Coming up on its two-year-anniversary, Kickstarter co-founder Yancey Strickler is struck by how little the site has changed. Maybe the biggest difference has been just how many artists and creative types have flocked to the crowd-funding site, helping validate a new form of fundraising that is opening the eyes of not only artists but technology leaders.

New York-based Kickstarter, which launched in April 2009, began with the promise of creating an intersection between patronage and commerce, where artists could enlist the help of supporters, who would in turn pledge their money and help validate the artist’s project. What began as a small endeavor has blossomed into a sizable business, one that now raises $1 million a week in pledges and has hit $35 million pledged overall. So far, Kickstarter has helped 5,000 projects get funded with about 2,500 actively fundraising at the moment. About 250 to 300 new proposals come in a day, hoping to appeal to a pool of supporters of more than 600,000 people. Strickler said the concept for Kickstarter, first conceived by co-founder Perry Chen, has proven to be a powerful tool in helping ideas bloom.

1. Keep it service-based and simplistic.

I was recently told by someone that their new invention was going to be global; it was going to be the next big thing. Then, I asked him about production, warehousing, distribution and patent because if it got as big as he was boasting, someone would have ripped it off half-way through.

When starting a business, you don’t have to reinvent the wheel. You must make it as simplistic as possible. This means staying away from government-regulated industries or not starting a product based company where you will find your margins getting hit by manufacturing costs.

At one point or another, most entrepreneurs find themselves in a place where they could use money. And oftentimes, they could use a lot of money. These entrepreneurs often dream about how much they could accomplish if they had millions in the bank. All the people they could hire. All the products they could develop. All the marketing they could do.

And as they sit and dream, most entrepreneurs think about venture capitalists. Venture capitalists, or VCs, are the folks with millions upon millions of dollars to invest in companies such as theirs. This includes the folks that funded Google and Yahoo and Netflix and Ebay, and many of the great recent companies which were able to start and grow to massive scale in just a short period of time.

The big winners in Sunday night’s Grammy Awards took many by surprise. Arcade Fire took home the record of the year for “The Suburbs” and the country group Lady Antebellum’s song “Need You Now” won awards for best record and best song of the year. The former is from Montreal, the latter hail from Nashville. The internet and social media exploded with a raft of incredulous messages – - a Tumblr called “Who is Arcade Fire?” compiled dozens of them. The Today show’s Matt Lauer blurted: “I’ve never heard of the Arcade Fire. I’m going to have to download them.”

Could these wins reflect something of a broader trend? Is the landscape of popular music changing? Could it be that new upstart music scenes in Nashville, Montreal, and elsewhere are gaining ground on New York and LA, the long-established hegemonic centers of commercial and recorded music?

Louis Lacasse admits that at a time when many biotech companies in the province are struggling because of a lack of funding, it may seem counterintuitive to start a bunch of new initiatives.

But that's exactly what he hopes to do.

Lacasse will manage a new seed fund that was announced by the Charest government yesterday. The $41.25-million fund, called AmorChem, is made up of contributions from Investissement Quebec, FIER Partenaires (a Quebec government-sponsored fund) and the QFL's solidarity fund as well as $8.25 million from the private sector, of which $6.8 million has come from pharmaceutical giant Merck. The goal of the fund isn't to subsidize new companies, but rather to invest in scientific research, and then to reap the benefits when that research is sold off.

Last fall, before I joined Zendesk, I took a role as an Executive-in-Residence at Scale Venture Partners. A lot of people asked me about this, so I've written an article at GigaOm that describes my thought process and what I ended up working on.

While there are as many variations on the EIR position as there are venture firms, there are two flavors, generally speaking: Entrepreneur-in-Residence and Executive-in-Residence. Most firms have some experience with Entrepreneur-in-Residence programs. Essentially, they give office space, coffee and food to a proven entrepreneur so he or she can spend a few months researching or prototyping a new product or service...

The universities UAB, UB, UPC, UPF, UOC, URV, UdG, UdL and UVic have created the University Entrepreneurship Network (Xarxa d'Emprenedoria Universitària). The initiative aims to carry out coordinated actions to foster entrepreneurship with the objective of contributing to the detection of business talent and business vocations within the university community. On 15 February the network was presented at the Aula Magna of the historical UB building in Barcelona.

The network receives funding from the Department of Business and Employment as part of the aids destined to innovative projects for the improvement in employment quality and social cohesion in Catalonia. The selected projects are incorporated into European Social Fund Operational Programme for Catalonia for 2007-2013 and fit in strategically with the government's Pla Inicia for future entrepreneurs.

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Intel Corp. executives announced today that the semiconductor manufacturer plans to build a $5 billion factory in Arizona that could bring in at least 1,000 permanent jobs in addition to thousands of construction jobs.

Intel plans to build Fab 42 in Chandler as the highest-volume chip plant in the world. Construction is expected to begin near the middle of this year and be completed in 2013.

While Intel officials would not say how many people it would hire, Josh Walden, vice president of Intel's Technology and Manufacturing Group and general manager of fab manufacturing, said facilities of this size typically employ 1,000 or more.

The CVD is a two-day annual event that brings scientists, engineers, researchers, educators, and technology executives to Washington to raise visibility and support for science, engineering, and technology. Uniquely multi-sector and multi-disciplinary, the CVD is coordinated by coalitions of companies, professional societies and educational institutions and it is open to all who believe that science and technology comprise the cornerstone of our Nation's future.

ORLANDO, Fla., Feb. 20, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- FindVenture.com has partnered with leading venture capital funds to create an exchange connecting investors with small business owners and entrepreneurs seeking capital. The exchange utilizes technology and the web to streamline the process of deal making between entrepreneur and investor.

"Entrepreneurs and CFOs are turning to the web to find investment and lending resources," said David Bayer, Managing Partner of FindVenture. "What they are finding is that most investors are still operating offline and seeking deal flow by utilizing traditional methods. FindVenture.com brings both the investor, or fund, and the business owner or entrepreneur into a more efficient marketplace exchange."

It’s a whale of a chip. Intel is announcing today the 10th generation of its Itanium chip, which is a 64-bit microprocessor aimed at the very high end of the corporate computer market.

The chip is a modern miracle in many respects, with more than 3 billion basic components known as transistors. It is one of the highest achievements in technological design, but it’s also a relic of an age when power consumption didn’t matter. As such, the chip is confined to a small, high-end segment of the computing market at the high end.

Great startups these days start with innovation, and then take it up a few notches to make it a revolution. An example is Google, who turned a new search technology into a tool that most of us couldn’t live without. As an entrepreneur, how do you know if you have the potential to innovate, and what are the steps to get from innovation to revolution?

While digging into this subject, I came across a new book by Patrick J. Howie, called “The Evolution of Revolutions,” which makes the points that resonate with my experience. He starts with a discussion of the Big Five personality traits, used to explain individual differences across all walks of life.

New entrepreneurs don’t realize that a falling out with a technical resource is potentially one of the most dangerous times for their fledgling business. I have talked to entrepreneurs who have lost their websites, their customer lists, their emails and even their bank accounts.

If this happens to you, you will waste weeks or months scrambling to regain control, and in some situation you never may again. Fortunately, avoiding this situation is very easy, if you just know a few simple tips.

Following the adoption of the Innovation Union Communication in October 2010, the European Innovation Scoreboard (EIS) - a well established and recognised tool for assessing innovation performance in EU Member States - has been reworked and renamed the Innovation Union Scoreboard (IUS).

Based on the previous European Innovation Scoreboard, the new tool is meant to help monitor the implementation of the Europe 2020 Innovation Union pdf flagship by providing a comparative assessment of the innovation performance of the EU27 Member States and the relative strengths and weaknesses of their research and innovation systems.

The resume has changed drastically over the hundreds of years that have passed since Leonardo da Vinci created the first official resume in 1482.

Originally used as a type of letter of introduction, as it was used by a travelling lord in England in the 1500s, the modern resume first hit its stride in the 1930s.

Billionaire Warren Buffett really doesn't think twice about who's in charge of a company when he invests; he rates businesses on their ability to raise prices.

That's what he told the FCIC in an interview last year about what caused the financial crisis.

Bloomberg listened to a recording of the exchange, which was released last week along with hundreds of other interviews with bankers including Dick Fuld and Lloyd Blankfein.

ANNAPOLIS, Md., Feb. 17, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- More than 400 entrepreneurs joined renowned educators and business leaders in Maryland's state capitol of Annapolis yesterday to show support for a bold initiative to infuse $100 million in the State's Innovation Economy. Heralded by experts as a national model, InvestMaryland - SB 180/HB173 - seeks to create a public-private partnership to fuel investment in Maryland's start-up and early stage companies, effectively quadrupling the State government's previous investment and spurring a culture of organic growth in the State. Among its benefits, the program has the potential to create thousands of jobs in Innovation Economy sectors ? life sciences and biotechnology, cyber security/IT and clean/green tech and attract billions of follow on capital, all with no immediate cost to taxpayers. It mirrors many aspects of a federal program to accelerate high-growth entrepreneurship nationwide, The Startup America Partnership, which President Barack Obama launched last month.

Summary: Senator Mark Pryor has introduced legislation that would give angel investors in qualifying small businesses (broadly defined) a federal income tax credit equal to 25% of the amount invested. You can find the text of the proposed legislation here and quoted in full below.

Senator Pryor’s bill is a great idea. However, there are certain things about it that I would suggest changing.