A friend asks you to volunteer. Your spouse asks you to glance over a memo he’s writing his boss. You say you’d love to. Really! But…

“I don’t have time.”

It seems plausible. We’re all busy these days, right? But there are solid reasons not to use these four words, at least with yourself.

Here’s the big one: it’s not true. You tell yourself “I don’t have time” to exercise, but we all have 168 hours a week. If someone offered to pay you $100,000 a month to hit the gym for 5 of those 168 hours, you would probably find the space in your schedule. Since that isn’t going to happen, this is a more accurate statement:

“It’s not a priority.”

SPRINGFIELD, Ill. —
Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn is creating an "Innovation Council" meant to find creative ways of boosting the state economy.

He said Wednesday it will be led by Brad Keywell, co-founder of the Internet coupon site Groupon.

Quinn says the council will encourage cooperation among business, scientists, investors and universities.

The governor says "We will create the jobs of today and tomorrow right here in Illinois."

The first new nuclear reactor ordered in the U.S. in roughly three decades is beginning to take shape in the red clay near Augusta, Ga. Southern Co. and its partners have dug 27.5 meters down into that soil to reach bedrock and are now filling up the hole to provide a stable foundation for what is likely to be the first of a new generation of reactors in the U.S.: two new AP-1000 models at the Vogtle Electric Generating Plant that stand next to two older pressurized water reactors, which came online in the 1980s.

How successful you become is mostly up to you. Success also depends on how you're perceived by others.

Numerous studies have shown looks can impact career advancement. Some say physical appearance matters even more to employers than a cover letter.

Researchers have found that facial structure, hair color, and we

Yesterday’s post listed reasons why the President’s budget for 2012 triggered insomnia everywhere inside the Beltway. Some lost sleep because their signature programs didn’t make the cut. Those folks’ll be struggling to restore their favorites over the coming weeks and months. In fact, they’ve been fighting tooth and claw for some time now, going back to last fall. Some lost sleep because it looks as if neither the Congress nor the administration seems poised for meaningful budget reform. A range of commissions and special groups have called for an urgent reworking of social security and other entitlements, as well as revisiting the income side of the fiscal picture, through some combinations of a value-added tax, reducing deductions, raising social security limits, inheritance taxes, and taxes on the wealthiest Americans. (Many pundits will tell you that any consequential steps have been postponed for one, and more likely two, budget cycles since 2012 is an election year.) Others are concerned that the fiscal picture, dreary though it appears, fails to take into account the true costs of nonrenewable resource extraction, environmental losses, and fossil-fuel use. A fully-loaded closet of anxieties! Something to fret everyone.

Testimony to European Parliament Mini Hearing on:Innovation Union – Transforming Europe for a Post-Crisis World ITRE Committee Dr. Burton H. Lee PhD MBA Lecturer, European Entrepreneurship & Innovation, Stanford School of Engineering Managing Director, Innovarium Ventures | Silicon Valley, CA This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. Brussels, Belgium February 10 2011

The opinions presented herein are those of the speaker alone, and do not represent official policies or statements of Stanford UniversityFebruary 10 2011 Copyright 2011 Burton H. Lee and Innovarium Ventures 2

Topics• Professional Background• Connecting Europe to Silicon Valley• Commercialization of FP Research Outcomes• Financing Innovation• Other Issues that Deserve AttentionFebruary 10 2011 Copyright 2011 Burton H. Lee and Innovarium Ventures 3

Applying to startup programs these days is a little like applying to colleges. There are so many of them, it is hard to decide which ones to try to get into. TechStars wants to streamline that process, at least for founders applying to any of the 20 or so accelerators in the TechStars Network. The TechStars Network was recently launched as part of the White House’s Startup America initiative to spur entrepreneurship.

Naval Ravikant, a serial entrepreneur, and Babak Nivi, a rebel venture capitalist, have been active angel investors for a long time. In February last year they decided that perhaps it would make sense to start an email list that would match startups looking for funding to wealthy investors — angels, as they are known in Silicon Valley parlance. So they started AngelList.

It is one of the more disruptive startup funding ideas to come to market. Thus far, the idea of angel investing has been constrained by the who-you-know factor. If you know the right people, and if you get the right introductions, then your chances of getting funded are much higher.

The Food & Drug Administration asks Congress to boost its fiscal 2012 budget by a third over 2010, seeking $4.3 billion to fund its oversight of the medical device, pharmaceutical and food production industries.

It’s time once again for the annual Beltway Budget Brouhaha and the Food & Drug Administration is wading right in with a request for a 33 percent boost.

The federal watchdog agency is pitching Congress and President Barack Obama for $4.3 billion for fiscal 2012, about a third more than it got in 2010. The FDA’s fiscal 2011 request was for $4.03 billion, a 23 percent increase over 2010.

The Obama administration has hewed to one particular theme during the rollout of Startup America, its new plan to boost high-growth startups: No new taxpayer funds will be deployed. In other words, Startup America is nothing like the 2008 $700 billion bailout of banks or the $787 billion economic stimulus.

Look closely and there is a $2 billion dollar program here. As part of Startup America, the Obama administration is revamping a 52-year old program that has historically matched funding raised by venture capital firms: the Small Business Investment Companies (SBICs). Through Startup America, the Small Business Administration will guarantee $2 billion in loans over 5 years that will match funds raised by venture capital firms.

Well, it’s Love Day, everybody, and it’s time for you to make a connection.

And while I don’t have a dozen roses for you, I do have a dozen recruiters to suggest that you “follow” — following recruiters is the easiest way to get the jump on brand new jobs directly to your inbox…

If your startup is looking for an angel investor, it makes sense to present your plan to flocks of angels, and assume that at least one will swoop down and scoop you up. Or does it? Actually numbers and locations are just the beginning. The challenge is to find the right angel for your, and for your situation. Here are some basic principles:

• Angels invest in people, more often than they invest in ideas. That means they need to know you, or someone they trust who does know you (warm introduction). For credibility, they need to know you BEFORE you are asking for money.

How do you create the right conditions for your co-workers to mutually reinforce their commitment to your goals? Doug Collins looks at the four cornerstones of that process and how you can go about fostering them in an innovative workplace.

Innovation processes often begin with a meeting. That meeting must take place thousands of times each day across the globe. The leadership convenes a small group of people to help them determine the environment they need in order to become more innovative.

Every city, county and state these days is faced with hard decisions about budget cuts and reorganization — and even harsher feedback from residents after the cuts are made. Oakland County, Mich., has found a way to use technology to spark that citizen-to-government communication during the decision-making process. County officials launched an online public forum so residents can be an integral part of making tough budget decisions.

The website, http://oakgov.ideascale.com, gives citizens the opportunity to respond to questions, make suggestions and post comments. Citizens can also rank the county’s proposals by voting for the ideas they like best on every issue, from technology to parks and recreation.

Southern California’s Tech Coast Angels said today its new Angel Capital Entrepreneurial (ACE) Fund 1, which was formed last year as an alternative investment vehicle for early stage startups, has made its first investment—in Vokle, an Internet startup in the Los Angeles area.

The fund is not announcing how much capital it has raised so far, according to former Tech Coast Angels (TCA) chairman Dave Berkus, who spearheaded the effort. “We are working to add accredited or institutional investors from outside of TCA,” Berkus writes in an e-mail to me today. “The Fund successfully closed its TCA round (although members may still invest, but must be approved (on a) case-by-case by the Fund’s executive committee).”

A few weeks ago the CEO of Videoplaza, one of my portfolio companies, and I visited Silicon Valley. The purpose of the trip was mostly market intelligence, but we took a few meetings with some venture capitalists as well. One of those meetings was with James Slavet, of Greylock Ventures, investors in Linkedin, Facebook and most recently Groupon. While the meeting was short and very cursory, both Sorosh and I were struck by how friendly he was, particularly to us as a start-up. He offered us office space while we were in the Valley, made sure Sorosh had some vitamin-C to ward off a cold he was catching and indicated a willingness to reconnect and chat at any time about the market and landscape. He seemed eager to open doors and help in any way he could.

Illinois Senate Bill 107 will authorize the Illinois State Treasurer to invest an additional 1 percent of the state’s portfolio into venture capital funds, bringing the total authorized to 2 percent. The funds will then invest the additional money into Illinois based technology companies. The original bill asked to increase the limit to 3 percent total, but was reduced to 2 percent overall during the bill’s first reading.

“It is actually legislation that we’ve been trying to get passed for the past three years and we’re thrilled that Treasurer Dan Rutherford has come out so strongly in support of it” said Maura O’Hara, Executive Director of the Illinois Venture Capital Association, which represents about 120 venture capital and private equity firms.

It’s scary being unsure. It’s a lot different from being sure. Instead of the safety net of knowledge, there’s the daunting chasm of uncertainty. It’s not easy to step from the warmth of the old to the chill of the new.

The same goes for commitment.

It takes a lot to commit. Especially if you’re someone that needs certain guarantees before you make the leap. Otherwise the check book is staying in your pocket until the next discussion.

I come from a high-tech software background, and only a few years ago, it would cost at least a million dollars ($1M) for a team of professionals to produce any commercial software product. Now, with open source software components, and low-cost development tools, the same job can be done by one good hacker for a few thousand dollars.

The early 1990s, especially before the launch of Windows 95, were a time of big changes in tech land: the continuously shifting market share of operating systems — Apple versus Windows, IBM and its OS efforts — the jostling for top position, the fallen heroes and new stars. From a writer’s perspective, it was a glorious time.

Then came the late 1990s: the dawn of the Internet era. Once again, there was a battle for market share, as thousands of web companies of all hues vied for consumer attention: Netscape versus Internet Explores, AOL versus CompuServe, Internet versus everything. For a few years, Silicon Valley was a land of greed, glamor and confusing change.