Angel investors are still the lifeblood of early-stage startups, despite the surge of activity in crowdfunding and an increasing early interest from venture capitalists. According to the Angel Capital Association, at least 300,000 people have made angel investments in the last two years, totaling $24 billion in the U.S. alone. These are all accredited investors who risk their own money.

On March 1, thirteen states held their presidential primaries in what is known as “Super Tuesday,” when candidates stand to win more delates than on any other day of the primary calendar. Each candidate has addressed a number of issues over the last few months, but their stances on tech issues have not often made it onto the debate. The rapid advancement of technology and its continuous proliferation raise several matters for the next presidential administration to address. If voted into office, how does each candidate plan to address Internet sales tax, cybersecurity, smartphone encryption, and net neutrality?

Image: http://www.brookings.edu

The democratization of startup funding promised by the JOBS Act has already begun, with a handful of Regulation A+ equity crowdfunding offerings already qualified by the SEC to raise capital and many others in the process of gaining qualification. Considering the early interest in equity crowdfunding and the demonstrated popularity of rewards-based crowdfunding, venture capitalists will increasingly miss out on investment opportunities as more companies raise capital via crowdfunding. This raises the question: can venture capital investment and crowdfunding coexist?

Image: http://www.crowdfundinsider.com

SAN JOSE -- Silicon Valley's tech workforce is expanding more rapidly than nearly every other innovation hub in the nation, and technology employees in the South Bay are far more productive than anywhere in the United States, according to a report released Wednesday.

"While Silicon Valley continues to have a white hot economy and high job growth, there are several warning signs," according to the Silicon Valley Competitiveness and Innovation Project 2016, which released the study as a kind of report card on the region's economic health.

The Internet of Things (IoT) has been labeled as "the next Industrial Revolution" because of the way it will change the way people live, work, entertain, and travel, as well as how governments and businesses interact with the world.

In fact, the revolution is already starting. 

That brand new car that comes preloaded with a bunch of apps? Internet of Things. Those smart home devices that let you control the thermostat and play music with a few words? Internet of Things. That fitness tracker on your wrist that lets you tell your friends and family how your exercise is going? You get the point.

My clients and I sat across from each other in stunned silence, gazing in horror at what lay before us. No, it wasn’t a notice that the IRS was coming to visit. But close.

It was a timeline document prepared for us by our newly hired, and I must add, well compensated, project consultants. It was poorly laid out, badly aligned, skimpy on details, and had a number of unexplained big gaps between events. It contained typos—further evidence that no one bothered to review it before sending it off to us.

A great logo change can breathe new life into an old brand.

This year, several major companies changed their logos. To identify the best revamps, Business Insider looked through graphic-design publisher UnderConsideration's Brand New blog archives and picked our favorites. We only considered large, non-athletic-team or university brands that rolled out the changes in 2015.

Got a job interview coming up? You can run through practice questions until your tongue goes numb, select the perfect Olivia Pope-meets-Alicia Florrick outfit and send out a Pulitzer Prize-worthy thank you note. But if your body language doesn’t convey the right message, you’re undermining all of your efforts.

Join us for an evening of networking around innovation and commercialization at the BioBuzz @ Relevant Health.  Meet with the organizations fueling commercialization in Maryland - BHI & TEDCO - and mingle with the first cohort of companies in the regions newest BioHealth accelerator - Relevant Health. 

BHI, who operates the relevant health accelerator, is an innovation intermediary focused on commercializing market-relevant bio-health innovations and increasing access to early-stage funding. This is your chance to get to know some of their TEAM and Entrepreneur's in Residence to help you bring your product to market.

At the Upfront Summit in early February, we had a chance to have many off-the-record conversations with Limited Partners (LPs) who fund Venture Capital (VC) funds about their views of the market. While I’m not an LP, the following post represents my discussions with more than 100 LP firms – specifically ones that do fund VCs – and full survey data from 73 firms, so I’ve tried to capture the essence of what I’ve learned.

Sometimes you have too much on your plate or you’re just not interested in taking on a project you’ve been asked to work on. You might not have a choice in the matter, but if you do, how do you turn down the opportunity in a way that won’t offend the person offering? How can you avoid being labeled “not a team player” or “difficult to work with”?

I made an omelet with parmesan cheese and shredded coconut. Mistake.

Of course it wasn’t good, you say, you who know how to cook. But if I’d thought it wouldn’t be good, I wouldn’t have made it. I like eggs, I like parmesan cheese, and I like shredded coconut. It should have worked. Then again, it could have been worse. I like barbeque sauce too.

Drexel University is scheduled to announce Wednesday afternoon that it is partnering with Brandywine Realty Trust for the development of its Innovation Neighborhood. Drexel sought a master developer for its so-called Innovation Neighborhood, a 10-acre swath in University City that, when built out, could have more than 5 million square feet of new space. It would be an investment that would cost billions of dollars once completed and take years to execute.

Both hedge funds and venture capital funds offer investors opportunities to make money. They share the same ultimate goal of generating the highest possible return through smart investments, but they have some fundamental differences that investors should understand.

Hedge funds Hedge funds are private investment funds that pool capital from investors and use specific strategies to generate a return on investment. The name is derived from the practice of hedging market risk by pairing complementary investments and thereby offsetting losses. Hedge funds are typically classified according to their investment style. While some hedge funds focus on stocks, for example, others focus on distressed debt or commodities.

STATE HOUSE, BOSTON, MARCH 1, 2016…..The rate of spending on research and development in Massachusetts outpaced that of its peer states with vibrant technolgy sectors as the innovation economy grew by more than $25 billion from 2009 to 2014, driving $209.8 billion in economic output in 2014, according to an annual report released Tuesday.

UNC-Chapel Hill, N.C. State and N.C. Central are following in the footsteps of Duke University in creating a network of affluent university alumni interested in providing seed capital for startups founded on technology hatched at their respective institutions.

At the same time the four networks of alumni investors have formed a partnership, the Triangle Venture Alliance, that will cooperate with each other and even co-invest in some cases.

Despite the rumors of its demise, the truth is that email is still very much alive and kicking. In fact, a 2015 survey commissioned by Adobe found that we spend roughly 30 hours each week checking our email. That’s the equivalent of a demanding part-time job.

"Most people's email is just teeming with all the stuff they need to do," says Maura Thomas, founder of the productivity website RegainYourTime.com and author of Personal Productivity Secrets. The key to slaying the email dragon is multifaceted, but it really boils down to better email and workflow management.

Usually when I reach out to experts I get enthusiastic replies. But that was not the case when I emailed Professor Bernard Roth, academic director and cofounder of Stanford University's d.school. He said he would "not help" me on a story I wanted to write about some excellent achievement habits he has refined and taught for several decades, which he’s recently collected in a book called The Achievement Habit.

We’re living in a day and age when being an entrepreneur is cool.

Back in the late 90s when I graduated from Columbia, everyone either went to work on Wall Street, went to law school, became a consultant, or went on to med school. But that’s all changed.

There are many different components that need to come together to create a successful business. You, as an entrepreneur, are a huge part of what creates the success in your business. Your personal habits and struggles can either cause your business to flourish or have it end up becoming another statistic.