Asking people for money is never easy, but it's a crucial step in building a business. In the current economic climate, with bank loans hard to come by, hitting up family and friends for cash is one of the few ways would-be entrepreneurs can get a company off the ground.

What if there was another way? Creative thinkers in the nonprofit world have come up with a game-changing model for increasing donations: crowdfunding. Combining the far-reaching power of the Internet with an accessible, low-entry-cost attitude, crowdfunding sites have shown that a lot of small contributions can add up to a major impact.

One of the most successful crowdfunding sites, Kiva.org, facilitates microfinance lending around the world. The site profiles the people and projects looking for funding, whether it's a shopkeeper looking to expand in Honduras or an Iraqi widow who wants to buy an industrial sewing machine for her growing tailoring business. Donors can contribute as little as $25, with the expectation that they will be paid back (Kiva borrowers as a whole have a 98% repayment rate).

Popular crowd funding platform Kickstarter has announced that more than 1 million people have backed at least one project, resulting in more than $100 million dollars in pledges.

Kickstarter allows users to post their projects and find funding for them from the Kickstarter community. Everything from the iPod nano watch to indie films have gotten their start on the crowd funding website.

This year, a jittery global market, a tumultuous IPO window, sinking investor confidence have tested the startup bubble. Now, a new report shows venture capital funds, especially early stage-focused funds, are struggling to raise money to pass on to startups.

According to newly revealed statistics from Dow Jones LP Source, a total of 32 venture funds in the United States were able to raise $2.2 billion during the third quarter of 2011.

This figure represents a 24 percent drop from the Q3 2010; during that period, 40 VC funds raised $2.9 billion.

Even as Wall Street is being occupied and corporations are reviled, there is a revolution quietly raging across the country that empowers corporations to be a strong force for good. This week, California joined that revolution when Governor Jerry Brown created two new classes of corporations for businesses that seek to pursue both profit and purpose: Benefit Corporations and Flexible Purpose Corporations.

These new legal structures are revolutionary in two ways. First, they broaden the duty of a company beyond maximizing shareholder value to include maximizing stakeholder value, such as operating the business in an environmental and social responsible manner. Second, they increase transparency and accountability.

Recently, I was talking to a client in London who was providing in-depth help for start-ups. He pointed out that in the past few years we have seen brands capture the imagination of millions of people across the global because of their focus on the user experience, simplicity and great functionality - in a word, design.

You can see this clearly with Apple, Facebook, Groupon and Twitter. And it is this focus on design that can make London a global innovation centre in the next decade.

Where should you retire? The Melbourne Mercer Global Pension Index takes a very high-level view of this question, asking which countries do the best job of providing for their retirees. Out of the 16 countries studied, the United States ranks only tenth. Given the crumbling of the defined benefit system and stock market fluctuations that have taken a bite out of many defined contribution plans, that’s perhaps not surprising. What is a bit of a shocker is exactly which countries are doing better than the United States in providing for their older populations.

There are many reasons people want to work from home. Quick quiz: what’s your top reason?

A. I have a long, difficult commute that represents time I could be working, as well as needless environmental waste.

B. I am more productive in a quiet, relaxed setting where I am not constantly interrupted.

C. There is nothing in my job that requires being in a specific place, so why not work wherever it’s most convenient?

The cellular industry, despite getting more than 100-percent penetration in many countries, is just getting started. According to the GSMA, the number of total wireless connected devices is expected to more than double from 9 billion today to more than 24 billion in 2020. That growth will be paced by strong momentum in mobile connected devices which are expected to increase from 6 billion today to 12 billion by 2020.

This will create a $1.2 trillion market opportunity for the wireless industry, a sevenfold increase from expected revenues in 2011, according to the study conducted by Machina Research.

If you want to see how American communities can reinvent themselves to compete in today’s global economy, just walk through downtown Pittsburgh. Once abandoned steel plants now house a thriving cluster of innovative robotics companies.

This didn’t randomly happen. Pittsburgh’s leaders made a concerted effort to develop a regional economic cluster as the centerpiece of the city’s economic development strategy.

Dear friends of The Technopolicy Network,

Market Size

The angel investor market in Q1,2 2011 showed signs of stabilization since the 30% market correction in the second half of 2008 and the first half of 2009. Total investments in Q1,2 2011 were $8.9 billion, an increase of 4.7% over Q1,2 2010, according to the Center for Venture Research at the University of New Hampshire. A total of 26,300 entrepreneurial ventures received angel funding in Q1,2 2011, a 4.4% increase from Q1,2 2010, and the number of active investors in Q1,2 2011 was 124,900 individuals, virtually unchanged from Q1,2 2010. The increase in total dollars and the matching increase in total investments resulted in a deal size of $338,400 in Q1,2 2011, comparable to the deal size in Q1,2 2010 of $337,300.

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Unless you've been in a coma for the past 20 years, I'm sure you're familiar with the phrase "get out of the box." It's everywhere. Whole industries have sprung up around it, including mine.

No one can deny that getting out of the box is a good thing to do. Seems like a no-brainer, eh? Kind of like helping little old ladies cross the street. Or tearing down the Berlin Wall.

Our elected officials give disproportionate attention to the smallest small businesses when evaluated from the perspective of economic impact. Microbusinesses account for a tiny fraction of GDP and employment, yet our elected officials trip over each other trying to help and praise them.

Why are micro businesses so important to policy makers?

I think the answer lies in the two charts shown below. While businesses with between zero and four employees account for only 5 percent of private sector employment, they make up 61 percent of all businesses with employees. By contrast, big business – companies with 500 or more employees – account for the majority (51 percent) of private sector employment, but comprise less than one percent of companies.

Brain-machine interfaces have made it possible for monkeys and some humans to control robotic limbs using just their thoughts. But ideally, a person using an artificial limb or other device would not only be able to control the device, but also feel what it's touching.

A new study from the lab of Miguel Nicolelis at Duke University Medical Center takes a first step toward such an interface. In a paper published today in Nature, his team reports that monkeys can learn to operate a virtual-reality hand that incorporates tactile feedback.

Everybody wants Y Combinator to fund their startup.

Paul Graham, who founded the popular startup accelerator, just tweeted that Y Combinator is now getting one application every minute.

That's more than 1,000 applications per day, assuming some slowdown in the pace during night hours. (Although maybe not -- the global economy never stops.)

Since my first involvement with the ever growing East London Tech City, I’ve noticed that the social interaction is creating an electric atmosphere in Shoreditch. The lively restaurant and bar scene is also fuelling a vibrant business networking environment.  Tech-centric events are happening around the area — including the Silicon Roundabout Meet Up, the Mini Bar Meet and the Silicon-Drink-About.

One of the Co-Working spaces that have been a haven for me is the TechHub facility.  I have participated in a number of events, including their Tech Tuesdays and their 1st Birthday party – both of which orientated around beer, pizza and tech dialogue. I know what you’re thinking; we British really do enjoy a good pint.

SAN FRANCISCO — The phone call, at home one night last week, came from a student seeking donations for the University of California, San Francisco.

“Well,” Dr. Susan Desmond-Hellmann told the caller, “I’m actually the chancellor at U.C.S.F.”

The student, seemingly unaware that chancellor meant head of the university, kept up her pitch: The doctor and her husband had given $5,000 in the past, so how about another donation?

Dr. Desmond-Hellmann said they had already made another donation. The student kept trying.

Recently Under30CEO ran a poll to find out what the best cities in the United States were for young entrepreneurs. The poll asked the Under30CEO readers to place their vote or submit the city of their choice if it wasn’t listed. We asked everyone to not only think about the business climate and resources but to also consider the social scene and even weather. Young entrepreneurs want to run a successful business but they also take into consideration their lifestyle and where they can find both personal and business happiness. The results are below for the top cities for young entrepreneurs in 2011.

1. New Orleans

New Orleans tops the list with a surge in entrepreneurial activity in recent years. The city has seen numerous incubators and events catered to assisting entrepreneurs come to town which has boosted the resources the city has available. It’s also well known that New Orleans has an amazing, vibrant and inspiring culture that attracts the creative entrepreneur types. But the main driver for young entrepreneurs may really be that for all of this the cost of living in the city is extremely low especially when compared to places like New York, Boston or Chicago.

In his opening remarks at this year’s Summit on the Global Agenda, World Economic Forum founder and Executive Chairman Klaus Schwab placed the need for new models to support effective use of technology innovation firmly on the table.

This is the fourth year I have participated in the World Economic Forum Global Agenda Summit – an intense two-day meeting of over 700 thought leaders from around the world to explore global emerging issues and opportunities and to begin developing possible solutions.

On the Global Agenda Council on Emerging Technologies, we have been working hard on getting the opportunities and challenges presented by emerging technologies on the radar of top-level decision-makers.  Not because we think they should know about the latest cool technologies, but because we feel that effective solutions to complex challenges demand an integrated and proactive approach to technology innovation.

It can be challenging for unknown startups to garner press attention — budgets are tight, relationships with journalists may not be that strong and explaining a new concept is difficult. Not to mention, early-stage startups usually only employ a few people focused on product and development. Therefore, marketing and public relations are often tackled piecemeal by whomever has time.

Good press, though, can be one of the biggest drivers for startups looking to grow their user bases, and as a result, a pretty important component for success.

As a tech journalist, I’ve been pitched by hundreds of companies and have developed a taste for what works and what doesn’t. Read on for my startup tips.