An equity-based crowdfunding bill may be passed as early as next month. U.S. Rep. Patrick McHenry of North Carolina says the long-delayed legislation is finally ready. According to Boston Business Journal on June 6, 2014, he has been working to address proposed rules added by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to the JOBS Act of 2012.

The North Dakota State Board of Higher Education (SBHE) has approved the University of North Dakota’s Department of Entrepreneurship moving to a new status as the UND School of Entrepreneurship. In this new role, entrepreneurial studies will have the chance to become more independent of traditional business studies. UND now joins a group of just five universities in the nation with such a school.

Image: Gamble Hall at UND. Photo courtesy of business.und.edu. 

Babson College has announced that the Bertarelli Foundation is funding a new faculty chair, the Bertarelli Foundation Distinguished Professor of Family Entrepreneurship, with a $3 million gift.  

Building on Babson College’s long history educating family entrepreneurs and advancing the study of family entrepreneurship, the chair will lead a multidisciplinary approach to family enterprise, where the family, not the business, is the focus, Babson said in a press release.

Image: COURTESY OF BABSON COLLEGE Dona Bertarelli (left) and Kerry Healey. 

Where does Silicon Valley’s talent come from? This incredibly detailed map tells all.

The visualization, made by Bloomberg Businessweek, shows the top 100 sources of “imported talent,” from both U.S. states and foreign countries.

What innovation has the most potential to help emerging countries dominate growth in the global economy in the coming decades? (We are already rich, so we don't count.)

Those who live in the richer, more developed countries live in an age of technology, information and social networking - Innovation is the norm.

Image: http://seekingalpha.com/ 

Whether you’re hiring someone to create an infographic for you or you are creating it on your own, it’s an exciting content-type to start working with. Infographics are a great way to keep a readers interest and help explain complicated or boring subjects. So once you finally have your infographic ready to go, it makes sense to get ready for that increase in clicks and engagement.

Image: http://www.freedigitalphotos.net

I can imagine some of your wonderful and creative answers. I’m sure some of you wrote that you help people create income from home. Others wrote that you inspire creativity and change. There is no doubt that someone wrote that in their work, they develop programs for helping children and families. There are hundreds more answers out that and I’d LOVE to hear them all – so please share them in the comments below.

Image: http://www.freedigitalphotos.net

If you could go anywhere in the world, where would you go?

It's a question that's often asked rhetorically, but that changes when you're planning summer vacation abroad. Do you prefer urban giants like New York City and London or beach towns like Buenos Aires and Sydney?

Image: FLICKR, PABLO TANO 

With the recent apparent successes of several startups in taking their company public (initial public offering) and raising billions of dollars, I’m hearing a groundswell of enthusiasm from new entrepreneurs to follow in their footsteps to fund their companies and become billionaires overnight. "If Facebook, Yelp and Twitter can do it, then why not me?"

Several weeks ago I had the opportunity to speak with Jane Muir, who now serves as President of the Association of University Technology Managers (AUTM). At the time of our conversation there had been a number of so-called “news reports” that were characterizing universities as trolls. That, of course, is utter nonsense. The role of the university is to push technologies into the marketplace and work with those who license university innovation, which is the antithesis of what a patent troll does. Still, some in the popular press who obviously have their own agenda see it otherwise, which is both curious and sad.

Meet the humble “Magnetosperm,” a tiny, sperm-like robot with incredible potential in the medical world.

It’s approximately six times longer than a human sperm, and scientists at the American Institute of Physics say in a paper that Magnetosperm “technology could be used not only to help with fertilization, but also chemotherapy treatment.”

Image: http://medcitynews.com/ 

Discussions about housing affordability focus almost exclusively on the price of the real estate, movements in which are monitored by multiple organisations on a seemingly daily basis. There is comparatively little discussion about people’s incomes, which are equally as important as prices in determining what can and can’t be reasonably afforded. The income profile of what most Australian’s actually earn paints a sobering picture which could more often be taken into account in debates about housing and affordability.

Image Courtesy of stockimages / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

As exits have been flowing nicely again the past few years, many of the entrepreneurs I work with have experienced their first big exit. I refer to this moment as when you find that you have life changing money in your bank account, which I like to call “fuck you money.” You now can do whatever you want with the rest of your life.

I was on a walk with an entrepreneur recently who was wrestling with this when we ran into another entrepreneur I had backed who had an exit a while ago and had wrestled with the question of “what’s next.” We chatted briefly and then he hopped on his bike and continued his ride.

In recent weeks in the Upstate Business Journal, several exciting local startups have made the news for their significant national and international successes: The Iron Yard expanding its code school to cities across the Southeast; KIYATEC winning a rare grant from the National Cancer Institute and being featured at the upcoming BIO International Convention; and Selah Genomics realizing a highly lucrative acquisition by a European diagnostics company.

Image: http://www.angelcapitalassociation.org/ 

For many visitors, your website provides that all-important initial introduction to your company’s mission, team, product, and brand. With any luck, many of those visitors will be future prospects and customers, but have you ever stopped to consider your site is how potential investors get their first glimpse of what you’re all about, too? What do they see when they visit your website? What type of first impression is it giving?

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Innovators leap across learning curves exploring new ways to deliver value the way Tarzan swung from vine to vine across the jungle.  Innovators thrive on the steepest part of the learning curve where the changing rate of learning is the greatest.  Watch how innovators manage their careers and lives. They always put themselves on a steep learning curve.  I know I always have.  Staying on a steep learning curve is the most important decision criterion for any career decision an innovator makes. Along the way innovators make many career moves none of which are primarily about titles, offices, number of direct reports, or money.  Innovators believe those things are more likely to happen if they keep themselves on steep learning curves. Every choice to take a new tack or direction is about the next learning curve. Innovators are self aware enough to know they do their best work while learning at a rapid rate and are bored to tears when they aren’t.  Steep learning curves matter most.

“It’s fine to celebrate success but it is more important to heed the lessons of failure” - Bill Gates

Much digital ink has been spilled trying to caution startup entrepreneurs against making mistakes. Type "mistakes entrepreneurs make" into Google and you'll find thousands of articles, sternly forewarning against the most prevalent pitfalls and errors that stand between you and your startup's success.

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Four Chinese venture capital firms that invest in Chinese technology start-ups secured $2.23 billion in total new funding in the last two weeks, more than double the $1.07 billion raised in the entire first quarter.

The $2.23 billion worth of capital secured by Shunwei Capital, IDG Capital Partners, Legend Capital and GGV Capital since May 22, in fact, surpasses all previous quarters going back to the fourth quarter of 2011, when Chinese venture firms at that time had raised $3.48 billion, fundraising data from Dow Jones VentureSource show.

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INSTEAD OF BRINGING A TRASHY ROMANCE NOVEL TO THE BEACH THIS SUMMER, STUFF YOUR BEACH BAG WITH THE FOLLOWING PRODUCTIVITY BOOKS TO REENERGIZE BEFORE YOUR RETURN TO THE OFFICE.

Yes, you go to the beach to get away from work. But a bit of distance from normal life could be just what you need to think about your big goals, and how you intend to get there.

Image Courtesy of africa / FreeDigitalPhotos.net