The space between nonprofit and for-profit higher education gets a little more crowded today.

University Ventures Fund, a $100 million investment partnership founded by a quartet of veterans of the for-profit and nonprofit education sectors, is the latest entrant in a market that aims to use private capital to expand the reach and impact of traditional colleges and universities.

The fund, whose two biggest investors are the German media conglomerate Bertelsmann AG and the University of Texas Investment Management Company, is focused on stimulating "innovation from within the academy," rather than competing with it from the outside, David Figuli, a lawyer and partner in University Ventures, said in an interview Monday.

Each year, Speakers Platform recognizes five speakers within ten popular topic areas. Excellence in speaking is based on: expertise, professionalism, client testimonials, presentation skills and original contribution to the field. The substantive requirement is that the candidates' standard keynote presentation fee be under $25,000USD. Once the nominees are chosen, online voters determine the final Top5 honorees.

Over 13,000 votes were received at Speaking.com for the initial 157 nominees- from business leaders, educators, association members and others from around the world. Many voters praised the nominees for having a profoundly positive impact on their lives; a living testament to the far reach and valuable work of all the nominees. Please join us in congratulating your 2012 honorees!

I would like to personally thank all who voted for me in the recent Speakers Platform Competiton. I had the opportunity to speak Globally on topics I love, over 25 times in 2011, and interact with many of you, who are also are passionate about Innovation and Entrpreneurship. Best Personal Regards, Rich Bendis

Startup incubator DreamIt Ventures is announcing the first Israel-U.S. accelerator, which will help up to five Israeli startups expand into the U.S. market through DreamIt’s NYC 2012 program. The new program, called DreamIt Israel, will take place over four months, with the first month in Israel followed by three months in New York. The startups will also participate in two Demo Day events – one in the U.S. and the other back home with local investors.

Despite some VCs’ contention that entrepreneurs still need to be based in the Valley to succeed, Israel has been pushing out innovative new web and mobile startups at a rapid pace, including, of course, Disrupt winner Shaker.

Albert Einstein once commented that “a person who has not made his great contribution to science before the age of 30 will never do so.” This may have been an accurate reflection of physics in his time, but it is no longer the case—for physics or any other field. Benjamin Jones, an expert in innovation at the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University, and Bruce Weinberg of Ohio State University analyzed 525 Nobel Prizes awarded in physics, chemistry and medicine between 1900 and 2008. With a few exceptions—notably quantum mechanics discoveries of the 1920s and 1930s—the trend across all fields is toward researchers being older when they produce their greatest work.

I met with two 20-something budding entrepreneurs this week, just by chance. I love working with and mentoring these young people. There is so much energy and hope to better themselves and make the world a better place too. And so much they need to learn. I thought I would encapsulate some of my advice that I gave them, and perhaps motivate you to reach out to someone you know who is looking to start their own business and send this post their way too.

First, it is so often said that you have to find your passion. But it is very true. If you are going to suffer the long hours and the many frustrations of starting your own business, you need to have something that is going to power you through the darkest times. If you come up with a business idea that doesn't get your groove on, drop it and think of something else.

It’s amazing to think about the many innovations that have been developed in the United States over the last fifty years. From smart phones and digital cameras, to hybrid vehicles and the internet, the list goes on and on. These innovations have changed the world as we know it today.

So what will the next fifty years look like? Well, many academic, business, and government leaders believe there are warning signs that suggest the U.S. may be losing its ability to innovate and be competitive in the global economy. So how can we continue to ensure a robust innovation cycle in America that leads to economic prosperity for our nation and its citizens?

So you are an expert, but are you really cut out to be an entrepreneur?  Is this what you really want to do, or is this a desperation tactic?  Entrepreneurship as a solution to employment is fast becoming a popular decision many are making.

There are many great resources to help you evaluate if, in fact, you are the right temperament and type of person to take entrepreneurship on.

As evidenced by a recent surge of public investment in technology, the nexus between broadband access and a community’s economic wellbeing is becoming more defined.

Funding in 2009’s American Recovery and Reinvestment Act reinforced the idea that broadband access leads to fundamental and sustainable economic growth. Broadband, which is commonly defined as high-speed Internet service, enhances educational and workforce training opportunities, and drives innovation — factors that encourage a robust and thriving economy and can help the nation compete in today’s global economy.

According to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), in 2011, the United States is ranked 15th among 30 developed and developing nations in deploying broadband services. This is a significant decline from the 1990s, when the United States was a global leader in providing broadband access.

I am ecstatic to announce the creation of Brooklyn Bridge Ventures--my new seed investment fund.

It is the first venture capital fund based in Brooklyn--the city’s most exciting and creative borough.  It is home to cool startups like Etsy, Makerbot, Pontiflex, HowAboutWe, Energyhub, and Loosecubes.  Gilt Groupe maintains a significant presence there, as does scores of creative agencies and design firms.  By some estimates, 50-60% of New York’s startup community lives in Brooklyn--and at Etsy it’s as high as 80%.  It has grown to be a dynamic place to build a company--and has the potential to be the very best place in the world to start a technology business.  I will be working hard to help it reach that potential, while continuing the work I’ve been doing for NYC’s tech community as a whole for the last seven plus years.  I'll be back and forth over the bridge taking meetings all over, but you'll often find me at the new NYU-Poly Incubator in DUMBO where I'll have a desk.

We spent hours combing the floor of the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas to sleuth out the most compelling tech trends and the most exciting new products of the coming year.

Now that we’ve returned from Vegas, pounded enough Emergen-C cocktails to get us back into a semblance of health, and compared notes, we’ve settled on this list of the show’s top products.

Read on to see the most promising hardware that will be hitting store shelves in the coming months.

While the percentage of obese children in the United States tripled between the early 1970s and the late 2000s, a new study suggests that—at least for middle school students—weight gain has nothing to do with the candy, soda, chips, and other junk food they can purchase at school.

“We were really surprised by that result and, in fact, we held back from publishing our study for roughly two years because we kept looking for a connection that just wasn’t there,” said Jennifer Van Hook, a Professor of Sociology and Demography at Pennsylvania State University and lead author of the study, which appears in the January issue of Sociology of Education.

The study relies on data from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, Kindergarten Class of 1998-1999, which follows a nationally representative sample of students from the fall of kindergarten through the spring of eighth grade (the 1998-1999 through 2006-2007 schools years). Van Hook and her coauthor Claire E. Altman, a sociology and demography doctoral student at Pennsylvania State University, used a subsample of 19,450 children who attended school in the same county in both fifth and eighth grades (the 2003-2004 and the 2006-2007 school years).

Accelerators offer hands-on help from experienced mentors, sources for seed capital, and sometimes even co-working locations, and give entrepreneurs what they need to take a startup from concept to market more quickly and effectively than if they go it alone. Here's how you can get connected.

It’s the best of times, it’s the worst of times--to be a startup, that is. On the plus side, recent research from the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation indicates that startup companies--particularly high-growth startups--are the most fruitful source of new U.S. jobs and offer the economy's best hope for recovery. On the other hand, newly minted ideas are fighting a sea of competitors for market share and funding, not to mention navigating Sarbanes-Oxley regulations and the still-cautious consumer spending landscape.

Crunching a list of variables about innovation and sustainability, we rank the world’s smartest cities, from New York to Hong Kong (and with an unexpected winner)

Last year, I spent considerable time researching best practices for climate resilient cities--an endeavor that culminated in what I believe was the first ever global ranking of resilient cities. Now, after extensive research on smart cities initiatives around the globe, I have developed what may be the first ever global rankings of smart cities.

I still remember how red-face frustrated one of my seed investors was after hearing my pitch to another investor in Month One of the business. “It’s a process,” he repeatedly said out loud — and I am pretty sure he was talking to himself.

While I’ve always been an adequate-to-solid public speaker, I struggled early boiling down my business in the way many other entrepreneurs easily managed (I got better by watching videos from DEMO).

The United Kingdom remains a fierce competitor in the global race to develop the best startup ecosystem in the world. As noted in previous posts, Prime Minister David Cameron is keen for an economic recovery led by new firm formation introducing both policies and initiatives like Startup Britain to accelerate efforts nationwide.

The country’s Minister for Business and Enterprise, Mark Prisk, who I met with here today in London, has not wasted any time in leading efforts at enterprise education at schools. The government is working with the National Consortium of University Entrepreneurs (NACUE) to create student-led enterprise societies in every university and most colleges across England. Cameron also has shown great support for the continuing ambition for London’s East End to become a world-leading technology city to rival Silicon Valley.

Small-cap IPO evangelist David Weild is stepping up his crusade.

For the last several years Weild and Edward Kim, his colleague at accounting firm Grant Thornton, have been publishing research papers setting forth their view of how market and regulatory changes have made it much harder for small companies to go public and why that is bad for America.

Now, joining with media entrepreneur Brett Johnson, Weild, a former Nasdaq vice chairman, has launched the New Markets Movement to mobilize public opinion to fix Wall Street—as opposed to occupying it. Johnson is founder and chief executive of OneMedPlace, a media and research firm for investors in emerging health-care companies.

Getting up early is a common trait among CEOs, but don't get carried away.

Not getting enough sleep can lead to weight gain, cancer and other adverse consequences described in the following infographic (via Barry Ritholtz). And 93% of people don't get enough sleep.

Although the infographic is effectively an ad for sleep tech company Zeo, it still makes for a good read.

Today's young people have an entirely different view of work than their parents and grandparents. The boundaries between work and the rest of their lives are not as distinct, so Millennials expect more personal fulfillment from their day jobs.

But Generation Y — defined loosely as those born after 1980 — has also been acutely affected by the Great Recession, and this means that they also know the value of a hard-earned paycheck.

Things just got worse in the Eurozone with yesterday's downgrades. Unemployment across the region is still high, but it's highest in Spain at 22.9%.

Which would explain why people have been leaving the country in droves to find work elsewhere. In 2011, more people left Spain than moved in — and lots of those people are going to Brazil.

These days startups are popping up everywhere.

In Q4 of 2009, less than 10% of state VC deals were devoted to seed funding in New York and California. By mid-2011, that figure jumped to 25% in Silicon Alley (NYC) and 13% in Silicon Valley (via Mashable).

But just because things are trending in that direction does not mean launching a company is a smart move for everyone.