State legislators in Massachusetts have been debating the issue of employee noncompete agreements, which seek to keep employees from jumping to a rival, for at least seven years now. But despite Governor Deval Patrick proposing a ban on the contracts last year, nothing has changed.

Most employers argue that noncompetes are an essential tool for retaining top talent; some venture capitalists and entrepreneurs say they smother startup activity and make it hard to bring on the experienced people young companies need as they grow. The vast majority of workers don’t pay attention to them — until they start looking for their next job or get laid off, and realize that a noncompete can limit their options.

Image: http://www.betaboston.com

While her music industry success is apparent, what is less obvious, are the valuable lessons entrepreneurs can learn from Madonna.

Material Girl. Madge. Provocateur. Icon.  At the age of 56, and with the recent release of her 13th studio album, Rebel Heart, Madonna, has had many famous monikers, as well as her fair share of very public successes (introducing the world to the original pop diva) and commercial flops (Dick Tracy).

At one time or another, virtually everyone thinks about starting a business. The allure of being your own boss can be strong, but it’s important to remember that launching a new business is risky: According to a recent SBA report, about 50% of all small businesses will fail within just five years.

Managing a startup can be a minefield, especially when the pull of entrepreneurship clouds your decision-making – and when you go it alone with no business experience. But if you do decide to start your own business, it’s a great idea to learn from other’s mistakes and set yourself up for success.

While society innovates, our K-12 schools have remained stagnant. As a result, they are not graduating the doers, makers and cutting-edge thinkers the world needs. Certainly, some public and private schools are modernizing -- having students work in groups to solve problems, learn online and integrate science with the arts. But most institutions do not teach what should be the centerpiece of a contemporary education: entrepreneurship, the capacity to not only start companies but also to think creatively and ambitiously.

Image: alanclark18 | Foap.com

No industry generates more hype, and hope, than technology. From 2004 to 2014, the number of tech-related jobs in the United States expanded 31%, faster than other high-growth sectors like health care and business services. In the wider category of STEM-related jobs (science, technology, engineering and mathematics), employment grew 11.4% over the same period, compared to 4.5% for other jobs. The Commerce Department projects that growth in STEM employment will continue to outpace the rest of the economy through 2018.

Image: http://www.newgeography.com

Menlo Ventures closed its 12th fund at $400 million, the same size as its previous fund, and has begun to pass the responsibility for investing to a new generation of partners.

Although the new fund has six managing directors, two of them–Doug Carlisle, who joined Menlo in 1982, and John Jarve, who joined in 1985–will begin the process of retirement after this fund, following in the footsteps of founder H. Dubose Montgomery, who started the firm in 1976.

Image: Menlo Ventures managing directors, from left, Shawn Carolan, Mark Siegel, Venky Ganesan and Pravin Vazirani Menlo Ventures

ON NOVEMBER 11, 1953, psychology professor B.F. Skinner sat in a fourth-grade math class, perturbed. It was Parents Day at his daughter Deborah’s school. The lesson seemed grossly inefficient: students proceeded through the material in lock-step, at the same pace; their graded assignments were returned to them sluggishly.

A leading proponent of what he called “radical behaviorism,” Skinner had devoted his career to studying feedback. He denied the existence of free will and dismissed inner mental states as explanations for outward action. Instead, he focused on the environment and the organism’s response. He had trained rats to push levers and pigeons to play Ping-Pong. A signed photo of Ivan Pavlov presided over his study in Cambridge. Turning his attention to a particular subset of the human animal—the schoolchild—Skinner invented his Teaching Machine.

In the summer of 1978 I was a vendor at Wrigley Field and Soldier Field in Chicago. Since it was entirely a commission job and I was too young to sell beer, the next best thing was selling hot dogs. Back then they were $1 and I made 20¢ with each sale. On a good day I might make $60 which was great money for a teenager.  I’ll never forget, however, how crappy the hot dogs were.

Two years ago, I was hired by the four cofounders of mobile Ad-tech startup ClickMob to lead their company.

They hired me because I shared their vision of growing the company exponentially, and because they believed I was better positioned to run it than they were. Shortly after beginning my position as CEO, I discovered I was pregnant.  It’s been a wonderful journey being a mother and chief executive, and I’m due any day now with my second in 14 months.

image: http://www.freedigitalphotos.net 

I was at a dinner recently in Chicago and the table discussion was about building great companies outside of Silicon Valley. Of course this can be done and of course I am a big proponent of the rise of startup centers across the country as the Internet has moved from the “infrastructure phase” to the “application phase” dominated by the three C’s: content, communications and commerce. But the dinner discussion included too much denial for my liking.

Much has been studied about the impact of employee engagement on company performance, and there is general agreement that increased engagement drives results: Gallup, for example, suggests a 20% or better boost to productivity and profitability for companies with high engagement. Such companies, however, may be few and far between: Gallup also reports that only 30% of American workers, and 13% of global workers, are engaged in their jobs.

Image: Free Digital Photos

It seems like everyone is talking about data visualization and infographics. Some may say infographics are an easy way out of providing detail in a report or memo. I’ve found the opposite to be true. Infographics are an effective way to distill large amounts of data into smaller pieces that are more easily digested. More importantly, they capture the attention of a reader who might easily be distracted while reading a bunch of numbers in a long report. Good infographics can stand alone, but they can also complement a formal report, blog post or memo. Think of an infographic as a way to communicate your value creatively and efficiently.

WASHINGTON, DC – President Obama will host the 2015 White House Science Fair today to celebrate the student winners of a broad range of science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) competitions from across the country.

As part of the Fair, President Obama will announce over $240 million in new private-sector commitments to inspire and prepare more girls and boys – especially those from underrepresented groups – to excel in the STEM fields. With the commitments being made today, the President’s “Educate to Innovate” campaign has resulted in over $1 billion in financial and in-kind support for STEM programs.

Today, the University Innovation Fellows launched a campaign to expose all incoming freshmen at a school to the types of experiences in design thinking, entrepreneurship, and innovation that will attract and retain more incoming students in the STEM disciplines.

According to a report published by the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology, about 60 percent of students who arrive at college intending to major in STEM subjects switch to other subjects, often in their first year. To combat this trend, the University Innovation Fellows program is partnering with 10 universities and colleges to launch “#uifresh” (University Innovation Freshmen).

Image: http://epicenter.stanford.edu

Last week Fred Wilson and I sat down in Santa Monica for an hour+ discussion with the video cameras rolling. One of the questions we discussed is, “How much capital should a startup raise?” Fred & I are both in agreement that there is a tension between capital constraints and creativity. In his words,

It’s been a couple of weeks since I’ve traveled more than a day trip. During this time I’ve managed to keep a few days clear of outside meetings so I’ve been able to work from my home office. I live in a rural area down a long gravel driveway in a house that sits in the woods. It’s a very quiet, private place. Below is a picture out my office window.

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Important attention has been drawn to the shameful condition of middle income housing affordability in California. The state that had earlier earned its own "California Dream" label now limits the dream of homeownership principally people either fortunate enough to have purchased their homes years ago and to the more affluent. Many middle income residents may have to face the choice of renting permanently or moving away.

Image: http://www.newgeography.com

We were lucky enough to have Wharton alumnus Marc Lore—Co-founder and CEO of Jet and Co-founder and former CEO of Quidsi, the e-commerce company responsible for Diapers.com, Soap.com, Wag.com, and more—as the honored guest at our Ninth Annual Wharton Entrepreneurship Alumni Dinner in Philadelphia. During Marc’s fireside chat with Wharton Emeritus Professor Leonard Lodish, the packed room of Penn and Wharton alumni entrepreneurs learned about how Marc is setting out to revolutionize e-commerce yet again, this time by building a more efficient online shopping ecosystem that benefits both retailers and consumers. For this knowledgeable and interested audience, Marc dug in deep, explaining the logic and ambitions behind Jet’s business model.

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

The World International Patent Organization released a report Friday naming Johns Hopkins University among the top 2014 international patent applicants in the world, proving that American universities may not be losing ground when it comes to tech transfer programs after all.

WIPO took a look at overall growth in the applications for its global intellectual property services and found that together, China and the U.S. accounted for 87 percent of the total growth in filings under WIPO's Patent Cooperation Treaty. The PCT received about 215,000 applications in 2014 – a 4.5 percent increase over the numbers reported in 2013.