The oldest members of Generation Y turn 33 next year.

To put that into perspective, Alexander the Great conquered the world before the age of 33. Amelia Earhart was 33 when she flew across the Atlantic. And by time he was crucified at age 33, Jesus of Nazareth had altered the course of history.

Among the many things that the internet has made possible is what experts call “many-to-many” communication – that is, sites where a large number of individuals can individually and collectively communicate directly with a large number of other individuals. This innovation is what underlies the idea of crowdfunding.

For those of you who aren’t aware of it, crowdfunding is a sexy idea that has gained prominence and popularity over the last few years. In its original form, crowdfunding involves sites where seekers of funding – micro-businesses, charities, or individual artists and writers with a project in mind – post descriptions of and information about their projects/plans/business models. People with money to invest or donate browse these posts, and pick ones that they find appealing to fund, usually with relatively small amounts of money. The idea is that by aggregating lots of small contributions, big sums can be raised to fund worthy ventures.

Entrepreneurs say instinct can only get them so far in building a successful business. That’s why they rely on a combination of technologies and practical items for not only their day-to-day business needs, but also their long-term success. Here are some of those items.

1. Something to Write With

First, always have something to write with. Whether it is the old-fashioned pen and paper or your new, fancy iPad mini, make sure you are always jotting down ideas, thoughts, reminders and concepts. Don't assume you'll remember it later, because you probably won't. Having everything written down will improve your odds of implementing those ideas successfully. — Jeremy Lyman, co-owner of Birch Coffee

Somewhere between venture funding and bank loans is a kind of investment that seems to fly under the radar, but apparently over the last several years has become increasingly popular for biotech companies beyond the startup stage looking for growth capital.

Royalty financing is the vehicle that Capital Royalty L.P. will use to invest its new $805 million fund in healthcare products and technologies. But (sorry startups), it’s not looking for early-stage companies. Capital Royalty says it invests in companies with FDA-approved healthcare products that are generating revenue. These are companies looking to make acquisitions, expand into new markets or develop new products with investments of $20 million to $200 million.

Similarly, most serial entrepreneurs who were unsuccessful in their first attempt to build a business or reach an exit also make the same decision. They simply pick up and start another company, instinctively becoming a career entrepreneur without much distraction. Such persistence, determination, and independence are admirable traits, necessary for success as an entrepreneur.

Do you ever feel like a Tyrannosaurus when you punch in? In a post for LinkedIn, Ciplex founder Ilya Pozin gives us a reason why:

"The traditional 9-to-5, 40-hour work week is just that: traditional. It’s a fossil from an era when the number of hours an employee clocked on a production line was a simplified measurement of productivity."

As anyone who's ever hustled for pageviews--or hustled their startup-- can tell you, we are prisoners of our measurement methods. So measuring productivity by hours worked is border-line prehistoric.

The war for engineering talent is so hot that companies are trying everything to lure top candidates. Sometimes, these incredible bonus packages are a great way of finding talent who will fit in with the team. Other times, the tactics become so gimmicky and specific that they’re almost guaranteed to screen out a diverse set of candidates.

Lorain County Community College (LCCC) and the Austen BioInnovation Institute in Akron (ABIA) are leveraging their complementary strengths to build a partnership to accelerate the commercialization of novel medical technologies that can advance economic growth, stimulate job creation, foster talent development, enrich patient care and improve community health in Northeast Ohio.

"At the national, state and regional levels, commercializing new technologies at a reduced cost and risk has been identified as the crux to fueling economic vitality and competitiveness in the global innovation economy," said LCCC President Roy A. Church.

After getting my undergrad degree (University of Pennsylvania’s School of Arts & Sciences, Department of Psychology) in 1985, I worked for a San Francisco-based startup then called Dial Info. Twenty six years and six startups later, I sold ClickEquations, a paid search management platform. I played the tech startup game a long time.

Yet after many years of driving very fast in a very straight line, I took a left turn in 2012 and founded Real Food Works, a healthy food subscription delivery company. The idea grew out of my own experience getting healthy by eating better. I saw the trend towards healthy eating, personally experienced the power of it, but also saw how impractical it is. There just weren’t any great tasting, convenient options. I spent almost a year looking for a technology opportunity but kept coming back to the fact that the real problem is with food. Having no interest in being in the food business, I dropped the idea.

With each new year, marketers continue to say that mobile marketing is going to be huge. Has the time already come, or are there more developments in mobile marketing and technology yet to be seen?

Mobile is one of the most innovative technology platforms out today, and with about 50% of mobile users (and 70% of affluent customers) owning a smartphone, the market for apps and further technological advancement is greater now than ever before.

People regularly tell me they want business results fast, like in 30 days, to grow new customers, get more referrals, have more LinkedIn or Twitter followers and get more likes or comments. Those things are all possible, as long as your “operating system” and certain strategies are in place, driving momentum.

Please stop trying to speed up success and results by taking short cuts, doing the minimum or not being willing to put the right things in place. It simply just doesn’t work that way and is actually a waste of precious time.

Would you trade your personal data for a peek into the future? Andreas Weigend did.

The former chief scientist of Amazon.com, now directing Stanford University’s Social Data Lab, told me a story about awakening at dawn to catch a flight from Shanghai. That’s when an app he’d begun using, Google Now, told him his flight was delayed.

During the mid-‘90s, cardiologist and researcher David Albert had the idea to develop a handheld device that displays an electrocardiogram. He believed that this would save lives by providing immediate information to patients wherever they were. In those days, even the most powerful handheld computers didn’t have the needed capabilities. So Albert dropped the idea because it was impossible.

And then came the iPhone in 2007 — which has more processing power than some of the supercomputers of yesteryear. In 2010, at the age of 56, Albert started Alivecor with $250,000 from his savings. His goal was to build an iPhone case that performs an EKG. This device was approved by the FDA last December and now retails for $200—with a prescription.

ACCORDING to the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) 2012, Singapore is second - just behind the US - in terms of entrepreneurial activity among 25 selected innovation-driven economies in the world.

The study carried out by Nanyang Technological University is part of a wider global study led by GEM, a consortium of universities in 69 countries. A survey of 2,000 Singapore residents found that 11.6 per cent of respondents had set up a business in the past 3.5 years or were in the process of starting a new venture, compared with 6.6 per cent in 2011.

Whether we can teach entrepreneurship is actually a question about whether entrepreneurialism is fundamentally a mindset or a skill set. For years we've assumed that it is the former. "Entrepreneurial" has been used primarily to describe a personality trait, as if to imply that one is born entrepreneurial in the same way that one might be born creative or athletic. That said, even if we assume that entrepreneurs are made, not born, is it also a skill set that one can only truly learn on the job, as so many entrepreneurs tend to claim?

Many people assume that it's possible for a person to be an effective leader without being likable. That is technically true, but you may not like the odds. In a study of 51,836 leaders, we found just 27 who were rated at the bottom quartile in terms of likability but in the top quartile in terms of overall leadership effectiveness — that's approximately one out of 2,000.

Our likability index, based on data collected from 360 assessments, measures a broad set of behaviors that go far beyond smiling and having a pleasant personality. To see the complete list, and take a self-assessment of your personal likability, click here.

Last week over 100 leading cancer specialists signed their names to an op-ed in Blood, the journal of the American Society of Hematology, which lambasted the prices of cancer drugs that often exceed $100,000 annually. These researchers opined that high prices are preventing patients from being treated, and they questioned the ethics of pharmaceutical companies.

This isn't a problem only facing uninsured patients: The op-ed claims that in the U.S., for instance, even insured patients pay an average of 20% of drug prices out-of-pocket, meaning these drugs can cost a patient $20,000 a year. Those numbers can be even higher because many patients suffer multiple ailments, requiring more than one pricey drug.

The Alexandria Co-working Network will officially launch in Scottsdale today with the opening of its first collaboration space at the Scottsdale Civic Center Library.

Earlier this year, ASU Venture Catalyst, the university's startup unit, along with the Scottsdale Public Library system, announced the creation of the Alexandria Co-working Network, a new initiative that brings together inventors, problem-solvers, entrepreneurs and small businesses in collaboration spaces in community libraries across Arizona.

The network, designed to provide support for Arizona’s innovation economy, will open the doors of its first collaboration space, called the Eureka Loft, at a 4 p.m. grand opening ceremony at Scottsdale’s Civic Center Library location. The ceremony, which will feature tours of the space and remarks by Scottsdale Mayor W.J. “Jim” Lane and ASU Senior Vice President for Knowledge Enterprise Development Sethuraman "Panch" Panchanathan.

There's a simple reason why so many brainstorm sessions are a waste of time. The problem statement being pitched to participants is the wrong one.

This is not surprising -- especially when you consider how little time most facilitators put into preparing for a session.

Here's what happens: The person who calls the session is usually scrambling -- overwhelmed, over-caffeinated, and running from one meeting to the next. Out of breath, they pitch the topic to the group, but the topic is either vague or secondary to a more essential challenge that remains unspoken.

Finally the economy is in job creation mode.

My line of work is all about jobs- albeit placing top candidates in C-level positions globally. Having been at this for 30 plus years, I have seen many spikes, cycles, and trends. Even in lean times, finding the best technical minds to fill positions is a challenge for many promising firms. An obvious solution is to stop the brain drain from our best higher education institutions and keep the talent in the US. Don’t let the previous week’s events color your view of the issue: Immigration made our country great-don’t kill the American dream by preventing talented leaders from contributing to our businesses and society.