Congress is at an impasse in raising the national debt ceiling. Sustainable funding for most science & engineering R&D and STEM education programs is in imminent jeopardy because the government must slash spending. And we are an easy "target of opportunity" because we are not as effectively organized as other interests.

Just about everybody wants the government to live within its means. The current stalemate underscores how important it is to use scarce public monies effectively — particularly in areas where the private sector cannot fulfill market needs — such as basic scientific R&D and STEM Education research.

We are in a fiscal crisis. Everybody has to tighten his or her belts. There are many positive things that can be done about taxes, overregulation, capital formation, and creating growth incentives in other areas. We may not agree on how to get there, but most of us agree upon the goals.

Psychological studies reveal that highly creative people have a strong interest in apparent disorder, contradiction and imbalance. Indeed the UK’s IPA has further segmented this with its Diagonal Thinking research.

Now, I consider myself to be somewhat creative, but I am not sure whether to take such an observation as an insult or a compliment. I am also told that being creative does not necessarily go hand in hand with being intelligent.

Peer inside the Britannica Concise Encyclopaedia and you’ll discover that the term creativity is defined as a richness of ideas and originality of thinking.

The New York State Legislature has delivered a new initiative to the Governor, the Innovate NY Fund, which will give high-tech startups greater access to capital in an effort to help create and retain more jobs. The measure, which has passed both houses, also enhances the ability of small businesses in New York State to access loans through the State’s existing Capital Access Program.

“I am very pleased that this legislation is on its way to becoming law,” said Assemblyman Robin Schimminger, chairman of the Assembly Committee on Economic Development and lead sponsor of the bill. “The Innovate NY Fund will do exactly what New York State is in desperate need of – creating and retaining jobs in homegrown high-tech companies.”

WELLESLEY, Mass., June 24, 2011 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- What is the influence of entrepreneurship education on intentions to become entrepreneurs and becoming full-time entrepreneurs?  According to Babson College researchers:

* There is overwhelming evidence that taking two or more core entrepreneurship elective courses positively influenced the intention to become an entrepreneur and becoming an actual entrepreneur both at the time of graduation and long afterward.

* Writing a student business plan also had a significant influence, but it is not a strong as taking two or more core courses.

The findings are based on a sample of 3,755 Babson College alumni who graduated from 1985 to 2009, analyzed by Babson College Professors Julian Lange, Edward Marram, and William Bygrave and Ajay Solai Jawahar M'11 and Wei Yong M'11.

Why do some innovation-related place names stick (like Silicon Valley) and others don't (Biotech Beach?) That was the focus of a column I wrote in May, "In the land of improbable places."

The Sudbury illustrator Leo Acadia (whose actual name seems to be John S. Dykes) created the nifty map below, which I wanted to share. It lists some place names that have actually stuck (Research Triangle), and many that haven't (I'm not sure anyone knows exactly where the Silicon Prairie is.) I think in Massachusetts, "Route 128: America's Technology Highway" was probably the most successful one we've had, although it's far less relevant today than it was in the 1980s and early 1990s.

Something is happening in Europe. The tectonic plates in the startup ecosystem are moving and, like penguins on ice-flows, we all are slithering around trying to get a handle on how things will play out over the next couple of years.

We’re having exits (such as Tweetdeck to Twitter for $40million), large funding rounds (such as Wooga raising $24 million) and higher valuations (like Moshi Monsters).

Events have ramped up considerably. GeeknRolla in London was a blast this year, as was DLD, Founders Forum and the 1,000-strong Dublin Web Summit. And we still have The Europas and Le Web to go.

At the same time the incubator and accelerator scene is booming. A new study named Seedcamp as the top European accelerator with StartupBoootcamp looking like a pretty strong second.

There are a number of bills in Congress that could affect entrepreneurs and investors. As federal policymakers on Capitol Hill work to reduce the nation’s deficit and unemployment rate, they are simultaneously introducing legislation intended to drive job and GDP growth. Although not likely to pass exactly as outlined, the bills include funding opportunities that support entrepreneurship and incentives that promote research and investment in young, innovative companies.

Here are some of the proposed legislation that could impact entrepreneurs and investors:

Small Business Innovation Research: As I mentioned in an earlier blog post, the Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program fills a gap in startup financing by offering grants to technology ventures in the product development stage. To date, $16 billion in SBIR grants have been awarded by federal government agencies to small, technology-based companies. The SBIR program officially expired in 2008 and since then, Congress has passed 12 continuing resolutions to keep the program running a few months at a time. In May President Obama signed an extension through September 30, 2011 just hours before it was due to expire. This bill (H.R. 1425) would reauthorize the SBIR program through 2014 and is sitting on the House floor awaiting debate.

If you look in the trash can or – let’s hope — recycling bins at many businesses, you’ll probably find a ton of paper. Paper is one of the most common waste products at most businesses, and thus one of the biggest sustainability opportunities many small businesses have.

Cutting down on paper waste isn’t as easy as you’d think. For one thing, paper itself is relatively cheap, so business owners might feel like there’s little economic incentive to reduce it. Moreover, it’s hard to change perception that paper use has little environmental impact. But that’s not true: Recycling 1 ton of paper can save 7,000 gallons of water and enough energy to power the average U.S. home for six months, according to the Environmental Protection Agency. Reducing paper use in the first place, then, can save a lot more.

When you pitch to investors or venture capitalists, assume that you are not going to have a lot of time. Investors constantly get pitched, so it’s important to catch their attention quickly and engage them by keeping it simple.

Have a presentation (a “pitch deck”) prepared with which you can pitch your entire idea and business plan in less than 20 minutes. You should also be able to provide more details if questions arise. Decks should be about 10 pages long, but what should they include? Here, we’ve listed the 10 components that investors care about the most and how you should approach them.

When you are not presenting to investors or your team, try to spend more time listening than talking. You can’t learn anything new while you’re talking, yet many entrepreneurs seem to never stop. It’s a sad spiral, since the more you talk, the less people really hear, meaning they don’t learn anything either. If someone left this article on your desk, read extra carefully.

Building a business is all about building relationships, and one of the most important elements of a relationship is effective communication. Communication doesn’t happen unless both parties practice the art of effective listening. Check to see if you are practicing the key disciplines of listening, as outlined by Brian Tracy in “No Excuses: the Power of Self-Discipline”:

Listen attentively. Listen as though the other person is about to reveal a great secret or the winning lottery number and you will hear it only once. Since you always pay attention to what you most value, when you pay close attention to another person, you tell that person that they are of great value to you. You will be remembered.

Tecca:

Jack Eisenmann built an 8-bit computer out of microchips, a plastic Tupperware case, and tons of wires.

Eisenmann’s computer, which he is calling the DUO Adept, runs a small operating system he coded himself. … He made it so he can play the classic game Pong, as well as a side-scrolling adventure game he wrote called Get Muffins. The entire rig has 256 bytes of RAM (about .000005% the size of a modern computer with 4GB of ram), and a 64Kb storage system.

Suggestions that we can grow the Aukland, NZ economy by encouraging business into the central business district (CBD) in the interests of innovation do not reflect the weight of experience.  Sure, higher order professions have tended to concentrate there, and become relatively more important as manufacturing, retailing, and distribution have decamped.  And in Auckland, at least, tertiary education has become a major player in the CBD.  University employment has boosted the scientific as well as education sector.

But much as introductions might be made and ideas swapped over coffee, the real capacity to bring innovation to fruition belongs in the workshops, laboratories, production lines, and sales office of real companies.

40 top venture capital firms sent a scathing warning in the form of a letter on Thursday addressing a bill that was recently passed in the Senate regarding Internet piracy and counterfeit goods.

Senator from Oregon (D) Ron Wyden immediately put a hold on the bill and similar legislation has not been introduced in the house.

The bill will remain in a sort of congressional limbo, but it is so destructive to future investment in innovative Internet startups that top tier VCs felt the need to speak out with one voice in opposition to the very concept of such overreaching legislation.

I have never met anyone who left his or her job -- whether fired or voluntarily -- who started his or her own business and regretted it. What these people always regret is not having done it sooner. This includes people who eventually failed and had to go back to work for someone else.

So are you ready to be an entrepreneur? Do you have the right stuff? Before you take the plunge, take this test:

Do you need a new idea? New ideas are wonderful if you have them. But your best chance of success is working hard, using established values and ideas if necessary.

Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver and Economic Development, Job Creation, Commerce and Industry Committee Chair Robin Schimminger announced the approval of legislation that would provide $55.4 million in federal funds available through the State Small Business Credit Initiative to the Innovate NY Fund, the New York State Capital Access Program (CAP) and the Bonding Guarantee Assistance Program.

A key component of the bill (A.8452/Schimminger) would establish the "Innovate NY Fund," a new economic development program focused on investing in emerging industries that will fuel economic growth in New York State.

One of the most common complaints I hear from entrepreneurs is that they are overwhelmed by the workload and stress of starting their company. Then there are the additional challenges of balancing the demands of family and friends. Having too much on your plate can turn your dream into a nightmare.

Some people will tell you to just get a bigger plate, meaning hire some help. But with the pressures of the economy, and limited access to outside funding, we all know this isn’t always possible or appropriate. I recommend the opposite, or getting things off your plate that shouldn’t be there in the first place.

In reality, many entrepreneurs are their own worst enemy, trying to do everything, working inefficiently, and imagining things that need doing which will never happen. Here are some tips on how to look at work, make some hard decisions, and keep your health and sanity:

• Maintain a big picture perspective. It’s easy to be overwhelmed by day-to-day details, to the degree that they all seem like big items, driving up your imagined workload. Take a few minutes each day to reflect on your real goals, and eliminate items which don’t relate.

I came across two very interesting posts today in which execs at highly rated marketing software company Hubspot write glowingly about two of their investors, Sequoia Capital and Google Ventures.  One post is about why Sequoia is such a successful VC, and the other asks the questions Will Google Ventures disrupt venture capital?

In the case of Sequoia there are two main reasons given why they are successful.  The first is that past success begets future success and they have a long history of being at the top of the VC game.  That history brings them great brand, know how from experience of working with great companies and access to great talent from those companies.  The second reason is strong execution from the existing Sequoia team – they don’t rest on their laurels, but rather work hard, are aggressive but reasonable, and are agile in their working practices.

What I’ve learned the last 10 years of working with entrepreneurial small businesses is that this savvy group of marketers cares about three things: getting more customers, increasing sales and saving time.

Small businesses tend to focus most, if not all, of their marketing and sales resources on closing hot leads — which means the not-ready-to-buy-yet leads end up getting thrown out with yesterday’s garbage.

This “get more customers now” mentality, combined with a lack of time and resources, hurts small businesses and often causes some serious inefficiency in the marketing and sales funnel.

Many questions invariably arise throughout the process of incorporating or forming an LLC for your business. By far, one of the most common questions is…where? And more often than not, the question is framed as, “Should I incorporate in Delaware or Nevada?”

These two states are hot choices for incorporation, and for good reason. Many larger corporations choose Delaware because it offers some of the most developed, flexible and pro-business statutes in the country. And Nevada is increasingly becoming a popular choice for businesses due to its low filing fees, as well as the lack of state corporate income, franchise and personal income taxes.

I had a board update call recently that inspired me to write the first of my Reinventing the Board Meeting posts.

The call was for a company that is doing great, is extremely well managed, and extraordinarily transparent. Two days before the call a very detailed update package was sent around to the board. It covered the operating characteristics of the business extensively and in a format that is consistent with all of the other reports. It was clear and unambiguous.

The company does a very nice job with the board update call. They don’t force the board to sit through a page by page discussion of the package. Instead, there’s a short overview for each section followed by any Q&A that board members have. This is a pretty good approach. After about an hour of this we spent another 30 minutes on a handful of governance and board related issues. Overall, the call lasted two hours.