you felt needed to be fixed, and how did you think they should be fixed?

The need for investor education was one of the biggest gaps we observed in the angel investing world. There were a lot of high-net-worth individuals coming from traditional backgrounds that were interested in getting involved with investing in tech, but they all saw it as a very exclusive club,hard to break into. Those who managed to do so were making a lot of costly mistakes for themselves and their portfolio teams.

Image: Tugce Ergul, Co-Founder and Executive Director of Angel Labs.

Most management writing focuses on startups or large companies, but if recent performance is any indicator, midcap companies are the place to be. U.S. organizations with $10 million–$1 billion in revenue make up the fourth largest global economy in the world, with $3.8 trillion in private sector GDP. Over 200,000 midcap businesses collectively employ 34% of the U.S. workforce. During the 2008 recession, midcap companies proved surprisingly tough: Fully 82% of them survived to see the recovery (only 57% of small businesses made it through), and midcap companies added an average of 20 jobs each while big businesses were shedding thousands of jobs.

Migaloo sighting alert! He's famous for being big and beautiful and he's currently making his way up the east coast of Australia on his annual migration.

Byron Bay woman Alison Reid was hoping to capture the magnificent mammal on camera when she booked a whale watching trip. But when he actually showed up, she was overcome with emotion, telling the ABC, "I cried. I screamed 'You gorgeous whale, thank you for being here for us today.'"

Image: JOHN EDWARDS/FLICKR

If you’re considering seeking funding to either launch or grow your business, angel investors are one potential source of financing worth considering. But realize: angel investors get pitched every day, and turn down 90 percent of the startups that approach them. What can you do to put yourself in the best light possible to increase your chances of getting funded?

Every new entrepreneur who has not spent years in corporate life has the advantage of an unbiased look at business opportunities, but at the same time has the disadvantage of missing critical business experiences that can cost them dearly in their first startup venture. In my experience, building a successful business is more difficult than building an innovative solution.

Image: http://blog.startupprofessionals.com

Sometimes the best way to stay competitive is not to compete. It may be less risky than you think.

More and more companies – from start-ups to incumbents– are taking a less literal approach to pursuing competitive advantage. They’re discovering untapped value potential by engaging industry rivals with a hybrid strategy of cooperation and competition, or “coopetition”. For example, Amazon and LinkedIn have welcomed competitors onto their respective platforms, recognising that expansion of their network was its own reward.

The Brexit referendum result sparked market volatility, upending the status quo, but it is not all doom and gloom.

After taking a dive in the aftermath of the Brexit vote, the global markets have steadied and refocused on other news as businesses assess the damage, and opportunities, ahead.  Although US$2 trillion was knocked off the global markets in the aftermath of the referendum, I believe this initial strong reaction was very much due to the shock factor of a voting result not anticipated by most investors. Many big names in the investing world were caught wrong footed, creating a great deal of volatility and downward pressure on international markets.

An entrepreneur is the King of his own seven kingdoms. He/she is the person who builds the entire empire all by himself. Entrepreneurship is not the glamorous career path it’s been made out to be. It’s not about big ideas and ideals. It’s not about hopes and dreams. It’s not about guts and glory. It’s not even about invention and innovation. And it’s certainly not about a search for fame and fortune.  More than anything, entrepreneurship is a game of attrition. It’s about having the determination, the discipline, and the cash to see it through. It’s about not giving up and being the last man or woman standing when everyone else has fallen by the wayside.

When I left Microsoft after 14 years, I had no idea what I wanted to do. All I knew was I needed to be my own boss and I wanted to be able to run my business from anywhere in the world. This summer marks my third stretch of living in Europe for an extended period, all while I run my business full-time.

Initially, I was worried: Would I be able to stay in touch with the team and the customers? Could I access the information I needed to lead my company?