In all the talk about the mismatch between the projected number of STEM jobs (1.2 million new ones in the next six years) and the U.S.-based talent to fill those positions, we’re losing sight of another big skills gap that’s right under our fingers every day.

Ninety percent of all jobs in the next year will require information and communication technology skills, according to research by Capgemini. Yet more than half the companies polled lacked social media skills. That’s despite a McKinsey report that projects social media adding up to $1.3 trillion to our economy. No wonder the gap is poised to create a war for talent that quietly rivals the battle playing out amid the startups of Silicon Valley.

image: http://www.freedigitalphotos.net 

An electronics retailer hires a CEO who seems to possess the ideal credentials and skills, only to find him ill-prepared to handle changing market dynamics.

A small brewery, in contrast, picks a project manager lacking in relevant industry experience, based on a hiring consultant’s feeling that the man will succeed. The new hire quickly ascends to a key role in a strong management team that turns the company into a conglomerate.

image: http://www.freedigitalphotos.net 

For the past couple of weeks I've been trying an experiment with my Mondays. Rather than making Monday morning my big post-weekend return to work as it is for a lot of people, I've been taking advantage of the flexibility I have to set my own schedule instead. I've dubbed Mondays "head start days", and I've set them aside to do anything that will give me a head start on the week ahead.

image: http://www.freedigitalphotos.net 

Every Monday, tune in to Fast Company Leadership for a quote to get your week started right.

Drawing inspiration from an unusual source, Cindy Gallop channels Lady Macbeth. "We fail," Gallop quotes the Shakespearean line. "But screw your courage to the sticking post, and we'll not fail." As founder of MakeLoveNotPorn and IfWeRanTheWorld, Gallop's heard "no" more often than most. She and 10 other entrepreneurs shared their biggest stories of tenacity, in May.

image: http://www.freedigitalphotos.net 

When respected venture capitalist Bill Gurley said tech startup investors are taking on a level of risk not seen since the dotcom bubble days, the reaction in Silicon Valley was a collective sigh of relief: Finally, someone was saying what everyone was thinking.

In a piece published last week, Gurley told The Wall Street Journal that the huge amount of capital pouring into startups—and the great expectations all that money represents—is forcing new companies to spend more, and faster, than they have in 15 years. So much spending sets companies up for a fall if the funding dries up and they still have big bills to pay.

Image: Venture Capitalist Bill Gurley TechCrunch | CC BY­ND 

The ever-shrinking number of biotech venture capital firms was a common refrain during the 2008-2012 period; it’s true that a large number of firms went under, closed their doors for new investments, or moved into zombie status. I wrote on the subject back in July 2012 (here). The biotech investing environment then, with a relatively bleak IPO landscape and venture funding off some 40% from the prior year, was very different from the past two years with an “open” IPO window and steady pace of venture funding.

In the first part of this article, we have seen what is venture capital funding and how it works. It is time now to take up how to get venture capital funding, or whether to go for it at all. What does it take for an entrepreneur to get funded, and what are the circumstances in which he may be better off growing his startup organically?

image: http://www.freedigitalphotos.net 

The crowdfunding success stories are intoxicating. Most of us can’t help but admire those who, after getting millions of dollars for watches, beer coolers and games, transform from lowly aspiring entrepreneur to Wikipedia-worthy, in-demand exec with vision. But in reality, successful crowdfunding campaigns are the exception, particularly technology campaigns. Just look at the numbers. Overall, Kickstarter has a 41% success rate for launched projects, and only 28% of technology-centric projects hit their targets.

Why do people who love libraries love libraries? This has been on my mind a lot lately. Whenever I find a patron who is passionate about their library I try to decode those tangible and intangible qualities that made the experience so powerful for them.

Our library’s feedback form a great source of insight. Each semester we have a handful of students point out customer service problems, confusing policies, or facilities issues.

image: http://www.freedigitalphotos.net 

Just about every boss should want to make employees happier. If you're not one of those, stop reading now.

If you are, give some thought to what kind of a leader you are, how you traditionally motive your team. Now, try to guess what your employees say they need in terms of recognition. The two things, unfortunately, might not be in line and that's where this infographic comes in.

image: http://www.freedigitalphotos.net 

“How to Brand a Company – 7 Types of Brand Language You Should Use” is one of the most popular Brainzooming articles of the past couple years. This branding strategy article looks at seven different types of language (Simple, Emotional, Aspirational, Unusual, Connectable, Open, and Twistable) a brand should be using to fully communicate its brand promise, benefits, and overall messaging.

Image: http://brainzooming.com 

UP Global just released a great new white paper titled Fostering a Startup and Innovation Ecosystem. As you might know, I’m on the board of UP Global and think they are doing amazing things for startup communities around the world.

Our friends at Google for Entrepreneurs helped with this and I’m doing a hangout with Mary Grove (Director, Google for Entrepreneurs) and Marc Nager (UP Global CEO) on Tuesday September 23rd, 2014 11am PDT for 40 minutes.

A star-studded lineup of Australia’s best entrepreneurial talent took the stage at the inaugural Sunrise Conference in Sydney this past Friday to share the ongoing success stories of some of Australia’s best known startups.

Speaking to a full house of over 750 attendees, Matt Barrie (Freelancer), Mike Cannon-Brookes (Atlassian) and Bevan Clark (RetailMeNot) each gave presentations and also took questions from the audience via an interactive mobile platform.

INDIANAPOLIS — A trio of senior college enrollment officials gave a peek into how they decide which students to recruit. The process now involves number-crunching students’ demographic and economic information — not just sending chipper ambassadors to every nearby high school, mailing glossy books to students’ homes and relying on gut instincts.   The discussion, during a session at the annual meeting of the National Association for College Admission Counseling, was one of many to take place here about how to hunt for students. The search for students involves a web of data points, formulas and consulting firms that perhaps few parents and students are aware of. 

Angel investors (not venture capital firms) are the most likely candidates to get your businesses from a piece of paper to a proof-of-concept.  These angel investors typically come in four distinct groups:

Friends and Family

Friends and family investors have their distinct plusses and minuses.  The plusses are these people know you the best, so they are the closest to you in determining whether or not you are backable, as first hand references.  The minuses are pretty major:  these are your friends and family! 

In late August, mobile security company Lookout raised $150 million in venture capital, taking advantage of the surging demand for cybersecurity products that had already attracted nearly $900 million in VC funding in the first half of the year.

Why can’t we address social needs with similar inventiveness and resources?

Technical entrepreneurs love their technology, and often are driven to launch a startup on the assumption that everyone will buy any solution which highlights this technology. Instead, they need to validate a customer problem and real market need first. Don’t create solutions looking for a problem, since investors ignore these, and customers other than early adopters are hard to find.

Recruiting. It is the bane of every startups existence because it takes up so much time, it is so competitive to sign people and it feels like unproductive time because it’s not moving the ball forward on product, engineering, sales, marketing, biz dev, fund raising. It consumes time and energy and the payoff doesn’t come for a long time. But of course great teams build great companies and great startup leaders know that they must always be recruiting. Yet most startup companies I’ve ever worked with or observed make one crucial mistake: They assume that their recruitment process for a candidate is over when that person accepts his or her offer. The truth is the process isn’t over until after the employee starts with the company, updates her LinkedIn profile and emails all her friends.

The best thing about being a writer is that your house is often clean. Not that writers are an especially neat bunch, but anybody who has regular deadlines will most certainly end up feverishly scrubbing every inch of the house immaculate in order to avoid facing them. Of course, cleaning registers on the more productive end of the procrastination spectrum. A new comic faithfully recreates what the other end looks like.

image: http://www.freedigitalphotos.net 

When I started iExplore in 1999, Chicago was jokingly referred to as a “flyover city” because the big venture-capital firms in Boston and Silicon Valley would fly back and forth to each other looking at deals, ignoring Midwestern startups altogether. Even worse, these funds would insist that any startup wanting their support would need to relocate to their city (which many aspiring entrepreneurs did, having no other choice) in order to leverage their expertise and tap into their local ecosystem.