In recent years, the University of Minnesota has witnessed a slow decline in the number of new startup businesses based on its research.

Taking research from the laboratory shelf to a retail store can be a difficult process — so difficult that one University official described it as the “valley of death” for nascent technologies.

But the state is now trying to turn the downhill slide in the University’s technology commercialization into an upward climb.

On Friday, the state’s Science and Technology Initiative Advisory Commission met for the first time in St. Paul to begin outlining a new statewide science and technology economic development plan.

Scholars Web Sites Project Overview from IQSS on Vimeo.

Harvard University has now released version 2.0 of OpenScholar, an open source software package that lets scholars build personal and project-oriented web sites in a matter of minutes. It’s a quick, easy, and free solution (minus one meaningful caveat below) that allows academics to build an online home for their “CV, bio, publications, blogs, announcements, links, image galleries, class materials,” and even submit publications to online repositories, such as Google Scholar. You can see an example of OpenScholar in action here.

Gen-Y entrepreneurs are at the forefront of the shift in the way business gets done today. Still, a few critical “rules-of-thumb” still hold true, one of which is the value of experience. It’s crucial that younger entrepreneurs understand how to negotiate this knowledge gap to avoid pitfalls and accelerate their success.

Partnering with one or two close mentors as well as a network of less frequently consulted mentors should a critical part of your business-building journey. Having the advice of someone with years of experience in a similar industry means you’ll be able to accelerate the change you are trying to affect within your business landscape.

Even after launching my idea as an intern and witnessing first-hand its market potential, I did not feel ready to take on the risks involved with starting a company, so I sat my idea on the sidelines for a while. Only after I met my mentor, who has since become my most influential adviser, did I take the leap and start my company. My mentor provided me with the business fundamentals and life lessons that helped me build the confidence to successfully navigate my start-up journey.

There is a telltale sign of an inexperienced startup entrepreneur. They get premature merge elation. You know, they get so excited about doing deals all the time instead of doing the hard work of figuring out their businesses. I understand this. I was a premature merge elater once. Here’s what I learned:

1. As a startup you shouldn’t focus on buying other companies until you’ve figured out your own business
A close friend of mine in LA who is 3 years into his startup called me about 2.5 years ago and told me, “I just got offered the chance to buy this company because the founder doesn’t want to continue.  It has awesome features that my main competitor doesn’t have.  I can save tons of development time and I think I can buy it for all equity.  How much dilution should I take for it?”  My friend’s company was pre-revenue.

Me: “Zero dilution.  Pass.  Focus on your customers and don’t obsess about deals or keeping up with your competitors releases.”

ST. AUGUSTINE, Fla., Aug. 03 /CSRwire/ - The GREEN TRANSITION SCOREBOARD™ from ETHICAL MARKETS, the independent global multi-media company, tracks total private investment in companies growing the green economy since 2007. The mid-2010 update shows a rise to $1,646,719,228,993 from $1.24 trillion at the end of December 2009. The report was released today by founder-CEO HAZEL HENDERSON, D.Sc.Hon, FRSA, futurist and author of Ethical Markets: Growing The Green Economy (Chelsea Green, 2006). Dr. Henderson has advised the U.S. Congress Office of Technology Assessment, the National Science Foundation and the National Academy of Engineering, tracking these technologies since the 1970s.

Dr. Henderson, creator of the GREEN TRANSITION SCOREBOARD™ (GTS), stressed its vision and purpose, "Our mission of fostering ethical markets and growing the green economy worldwide is shared by millions of entrepreneurs, inventors, scientists, engineers, venture capitalists, investors, pension funds, as well as civic groups, academics, students and employees of incumbent industries in the fossilized sectors in many countries. This requires the revolution in corporate and national accounts we have long advocated - now underway by the new International Integrated Reporting Committee (IIRC) steered by 33 organizations, including the Global Reporting Initiative, the UN Principles of Responsible Investing and many other pension funds and accounting bodies worldwide, with the backing of the International and US Accounting Standards Boards."

When Emami launched Fair & Handsome, after market research revealed that 30% of fairness cream users were men, a big budget ad campaign with a movie star was merely a cherry on top. The category itself was on a tipping point, just about to explode, and Emami got there first. “The product spoke for itself,” says Aditya Agarwal, director, Emami. This fresh category is a gold mine as many big players including Hindustan Unilever, L Oreal, Garnier and Nivea have sunk in their teeth after Emami. On the brand valuation chart, Fair & Handsome is already worth `100 crore and has 80% market share. It’s one cool idea that launched a category. “Genuine innovation has a breakthrough quality,” says Rajiv Narang, CMD, Erehwon Innovation Consulting, “It is unique to the industry and has a transformational impact on the market.”

It's basic psychology. Interacting with people, whether it's a significant other or a potential employer, requires careful relationship management.

And there are a surprising amount of dating tips that can be applied professionally.

Think that's total crap?

In February, Roy Cohen, a career counselor and executive coach who previously handled outplacement for Goldman Sachs, told Forbes that the best book for job-seekers is The Rules: Time Tested Secrets for Capturing the Heart of Mr. Right.

Benjamin Franklin, unlike many of our founding fathers, didn't come from an aristocratic family. In fact his journey from teenage runaway to wealthy printer is the epitome of bootstrapping a business.

As John Paul Rollert points out over at the Harvard Business Review, Franklin took a very structured approach to to success.

While he was still in his early 20s and just beginning to run his own print shop, Franklin laid out 13 "virtues" he felt would guide him as an entrepreneur.

To identify the factors that hinder your creativity at work, rate the items below on a scale of 1 to 5, where ‘1’ means you never do this, and ‘5’ means you always do this.

____ I buffer myself from interruptions during creative thinking.

____ I exchange ideas with other people.

____ I avoid quick negative self-criticism of my own new ideas and proposals.

____ I avoid assuming boundaries that box my creativity.

____ I allocate enough time for incubation.

____ I state positive things about a new idea before I state the difficulties to be overcome.

____ I exhibit lots of spontaneity and humor.

____ I review and discuss how the climate and my habits in my work affect my creativity.

It is absolutely ridiculous that the White House recently announced an initiative to pass the Paycheck Fairness Act to help women during this lousy economy. First of all, it’s already illegal to pay people based on gender criteria. Second, during this downturn women are doing much better than men in terms of job loss. And third, there simply is no longer a salary gap between men and women.

Yes, you read that correctly. This is not a controversial statement. Or at least it shouldn’t be. It was just on the cover of the Economist in an article that asserted at least 15 times that a salary gap in America is gone. And many major U.S. news outlets have reported that women in their 20s are out-earning their male counterparts in large cities, which is not surprising because women are doing better in school than men are.

Be careful what you name your company, it could come back to haunt you later.

The first time I was threatened with a lawsuit, I had been in the business for only three months. I had hastily chosen the name “Brass Tacks Communications” for my market research business without doing my homework to see if somebody already had that name. Sure enough, there was another Brass Tacks Communications offering marketing services in my city.

After a few nasty letters from its lawyers, I was forced to change my company name.

DOE has allocated $30 million for a competition for businesses to pursue commercial applications of work that derives from, extends, or logically concludes effort(s) performed under prior SBIR agreements.  Small companies previously awarded Phase II grants through DOE's Small Business Innovation Research program (SBIR) or the Small Business Technology Transfer program (STTR) are eligible.  Successful applicants may receive up to $3 million over three years to research, develop and deploy new technologies. Applications are currently being accepted through August 4, 2010, in select technology areas within clean energy.

The jobless recovery can be a blessing and a curse for businesses looking to hire.

On the one hand, rarely have there been so many people vying for employment at your company.

On the other hand, most of those people don't necessarily want to work for your company as much as they want to work for a company. Any company.

That means there are overqualified, under-qualified and simply desperate candidates looking for a position to hold them over until a bigger company beckons. Mixed in there somewhere are people who actually covet the job at hand.

The 2010 Metro Wealth Index from Capgemini came out yesterday. The report ranks American cities in terms of "High Net Worth Individuals," also known as millionaires.

The big surprise on this list is Detroit, which claims 89,000 millionaires. Add that to a powerful city-wide depression and you've got an extreme wealth disparity.

The winner, NYC, comes as no surprise. Now where does Shanghai rank?

China may have found an environmentally friendly way to save money while easing congestion on city roads, Engadget reports.

Instead of spending millions to widen roads, the Shenzhen Huashi Future Parking Equipment company is developing a "3D Express Coach" (also called a "three-dimensional fast bus") that will allow cars less than 2 meters high to travel underneath the upper level carrying passengers.

China Hush, which has nicknamed the project "Straddling Bus" has details:

The model looks like a subway or light-rail train bestriding the road. It is 4-4.5 m high with two levels: passengers board on the upper level while other vehicles lower than 2 m can go through under. Powered by electricity and solar energy, the bus can speed up to 60 km/h carrying 1200-1400 passengers at a time without blocking other vehicles' way. Also it costs about 500 million yuan to build the bus and a 40-km-long path for it, only 10% of building equivalent subway. It is said that the bus can reduce traffic jams by 20-30%.

Aug 4 (Reuters) - With a sprinkling of seed capital, Chile is courting a flock of young technology entrepreneurs to spur local innovation and turn the South American country into a satellite for Silicon Valley.

By October, Chile hopes to attract 25 budding tech companies through Start-Up Chile, a pilot program promising to slash red tape, help with $40,000 of overhead and connect innovators with top local talent and venture capital.

New President Sebastian Pinera, who made a fortune as a credit card entrepreneur in the 1980s, has pledged to turn around declining productivity and increase the Chilean economy an average of 6 percent annually during his term.

Singapore tried it. South Korea tried it. Russian, Vietnam and India are all following suit.

It seems that when it comes to encouraging innovation and invention, the “standard approach” in every country that Edward Jung has come across, is one that attempts to replicate Silicon Valley.

Jung is the co-founder and chief technology officer of Intellectual Ventures, a firm dedicated to the funding, creation and commercialisation of inventions. He spoke at SMU's Institute of Innovation and Entrepreneurship Distinguished Speaker Series, "Innovation megaprojects – A 21st century model for innovation and economic development". Before starting up Intellectual Ventures with Microsoft colleague Nathan Myhrvold, Jung was also former chief architect and advisor to executive staff at this world’s largest software company, former consultant to NeXT Computer, Apple as well as the Open Software Foundation.

We invest in our country’s small businesses because small businesses invest back in our economy. With small businesses creating nearly two out of every three net new jobs, you probably have a friend, neighbor or family member who makes their livelihood by working for a small business. These employees enter an environment that supports innovation and ingenuity, as small businesses invest in research and new programs to spur economic growth and reduce our country’s energy usage.

Last week, I wrote about our Phase III awards, $30 million in funding available to be awarded to help qualified small businesses bring their ideas to the marketplace. Today, we are showcasing the results of our Phase II awards -- over 200 awards totaling $188 million have been awarded to qualified small businesses in 34 states. These awards will be used to develop clean energy technologies that have the potential to be commercialized, thus continuing to allow the small businesses to create new jobs in their communities. These awards will provide funding at a key stage in the technology development cycle, helping innovators develop prototype technologies that can then be manufactured, creating clean energy jobs and economic opportunity.

Last week saw an explosion of discussion around seed investing, including plenty of negative comments around VCs as seed investors.  While I agree that many VCs are crummy seed investors, I think there are some that are excellent seed investors.  This prompted me to write a post titled AngelList Boulder and Some Thoughts on Seed Investing where I promised to write up some of my thoughts on how and why VCs could be good seed investors.

Before I got around to starting, there were three excellent posts that, if you are interested in this topic, are must reads.  They are:

• Fred Wilson: Lead Investors, Dipshit Companies, and Funding Every Entrepreneur
• Mark Suster: Understanding a VC’s Seed Funding Policy is Critical
• Dave McClure: MoneyBall for Startups: Invest BEFORE Product/Market Fit, Double-Down AFTER

All three of these posts lay out clear points of view on the authors seed strategy.  And importantly, Mark encourages all entrepreneurs to make sure they understand a VC’s seed strategy before taking money, which I strongly agree with.