The state of Michigan has launched a new $120-million venture capital pool that will invest in seed and early-stage venture capital funds that in turn invest in high-tech companies in the state. Venture firms that receive money from the Venture Michigan Fund II will be required to invest at least as much in Michigan-based companies as they receive in capital commitments, according to a news release.

Venture Michigan Fund II follows the first Venture Michigan Fund formed in 2006, which invested $95 million into 11 VC funds. To date, with about 36 percent, or $34 million, of VMF I capital deployed, fund managers have invested more than $38 million in 15 Michigan-based companies, according to the release.

Recently, I was watching an episode of The Nature of Things, narrated by David Suzuki, that focused on the Canadian Shield.

I was pleasantly surprised to see John Spray and his team leading the discussion on the origin of mineral deposits in Canada relating to meteor impacts. Spray is a geology professor at the University of New Brunswick and the director of the Planetary and Space Science Center.

As of late, it seems that the world is taking notice of the intellect and talent within the Fredericton region. This CBC showcase isn't an isolated incident. Many specialists in centres in the Fredericton area are called upon for their expertise.

The following is an overview of three centres within our region where leading-edge research is being conducted.

As companies begin to refocus on growth, innovation has once again become a priority: in a recent McKinsey Global Survey,1 84 percent of executives say innovation is extremely or very important to their companies’ growth strategy. The results also show that the approach companies use to generate good ideas and turn them into products and services has changed little since before the crisis, and not because executives thought what they were doing worked perfectly. Further, many of the challenges—finding the right talent, encouraging collaboration and risk taking, organizing the innovation process from beginning to end—are remarkably consistent. Indeed, surveys over the past few years suggest that the core barriers to successful innovation haven’t changed, and companies have made little progress in surmounting them.

OTTAWA--(Marketwire - 01/18/11) - So far in 2011, two prominent American media outlets are buzzing about Canada's investment potential. This month both the Wall Street Journal and The Washington Times have lauded Canada's business appeal citing a wide variety of economic metrics, and Canada's large "C-11" cities are indeed open for business. Today the C-11 coalition of Canada's large cities is launching ConsiderCanada.com and CanadaEnTete.com, two new Web sites that provide comprehensive information for global companies considering expansion into North America.

Canada's large cities have a lot of good economic news to share with companies considering expanding in or moving to the country. Canada's federal corporate income tax rate will fall from 18% in 2010 to 15% by 2012 -- less than half of the top U.S. federal marginal corporate income tax rate, and the lowest in the G7. As the Wall Street Journal noted, relative levels of taxation matter because companies and investors send capital where it can achieve the highest returns.

Among the hundreds of bills filed for consideration by the Indiana General Assembly, only a handful aim to do what Hoosiers need most: Create jobs. But at least one economic development bill shows promise in fostering a better environment for innovation, one of the keys to a better job climate.

Sen. Brandt Hershman, R-Lafayette, is sponsor of the legislation resulting from a bipartisan recommendation of last summer’s Economic Development Committee. The provision of the bill likely to attract the most attention, unfortunately, is its least attractive. It would lower Indiana’s corporate income tax rate from 8.5 percent to 5 percent.

Science, this very creative human endeavor to understand the nature of the reality that exists independently of ourselves, is impossible. By "impossible," I am not saying "very, very difficult," although it is that, as well. We use our senses and instruments to extend them to try to map reality (at least those bits we care about) onto our consciousness and perceive that the map we collectively share is the reality. I know I am being very Cartesian here, but hopefully you can see what the problem is: the "map" is not the reality. So the endeavor is, therefore, impossible.

My mandate here is to identify the sources of stress in our scientific lives, and to suggest ways to deal with them. I have taken the Red Queen's advice regarding a number of impossible things (by which I mean "very, very difficult") that might be believed before breakfast. My only credentials are that I, too, experience the same stress every day, albeit not always before breakfast.

In France, it seems January is always full of surprises. This time last year, new seed funds Kima Ventures and Jaina Capital were announcing their plans to fill a gaping void in the French investment landscape. And now the same French internet titans (more or less) are announcing the launch of the Ecole Européenne des Métiers de l’Internet (EEMI), a European internet startup school set to kick-off in fall 2011.

The news first broke in Paris Match (not traditionally known for tech news, but hey) in December. The initiative comes from the founders of three of the most well known companies in France: Meetic (Marc Simoncini), Vente-Privée (Jacques-Antoine Granjon) and Iliad (Xavier Niel) – who knew they wanted to launch something together but not necessarily for profit (phew!). And their three profiles should work rather nicely together, given Niel’s technical background, Simoncini’s marketing strength and Granjon’s expertise in e-commerce. They’ve teamed up with Alain Malvoisin, who specializes in education, to launch this school dedicated entirely to training various types of internet professionals.

If you’re an entrepreneur thinking about raising venture capital today, odds are you realize this is one of the most difficult funding environments in decades. The venture capital industry has been in a deep funk for nearly two-and-a-half years, and many venture firms are shutting down as their limited partners are cutting off the flow of capital.

But strong entrepreneurs with highly promising ideas aren’t doomed. There’s still venture to be found.

A medium-sized venture capital firm (like Allegis Capital with approximately $500M of capital under management today) looks at roughly 1,000 deals a year and backs 6 to 8 of them – or less than 1 percent. If you’re pitching venture capitalists in this category, remember that they are looking for opportunities that have the potential to generate a significant return on their investment. In general, that means a company that has the potential to become at least a $100M company.

At last year’s Academy Awards, in front of a global audience of millions, a new troupe, the Legion of Extraordinary Dancers, or LXD, performed a jaw-dropping number. It was, many thought, the best part of the whole spectacle. The dancers were electric, exciting, and altogether unprecedented: Their routine of tricks and moves was hitherto unknown to dance.

Several of the dancers were self-taught. Or more precisely, Internet-taught. And they had been recruited by a filmmaker, Jon M. Chu, in part because of their YouTube reputations.

If you start a company, it will probably happen to you someday. Maybe it will be your VC or a board member. Maybe it will be your co-founder.

Sooner or later, they’ll try to fire you.

I’m an investor in or advisor to dozens of startups, and at least once a quarter, I get the call: “Chris, they’re trying to fire me.” (The other urgent call I get is when they’re negotiating a financing round, merger, or sale. I much prefer those calls!)

Most entrepreneurs are surprised the first time their investors or co-founders try to fire them. They can’t imagine being banished from the company that they created. Maybe they were the only employee of the company for years. Maybe they recruited and courted the very person who comes to carry out the execution.

In honor of Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, which is to be celebrated on Monday, January 17th, 2011, I wanted to pay tribute to the great man who fought for equality even when all odds were against him.  Much like many of you entrepreneurs out there, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. “had a dream.”  Nothing could stop him from achieving exactly what he wanted to achieve—even if it meant going to jail, being hated or going against people’s wishes.  MLK’s famous speech, “I Have a Dream” has touched the hearts of millions of Americans throughout the years and goes to show that with hard work, bravery, persistence, and many other qualities, anything can happen. 

Root Music founder J Sider sits on a beanbag chair and sips a fruit smoothie from the kitchen in the Howard Street loft of his technology startup. He explains how the three-person startup, which began in his apartment last year, just got $2.3 million in venture capital funding. The now-10-person team will soon head to the South By Southwest Music Festival in Austin, Texas, on the company dime. “It’s a once-in-a-lifetime experience,” Sider said.

Now the largest music application on Facebook, Root Music is riding a rally in public and private funding for tech startups that has investors debating the existence of a new technology bubble like the one that burst in 2000.

There isn't much that's small about the work performed by the Michigan Pre-Seed Capital Fund in 2010. The start-up financing fund distributed $2.5 million worth of loans to dozens of companies in Michigan, many of which are in the Ann Arbor area.

The $11.6 million fund has given microloans, about $50,000 each, to 52 start-ups, such as U-M spinoff and Accelerate Michigan winner Armune BioScience. These companies mostly use the cash to help commercialize their first products. These companies employ 285 people and have since attracted another $16.4 million in outside investment.

Well before her first day today as Iowa’s new economic development director, Debi Durham was working the phones and traveling the state.

“When I read about a company looking at Iowa, I’ve been picking up the phone and asking (community leaders), ‘How can I be helpful?’” said Durham, “That’s the kind of thing they’ve not had before.”

Durham, 50, has led the Siouxland Chamber of Commerce and its economic development arm, the Siouxland Initiative, for the past 15 years and is well-known throughout the state’s business and community development circles.

There may be too many startups chasing the social trend, according to partners at VC firm Canaan Partners, but it's still going to be one of the biggest growth areas in 2011, and there are ways to stand out from the crowd.

• Go vertical. Deepak Kamra, who has been a VC since the early 1990s and led Canaan's investment in social dating service Zoosk, recommends focusing on specific verticals. Social gaming and shopping may be pretty well established, but other areas like travel, cars, and health care are not.

Dear SBIR Insider,

Our new year starts with a significantly new congress, new leadership in the House, new challenges, and of course, the Tucson tragedy. Our hearts go out to all the victims and their families, and there's little I can say that hasn't already been expressed.

The main topic for us now is to keep the SBIR/STTR programs alive as they approach their January 31, 2011 expiration date. In the final hours of the 111th congress, a compromise SBIR/STTR Reauthorization bill was passed in the Senate but ran out of time in the House.

The Senate Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship (SBE) under the leadership of its chair, Mary Landrieu (D-LA) and ranking member Olympia Snowe (R-ME) worked their hearts out to broker a compromise on an 8 year SBIR reauthorization. Their staff worked tirelessly to strike a compromise between the two major opposing factions, the Small Business Technology Council (SBTC) and the Biotechnology Industry Organization (BIO). Amazingly, for the first time ever, a compromise was achieved and agreed to by both sides, and the SBIR reauthorization bill, S.4053 was passed in the Senate.

With little time remaining on the last day of congress, the House Small Business Committee (SBC) did nothing but block the Senate's efforts. They were not in support of this bill.

In this new 112th Congress, we have a stable SBE, but lose Senators Kit Bond (R-MO) and Evan Bayh (D-IN) who chose to retire from the Senate. Both were strong SBIR supporters and we will miss them. In the House, we have a new chair in the form of Sam Graves (R-MO), who has been the ranking member of the SBC, and tended to shadow and support Nydia Velazquez (D-NY), former chair, now ranking member of the committee.

The question is: "Where do we go from here?" Read on.

Startups often put a lot of work into a pitch deck. That's not necessarily a bad thing. After all, you don't want to be stuck delivering a presentation to potential investors which is eminently awful because of your slides.

But here's a piece of advice that may run counter to "build good slides." And that's "be ready to ditch the slides altogether."

To do so certainly demands that you're ready and able to deliver a compelling story and demo in order to pitch your startup.

Do you know how many hours per week you spend sitting in front of your computer? Lifehacker founder, programmer and author Gina Trapani was curious enough to use personal analytics to find out. As she wrote in a blog post earlier today, her findings were not promising.

Using time management Web app RescueTime, Trapani, discovered that she was spending as much as 48 hours sitting down in one week. For Web workers like her, this is probably not unusual.

If you dropped a giraffe into a deep pool of water, would it float, or would it sink? If it could float, would it swim briskly and confidently to the nearest bit of land, or would it flail around helplessly and drown?

Strange as it may seem, the floating and swimming abilities of giraffes—or rather their supposed lack of floating and swimming abilities—have often been written about by experts. It has been asserted that giraffes “sink like stones” and “cannot swim, even in an emergency,” and that “rivers are an impassable barrier to them.” Although a few rare photographs and segments of film show that giraffes will wade into deep rivers when they have to, definite observations of them swimming have yet to be reported.

I have provided legal counsel and assistance to hundreds of entrepreneurs over my 15-year career. A recurring question among those clients has been ‘Why do some entrepreneurs make it, while others fail?’

I’ve given this issue a lot of thought. Obviously, there are a lot of variables that contribute to success, including lady luck. But, in my mind, there are three characteristics that stand above the rest: guts, desire and passion.