Recent equity crowdfunding investment opportunities have brought valuations to the spotlight. Companies are raising finance from the crowd at record valuations. Professional investors are taking note, unsure of what this means for them and wondering how the crowd expects to make a profit. A recent report shows just how clear this trend is. With valuations easily influenced by hype and marketing, is the crowd overpaying for their investments?

1. "I want to put a ding in the universe." - Steve Jobs

2. "Ideas won't keep. Something must be done about them." - Alfred North Whitehead

3. "Intuition will tell the thinking mind where to look next." - Jonas Salk

4. "If you have always done it that way, it is probably wrong." - Charles Kettering

5. "Security is mostly a superstition. Life is either a daring adventure or nothing." - Helen Keller

NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- When it comes to picking which start-ups to invest in, there is one key metric that trumps all: Who is running it? 

A great team will take a bad idea and turn it into a viable business. Inversely, a bad team will destroy a great idea overnight. This is why it's important to pay more attention to the founders and teams of start-ups than the idea itself. 

Being an entrepreneur isn’t easy. It requires the kinds of habits that most people simply don’t have, along with a discipline, passion and dedication that are unmatched among non-business owners. And while every entrepreneur is different, we all have a lot in common -- including many of the same habits.

State and local governments, along with business associations, are feeling increased pressure to find new ways to foster regional growth through innovation.  Traditionally, government has provided tax breaks and R&D funding to spur innovation. However, it has become clear that simply providing financial incentives doesn’t solve the real need for faster, more effective innovation in businesses. Enabling access to innovative IP and technology versus developing it internally has been proven as the new formula for success in businesses large and small around the world. Systematically engaging with outside parties beyond suppliers and customers in order to identify and implement needed technology has become an approach that is known as “open innovation”. Open innovation (OI), the process of going outside of a company’s four walls to source innovation, provides a model for seeking and finding potential solutions in parallel or even unrelated industries.

Image: http://www.innovationexcellence.com

The life sciences industry is increasingly taking over from the tech sector in driving global innovation, according to a Thomson Reuters analysis of global patents. With more patents applied for or granted in 2014 than in any other year in history, humankind has never been more inventive, whether in designing driverless cars, discovering new drugs for cancer or building bionic limbs. But growth in innovation has nonetheless slowed, with worldwide patent volume up 3 percent last year, the smallest annual rise since the end of the global recession in 2009. Previous years have seen near double-digit percentage increases.

SAN FRANCISCO—Personal computers, cellphones, self-driving cars—Gordon Moore predicted the invention of all these technologies half a century ago in a 1965 article for Electronics magazine. The enabling force behind those inventions would be computing power, and Moore laid out how he thought computing power would evolve over the coming decade. Last week the tech world celebrated his prediction here because it has held true with uncanny accuracy—for the past 50 years.

Image: Jon Sullivan/Wikimedia Commons

The 20th Annual Eurasian/Russian - American Innovation Technology Week (RANIT) will take place in Philadelphia, PA; Washington, D.C.; New York, NY; and the Mid-Atlantic Region from June 11-25, 2015. The 20th RANIT will include discussions with business leaders, policymakers, financiers, and technology corporations to promote technological cooperation between Eurasian/Russian, and American businesses.  The 20th RANIT will focus on biotechnology, the pharmaceutical industry, medical equipment, life sciences, alternative energy, nanotechnology, the chemical industry, information technology, technology in education, and entrepreneurship. Key RANIT events will include a Welcoming Ceremony and Opening Sessions at Philadelphia City Hall with a 20th Anniversary Reception immediately following this event in the Comcast Center on June 11, the annual Eurasian/Russian - American Life Sciences Innovation Conference on June 11-12, the Eurasian/Russian - American Innovation Technology, University Research & Commercialization Roundtable at the University City Science Center in Philadelphia on June 15. Additional events will be the Mid-Atlantic – Eurasia Business Council organized Eurasian/Russian participation, including a session discussing the Eurasian Economic Union on June 17 in the Global Innovation Hubs program at the 2015 BIO International Convention in Philadelphia on June 15-18 and the 20th RANIT closing announcement at and REFF Wall Street in New York on June 24-25.

The book What A Great Idea! 2.0 by Chic Thompson is chock full o’ bits of wisdom that help with creativity and creating new ideas.

One bit Chic writes about, is how new ideas are often struck down with “killer phrases.” These phrases reflect the lack of acceptance of something new or different.

In a recent post published on VentureBeat, Christian Claussen, a managing partner at European VC firm Ventech, condemned all value-add VC models. In his post, likely a response to recent articles supporting the model from OpenView founding partner Scott Maxwell as well as Brad Feld and Marc Andreessen, Claussen proceeds to pick apart VC value-add from every angle. While he makes some compelling arguments, Claussen largely misses the point.

TEMPLE, TEXAS, May 26, 2015 — Agriculture Under Secretary Lisa Mensah has announced USDA is seeking applications for grants to support rural community economic development.

“This funding from USDA will ensure that technical and financial assistance is available for those who wish to improve the quality of life in rural communities,” Mensah said. “Very often, great visions for better rural communities exist, but the next steps toward positive change are unclear. These grants will help rural communities build a path to community economic development so rural America can share in the nation’s economic recovery."

The “DIY economy,” the “maker movement,” or whatever buzzword you want to call it, entrepreneurship is the fastest-growing segment of the U.S. economy.

With the tools for leveraging technology, finding and recruiting talent, and promoting business at the fingertips of nearly anyone with a good idea and a solid market plan, the new innovation economy is as much about democracy as it is about capitalism.

The Academy of Radiology Research has resorted to a creative tactic in a bid to halt the decline in public funding for science: It showed Congress a picture of how much the nation earns from the government’s research dollar.

Every $100 million invested in research by the National Institutes of Health, according to the R&D consulting firm Battelle, generates almost six patents. At the National Science Foundation $100 million generates more than 10. At the National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering — which finances research in radiology — it produces almost 25 patents. And these patents sparked $578.2 million worth of additional R&D further downstream.

In the search to find the high-paying jobs and industries of the future, Neil deGrasse Tyson has an idea for a novel solution. How about a militarised space race to Mars?      

More specifically, the famed American astrophysicist says that if he could just get China's leaders to leak a memo to the West about plans to build military bases on Mars, "the US would freak out and we'd all just build spacecraft and be there in 10 months". 

Dell is crazy about technology. It's also crazy about entrepreneurs. 

Today, the Round Rock, Texas-based tech giant has launched the Global Entrepreneurship Call to Action. The aim is to get at least 100,000 signatures from entrepreneurs and other business leaders to support the passage of UN Sustainable Development Goal 8.

It can’t be easy watching your beloved, talented, educated money-pit child walk off that graduation stage, diploma in hand . . . and move back home with no job prospects. Last summer when I graduated with a couple of freelance jobs but was looking for something full-time, I was lucky that my parents mostly employed the strategy they had been using with me since the fourth grade: "She’s got it." They were always supportive but never pestered me about what progress I had made that day, where I was applying, who I had reached out to, because they knew I was on top it. And guess what? Their trust in me gave me much more confidence in my job search than constant nagging would have.

A recent survey showed that Delaware is one of the worst states for a woman to start a business. It turns out it may not be so hot for men, either.

The lack of available capital is most often cited as the reason that prevents business growth. And many women business owners said venture capital firms are selective about where they deploy their money, banks have tightened lending requirements and the state isn't doing enough to educate business owners on how to access government grants.

Novartis AG has an extensive line of biologic drugs that can only be taken by injection, but now the pharmaceutical giant is making a bet on a “robotic pill,” a preclinical product that could make drugs like insulin available for the first time without the use of a needle.

Image: http://blogs.wsj.com

In some ways, the U.S. economy has rebounded quite well since the recession. At 5.5%, national unemployment is half what it was. The stock market has more doubled in value. And cities like San Francisco and Austin are riding along quite happily (at least for many people), buoyed by investment, new businesses, and infectious energy.

The entrepreneurial journey can be lonely, and it is certainly beset with challenges. But as any quest, the path toward founding a company will include heroes—people who step in and aid you at just the moment when you need them most.

In this post I’ll tell you a little about my own entrepreneurial journey thus far, and describe the 5 hero archetypes I’ve met, and how they helped me along the way. It’s a little bit of a public “thank you,” and also, I hope, an inspiration to those of you at the beginning, or a low point, of your entrepreneurial quest. You will meet heroes along the way. Keep an eye out for them.

Image: http://beacon.wharton.upenn.edu