I walked down the hall on the sixth floor of the Medical Science Building at NYU Medical Center holding a cup of coffee in one hand, the other comfortably resting in my lab coat pocket. There was a spring to my step. The week before I had defended my Ph.D. thesis and that long period of self-doubt, also known as graduate school, had come to an end.

My stroll brought me to the tissue culture lab where I was planning to engage in a series of meaningless exchanges with colleagues. But no one was pipetting that day. Even that unmistakable odor of bacterial colonies thriving at 37°C was not evident in the room, almost as if no one had opened the incubator door for a long time.

It was a disappointing summer on the liquidity front for U.S. venture capital firms, with the IPO market, which held promise earlier this year, swooning in August and September.

While 10 U.S. venture-backed companies staged public offerings in the third quarter--the most for the period since 2007 when 12 debuted--six of them were in July, according to Dow Jones VentureSource, before market volatility took its toll. The two that went public in September did so overseas. Venture capitalists historically make their best returns through IPOs.

"The fundamental problem in the U.S. is that the companies that need to go public cannot and the ones that can go public don't want to," said Paul Maeder, a general partner at Highland Capital Partners and chairman of the National Venture Capital Association.

From his lab in Lake Nona's Medical City, cancer researcher Philip Arlen is strategizing ways to take his new technique for studying DNA to market. And he is going entrepreneurial in hopes of making that happen.

"Everyone we have talked to for advice has been very receptive to what we are working on," said Arlen, an oncology scientist at M.D. Anderson Cancer Institute. "Whoever it is — angel investors, private-equity firms, venture capitalists — they all tell us, 'Get back in touch with us when you are further along.' "

Today’s Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine honors work in immunology that provides new avenues for prevention and therapy against infections, cancer, and inflammatory disease.

The Prize is shared by three researchers who have “revolutionized our understanding of the immune system” by discovering the “gatekeepers” of this integral defense mechanism, according to the Nobel Assembly’s press release.

Jules Hoffmann, a Luxembourgian based at the University of Strasbourg in France, and Bruce Beutler, an American at Scripps Research Institute in California, share half of the award for discovering receptor proteins that recognize microbes and activate innate immunity. Ralph Steinman, a Canadian cell biologist at Rockefeller University, took the other half of the award for first describing the immune system’s dendritic cells and their role in activating and regulating adaptive immunity, the later stage of immune response responsible for clearing microorganisms from the body. Sadly, Steinman passed away last Friday (September 30), before he got word of his crowning achievement.

It is true that governments cannot be ignored by entrepreneurs—they set the rules and incentives. But it should not be surprising that vibrant entrepreneurs typically show, at best, nonchalance toward government. Most government agencies across the globe remain inefficient and cumbersome—especially when you compare even a well-funded government program to a collection of bootstrapping startups.

My favorite news last week was the announcement about Startup Foundation just launching in various places like Boston, Los Angeles, New York City, Des Moines, and Sao Paulo to grow ecosystems for startup creation and growth. With funding from the Kauffman Foundation, Startup Foundation co-founders in each city are mapping their local entrepreneurial ecosystems. They are doing this by identifying influential leaders, programs and gaps in community resources, and supporting local initiatives that drive the creation of more entrepreneurs, startups, and jobs. They will also raise funds for local entrepreneurship support initiatives, amplifying effective efforts.

Several programs of the state's Talent and Innovation Initiative have taken effect, including the Business Innovation Act, Nebraska Economic Gardening Program and Site and Building Development Fund.

"Our vision for Nebraska's economic future is for our graduates and young professionals to have access to high-quality, high-skill careers with dynamic companies doing business in Nebraska,"  Gov. Dave Heineman said at a news conference.

The Business Innovation Act authorizes the distribution of up to $7 million in competitive grants for research, prototype development and product commercialization studies for small businesses with fewer than 25, according to a news release from the governor's office.

The pioneering technology accelerator TechStars did something for its own business rather than the fledgling companies in its program last week, raising $24 million in venture funding (bringing their total to $34 million) from some 75 venture funds and angel investors. Of course, TechStars plans to use that money to give $100,000 of additional seed finance to every single startup admitted to one of its programs in 2012 and beyond.

The funding could make the accelerator even more competitive than it is today from an admissions perspective. The pool of entrepreneurs vying for one of 60 spots in this prestigious franchise--currently operating in Boulder, Boston, New York, and Seattle--faces a 99% likelihood of rejection, reports David Cohen, CEO and founder of TechStars (in image above, left with David Tisch, right).

Raise your hand if you love data.

Now raise your hand if data presented like this makes you want to stick a fork in your eye:

It’s colorful. It’s brimming with data. But HOLY HORSESHOE is it confusing!

Having data is awesome. Using it to persuade others is powerful. Presenting it in a way that inspires eye-forking is criminal.

Sales.

It’s the lifeblood of any organization and yet most startups don’t have any sales DNA on their teams. It’s important enough that I dedicate a tab on my blog to startup sales & marketing

This week I had the chance to have an hour-long discussion with Vince Thompson (ran West Coast sales for AOL for 7 years – back in the day when AOL was what Facebook is today) and Mo Ali, who has the awesome Twitter handle @BornToCall – runs sales at This Week In.

KANSAS CITY, MO, Sep 30, 2011 (MARKETWIRE via COMTEX) -- Entrepreneurs heading some of America's fastest growing privately held companies have told the Kauffman Foundation that they plan to continue to grow in the United States provided they are able to find qualified people to add to their firms.

The poll was conducted during the Inc. 500|5000 Conference & Awards Ceremony held Sept. 22-24, 2011, in National Harbor, Md. Entrepreneurs attending the event shared their views on the prospects for continued growth, their plans for expansion and the barriers that could stand in the way. Among the key results:

Once you have a potential investor excited about your team, your product, and your company, the investor will inevitably ask “What is your company’s valuation?” Many entrepreneurs stumble at this point, losing the deal or most of their ownership, by having no answer, saying “make me an offer,” or quoting an exorbitant number.

I’ve written about this before, but it’s a mysterious subject, and I’m always learning more. This time I’ll use a hypothetical health-care web site company named NewCo as an example to illustrate the points.

Two founders have spent $200K of personal and family funds over a one year period to start the company, get a prototype site up and running, and have already generated some “buzz” in the Internet community. The founders now need a $1M Angel investment to do the marketing for a national NewCo rollout, build a team to manage the rollout, and maybe even pay themselves a salary.

"No Man's Land" is traditionally known as the area between two trenches. This is a reference to World War I and the vicious trench warfare and hand-to-hand combat that characterized that war. In "No Man's Land" lay a wasteland of dead bodies and other debris and shrapnel. Increasingly, I am seeing many startups who were ably seed funded get caught in "No Man's Land" between the seed round and a true Series A round led by a venture capitalist.

This is happening because there are way too many companies raising seed capital but not enough executing their way to a Series A. This can happen for many reasons including not raising enough capital in the seed round to begin with and of course not getting your product out the door.

The recent televised debates by candidates for the Republican presidential nomination bring to mind expressions from a bygone era such as “gadzooks” and “ye gods!” “Holy Toledo, Batman” is much too modern. Who would have thought that a return to the nineteenth century would be embraced with such fervor by those who want to lead the nation, especially in the current environment of global competition? No taxes, no regulations, no EPA, no infrastructure investment, no social nets, no health coverage – in short, no federal government. It’s every man for himself with government restricted to local communities and states. Oops, this sounds more like a feudal society. Maybe the nineteenth century is also much too modern for the candidates. And, shucks, I’m told those folks in the nineteenth century actually invested in public financed infrastructure!

This question was posed on Quora, and received a ton of answers, including my own. Given how popular it is, I thought I’d go back to all the advice I’ve been giving on my blog over the last few years, and pick out the more popular ones.

So here it goes… my advice to entrepreneurs:

1. Focus on the few things that matter. A CEO does only three things: 1) Sets the overall vision and strategy of the company and communicates it to all stakeholders, 2) Recruits, hires, and retains the very best talent for the company, and 3) Makes sure there is always enough cash in the bank.

Any business owner knows there’s a lot involved in starting a business. There’s choosing what kind of business entity you should be; renting commercial property; paying payroll taxes; setting up a business bank account; marketing…The list goes on, and it seems like every time you master one thing, something else pops up. And while you certainly could spend years online researching everything a small business owner needs to know, you want the information now.

Download the PDF

When you hear about kids like Abbey Fleck, who helped her parents achieve their dream home, adopt a few more kids and put all five through college on her Makin' Bacon money, it makes you wonder, how did she do it?

Enlarge man-cans.com Hart Main created candles with "man-friendly" scents, such as coffee, sawdust, new (baseball) mitt and campfire, sold in recycled soup cans. Well, if we're honest, it makes you wonder how your kids can become entrepreneurs — and maybe millionaires — too.

We talked to several kid inventors and their parents about what makes them different from the rest of us. What are they doing that we're not?

Landing angel investment involves a little bit more than calling up a bunch of rich guys and hoping for the best.

Obtaining that initial investment is often a huge hurdle for startups, but once the cash comes in, it provides a critical source of early funding — lifeblood for young, hungry companies. And as the traditional model of venture capital increasingly appears to be broken, angels have often stepped up to fill the void in early stage funding.

In Ohio, in particular, angel funding has taken on an important role for startups. The state boasts two of the five-largest angel groups in the country — Ohio TechAngel Fund in Columbus and North Coast Angel Fund in Cleveland — plus numerous wealthy individual investors. But the thing about angels is that they generally don’t want anyone besides other insiders to know that they’re angels, so they aren’t easy to find. And finding them is only the beginning of the journey.

September 27, 2011 (Thuwal, Saudi Arabia): King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST) and the University of Toronto (U of T) have signed a first-of-its-kind license agreement for rights to quantum dot solar cell technology coming out of the U of T.

Developed by Dr. Edward Sargent, Canada Research Chair in Nanotechnology at the U of T, Canada's premier research university, the technology uses quantum dots to convert the sun's power efficiently into electrical energy. Dr. Sargent's work has been funded by KAUST since 2008 as part of its Global Collaborative Research Program.

This technology has made great strides towards the goal of breaking the present-day constraining paradigm between high efficiency and low cost in solar cells. "Dr. Sargent has established himself as one of the world's leaders in developing innovative approaches to the provision of solar power and has the potential to have a positive impact on millions of people," said Professor Peter Lewis, Associate VP of Research at U of T. As a result of the potential of this research discovery, a technology licensing agreement has been signed by U of T and KAUST, brokered by MaRS Innovations, which will enable the global commercialization of this new technology.