Many startups these days are started by young, technical or product founders who are in the idealistic phase of their lives and careers.

Thus I hear many talk about “radical transparency” when virtually every experienced operator in my inner circle talks knowingly about that naiveté. It’s not that I don’t love idealism – I was young once, too! – it’s just that the more experience you get in your career the more you come to realize certain truths.

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Crowdfunding projects that generate strong press not only benefit from additional backing but also build brand awareness. As a result, they can receive additional opportunities, such as offers of mentorship, investment and strategic alliances. You'll want to invest a fair amount of time—in as far in advance as possible—researching and reaching out to relevant bloggers and other media professionals.

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Mike Rowe, host of the popular Discovery Channel series Dirty Jobs, recently highlighted the dichotomy of how we portray work in America -- in one corner, the romantic, blue-collar ideal of "working harder," and in the other, the urban, Blackberry-toting notion of "working smarter."

And while Rowe's comments were meant to illustrate the contrast between our perception of blue collar vs. white collar jobs, I couldn't help but think about the plethora of listicles I've read about working smarter, not harder. They all start by discussing the misconception that putting in long hours will lead to success, and then move on to how to cut down your hours and increase productivity by reprioritizing and taking "me time."

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Like most companies, Zappos has a vernacular all its own. And the online shoe and apparel retailer will soon have a corporate structure to match its distinctive vocabulary.

The Amazon-owned company, which refers to its executives as "monkeys" and executive assistants as "Time Ninjas," will likely be doing away with job titles altogether over the course of the next year as it transitions from a hierarchy to a "Holacracy."

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SCIENCE CONFIRMS WHAT BUZZFEED AND UPWORTHY ALREADY KNOW: IN THE HIERARCHY OF DIGITAL CONTAGION, CONTENT THAT EVOKES POWERFUL EMOTIONS FLOATS MERCILESSLY TO THE TOP.

A few weeks ago, the Wall Street Journal profiled Gawker editor Neetzan Zimmerman, whose job is to post content that's poised to go viral. Zimmerman does his job quite well. His posts generate about 30 million pageviews a month--tops at the site by far, six times what the second-leading staffer generates. Zimmerman's success is not the result of some computer formula; on the contrary, rather, "he understands the emotions that might compel a human being to click on something online," the Journal's Farhad Manjoo writes.

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Let's cut through the pillow talk: you may be learning in your dreams.

Need evidence? Look to a French study from 2011 in which researchers took patients with sleepwalking-like conditions and taught them a series of dance moves. They then recorded them sleeping and lo and behold the subjects did the dance while they were at rest.

The study shows that our bodies and brains don't turn "off" while we sleep, they work over the things we've learned during the day.

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On December 5, 2013, the House approved the Innovation Act, H.R. 3309, primarily intended to address abusive behavior by patent owners in infringement litigation. The bill passed by a bipartisan vote of 325-91.

Although the avowed purpose of the legislation is to control litigation by so-called patent trolls (A.K.A. non-practicing entities, or NPEs), the provisions focus on specific litigation behaviors and thus would affect all patent cases, regardless of the nature of the patent owner.  The most controversial provisions would create a “loser pays” scheme in most cases and would dictate litigation discovery timing and content.  Other, less controversial provisions, require greater transparency with regard to patent ownership, and impose more demanding requirements for pleading patent infringement.

Ask any investor what they think about Johnson & Johnson (NYSE: JNJ  ) , and you'll probably hear that it's a diversified pharma company, a blue-chip stock that pays a hefty dividend, and it's a relatively safe investment for investors looking for exposure to the health-care sector. But you might also hear investors criticize its size. With a market cap of almost $260 billion, Johnson & Johnson is one of the largest companies in the U.S., and it edges out both Merck and Pfizer as the largest pharma company in the Dow. Can a company this massive be nimble and entrepreneurial enough to innovate? Is its size holding back its long-term potential to bring new products to market?

Startup accelerators are still somewhat rare in the Asia Pacific region, and accelerators for startups that sell to businesses are even more rare.

Venturetec, which launched last month in Hong Kong, aims to fill that gap.

Founded by an Australian IT executive and consultant, Trey Zagante, and backed by corporations that are as yet unnamed, Venturetec plans to provide eight to 12 startups with a year of support rather than the traditional three to six months that many other accelerators provide.

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When we talk about innovation, we often focus on individuals. Take the endless fascination with Steve Jobs as an innovative leader, or our innate tendency to attribute a discovery to a single inventor. In business, we generally identify good innovators and nurture their ability to generate creative practical solutions to new problems. There is less focus on the kinds of structures that promote a culture of innovation.

At the IC2 Institute at the University of Texas, we have been exploring the ecosystem of innovation using the Austin Technology Incubator (ATI) as a model. While traditional incubators focus on providing inexpensive space and business advice for new companies, ATI, under director Isaac Barchas, helps early-stage technology companies to get their first round of funding.

PARIS—The use of public sector money to support private sector enterprise is a controversial topic, but few, if any, other countries have committed to spend on the scale and with such ambition as the Russian Federation.

Its Skolkovo project is gargantuan. While Berlin spends a few hundred thousand euros on a marketing program and the U.K. a few million on promoting what had previously been an unloved corner of London, Russia has committed to spending at least $4 billion (and potentially up to $8 billion) to build an entirely new city just outside of Moscow complete with its own special police, its own immigration status, its own courts, its own intellectual property regime (a notorious problem for companies doing business in Russia). It hopes to be open in 2014.

Some may call you a dreamer or a fool, but one thing is for sure … you are a natural-born entrepreneur and business leader.

You have the natural aptitude for inventive ideas to fill a product or service gap and the adventure and drive to take you there.

Whether you are an aspiring small business owner looking to launch your first venture in the coming year or having been riding the entrepreneurial train for a decade, here are some inspiring quotes to ring in your New Year with success and good fortune.

From innovation and passion to perseverance after failing, the list compiles quotes from successful business leaders, intellectuals, Internet visionaries, and even rappers so you have hope in the hard times and can latch on to words of wisdom for optimal success in your business.

Welcome to the New Year 2013! You’ve probably already made your resolutions, but if not, I suggest a renewed commitment to finding happiness and satisfaction in your work. After all, most of us spend more hours in this role than any other, and life is too short to spend most of your life unhappy.

If you haven’t tried it, one way to be happier at work is to be an entrepreneur, according to a recent study by the Wharton School of Business. In a survey of 11,000 MBA graduates over many years, those running their own businesses ranked themselves happier than all other professions, regardless of how much money they made.

As an entrepreneur, you have a natural aptitude for adventurous business risks, creating inventive ideas, filling a gap in consumer needs, and self-starting. The start to a new year is as good of a time as any to refocus your priorities, create professional goals, or kick start a business idea that has been lingering in your mind.

Whether you are an aspiring or seasoned entrepreneur, get inspired through quotes from successful business leaders, intellectuals, web visionaries, and even entertainers for optimal success in 2013. From harnessing creativity and innovation to learning to get back up when you fall, these quotables on entrepreneurship are sure to elevate your entrepreneurial spirit and success.

It's not exactly cheating your way to an empty inbox, but it's the next best thing. How you can gain a preternatural timing for your emails that lets you get other things done.

There are ways to heal yourself and fix your inbox after it becomes an intimidating, guilt-inducing, unknowable mess. You can declare Email Bankruptcy, or just triage the last week of email and start over. You can implement a system like Inbox Zero, or a pared down three-folder version. But then it’s up to you to check those other folders on a regular basis.

Maybe you don’t trust your future self to be that good. Or maybe your inbox is mostly under control, except for a few pesky emails that require another step: checking your calendar, waiting for someone else to respond, or so on. These are the emails that sit there, smirking at you, mocking your attempts to close out discussions and unburden your brain.

For scientists, an answer to a question, or solution to a problem, is not true until proven so. And sometimes that means revealing what mere mortals already knew, like, say the fact that getting to the hospital quicker can save heart-attack victims, or, the seemingly far-fetched idea that exercise is good for you.

Here are a few of the most obvious findings of 2012.

1. Good partners make good parents

Perhaps not the most shocking news in the world: Marry a good, secure partner, and you can expect them to become a good, secure parent.

Stem-cell trials

Landmark results from an early-stage clinical trial using human embryonic stem cells (hESCs) should appear this year. Biotechnology firm Advanced Cell Technology of Santa Monica, California, is injecting hESC-derived retinal cells into the eyes of around three dozen people with two forms of non-treatable degenerative blindness. It is the only company currently testing hESC therapies with U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval, and it hopes that the agency will give it the green light to test stem cells induced from adult cells in patients this year.

Empirical research has shown that "opportunity-driven" entrepreneurship is the wellspring of growth in the modern market economy. In Japan, the relative dearth of opportunity-driven entrepreneurship has contributed to the nation's economic malaise over the past two decades -- since the asset price bubble burst in 1991.

Although there are encouraging signs -- given the sophistication of Japan's technological base, the promise of female entrepreneurs, the advent of start-up incubators and the rise of "intra-preneurship" within established companies -- entrepreneurship levels today are markedly low relative both to pre-1991 Japan and to current levels in other developed countries. Ironically, during Japan's two lost decades, foreign-run enterprises, small businesses and entrepreneurs accounted for nearly all job creation. To revitalize its sluggish economy, Japan must create incentives to promote homegrown start-ups and must rapidly commercialize patented, cutting-edge technologies.

Will you be better off this year than your were in the past? To the futurist and inventor Ray Kurzweil, the answer is a resounding yes. "We are far more productive and healthy and better off in every way than we were in the past," Kurzweil, the author of the new book How to Create a Mind: The Secret of Human Thought Revealed, told Big Think in a recent interview. Below are Kurzweil's top 5 reasons for optimism in 2013.

1. Greater Life Expectancy

A thousand years ago, you lived to the age of twenty. We have seen a continuous and accelerated progression since then. In 1800, the average life expectancy at birth was 37, Kurzweil notes. In 1900, the average life expectancy increased to 48. If you live in a country like Japan, you can expect to live into your 80s today. 

Scientists at Karolinska Institutet in Sweden have identified two molecules that play an important role in the survival and production of nerve cells in the brain, including nerve cells that produce dopamine. The discovery, which is published in the journal Nature Chemical Biology, may be significant in the long term for the treatment of several diseases, such as Parkinson’s disease.

The same scientists have previously shown that receptors known as “liver X receptors” or LXR, are necessary for the production of different types of nerve cells, or neurons, in the developing ventral midbrain. One these types, the midbrain dopamine-producing neurons play an important role in a number of diseases, such as Parkinson’s disease.