By Jack Stripling

With a proposal that would send millions of students to community colleges free, President Obama joins a line of national leaders who have asked taxpayers to foot other people’s tuition bills for the greater public good.

Image: Carolyn Kaster, AP Images - President Obama outlined his proposal during a visit to Pellissippi State Community College, in Tennessee, on Friday. Like the GI Bill and the Pell Grant program, the idea marks a new milestone in the national debate over whether a college education is a private benefit or a public good. 

Samsung is set to make mobile devices bigger, faster, and more brilliant in the very near future. The company announced that it has begun mass production on the very first 8-gigabit LPDDR4 Mobile DRAM mobile memory module. The new chip marks a new benchmark for mobile devices aimed at being the best. In fact, Samsung’s innovation means the best mobile devices likely will have more memory than a lot of laptops and desktop computers.

The money raised by venture-capital firms hit $32.97 billion in 2014, a 62% increase over 2013 and the highest total since 2007, as investors seek to take advantage of a hot market for startup funding and initial public offerings.

Image: Scott Voss of HarbourVest Partners, said venture industry returns in the past 12 to 24 months ‘have been some of the best venture-backed deals ever done.’ RAMIN TALAIE/BLOOMBERG 

European manufacturers are happy with the falling value of the single currency, which allows them to export their goods more easily. But the mood is tempered by the threat of deflation, particularly harmful to indebted countries, and increasingly a worry for the ECB, which may begin a policy of buying up sovereign debt from 22 January. EurActiv France reports. 

Image: Flickr

Business owners need three things to set them on their way when they are starting a new venture: leadership skills, a meticulous thought process and an entrepreneurial spirit.

1. Be a people person.

Understand what your customer wants and needs, build strong networks and make connections when you pitch your company. Be an adaptable leader that your team can look up to -- the first to arrive at the office and the last to leave.

Ten young technology businesses will be coming to Kansas City under a startup program backed by state and private funding that organizers will announce Friday.

LaunchKC is a new business accelerator program from the Downtown Council working with the Economic Development Corp. of Kansas City.

Council officials will highlight the venture and make a related announcement at their annual lunch in the Kansas City Convention Center.

Image: The Downtown Council is announcing a new business accelerator program to bring 10 young technology companies to Kansas City. FILE PHOTO THE KANSAS CITY STAR

University of Wisconsin Milwaukee Chancellor talks about the drivers of student entrepreneurship and regional innovation from a university and regional point of view. The conversation also covers some of effects of student entrepreneurs and why it has become a major focus on campuses across South-Eastern Wisconsin and the nation.

What do Coco Chanel, Steve Jobs, Oprah and Mark Zuckerberg all have in common? Not one of them finished their college education. While the road to success without a college degree is far from easy, it's a path followed by some of the most successful people in history. Although today’s job market is slowly improving, many college graduates are struggling to find jobs they’re qualified for. According to CareerBuilder, 51% of 2014 college graduates are working jobs that don’t require a degree.

Working remotely doesn’t have to mean being cooped up in your house or apartment. Now there are spaces where remote workers and tech startups can get office space or just share a communal work area with others just like them. Coworking spaces like WeWork have even made the news recently scoring big cash investments.

Image: http://smallbiztrends.com

Every entrepreneur I know can’t find enough hours in a day to do the good things they want, and yet they often find themselves saying yes to new requests. Perhaps because they are optimists by nature, or they just hate to disappoint others, they end up hurting their health, credibility, and effectiveness by not being able to deliver on everything they promise.

As an angel investor and a mentor to aspiring entrepreneurs, I’m always disappointed to see founders who seem stressed out most of the time and more annoyed than energized by the abundance of challenges they see in building their startup. The entrepreneurial lifestyle is a tough one under the best of circumstances, and it’s one you have to love in order to succeed.

Image: http://www.flickr.com/photos/15923063@N00/3306486573

The word “pioneer” conjures an image of brave explorers in wagons braving America’s badlands to establish new settlements in the west, or the poet Keats’ “stout Cortez” getting a first glimpse of the Pacific, “silent, upon a peak in Darien”.

VIVEK WADHWA: The most significant announcement that Apple made in 2014 wasn’t a larger-sized iPhone. It was that Apple is entering the health-care industry. With HealthKit, it is building an iTunes-like platform for health; Apple Watch is its first medical device. Apple is, however, two steps behind Google, IBM and hundreds of startups. They realized much earlier that medicine is becoming an information technology and that the trillion-dollar health-care market is ripe for disruption.

Polaroid, as a company that designs and builds some of the most iconic instant cameras and film in photographic history, is dead. The primary culprit was a too-slow adaptation to the digital age. But also to blame were bankruptcy proceedings and years-long legal battles that began in 2001 and weren’t sorted out until 2009—meaning Polaroid spent nearly a decade too distracted to make a serious effort to revitalize itself.

Image: http://time.com

The tech community around the world sat up and took notice when The Economist magazine dubbed Block 71, Ayer Rajah Crescent last year as the "world's most tightly packed entrepreneurial ecosystem".

Even as Block 71 - run by JTC Corporation and housing more than 200 high-tech start-ups and several incubators - is being expanded, it is also going overseas.

Image: http://www.straitstimes.com

It is never easy to turn away from something you’ve poured so much time, effort and money into. However, knowing when it is time to throw in the towel is one of the key marks of a great entrepreneur.

One failed venture hardly defines your career. Silicon Valley has shown us that a failed company is typically just another line on a great entrepreneur’s resume.

I grew up surfing. Even if the closest you’ve ever come to surfing is watching The Endless Summer or Blue Crush with a bag of popcorn, you probably understand that surfing is all about being in the right place at the right time. Of course, you need to know how to swim, have a board, and know a little bit about how tides work. But the real skill is being able to look out into the horizon and see the sets or patterns of waves building, then positioning yourself to make the most of them.

Image: David Butler, The designer’s philosophy transformed Coca-Cola. His new book explores the relationship between design, startup culture, and corporate growth. Photo: Nicholas Calcott

The beginning of the year is always a good time to make a fresh start. If you’re planning to do so by changing jobs or careers, be sure to make the most of the powerful tools that online skills and job portals offer you for managing your career. Here’s five tips to get you started. 1. Refine your CV The first step in a successful job hunt starts by sharpening up your CV to put the spotlight on your experience, achievements and skills. Update it with the latest information about your career, making sure that a recruiter can see with a quick glance which qualities, skills and accomplishments make you stand out. While you’re about it, speak to people who you worked with in the past who will be happy to give you reference letters.

THE new year has arrived at last, so it is natural to reflect on the happenings of the previous year.

In 2014, software companies overshadowed other industries in terms of the most rapidly growing in North America. Let us examine the fastest-growing technology industries of 2014 and discuss how these industries will affect 2015.

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A San Francisco venture firm is recruiting startups to build what its partners hope becomes the framework for the brave new world of virtual reality. Venture capitalist Mike Rothenberg imagines a future in which visiting Grandma is as easy as putting on a headset. In a decade or two, he predicts, companies will worry not only about their social media presence, but also their virtual reality presence.

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