We had a chance to talk to angel investor Dave McClure earlier this week, prior to the announcement of 500 Startups' new accelerator program.

We met in the company's 12th-floor offices high over downtown Mountain View, with a view of San Francisco 20 miles to the north. It seems like an amazing location for an individual entrepreneur or small team to spend a few months getting a product ready for a big investor to take a look. It's certainly a lot more comfortable than Susan Wojcicki's garage.

Whether you are an old hat at getting up in front of an audience, or stone cold terrified of speaking into a mic, one thing is certain: We all have at least one thing that sends chills of fear down our collective spinal cords.

Regardless of where your fear resides, the most important step to overcoming said fear is to NAME IT and get it out into the sunlight.

Let’s be serious - EVERYBODY is wondering if there is another shoe to drop in the Great Internet Gold Rush of 2011. $6 billion for Groupon? Nah, too low. Something between $8-$10 billion for Twitter? Sure, why not? Eight-figure pre-money valuations for numerous West Coast consumer web start-ups? Hey, it’s just supply and demand, and besides which, they DID go through YCombinator. $50 billion+ for Facebook? How about $70 billion in a handful of trades on SecondMarket. Even $315 million for HuffPo. Is AOL nuts? What’s up?

There is a strong desire to characterize the market in a homogenous way, e.g., “We’re in a bubble” (Fred Wilson) or “Valuations are reasonable” (Chris Dixon). Bottom line, this doesn’t begin to explain the variations observed in nature. There is a world of difference between Quora and Facebook, YCombinator start-ups and Groupon, every “social shopping” start-up and Twitter. One needs to look beyond the headlines and ask “What is REALLY going on here?”

Check out the picture on the right.

You are looking at the interior of a 2010 Lexus SC 430.

You are also looking at the last production car to come with a cassette tape deck.

Starting with the 2011 model year "no manufacturer selling cars in the United States offers a tape player either as standard equipment or as an option on a new vehicle," reports to the New York Times.

Egypt's President Hosni Mubarak just resigned after weeks of dramatic protests in Cairo and across Egypt.

As the biggest country in the Arab world, Egypt is seen as a trend leader for the broader Middle East.

So the question on everyone's mind is: who's next?

The Egyptian revolution is a challenge to state led authoritarian capitalism, but it is also a response to rising food costs and soaring unemployment. There is also the social media factor, which has allowed protesters to circumvent traditional state run media sources and organize more efficiently.

My friend Eric Patrick Marr, a passionate social entrepreneur, has been working to promote entrepreneurship in the Bluegrass Region of Kentucky. At his invitation, I went this week to the state's two largest cities, Lexington and Louisville, to talk with local entrepreneurs and community leaders about what it takes to spur more innovation and entrepreneurship in a region.

It's a goal that nearly every locale seems to have these days, but here there's a particular sense of urgency given the recent election of new mayors in both towns. Lexington Mayor Jim Gray and Louisville Mayor Greg Fischer are both first-time office holders coming to public service directly from successful private sector business careers. Both new mayors ran and won on economic development platforms. Like me, they believe it's vital to think about the challenge of fostering entrepreneurship and innovation at the level of the city — and that their cities have the potential to lead the way by becoming innovation hotspots.

Most US universities maintain three core businesses that earn most of their revenue: selling diplomas, competing for federal and industry research sponsorships, and trying to crack open the checkbooks of wealthy alumni. Since the 1980s, universities have ventured into a new line of business: patenting inventions from university research labs and brokering these patents by licensing rights to businesses and startups. In the terminology of Henry Chesbrough, in the open innovation ecosystem, universities have branched beyond their traditional role of innovation explorers (they generate knowledge) to become innovation merchants (they license their knowledge to other organizations).

I spoke with Jay Verkler, the CEO of FamilySearch International, in the Oak Room of the Family History Library in Salt Lake City. We spoke about the future of technology in the practice of genealogy, an activity with a distinctly old-school reputation.

Verkler is not your average genealogist (whatever that is). His background is not spending sleepless nights knee-deep in 18th century census records. He's a graduate of MIT and spent most of his career in Silicon Valley, at companies including Oracle, Sales.com and push technology company inCommon, which he founded.

As we talk to more CEOs of start-ups, the title of this blog rings more and more true. Not that higher education isn’t doing a decent job of teaching traditional subjects – they’re probably no better or worse than 30 years ago.

Which is the real problem.

It used to be that college taught budding tycoons the basics of business: accounting and economics, for example. There was one tried and true method of growing your standard capitalist organization – and that is where curriculum focused. And in many cases, is still focused.

Remember Start Fund, the investment vehicle established by DST’s Yuri Milner (as an individual) and Ron Conway’s angel fund, SV Angel?

A couple of weeks ago, we broke the news that the fund, which is managed by SV Angel partner David Lee, made a gutsy blanket investment offer to every single one of the 40 or so Y Combinator startups in the most recent batch.

Start Fund offered to provide $150,000 in convertible debt to every one of those Y Combinator startups.

A new crowdfunding platfrom, Sponzu.com, is set to help individuals, non-for-profits, and cause-related initiatives get exposure, build following and raise money to drive their ideas and projects.

(I-Newswire) New York, NY, February 10, 2011 - Sponzu.com, a new crowdfunding site that was launched in December 2010 is off to a great start. Only a few weeks after it's debut on the web, the site has attracted a number of non-for-profit organizations that are seeking exposure and funding.

Gaia Psychology Foundation, Green Theater Collective, and My Sister's Place, are among the organizations that see the benefits of Sponzu's unique approach to crowdfunding.

Breaking down the technical and legal barriers are essential if technology transfer from academia to industry is to be done efficiently and effectively, according to researchers in Spain. Antonio Hidalgo, Professor of Technology Strategy at the Technical University of Madrid and José Albors, Professor of Business Administration at the Technical University of Valencia explain that publicity and prestige are not enough to allow the smooth transfer of knowledge from universities to the commercial sector.

COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) - Republican legislators want to boost job growth by giving tax breaks to millionaires who invest in fledgling South Carolina companies.

Supporters said Thursday the proposal is meant to encourage rich investors to put their money in startup businesses that will create high-paying jobs in a state struggling with high unemployment.

SPRINGFIELD — As Wisconsin and New Jersey governors work to lure Illinois businesses away, new legislation backed by the state treasurer would work to attract new startup technology companies and retain existing firms.

Senate Bill 107 would authorize the state treasurer to invest up to 2 percent of the state's portfolio into venture capital funds, which then would invest money into Illinois-based technology companies.

Similar legislation has been introduced in the past and failed to gain enough support from lawmakers. But now, the state’s treasurer is pushing to get the new plan approved.

In this four-part series, Tom Chapman, director of innovation and entrepreneurship for the Greater Omaha Chamber of Commerce, broke down four bills that are a part of Nebraska Governor Dave Heineman's "Talent and Innovation Initiative."

Here's a run down of the bills and links to the posts:

• LB 386: Nebraska Internship Bill – Special Series Post

• LB 387: Business Innovation Act – Special Series Post

• LB 388: Site and Building Development Act – Special Series Post

• LB 389: Angel Investment Tax Credit Act – Special Series Post

Surprise: we’re writing about an incubator. (OK, it might not come as a surprise. There’s been no shortage of news surrounding programs designed to create and accelerate tech startups across the nation, as my colleague Greg recently noted.)

The Education Ventures Program, which will kick off later this month, is a bit different, though. It’s not necessarily looking for the next billion-dollar Web or software startup, but is entirely focused on developing businesses and technologies out to improve education.

Steve Burrill, the biotech prognosticator/meeting impresario/speaker/writer/banker/investor, likes to say he’s “geographically agnostic.” To me, that sounds like one way of saying he hunts for the best biotech investing opportunities in the world. It also essentially means he could care less about the chamber-style boosterism and sentimentality that sometimes clouds the judgment of well-intended folks who just want to support local business and stir local economic growth.

As Burrill told me this week, talking on his mobile phone during a taxi ride in London: “Our paycheck comes from building great companies.” He added: “You can build a powerful company anywhere.”

For a decade now U.S. city planners have obsessively pursued college graduates, adopting policies to make their cities more like dense hot spots such as New York, to which the "brains" allegedly flock.

But in the past 10 years "hip and cool" places like New York have suffered high levels of domestic outmigration. Some boosters rationalize this by saying the U.S. is undergoing a "bipolar migration"--an argument recently laid out by Derek Thompson in The Atlantic. On the one hand the smart "brains" head for cool, coastal cities like New York and Boston, while "families" and "feet"--a term that seems to apply to the less cognitively gifted--trudge to the the nation's southern tier--a.k.a. the Sun Belt--for cheap prices and warm weather. "College graduates with bachelor's degrees or higher," Thompson notes, "have been moving to the coasts, like salmon swimming against the southwesterly current."

Last week, I had the amazing opportunity to consult with dozens of entrepreneurs — at 35,000 feet in a jet over the Atlantic. Now, I've done a lot of consulting, including at New York's Grand Central Station, but this was the first time I've ever been in a 747 filled entirely with entrepreneurs.

These were winners of British Airways' "Face of Opportunity" contest, and I'm a member of the advisory board