As co-founder and general partner of Andreessen Horowitz, a venture firm with about 160 technology companies in its portfolio, Marc Andreessen doesn’t just predict trends in tech, he shapes them.   

Speaking with VentureWire this week about his firm’s latest investments, Andreessen said he envisions a future that in some ways will look like the past.

“All the dot-com ideas were correct,” he said. “They were all too early. They are happening now.”

ATLANTA, GA, Oct 29, 2012 (MARKETWIRE via COMTEX) -- Six organizations were named winners of SSTI's 2012 Excellence in TBED award, serving as national models for states and regions investing in science, technology and innovation to grow their economies and create high-paying jobs. Among the winners, a newer program was selected as the Most Promising TBED Initiative, recognized for a transferable technology commercialization model and a creative funding approach.

"These organizations are helping to lead our nation's economic recovery and their successes further substantiate the value of tech-based initiatives for regional economic growth," said Dan Berglund, SSTI President and CEO.

Cincinnati’s angel capital organization has received a $235,000 grant so it can start a fund in Southeast Ohio aimed at investing in entrepreneurs.

Queen City Angels was one of five applicants that the Appalachian Regional Commission selected for the grants. The group will partner with Ohio State University South Centers in Piketon, south of Chillicothe, for the fund. OSU South Centers is a business incubator that works with fledgling companies to help them get off the ground.

“It’s aimed at developing more entrepreneurial businesses in that part of the state,” said Queen City Angels Chairman Tony Shipley.

It’s perhaps the worst kept secret in the business world that what you know is worth only about 25% as a predictor of whether or not you will succeed. The rest is based on ‘fit’ - how you fit with your boss, your team, your customers and your organization’s culture.

If you’ve ever been fired because the boss just didn’t appreciate you, or you’ve left a job because of a boss you just could not stand to work for one more moment, or because you just knew there were options that would be so much more fulfilling, you know what I’m talking about. Take me, for instance. I didn’t get into a job that actually fit me until after I’d worked my way through many wrong turns, numerous missteps, and even some outright failures. While at the time I would not have chosen to experience so many quandaries and predicaments, and while they certainly didn’t always feel like positive experiences, in the end I realize that – collectively – they had a deep and beneficial effect. They’ve made me unusually realistic, empathetic, and flexible. These three characteristics do not appear in my current job description, but may nevertheless be some of the most important qualifiers I bring to the office.

A University of Maryland study projects that Washington, D.C., city and federal property could suffer billions of dollars in damage if sea level rise from global warming increases over the next century. Potential for significant damage will be even greater in the event of extreme weather like Hurricane Sandy.

The study by Civil and Environmental Engineering Professor Bilal Ayyub, Haralamb Braileanu and Naeem Qureshi, of the Clark School of Engineering's Center for Technology and Systems Management, looks at possible long term effects of projected sea level rise on Washington, D.C. real-estate property and government infrastructure. They conclude that over the next 100 years, continuing sea level rise could cause damages of more than $24.6 billion to Washington's commercial property, museums, and government agencies.

“Oh man, I can’t do that.  I can’t take that risk.”

I was trying to help my friend–who always talked about his hatred of his corporate job–to jump ship and start his own thing.

Now, if there’s anyone that could succeed at their own thing, this is your guy: an electrical engineer, 3.8 GPA (!), working for one of the most prestigious companies in the city, great social skills…

This guy could outsmart anyone in the room, let alone me (he actually commented to me when we were back in grade school, “you know, I think I’m smarter than you”.  I was pissed, but I knew it was true).

Dismayed, he wondered: “I mean, I have a mortgage, the economy’s not too great, and what if I fail?”

What if you fail?

Ah, the almighty preventer of would-be entrepreneurs.  What am I going to do if I fail?

If you fail?

Mobile technology and social networks aren’t just disruptive to existing industries like communications and media, they are also helping the change the way that students learn and how education is delivered both in North America and around the world. And the disruption is just beginning.

By now, most of us have become pretty used to the ways that technology — both devices and social web services — have changed things we have always taken for granted, whether it’s communication or photography, or something as obvious as renting an apartment or hailing a cab.

But those same kinds of disruptions are moving into new areas, and education is one of them. From university classes via YouTube and startups like Udacity to the One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) project, there are more ways than ever for children to educate themselves, even in remote villages in Ethiopia. Despite the inevitable criticisms such efforts get both from within the education system and outside it, it’s part of a powerful and growing phenomenon.

Cisco is making two new investments in Ontario's Kitchener-Waterloo area. 

The company officially opened the new Cisco Incubation Centre on Thursday morning. It will be part of the David Johnston Research and Technology Park at the University of Waterloo (UW), as reported in the Kitchener-Waterloo Record.

The incubation facility will give students access to Cisco's collaboration technology, expertise and worldwide partner system, the company said in a statement. The centre will be linked to similar research parks around the world. 

It's part of Cisco's move to strengthen its ties with Canadian university R&D programs. It has similar relationships with the University of Winnipeg, the University of New Brunswick and the Vancouver Island Technology Park. 

It has been a rough few years for Research in Motion, the maker of the Blackberry line of mobile devices. Since Apple entered the mobile phone market, RIM's financial situation has deteriorated and its market capitalization has plummeted by almost 95 percent since its mid-2008 peak of more than $100 billion. The company has brought in new leaders, but most pundits assume that the game is already over, and that it's just a matter of time before we write RIM's obituary.

Yet in September RIM reported that its subscriber base had grown to 80 million from 78 million. The company's market share is still decreasing, but companies on death's door don't tend to report sales growth.

Not every tech startup enjoys the luxury of launching in Silicon Valley — or Silicon Alley, or Austin, Texas, or another high-tech hotspot.

What’s the solution?

Instead of waiting for someone to offer a helping hand, or packing up the U-Haul and moving across the counryy, try taking the entrepreneurial approach and turning your home town into a high-tech startup community.

Brad Feld author of Startup Communities: Building an Entrepreneurial Ecosystem in Your City, says it can be done.

Feld, who has over 20 years of experience as both an entrepreneur and an early-stage investor, is a co-founder of tech accelerator TechStars and knows whereof he speaks. He bases his book on the lessons he’s learned from 20 years in the vibrant startup community of Boulder, Colorado.

Now that a critical mass of providers have health IT systems up and running, regulators and health care systems are looking for ways to engage consumers with their electronic health records.

Stage 2 of the meaningful use program aims to improve patient engagement by requiring health care providers to give patients the ability to view, download or share their online health information.

Under the 2009 federal economic stimulus package, health care providers who demonstrate meaningful use of certified electronic health record systems can qualify for Medicaid and Medicare incentive payments.

“My college is smarter than your college!” While I can’t recall ever hearing this taunt, now might be that time, with a new list from Lumosity that measures colleges by students’ cognitive performance.

San Francisco-based Lumosity creates brain-training exercises, and it had nearly 90,000 students around the country play its games to create this list. Lumosity has raised $70 million in funding, and it holds the world’s largest database of human cognitive performance, which it has amassed during the past five years.

The end of World War II begot a generation of Americans that’s starting to make waves in the entrepreneurship scene. The Kansas City Business Journal decided to take a deeper look at local business owners who hail from the baby-boom generation after the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation in August released research showing that Americans in their mid-50s to mid-60s have a higher rate of entrepreneurial activity than younger age groups.

At Forbes, the entrepreneur is king (or queen!). The Capitalist Tool has been celebritizing the Steve Jobs and Mark Zuckerbergs of the world since 1917 when we profiled speculator Jay Gould and John D. Rockefeller, the founder of the Standard Oil Company and (at that time) richest man in the world.

But in nearly 100 years  (and thousands of founders) later, while we ask a lot of questions on just what makes them tick, we’ve never been in the business of putting them into buckets. So naturally a new book that seeks to categorize entrepreneurs into four “types” of people caught our attention.

At Babson, President Len Schlesinger says, “you teach and learn entrepreneurship in the classroom, and then you live entrepreneurially to ground it.” And who better to prove that than the college’s faculty and alumni?

Professor Erik Noyes consulted for companies, ranging from Nokia and BMW to New Balance and Motorola, before coming to teach at Babson. He’s since helped build one of the country’s “most innovative” undergraduate entrepreneurship courses, according to the United States Association for Small Business and Entrepreneurship—helping prove entrepreneurship can, indeed, be taught.

“‘Entrepreneurs are born, not made’ is hogwash,” Noyes says. “It’s such a myth, and such a tired narrative.” At Babson, he claims they blow up that myth when first-year students walk in to class on day one, by highlighting the opportunities for entrepreneurs out there and teaching them how to identify those options for themselves.

When Americans think of oil executives, they tend to conjure up the image of J. R. Ewing: slick smile, sharp suits, cowboy boots, and a 10-gallon hat packed with bluster, vanity, and greed. According to Gallup, no industry is more widely reviled than oil and gas—not even banking, real estate, or heath care. The poll found that 64 percent of Americans disapprove of its activities. Only the federal government fared worse.

The image is unfair in many ways. It’s true that the energy sector can be brutal; the business of pulling hydrocarbons from the earth seems to attract more than its share of ruthless personalities. But there’s a more nuanced character to the oil and gas industry. At heart—and yes, it has a heart—it’s an industry with a surprisingly charitable nature. And nowhere is the pulsing heart of the industry more evident than in Houston, where the fortunes generated by profits from energy companies have fueled some of the most impressive personal giving in the world.

Wednesday, October 24, 2012 - Seven teams of entrepreneurs from across Europe who have the potential to bring about real change to the UK health economy have been chosen to take part in a three-month business accelerator programme run by Healthbox in London. Healthbox has selected Guy’s and St Thomas’ Charity, Bupa and Serco as strategic partners to the UK-based programme. The programme, also welcomed by the Mayor of London, Boris Johnson, offers healthcare entrepreneurs mentoring support and access to influential figures and organisations across the public and private healthcare spectrum.

Boris Johnson said: "London is a leading force in life-science and digital innovation and the natural home for entrepreneurs. I applaud the work Healthbox is doing in bringing the next generation of health tech businesses to the city, helping transform them into vibrant enterprises creating jobs and economic growth for Londoners."

Private equity activity has lagged through the first half of 2012 for a variety of reasons-from macroeconomic concerns and regulatory uncertainty, to the impending fiscal cliff and an ever-increasing company inventory. To help keep you and your firm up to speed on the latest private equity activity so that you’re making the best decisions possible, PitchBook has released the 3Q 2012 Private Equity Trends Presentation Deck. Powered by the PitchBook Platform, this complimentary PowerPoint deck examines investment, exit, fundraising and fund returns data over the course of several years, with emphasis on trends that emerged during the first half of 2012.

Click here to download the report

Pricking a finger everyday is just part of everyday life for many diabetes patients. A non-invasive measurement approach could release them from the constant pain of pin pricks. The linchpin is a biosensor engineered by Fraunhofer researchers: A tiny chip combines measurement and digital analysis – and can be radioed to a mobile device.

Sticking yourself in the finger day after day: For many diabetics, this means of checking blood glucose is an everyday part of life. Especially for patients with Type-1 diabetes, who always have to keep a close eye on their levels, since their bodies are incapable of producing the insulin to break down the glucose in the blood. Several times a day, they have to place a tiny drop of blood on a test strip. It is the only way they can ascertain the blood glucose value, so they can inject the correct amount of insulin needed. And this pricking is not only a burdensome: it may also cause inflammation or cornification of the skin. And for pain-sensitive patients, the procedure is agony.

Local life science companies have a new option to help them get started. Austin-based Emergent Technologies Inc. is launching a new life sciences business incubator for entrepreneurs and startups. The incubator will be housed in the Emergent headquarters building at 11412 Bee Caves Road in Austin. It includes 2,000 square feet of wet lab space combined with office space, technology infrastructure and on-site business advisers, company officials said Wednesday.