IN the sprawling outskirts of San Jose, Calif., I find myself at the apartment door of Katherine Ziegler, a psychologist and wantologist. Could it be, I wonder, that there is such a thing as a wantologist, someone we can hire to figure out what we want? Have I arrived at some final telling moment in my research on outsourcing intimate parts of our lives, or at the absurdist edge of the market frontier?

A willowy woman of 55, Ms. Ziegler beckons me in. A framed Ph.D. degree in psychology from the University of Illinois hangs on the wall, along with an intricate handmade quilt and a collage of images clipped from magazines — the back of a child’s head, a gnarled tree, a wandering cat — an odd assemblage that invites one to search for a connecting thread.

CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa- Going to the office these days can be as simple as taking a seat at your home computer, and starting a business in this expanding electronic marketplace can be done without leaving the house.

More people than ever are capitalizing on their ability to work from anywhere, but some teleworkers and virtual entrepreneurs have found there’s something to be said for the often mocked and begrudged office space.

In the beginning all businesses are just people playing out an idea. It’s never the other way around – there is no idea so big that it doesn’t need people to make it succeed. Investors know this, hence the saying “Bet on the jockey (founder), not the horse (idea).” A great jockey is a great role model.

Like it or not, everyone looks to the entrepreneur as the jockey role model in a new business. Typically this energizes new startup founders, but some struggle trying to live up to their own, as well as everyone else’s expectations. In reality, nobody really expects anyone to be superhuman, but it can feel like that.

As the editor of the journal Innovations, I'm asked with some regularity, "So, what is innovation anyhow? How would you..."? (eyebrows usually furrow here) "... define it?" Since I don't particularly enjoy debating definitions, I usually respond by saying: "That's a difficult question. But one thing is for sure: If you're not pissing someone off, it's probably not innovation."

I like this response because, if it doesn't end the conversation, it usually shifts it from definitions to dynamics — which is what innovation is all about, after all. But I also like it because it captures one fundamental obstacle to innovation that all would-be disruptors must be prepared to face: the potentially hostile response of incumbents who don't want to see their market advantages threatened.

The No. 1 challenge, in both Israel and other countries, is to translate innovative success into development, according to Dr. E. Williams Colglazier, science and technology adviser to the US secretary of state.

“Israel is a world leader and a model not only for small countries but for all countries,” Colglazier said on Thursday.

He spoke at The Chief Scientist’s Annual Conference for Research and Development, held at Airport City.

It has recently come to my attention that some of the most loving, passionate, well-intentioned people in the world have a tendency to treat their co-workers unkindly -- especially during times of stress or on a Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, or Friday.

Consumed by their need to do something extraordinary for humanity, they forget the people they work with are human.

And so, in an effort to restore a Culture of Caring to organizations everywhere. it is my honor to present to you the Kindness-At-Work Manifesto -- 40 daily opportunities to go beyond the imperfections of your co-workers and rise to a place of uncommon goodness.

The U.S. Small Business Administration is inviting experienced early stage investment fund managers to apply for licensing as Early Stage Innovation Funds as part of SBA's Small Business Investment Company capital investment program.

Licensed Early Stage Innovation Funds can receive SBA-guaranteed funding to match their privately raised capital up to a maximum of $50 million. Early Stage Innovation Funds must invest at least 50 percent of their investment dollars in early stage small businesses.

Kevin Spain has punched a whole lot of golden tickets on his way to a partnership at a Silicon Valley venture capital firm. And some of his most interesting ideas on building start-ups have to do with acquiring start-ups to bolster one of his firm’s portfolio companies.

Spain came out to Silicon Valley after winning Wharton’s business plan competition in the late 1990s. He decided that was the place to turn his plan for a Software as a Service (SaaS) vendor to small businesses — into a real company.

In stories, angels often appear just when they’re most needed. When it comes to the real world of business, an angel is not likely to swoop in with bags of money to finance your dream venture. Rather, you’ll probably need to pursue an angel or angels – that is, a wealthy individual or a group of private investors – by mapping out a careful strategy and executing it successfully.

Step 1: Determine if you need an angel, and can land one

Angel investors provide money to early-stage enterprises; however, because they are looking to make a profit on their investment, angels are not likely to sink capital into a business that only exists on the back of a napkin and has no other funding secured. Instead, angels generally invest in companies that have gotten off the ground but are not in a position to pursue venture capital or large-scale debt financing, or raise funds through other channels. So before pursuing angel investors, you should tap family and friends and other sources of seed money.

If you are not in a core creative business like design or art, how do you keep up? Yes, we also need to parse huge amounts of information across our careers, but you can’t afford to ignore trends in the creative trades.  It’s a creative economy and we need to know what is going on.  Here are five curated design sites that can help. I like to dip into them from time to time – it’s not part of my every day information intake but it’s essential reading.

Step No. 1: Forget the idea that great entrepreneurs drop out of school. (Some do, but most don't.) Then follow this simple plan.

For the past decade, I’ve taught at the University of California, Berkeley’s College of Engineering. I hold weekly office hours, and typically students line up and down the hall waiting to speak. And semester after semester these bright students most want to discuss the same topic: What is the best way to plan an entrepreneurial career? 

These students have already figured out the first important piece of advice themselves: Enroll in a great university.  There’s currently a meme floating around that entrepreneurs should simply bypass college. That’s incredibly poor advice, and the people giving it often have a great deal of personal college experience themselves. So not only is the advice poor, it’s also often hypocritical.

If you are the type of person that starts with motivation, enthusiasm and perseverance any project, personal or professional, you are an entrepreneur.

Thus, they probably like me are constantly on the lookout for opportunities in any specific market, making it necessary to undertake analysis of research on topics such as trends, styles, needs, tastes and preferences. That is also precisely work of an entrepreneur.

And of course, as an entrepreneur you know is not enough to be attentive to the needs, our fearlessness comes out when we are ready to assemble all the resources necessary for this opportunity detected becomes all business. And not only are we talking about monetary resources, know in essence that every business is built through the combination of other resources as are the technological and human talent needed to make our business go taking shape and is ready to compete in that market that we have selected.

When your dog gazes up at you adoringly, what does it see? A best friend? A pack leader? A can opener?

Many dog lovers make all kinds of inferences about how their pets feel about them, but no one has captured images of actual canine thought processes – until now. Emory University researchers have developed a new methodology to scan the brains of alert dogs and explore the minds of the oldest domesticated species. The technique uses harmless functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI), the same tool that is unlocking secrets of the human brain. The Public Library of Science (PLoS ONE) is publishing the results of their first experiment, showing how the brains of dogs reacted to hand signals given by their owners.

“It was amazing to see the first brain images of a fully awake, unrestrained dog,” says Gregory Berns, director of the Emory Center for Neuropolicy and lead researcher of the dog project. “As far as we know, no one has been able to do this previously. We hope this opens up a whole new door for understanding canine cognition and inter-species communication. We want to understand the dog-human relationship, from the dog’s perspective.”

As I walked out of the latest TechStars Demo Day spectacle in Boston yesterday, I was struck by one question: what does it all mean?

Yes, 13 young startups made highly refined pitches to a theater full of angel investors, venture capitalists, and fellow entrepreneurs, to mark the end of the accelerator program. Yes, some of them were intriguing, but it’s hard to tell much about their real prospects from pitches like those. Judging from the breathless tweets and most of the media coverage around the event—not to mention the congratulatory remarks emanating from the stage—it would seem that a Boston tech renaissance is upon us.

Sure, you can take an entrepreneurship class, but it won't really prepare you for start-up life. Good old-fashioned experience is the key to learning this craft.

These days, everyone wants to be an entrepreneur. To keep up with this suddenly cool career, entrepreneurship programs are now booming in universities across the country.

But pardon me if I look askance at the phenomenon.

Recently, two experts—Harvard Business School professor Dr. Noam Wasserman and Silicon Valley venture capitalist Victor Hwang—took opposing sides of this “Can entrepreneurship be taught?” debate.  To oversimplify, Wasserman believes you can teach aspiring entrepreneurs informed technical processes to preempt historic start-up mistakes. He says, "We can teach founders to use (data) to avoid common hazards." His belief is that an entrepreneur can be taught much like an accountant, an engineer, a doctor, or a lawyer.

Venture fundraising was down in the first quarter of 2012, according to Thomson Reuters and the National Venture Capital Association (NVCA). Forty-two US venture capital funds raised $4.9 billion for the quarter, marking a 35 percent decrease by dollar commitments and a 9 percent decline by number of funds compared to the first quarter of 2011, which saw 46 funds raise $7.6 billion during the period. The number of funds raising money during the quarter fell to its lowest levels since the third quarter of 2009, when 36 venture capital funds saw new capital commitments, according to Thomson Reuters and NVCA.

N.Y.C. has picked its latest tech darling.

InVision, a startup that makes prototyping software for web and mobile applications designers, has been chosen to receive backing from the NYC Entrepreneurial Fund, the city will announce today.

The company, based in the Flatiron District, will receive $200,000 in taxpayer dollars. On top of that, InVision has raised $1.3 million in seed capital from a group of private investors led by venture capital firm FirstMark Capital.

The city established the seed fund in 2010, in partnership with FirstMark, with a mission of doling out $22 million to early-stage companies over six years. It is part of the mayor’s larger efforts to boost the tech economy.

In my experience, inventors aren’t interested or aren’t very good at building a business, and entrepreneurs aren’t usually good scientists. These people need to find each other, and can jointly make a great team for a new startup.

Historically, it’s also not often that a good inventor was also a good entrepreneur. Some now argue that even our entrepreneur heroes, like Thomas Edison, really cheated on the invention side. Only a few great entrepreneurs of recent times, like the young Bill Gates, seem to have elements of both sides. Even he had some great help from Steve Ballmer, a real marketing guy, and others.

Every day is a negotiation for an entrepreneur. Whether advancing a cause, making a request, or persuading others of the merits of our view, negotiating for what we want--often and effectively--is a survival technique for a business owner. We can use it to go after what we want, to create options where there were previously none, and we can use it to defend what is ours and what we need. Perhaps the best news of all, this is a skill that can be learned.

SET THE PACE

Often as we make a request, the very last thing we’re thinking about is pace. Yet, the best negotiators in the world take an active role in shaping a conversation’s cadence. Ideally, you’ll make your ask progressively, exposing more and more of the research you’ve done in a gradual manner. Why is this slow peeling of the onion important? Because in a negotiation, knowledge is power and you don’t need to show your entire hand all at once.

It's only appropriate that Eric Ries is the subject of the first video for Fast Company's new series: The Pivot. He's the author of a best-selling book, The Lean Startup, and the man who made the term "pivot" part of the business vernacular.

Ries's blog offers an advanced course in startupology, which until recently was more alchemy than science. He's all about agile startups that are based on testing hypotheses, collecting data, and constantly iterating products. During the course of his entrepreneurial adventures, he realized that some of the most iconic companies of our time--Twitter, YouTube, Groupon--had abruptly changed course before they achieved success. If they hadn't, Twitter would have stuck with audio podcasting, YouTube would have been a video dating site, and Groupon would have continued organizing political protests (and you likely would have never heard of them). Virtually every startup he could think of had pivoted at one time or another. Ries's observation quickly morphed into a kind of Moore's Law for startups, which he believes are almost certain to change course before becoming successful.