Before he realized that what he actually wanted out of life was financial freedom and the perfect lifestyle, Eddie Yu (@Eddie_Yu) spent three years in the software industry.

Not wanting to spend the rest of his life working for other people, he gave up his job and set about the task of finding something that he could do for himself, and which would give him both the financial freedom and lifestyle that he desired.

Unsurprisingly, due to his previous background in the IT industry, after reading an article about online gambling and affiliate marketing, the author saw the possibilities that the Internet offered and set about the task of creating an online business of his own.

Ben Porterfield's LinkedIn profile simply identifies him as an “experienced surfer” — and that's an accurate moniker. In addition to regularly riding the waves off the Santa Cruz coast, he's surfed the swells at a number of startups. First as the lead engineer at Sticky, Inc., and then co-founder of Rally Up (a mobile startup acquired by AOL in 2010) he's the kind of guy who makes serial entrepreneurism look easy even when it's not.

The recently released Regulation A+ is the first section of the JOBS Act that allows a company to raise capital from the general public. By opening up private company investments to the “crowd,” Regulation A+ promises to be a game changer for how emerging companies are funded. It's the first nationally available form of equity crowdfunding to non-accredited investors.

Organizations have always depended on data — to manage operations, to communicate with customers, to pay employees and suppliers, to plan their futures, and so forth. Those with the best data have enjoyed distinct advantages — in commerce, for example, better understanding the market leads to better products offered at better prices, and so forth. Data has enabled strategy, but, with few exceptions, neither driven strategy nor sat at its heart.

Recently Entrepreneurship 101 hosted an amazing discussion on venture capital from the perspective of current and ex-VCs from the MaRS community.

The conversation ranged from how a VC fund operates and manages investments to the multiple factors that influence a VC’s decision-making process before an investment.

Twenty years ago, Seattle was America’s epicenter of urban planning. Its mayor, Norm Rice, had sponsored and guided into law a long-range blueprint that laid out in copious detail what the city was projected to look like in the faraway year of 2014.

According to Seattle’s Comprehensive Plan, as the document was officially known, the city would emerge from a period of slow growth and increase its population significantly in the ensuing two decades.

Yet another report’s pointing out biotech’s bullish venture appeal – and how medical device investment continues to flag.

In fact, biotechnology funding for human therapeutics is so strong that its venture funding outpaces pharmaceuticals sevenfold, a PricewaterhouseCoopers venture analysis of the first quarter of 2015 life sciences sector found.

It reported 193 deals worth a cumulative $2.2 billion. This is up from a total 186 life sciences deals in the Q1 2014, which were worth $1.6 billion.

Image: http://medcitynews.com

The California Department of Finance (DOF) has issued population projections for the state’s counties to 2060.  Forecasts are provided for every decade, from a 2010 base. The DOF projects that the the state will grow from 37.3 million residents in 2010 to 51.7 million in 2060. This is a 0.7 percent annual growth rate over the next 50 years. By contrast, California's growth rate was 1.7 percent annually over the last 50 years (1960-2010), and a much higher 3.0 percent in the growth heyday of 1940 to 1990. However, even with this slower rate, California is expected to grow slightly more quickly than the nation (0.6 percent annually).

Image: http://www.newgeography.com

You have worked hard and achieved some success. But there’s a little—or not-so-little—part of you that really wants to do something else. Once factors like a mortgage, car payment, and family or other obligations begin to populate your life, it’s tough to ditch it all and start over in something new. The good news is that you might not have to.

"Most jobs, whether it's an engineering job or a sales job, have a lot of similar traits and qualities and skill sets," says Scott Shearin, founder of Veteran Talent Advisors, a veteran-focused recruiting agency in Loveland, Ohio. He works with veterans in transitioning into new jobs.

When this year’s winners of the InvestMaryland Challenge were announced, Bricata stood out.

Amid the Maryland companies who finished atop the Maryland Department of Business and Economic Development competition, the cybersecurity company was listed as hailing from Vienna, Va.

But as of June 1, Bricata’s home state will change. The seven-employee company is moving its headquarters to the bwtech@UMBC cyber incubator in Baltimore County.

The company was founded in July, 2014, as the four cofounders saw an opportunity to produce network security systems that leveraged the open-source platform Suricata to perform faster and capture more data than current technology allows.

Image: (Courtesy of bwtech@UMBC)

AngelPad was recently ranked the #1 startup accelerator in the US. This news makes me especially proud since I just went through the program. However, before I got in, like thousands of other applicants I didn’t have any idea what it was about. While there are several articles about YCombinator, TechStars, and 500 Startups, little information is out there about AngelPad. In this post, I will explain how the program works, the people behind it, and how it helped me and my company.

The U.S. congress has proposed budgets cuts for research, but more and more scientists are turning to crowdfunding to bring their projects to light.

On May 20, 2015, the US House Republicans voted to place limits on funding for scientific research. The bill, which passed 217 votes to 205, still has to through the Senate, but it sets an ominous tone for future research.

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

I am always on the lookout for people with new ideas and fresh approaches to common problems in healthcare.

A couple years ago, a Harvard Business Review article by Tomas Chamorro-Premuzic caught my eye. A professor of Business Psychology at University College London (UCL) and Columbia University, he distilled the research evidence and proposed five key characteristics of innovators (in addition to creativity):

There's nothing quite like a relaxing drive down a country road, sun shining and music playing. There's also nothing like nearly plummeting off the edge of a cliff because you didn't quite make a tight turn.

Right?

Think of the executive summary as a one-page business plan – it provides a comprehensive overview of all the elements that will make your business model a success. Since it’s likely the first impression that investors will get from your company, the executive summary is your best chance of grabbing the attention of investors.

For the many individuals who have ever thought about starting their own business, chances are there was one thing that stopped them: the risks.

In my industry especially, I talk often about the risk/reward relationship of entrepreneurship and why I love it. Many of us think about starting our own business only to be turned off by the projected risk, time commitment and extra work involved. True, there is much more involved in entrepreneurship than there is in a traditional nine-to-five job, but there is also great potential for reward.

For startup founders, it's an age-old question: is it better to bootstrap or to raise funding? It certainly depends on your goals and your industry to some extent. But if you're new to the startup world, what variables should you look at to determine which is better for your company in the long run?

To find out, I asked 12 entrepreneurs from Young Entrepreneur Council (YEC) when it's necessary to involve outside investors. Their answers are below.

You’ve got a great business model. You’re offering the kind of product or service people will absolutely love and, more importantly, pay money to receive. You know how to practice outstanding customer service. You’re ready to make some money. And yet, all of that won’t matter if customers can’t find your place of business. The simple fact of the matter for brick-and-mortar stores is that if people can’t find your location, they’ll just go out of their way to visit one of your competitors. That’s a disaster for your small business.

The Interweb is full of random, unexpected treasures. In this case, a Google document listing 204 venture capital funds raised since 2011 with a combined value of more than $13.9 billion.

The document is attributed to Shai Goldman, managing director at Silicon Valley Bank Capital. It also includes 19 funds that have not yet disclosed the size of their funds.