Six months ago I called the Director of Business Development for a well-respected angel group in California and told him about my company, CircleUp, an equity-based crowdfunding platform that would allow his angels to invest into private companies.  He had no interest in talking, saying “our angels wouldn’t be interested in something like this.”

30 days later, several of “his” angels invested through our platform (they had heard of CircleUp through word of mouth). As it turned out, his angels loved us because we gave them access to quality dealflow they would not have otherwise seen.

Today is Thanksgiving, a holiday where Americans and a few other countries celebrate and remember everything we have to be grateful for. In the daily grind it’s hard to step back and appreciate how lucky we are to be entrepreneurs. Today seemed like an appropriate time so here are the 42 things I am most grateful for as an entrepreneur in 2012.

Venture investors still have a healthy appetite for early-stage consumer Internet companies, but those startups are having a harder time raising follow-on financing.

Overall the amount invested in consumer information services was off 42% in the first nine months as the difficulties of newly public Internet companies such as Facebook and Zynga cast doubt on the business models and valuations of social media companies.

Thanksgiving — time to carve up a turkey, unbutton your pants, and watch football with the family. While families may have their own rituals, many Turkey Day customs have deep roots in American history.

From turkey pardoning to the first feast, here are the origins of seven of the holiday's most iconic traditions.

Drexel University is opening what it is calling a “cross-discipline research/tech incubator center” next week. The Expressive and Creative Interaction Technology — or ExCITe — Center is being created in 11,000 square-feet of converted industrial office space on the first floor of the University City Science Center building at 3401 Market. The ExCITe Center will bring together translational research being conducted at Drexel’s colleges of Engineering, Arts & Science, Media Arts & Design and Information Science Technology in the same space.

The evolution of human society has been closely related to the technology that it has produced. We have gone from the Stone Age, to the Bronze Age, the Iron Age, the Industrial Revolution and now Silicon Era. We have seen technological innovations change the lives of billions, from indoor plumbing to the printing press, the telephone to the personal computer. Assessing the history of the world, we have a lot of technology to be thankful for.

So today, on Thanksgiving, the folks at ReadWrite would like to spare a moment to give a shout out to some of the technologies that make life better, from big sweeping innovations that have fundamentally changed how we live our lives, to little items like apps and services that make every day a little more enjoyable.

Established companies such as Dell Computer (NASDAQ: DELL) and Becton Dickinson (NYSE: BDX) say they are eager to invest in health IT startups—they just need to figure out how the U.S. healthcare system is going to evolve over the next five years; what applications are most likely to get reimbursed; what technologies make the most sense for doctors, for patients, and for insurers; and how they can mesh a startup’s culture with highly regulated, slow-to-change industries.

That was the confusing message from a conference for entrepreneurs and investors in New York on Tuesday, sponsored by the Life Sciences Angel Network, titled Healthcare Information Technology: Change, Outlook & Opportunity. One of the speakers, Steve Hochberg, has started or invested in some 12 early-stage medical technology companies, and last year was named chairman of Continuum Health Partners, New York City’s largest hospital network. Yet he told the meeting that when it comes to health IT, “the healthcare delivery system is so complicated that I’ve chosen to invest elsewhere.”

It was a really, really long line as I approached the 12,389 foot summit of Mount Fuji, in Japan. After hiking for a few hours, on top of a mountain, a long line was the last thing I expected. Hundreds, perhaps thousands of people were in front of me. As I looked up at the majestic peak, I pondered the unspoiled beauty of the snow cap and the crisp cold air around me.

That’s when I heard the first cell phone ring — one of many it turned out. That reminded me. I had my mobile phone buried in my pack, too. So I dug it out to call my wife home in the U.S. My call to her didn’t go through, but just after I hung up, a call from one of my best clients managed to get through for a few seconds. It went something like this:

ABC2 News brought you the story several months ago . Health officials call it a growing danger.

We’re talking about distracted walking.

Johns Hopkins University recently introduced a new program to create awareness. Signs of the problem are popping up everywhere, literally.

The message is clear: “Don’t be a crash text dummy” and "Do the math."

Henry David Thoreau said, "There are a thousand hacking at the branches of evil to one who is striking at the root." We have hacked at healthcare costs for what seems like thousands of times, with very limited success. It is time to strike at the root. Rather than focus on reducing costs after preventable diseases have taken hold, it is time to focus attention on eliminating the disease.

Let us look at two specific examples.

1. The CDC (Center for Disease Control and Prevention) has estimated that the cost of smoking (estimated cost of smoking-related medical expenses and loss of productivity) exceeds $167 billion annually. The CDC has also estimated that 326 billion cigarettes (combustible tobacco, to be more precise) went up in smoke in 2011. In other words, every cigarette consumed costs the nation about 50 cents; every pack, $10.

When many Americans see that roasted turkey on Thanksgiving, it may appear as if the bird has already reached perfection. But genomic scientists are searching for ways to improve the domesticated turkey so that it grows faster, produces better quality meat, and can resist farmyard afflictions.

The turkey genome project, which began in 2008 and is headed by the University of Minnesota and the Virginia Polytechnic Institute, is putting together its final assembly of A’s, T’s, G’s, and C’s, and is already developing tools that will allow livestock breeders to select better birds. “With the genome sequence, we are able to measure traits that we can’t easily measure in a farm setting,” says Julie Long, a research physiologist with the U.S. Department of Agriculture Research Service in Beltsville, Maryland, and a member of the turkey genome project. For example, disease resistance and the efficiency with which a bird turns its food into muscle are difficult traits to measure. “It’s pretty easy to tell which birds are growing bigger and faster,” says Long, “but there are other traits that we can’t really measure.” And that’s where the turkey genome comes in.

There’s a new early stage angel fund in town, and it’s on the hunt for creative, out-of-the box ideas for improving the delivery of healthcare using fewer resources.

The Alliance Healthcare Fund focuses on helping early stage business-to-business healthcare companies bring to market ideas that improve acute care, reduce spending and challenge the status quo.

In pure dollar terms, it’s a relatively small fund, but partner Joe Mayernik said the real value comes elsewhere.

Big players accounted for more than half of the funds venture capitalists raised to invest in growing companies, and the amount of capital raised decreased in the third quarter.

The picture in the National Venture Capital Association's quarterly look at VC fundraising released Tuesday is one of a contracting industry with big players growing larger and the potential for more difficult fundraising for startups and diminishing returns for investors.

Fifty-three venture capital funds raised $5 billion from limited partners in the third quarter, an increase in the number of firms raising money, but a 17 percent decrease in the amount raised from the second quarter, when 43 firms pulled in $5.9 billion.

Arizona's first-of-its-kind statewide technology transfer startup program, AZ Furnace Accelerator, is pleased to announce it has selected the first 10 startups that will participate in the business accelerator program. As part of the competitive process, a panel of judges selected the 10 winners from a group of 22 finalists and more than 50 applicants.

The AZ Furnace Accelerator is a groundbreaking initiative that encourages entrepreneurs from across the country to find and commercialize innovations developed within the state's universities and research institutions. These 10 winning companies utilized innovations from Arizona State University, Dignity Health Arizona, Northern Arizona University and University of Arizona. They represent a wide array of technologies and innovative solutions — from biomarkers for disease diagnosis to new methods for massive data storage to repurposing discarded tires for new concrete and construction materials:

Studies have shown that at least one third of small businesses fail within their first three years of operation, and only a tiny fraction of those who last longer will go on to become a formidable presence in their industry. Most failures are caused by premature scaling – taking on too many clients/contracts initially, creating excessive overhead by hiring too many employees, or committing to overwhelming debt repayments. After these mistakes are made it can seem as though the fruits of your labor are beginning to rot, and the bountiful harvest that you had planned starts to look more like a fleeting illusion.

Nurses spend lots of time doing what seems like busywork—logging into computers, pulling up patient files, entering details of what they did, and coordinating their duties with others. Researchers at Xerox are developing what they call the Digital Nurse Assistant to automate and simplify some of this work. The project is part of a broader trend to adapt information technology to the health-care system to make it more efficient and cost-effective.

“Its craziness, because the technology solutions are out there. We just haven’t integrated them into our systems. We are running on old technology,” says Carol Bickford, a health IT expert and senior policy fellow at the American Nurses Association.

Travis Kalanick is no stranger to corporate fisticuffs. The tech entrepreneur brought down the wrath of the film and music industries after starting a peer-to-peer service in 1998 called Scour, which was similar to Napster in that it allowed consumers to swap digital media files with each other. Two years later, filmmakers and TV producers sued his company for copyright infringement to the tune of $250 billion. Scour went out of business.

Kalanick later developed a content delivery system that he called his "revenge business" because, ironically, some of his former entertainment industry foes ended up becoming clients, according to a February article in Fortune. While this company, Red Swoosh, initially ran into financial problems, it would be sold for $15 million to Akamai Technologies in 2007 -- but not before Kalanick became so destitute that he had to move in with his mother. Fortune described the 30-something UCLA dropout as "brilliant," but "brash and headstrong" and "happy to charge off a cliff with an innovative idea."

It's not just the kids who are trying to move back in. So is the Healthcare industry. The "in-home care" market has boomed in recent years, as Healthcare companies scramble to establish home-based caretaking models ahead of an aging wave of Baby Boomers. Private equity has taken notice. According to the Pitchbook Platform, PE firms have completed investments in 50 companies in the industry since 2010. The name of the game's been expansion; 40% of all deals have been buyouts, and almost 42% have been add-on acquisitions to those platforms. By sub-sector, 60% of private equity-backed companies are serving the Elder & Disabled Care market. Another 26% have nestled into the Clinics/Outpatient Services sector, providing anything from home-based therapy and nursing services to more complex diagnostic and clinical services. 14% provide home-based Managed Care, with several focused on patients with development issues. By region, more than half of the deal activity has occurred in the sunny South and Southeast, including 18% in retiree-friendly Florida. Texas ties with another 18%.

As the looming “fiscal cliff” dominates the post-election news cycle, it’s hard to know what tax and financial moves make sense this time of year. Pundits are talking in circles, and experts don’t possess a crystal ball. In this environment, it’s understandable that startups and self-employed professionals are confused about the next steps.

However, when it comes to tax planning, paralysis isn’t an option. Here are seven tax-saving ideas to consider before the calendar flips to 2013. Of course, these tips represent general advice — you should always consult with a tax planner/CPA for insight into your own personal situation.

Want to do your own startup? Step one is coming up with an idea for something could eventually blossom into a business. How do you come up with that idea? Paul Graham, who sees hundreds of startup ideas every year through his startup accelerator program Y-Combinator, laid it out in a long blog post. If you're serious about doing a startup, it's worth a read. But, if you're just curious about how people can come up with ideas for a startup, here's the simple, two minute version of the story.