I did not attend the annual Consumer Electronics Show two weeks ago, but I eagerly read about the prototypes for new consumer gadgets and services that debuted there. From all accounts, the Internet of Things was a major theme of the show. Yet, to my dismay, the coverage I saw coming out of the event was decidedly ambivalent, even dismissive, when it came to the potential of the Internet of Things.

If you want to build a successful, sustainable business, don’t ask yourself what could change in the next ten years that could affect your company.

Instead, ask yourself what won’t change, and then put all your energy and effort into those things.

That’s the advice of Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, highlighted in an interesting post about Uber’s big ambitions by venture capitalist Bill Gurley.

Image: Amazon's Jeff Bezos at a 2010 event. Image Credit: Jurvetson/Flickr 

Running a small business often requires sacrifice. The American Small Business Championship by Sam’s Club is looking to reward 102 small businesses around the US for the sacrifices they have made. This contest is open for entries until Feb. 6. If you are interested, check out the link below. To see a full list or to submit your own event, contest or award listing, visit the Small Business Events Calendar.

Steve Blank spends his life teaching entrepreneurs and watching the tech industry, and he's certain that New York is a fundamentally friendlier place for women startup founders than Silicon Valley. It's really not even a debate, said the innovator of the " Lean Startup" movement that now dominates early-stage business strategy. The real question is: Why doesn't New York brag about this more often?

Image: Steve Blank, retired tech entrepreneur and inventor of the Lean Startup movement. 

Venture capitalists (VCs) have long been seen as the top of the pyramid for startup funding sources. But, in fact, angel investors now fund over sixty times as many companies, according the Center for Venture Research. A new class of Super Angels, or micro-VCs that invest their own money, provides a major chunk of this activity.

There has been a slight increase in the number of women founders of tech startups but not in the number of funders, according to a pair of reports on Friday. Men still dominate in both groups in the sector that has been the focus of many gender diversity debates and initiatives in the past two years.

Image: Scale Venture Partners co-founder Kate Mitchell is one of a small number of senior decision-makers at VC firm. She sits on a diversity task force created last year by the National Venture Capital Association. 

How can Madison become another Austin, Texas, or Silicon Valley, California? 

Local technology company leaders say they’re not sure that it can — or that it should.

But they suggested several steps that could add momentum to the tech economy, such as: Create tax breaks for companies that work with younger Wisconsin businesses.

Make more funding available to entrepreneurs, from government and corporations.

A Kickstarter donation can get you a lot of things: a free T-shirt, naming rights to a goat, an old Nike sneaker signed — and worn — by the director Spike Lee.

"You can do that all day long," says Colby Coash, a state senator from Lincoln.

But no matter how many days' lunch money you donate to your favorite project on a crowdfunding website, you can't get an ownership share in return. No stock. And no income from your investment, other than the aforementioned goat naming.

Q: More and more of my friends are launching Kickstarter and Indiegogo campaigns, which can be great ways for them to raise money for their projects. Now I'm finding that I'm being hit up a couple of times a month to contribute — to a new documentary, a creamery, even a "next gen washing device." I can't possibly contribute to them all but I feel bad if I just ignore a request. I'm also finding myself irritated with the volume of requests. Can I just say "no"?

How will North Carolina’s companies and communities innovate to compete in a future of rapidly accelerating challenges and opportunities?

On Feb. 9-10, leaders from across the state will gather at the Institute for Emerging Issues’ 30th annual forum to tackle this crucial question. Much as vision and action were needed to launch Research Triangle Park 60 years ago, we need a compelling plan for how North Carolina is going to thrive in the coming century through innovation and entrepreneurship. And as we create it, we can employ a collaborative strategy that leverages approaches that are already working while also addressing important gaps.

If you sold your last startup for $800 million, you probably already know how to build a business, and even conservative investors won’t worry about the quality of your next business plan. But, for the rest of us, don’t believe the Silicon Valley myth that all you have to do is sketch your million-dollar idea on the back of a napkin, and investors will line up to give you money.

Earlier this month, I wrote about Oklahoma’s overall ranking in the 2014 State New Economy Index, a study based on 25 key indicators produced by the Information Technology & Innovation Foundation (ITIF). A quick refresh: In the report, Oklahoma was ranked 48th. The report is a data-driven view of the problem that many of us who live and breathe innovation as the path to expanded jobs and wealth in Oklahoma battle every day.

Is common for professionals to try and become entrepreneurs. There are two ways to entrepreneurship for professionals. Start small with limited resources — usually with savings or borrowed money — build proof of concept, dilute to private equity (PE) at regular intervals, and take it public someday.

But starting small can be hard on the ego if the professional has already been running large corporations. Alternatively, one can take a stake in an existing company, get a backing from either the markets or from PE, raise debt from the local markets and build value from there. I chose the latter route.

You can’t win as an entrepreneur working alone. You need to have business relationships with team members, investors, customers, and a myriad of other support people. That doesn’t mean you have to be a social butterfly to succeed, or introverts need not apply.

When we think of risk, we usually think of the possibility of something bad happening: failure, injury, or loss. It makes sense that negative (downside) risks usually come to mind first. When was the last time you lost sleep worrying about something wonderful happening to you?

It’s human nature to avoid uncertainty. But not all risk is created equal; most of us are just bad at calculating it. Instead of avoiding risk altogether, try to engage in endeavors with limited downside risks that are offset by potentially unlimited, if unpredictable, positive outcomes.

ENTREPRENEURSHIP MUST BE more than a buzzword if it is to be meaningful, says Small Business Association (SBA) president Dalton Medford. - See more at: http://www.nationnews.com/nationnews/news/62724/define-entrepreneurship#sthash.a7N5bzOL.dpuf

In an interview with BARBADOS BUSINESS AUTHORITY at the SBA’s Pelican Industrial Estate offices, Medford said being an entrepreneur was not something that could happen overnight.

Image: Dalton Medford pleading his case for small business support. (Picture by Green Bananas Media) 

When a guy from Silicon Valley who's been a part of two multimillion-dollar startups and is co-owner of a venture capital firm talks, entrepreneurs need to take note. And that's just what more than 100 people did at downtown Orlando's Church Street Exchange event on Jan. 29. Jerry Engel visited Orlando to not only kick off National Science Foundation's I-Corps program at the University of Central Florida, but to view Orlando's tech scene and offer his insights.

When an entrepreneur comes down with comparison-itis, he or she may suddenly feel as if everyone else has it all figured out, operates smoothly in the face of challenges and has the Midas touch.

Here are the top five things to remember, when you’re a newbie entrepreneur feeling intimidated by the competition.

In emergencies, seconds count. An estimated 1,000 "saveable" lives are lost a year because of slow emergency response in the nation’s biggest cities. But in traffic-jammed urban environments, how can a four-wheeled ambulance be expected to make it anywhere and back quickly?

Design firm argodesign has a wild conceptual solution. It’s a one-person ambulance drone modeled after a standard quadcopter—driven by a GPS, pilot, or combination of both—that could be dispatched to an emergency scene with a single EMT. It’s designed to land almost anywhere, thanks to a footprint the size of a compact car. The EMT stabilizes the patient, loads him up, and sends him back to the hospital for further treatment.

Image: http://www.fastcodesign.com/ 

Looking ahead at technological innovation in the federal sphere, analysts at Deltek identified three areas prime for the most growth in 2015: sensor-based technologies, software-defined infrastructure and predictive analytics.

Agencies are already preparing for these new technologies as they increase network availability, employ cloud platforms and standardize infrastructure, analysts noted.

Image: Sensor-based technologies, software-defined infrastructure and predictive analytics and machine learning will be major emerging markets in 2015, according to Deltek. (Photo: FBI)