Between the number of new venture capital firms, accelerators and incubators and the changing dynamic between firms and startups, venture capital isn’t what it used to be.

That was the message delivered by a panel of venture capital partners Thursdayat GROW Conference in downtown Vancouver. Paul Singh of 500 Startups moderated the discussion, which included US Venture Partners’ Dafina Toncheva, Greycroft’s Dana Settle and First Round Capital’s Rob Hayes.

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Will Davis and Evan Baehr, co-founders of an Austin, Texas, tech company called Outbox, saw how tight the venture capital business has gotten when they went looking for money a few months back. When they'd first raised funds two years ago, Silicon Valley investors had been eager to deal. Then Facebook's IPO flop popped that bubble.

But aspiring Zucks are in luck: Entrepreneurs have a growing number of alternatives, from new online platforms for meeting investors to nascent federal "crowdfunding" rules that aim to let moms and pops back startups.

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This week the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) welcomed dozens of representatives from Maryland businesses to learn about collaboration and technology licensing opportunities at a “Green Technology and Advanced Manufacturing Showcase.” The event was hosted by the Maryland Technology Development Corporation (TEDCO), an independent organization that provides entrepreneurial business assistance and seed funding for the development of startup companies in Maryland.

In a 2011 Memorandum, President Obama wrote, “Innovation fuels economic growth, the creation of new industries, companies, jobs, products and services, and the global competitiveness of U.S. industries. One driver of successful innovation is technology transfer, in which the private sector adapts federal research for use in the marketplace.”

Edit yourself, include specifics and keep your speech short.

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Fareed speaks with Chris Schroeder, an entrepreneur and venture capitalist, about entrepreneurship in the Middle East.

But the states of the Arab world are highly statist…I don't think of them as places where you would see the growth of entrepreneurship.

One of the great stories about entrepreneurship now is the fact that so much is happening bottom-up, again, enabled by technology. And so as you know better than anyone, all emerging markets have tremendous complexity and histories and legacies to work at.

The hype around Yahoo's month-long roll out of its new logo may have you wondering if your company is ready for a new design, too.

"A ogo is your business's public face," says Patrick Llewellyn, president and CEO of 99designs, a graphic design firm where businesses hold online contests to find new logos. "If it doesn't represent your business at its core, it's time for a change."

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When most people think of the world's hottest startup scenes, Silicon Valley, New York and Boston are likely to come to mind. So it might seem strange that a new global startup conference, Startup Phenomenon, has chosen Boulder, Colo. as its host city.

Only it shouldn't. According to a recent report by the Kauffman Foundation, Boulder has the greatest density of high-tech startups of any metropolitan area in the United States. That's right even more than Silicon Valley, which comes in at No. 3 on the list.

Shimi Cohen made this video explaning how social networks can paradoxically make us lonely – or lonelier – by instilling false concepts about relationships. Based on this book and an article by Dr. Yair Amichai-Hamburgers.

CAPITALISM is culture. To sustain it, laws and institutions are important, but the more fundamental role is played by the basic human spirit of independence and initiative. Enlarge This Image

Morgan Schweitzer The decisive role of the “spirit of capitalism” is an old concept, going back at least to Max Weber, but it needs refreshing today with new evidence and new thinking. Edmund S. Phelps, a professor of economics at Columbia University and a Nobel laureate, has written an interesting new book on the subject. It’s called “Mass Flourishing: How Grassroots Innovation Created Jobs, Challenge and Change” (Princeton University Press), and it contains a complex new analysis of the importance of an entrepreneurial culture.

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“The purpose of technology is not to confuse the brain but to serve the body,” William S. Burroughs once said in a Nike commercial, of all places. But things haven’t worked out that way, at least not for most of us. Our technologies are designed to maximize shareholder profit, and if that means distracting, confusing or aggregating the end-user, then so be it.

But another path is possible, argues Alex Soojung-Kim Pang in his new book The Distraction Addiction: Getting the Information You Need and the Communication You Want, Without Enraging Your Family, Annoying Your Colleagues, and Destroying Your Soul.

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I am a college student in a field that traditionally offers unpaid internships. If you were to ask me two years ago to work for a big-name publication with no pay, I would have jumped at the chance.

But this year, while browsing internship listings for this summer, I had no interest in unpaid positions. I considered them a last resort, only applying to a few in case I had no other choice.  But really, no internship was more appealing than an unpaid one. I considered traveling, waiting tables and a couple other alternatives I thought would be more rewarding than working for someone for free.

Humans have been practicing cartography — or, mapmaking — since ancient times, but much has changed since the digital revolution.

It may be hard to remember at this point, but before there was Google Maps, there was Rand McNally. Before there was MapQuest, there was an atlas in your glove compartment. Israeli designer Dafna Aizenberg decided to visualize something new — the Web — in a way that harkens back to the age-old art of mapmaking.

If you think crowdfunding leads to easy money, you’re wrong. With thousands of new crowdfunding projects launched on a daily basis, it’s easy to get lost in the crowd. So, if you are looking to launch your own crowdfunding campaign, you have to know how to beat out your competition. But how do you make sure your crowdfunding effort is successful?

There are several things you can do to ensure that you will get as much funding as possible:

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The ultimate compliment that any entrepreneur can get is that they can “see around corners.” This is a statement that they are willing and able (and successful) at projecting market and technology turns, not just straight-line innovations. They have the courage to make bold decisions, often contrary to conventional market research.

Steve Jobs of Apple has been maybe the most visible example of this phenomenon, but others often mentioned include Richard Branson (Virgin Group), Joe Costello (Cadence Design), and Howard Schultz (Starbucks). Most of you could suggest one more, but not many.

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The word entrepreneur is tossed around a lot today, but it’s meaning changes depending on the context.  The concept was first introduced in 1723 by French economist Richard Cantillon but was more clearly articulated, codified, and coined in the writings of Jean Baptiste Say beginning in 1803. However, this concept of the entrepreneur has drastically changed over the past 200 years.

Say defined an entrepreneur as an economic agent who organizes the means of production – land, labor, and capital – to produce a given product. He then sells this product to generate revenue to cover his costs of production – rent to the landowner, wages to labor, and interest to capital – and the leftover residual is profit. However, Say’s entrepreneur does not simply produce and profit, but constantly seeks to increase profits by lowering costs of production or increasing the efficiency of resources by moving them from areas of low productivity to areas of high productivity. If this definition sounds familiar, it is because it is the one found in most standard textbooks in economics. It might also sound familiar because cost-cutting strategies and the relocation of economic resources are common practices today. But, is this the image that comes to mind when we think of an entrepreneur? 

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“THERE is a difference between entrepreneurship and innovation.”

That was the advice given by Paul Waithe, Manager of the Export Promotion and Development Division at the Barbados Investment and Development Corporation (BIDC).

He made these comments at the second National Innovation Competition Workshop, held recently at the Ivan Harewood Centre, Christ Church.

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Back when I was in high school and college, I was definitely someone who ate much more after school and at dinnertime than I did earlier in the day. In high school, I'd come home ravenous and eat a snack that was more like a meal. And I'd usually top that off with a hearty home-cooked dinner my mother made.

In college, all bets were off. Depending on the day, I'd start with a small breakfast (usually just cereal and milk or scrambled eggs and toast), have a large lunch and an even bigger dinner. And like many college students who are awake for far more hours than they should be, I had lots of midday snacks and often took to feasting late at night on pizza or cheese fries. Did I mention I was overweight most of my high school and early college years?

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Everybody talks about the attributes of a great leader, but great leaders wouldn’t exist without great followers. Ironically, you can’t be a leader until you’ve mastered the art of following. So do you know what makes a great follower? Understand this, and you’ll understand both how to be a better follower and how to draw them.

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Venture capital gets great press but lousy investment returns. Recently VCs have tried to boost their returns by hiring people with titles like Director of Community to get their portfolio companies to share ideas. Will it pay off in higher investment returns? No, but it will help at the margin.

VC used to be a great business. For example, in 1999, the average VC fund earned a 10 year internal rate of return (IRR) of 83.4% according to Cambridge Associates. Since then, IRRs have plunged to the point where an investor would be far better off — after adjusting for risk — to buy a stock index mutual fund. For example, the recent VC 10-year IRR is just south of 6.1% during which time the S&P 500 rose 8%.

After a slow start, investment dollars arriving in Australia through the Significant Investor Visa (SIV) program have started to flow more consistently and the phenomenon holds some promise for the local start-up sector.

With the program still in a nascent stage, it might be a bit too early to gauge its impact on the local innovation scene. However, it's an opportunity that warrants a closer look. 

The first ten of the so-called sub-class 188 visas have now been granted, some nine months after the scheme started in mid-November last year. These visas holders will have brought with them a minimum $50 million.

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