TORONTO, July 5, 2011 /CNW/ - The National Angel Capital Organization (NACO) is pleased to announce the release of the Investment Activity by Canadian Angel Groups: 2010 Report.  This report, the first of its kind, was completed in partnership with the Government of Canada and authored by Professor Colin Mason. It highlights the importance of Angel capital to the growth of Canada's high-potential companies.

Significant findings of this report include that:

• 90% of companies funded by Angel groups in 2010 were new not follow-on.
• Angel groups collectively received around 1,850 business plans. 14% were considered in detail. Roughly 32% received investment.
• Angels groups invested CAN$35.3 million in the 88 deals for which we have information; an under-estimate as some groups did not report the amount invested. Co-investors were involved in 58% of investments and invested at least a further CAN$29.4 million. It should be noted that these statistics are for Angel groups only and do not include individual Angel investments.
• Angels invested in a wide range of industries but with a strong technology focus including: ICT sector (43%), followed by life sciences (18%) and clean tech (16%).
• 74% of investee businesses had sales revenue in 2010.

Researchers have identified when an important milestone in infants’ development occurs: the ability to transfer knowledge to new situations.

In a series of studies, the researchers found that 8-month-olds had trouble using newly acquired knowledge in a different circumstance, but 16-month-olds could do so.

“Some time between 8 and 16 months, infants begin learning how to learn,” said Julie Hupp, lead author of the study and assistant professor of psychology at Ohio State University’s Newark campus.

This article from Agile 101 takes the 12 principles of risk management from PMBOK and summarizes them in a quick and easy to understand way (with an agile slant). While not a comprehensive explaination, this article does provide a very clear explanation of  what must be considered when applying PMBOK’s principles for Agile Management.

How often does this happen? You start the day with great intentions for barreling through a list of priorities. But at quitting time, you’ve only accomplished one: getting (most of) your email answered and filed. You congratulate yourself on having done that, though a nagging voice in the back of your head whispers that, really, you haven’t done anything at all.

Email doesn’t have to consume your life. Here are 7 ideas for turning email into the tool it is, rather than the be-all and end-all of your days.

1. Lower the volume. When you email the same people too many times per day, they pay less attention. Ideally, your emails will be like eagerly awaited letters that, as a kid, you used to check the mail box for (remember that?)

The term “agile process” is thrown around a lot in the world of software development. Agile software development (as well as project management) basically assumes that things change so fast that you can’t rely on a plan to stay on track–teams need to be constant communication to stay focused on the goal.

You can ignore the “scrums”, “essential unified processes”, or EUPs and other mystifying jargon, but if you can incorporate this idea of being agile, you’ll find it extraordinarily helpful.

A recent blog post from the software developer Agilewords gives 5 tips for leading remote teams that might originate in “Agile” theory, but all team leaders need to implement no matter what process the team uses.

Bangalore: Pitching a VC! Do you think it's an easy task? Yes. Then why is it that many faces rejection in the hands of the VCs? What are the common mistakes that they make while pitching the VC? Look into the following points to prepare yourself before going for a pitch.

1. Ignoring the competition: Entrepreneurs become so confident about their idea and business that they do not find any competition standing near to them. When they say that they don't have any competition then VCs think they have come with a completely revolutionary solution to change the world or they have not performed enough research on the market. And most of the time the second explanation stands true.

I just attended the first domestic Clinton Global Initiative – America (CGI America) conference and participated in the manufacturing sessions. The concept of this event, which drew over 700 participants, was to get public, private and non-profit leaders together in a room, shake lightly and see what comes out.   It is starting to sound like the recipe for a cocktail but it is part of an increasing focus on regions leading the way to economic vitality.

The goal of the conference was to generate “Commitments to Action”- new, specific, and measurable plans to address challenges in the U.S., particularly through job creation and investment. CGI America expected that the participants would find organizations with which they have synergies and make written commitments that will accelerate economic or community revitalization.

One of my favorite recent blog posts is Seth Godin’s “Getting funded is not the same as succeeding.”   Whether or not we’re in a bubble, it’s a sign of the times that this post has to be written in the first place.   As Josh Elman tweets, we’ve gone from RIP Good Times to funding a grilled cheese company in less than three years (Sequoia was involved in both interestingly).  Instead of focusing on the companies that are creating the most value for their customers, we’re talking about who raised the largest round or who’s part of the billion dollar valuation club.

And this is dangerous.  It’s dangerous because we’re celebrating the “success” of fund raisings rather than the success of building truly valuable businesses.   Fundraising success does not always predict long-term success, and the data shows it.  Below are the largest technology venture fundraisings from 2004 to 2008 according to VentureSource (Note: I purposely excluded data from the current bubble and from cleantech, which I imagine only further supports the point).

I first met Derek Sivers (who most people know best as the founder of CD Baby) at the Business of Software conference, but I’d heard about him long before that.

In a world full of entrepreneurs who have done any number of incredible things, Derek has two accomplishments to his credit that are remarkable: He created a successful business, from scratch – then gave the business away to charity when he was done.

Derek recently spoke at the Business of Software conference.  If you’ve got the time, you should go watch his presentation.  It’s inspiring. Even if you don’t, you definitely should pick up his book.

Several Silicon Valley-based venture capital firms are reaching out to their investors to raise China-focused funds rather than invest from their existing global pools of capital, VentureWire has learned.

Firms like Lightspeed Venture Partners, DCM and others are raising these new funds in part to take advantage of the opportunities in China and in part to retain and recruit talent by improving the compensation for teams working in China, according to multiple sources with knowledge of the fund-raising process.

Some limited partners and venture capitalists with knowledge of the firms’ fund-raising plans said that both Lightspeed Venture Partners and DCM were seeking between $150 million and $200 million for their new funds.

Meanwhile, one limited partner said that Redpoint Ventures was raising $250 million to $300 million and merging its China operation with a local firm led by an ex-partner from Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers.

The recession isn't new to the mill towns of the Northeast; they hit the skids long ago. Decades before the most recent economic collapse, proud, river-encircled cities from Maine to Pennsylvania had faded to mere shadows of the engines of productivity they were during the Industrial Revolution. In place of idle smokestacks and shattered windows, Shoe Town to Brew Town--billed as "a friendly forum over food and drink" to be held at New York's Brooklyn Brewery--imagines another scene: historic manufacturies throbbing with the yeasty vapors of craft beer, and producing not only brew but sustainably raised fish, hydroponic produce, and enough natural gas to meet their own energy demands.

The project began as a notion hatched in the mind of New York restaurateur Jimmy Carbone. Imagining himself elected mayor of his hometown of Haverhill, Massachusetts, he had a vision of the city's moribund shoe factories transformed into breweries. A co-creator of the "Good Beer Seal," which certifies bars that show a commitment to craft brewing and local stewardship, Carbone was aware of the need for resource-intensive breweries to focus on sustainability. Working together, Carbone realized, beer producers, developers, and community groups could churn out a heady brew of opportunity and sustainability. The event, on July 19, gives brewers a chance to come together with activists, architects, and designers to talk about the catalytic potential of craft brewing.

Ebay's scrappy startup days are years behind it, and like any other billion-dollar company it faces distinct challenges that stem from being ginormous: How can it launch new products that don't get nibbled into oblivion by bureaucracy? How can it make sure the best ideas emerge, when all its managers have slightly different visions? How can you do all that nimbly enough to stay ahead?

To solve such problems, eBay is leaning on design with Previz, a new internal consulting business staffed by its cracker-jack designers. In addition to lending their creative juices to whomever needs them, the hope is that they'll spread a process for innovation. "The real challenge is to get out from under the tactical, day-to-day stuff," says Dane Howard, who heads the Previz team. "So our designers had the idea of creating workshops to imagine the near term future."

The concept of the “accelerator” program for would-be technology entrepreneurs finds its most prestigious earthly form in the U.S.-based incubation laboratory Y Combinator.

Paul Graham’s brainchild has nurtured, work-shopped and, ultimately funded, over 300 start-ups with purposes, and names, as angular and 21st century as Airbnb, Posterous, Xobni and Dropbox.

Idealab, a Pasadena (Calif.)-based technology incubator, has formed 75 startups in the past 15 years, selling or taking public 30 of them. More than a dozen are currently in development or operating privately with advice—and in some cases, investment—from Idealab. From highs such as Overture.com to lows like EToys.com, the incubator’s founders have learned valuable lessons about what makes a startup succeed, says Douglas McPherson, vice-president of corporate development and general counsel at the company. McPherson and Andres Castañeda, Idealab’s director of recruiting, spoke about making better business decisions at an entrepreneur roundtable at Idealab’s offices in June.

Here are some of the "thinking traps" Idealab tries to avoid:

• Confirmation bias: Rather than being purely rational actors, research shows that individuals often unknowingly fall into gaps in their reasoning, McPherson says. One of the strongest is confirmation bias, the tendency to favor data that confirms our preconceptions or hypotheses. "In business, teams have to fight the temptation to take new information and see it as fitting into certain sets of facts," he says.

Fred Wilson wrote a post on Sunday with the following advice for entrepreneurs raising money:

raise 12-18 months of cash each time you raise money. Less than a year is too little. You’ll be raising money again before you know it. Longer than 18 months means you may well be sitting on cash that you raised when your company was worth a lot less.

My advice is usually a little more conservative than that.  For me the best way to figure out how much money to raise is to work back from your next funding round, with the objective of making sure there is a decent appreciation in value.  The first step in this approach is to estimate the time and money it will take to get to the next value appreciation milestone (and remember startup valuations move in step functions) and then add another 6-9 months burn on top of that.  That way you can begin the fundraising process with the good news in the bag and have six to nine months to raise the money.

Whether you are an entrepreneur or an angel investor, the topic of convertible note vs. equity impacts you. For the most part, startups favor convertible notes and angels prefer equity, but which one is the right choice for your startup?

Here, we review the benefits of each.

Convertible Debt

Convertible debt was most commonly used as a bridge loan between two rounds of financing. For example, if you raised $1,000,000 in series A funding and you were going to raise $5,000,000 in a series B round, you might use a bridge loan if you needed $250,000 until the funding was completed. However, convertible debt has recently become a popular seed round financing instrument.

For a lot of business owners, $1 million in annual revenue is a milestone objective. So today I’m going to tell you about a way of thinking and planning to get to that seven-figure target.

Use something researchers call “trade-off analysis” — a simple way of pitting one choice against another where the winning choice goes on to be tested against another option. Think of it like a tennis tournament in which the winner moves on and the loser goes home.

LinkedIn is the social media platform of choice for many entrepreneurs and business owners.

Too bad most of their LinkedIn profiles, and in particular their  ”summaries,” do little to create those business connections.

I definitely fall into that category.  I set up my profile long ago and haven’t touched it since.  That’s why I asked Matt Scherer of Sherer Communications for advice on creating a great LinkedIn summary.

Why focus on the summary instead of the full bio?  Think of LinkedIn summaries like bait; if you can’t attract and hook potential clients with your summary, you’ll never get them in the boat to check out your full profile.

Where the rest of us see subway walls, Tesco's South Korean supermarket chain Home Plus sees grocery shelves. In a trial run, Home Plus has plastered a subway station with facsimiles of groceries, labeled with a unique code for each product. As commuters pass by on their way to work, they can use a mobile-phone app to take pictures of the products they want, then check out. The groceries are automatically delivered to their doorstep by the end of the work day.

The virtual grocery store has been a hit among more 10,000 customers, with Home Plus reporting a 130 percent increase in online sales. The experiment is just one of the increasingly innovative ways mobile devices are being used in retail. Location-based smart-phone advertising is seen as a potentially valuable way to reach new customers. Some companies in the United States are also using indoor positioning technology as a way to guide shoppers to products and show them special offers. And software makers are exploring different ways of paying for products by smart phone.

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