Naming a startup is hard. Very hard. On the one hand, the pragmatic entrepreneur thinks: “I shouldn’t be wasting time on this — for every successful company with a great name, there’s one with a crappy name that did just fine. It doesn’t seem like a name has much influence on the outcome at all. I’m going to get back to writing code.” I sort of agree with this. You shouldn’t obssess about your name. But, you also shouldn’t dismiss it as unimportant. Part of the startup game is to try and remove unnecessary friction to your growth. Sure, you could build a spectacularly successful company despite having a lousy name — but why not stack the odds in your favor?

One more reason why spending calories on picking a great name is important: It’s a one-time cost to get a great name — but the benefit is forever. Conversely, if you short-change this and dismiss it completely, you’re going to incur what I’d call “branding debt”. Not bad at first, and maybe not a big deal for you ever, but every year, as you grow, you’ll have this small voice nagging inside your head “should I change the name of the company…”. It’s going to be annoying. And the longer you wait, the more expensive the decision is, and the less likely you are to do it. Save yourself some of that future pain, and invest early in picking a decent name. You may still get it wrong, but at least you’ll know you tried.

In the beginning, they called her a fool. When pharmaceutical chemist Victoria Hale told friends and colleagues that she wanted to start a nonprofit pharma company, they laughed at her, said it was career suicide, that it couldn’t be done. “About 90 percent said that in strong or gentle words,” recalls Hale, who had previously worked at the US Food and Drug Administration and Genentech. “But I knew I wanted to try.”

And so she did. In 1998, Hale wrote a business plan, gathered seed money, and submitted an application for nonprofit status to the IRS. It was denied. Pharmaceuticals are a profitable industry, the IRS replied, so what’s the need for a nonprofit? Frustrated, Hale defended her philosophy for what felt like the hundredth time: Big Pharma makes drugs for Westerners. She, on the other hand, wanted to make drugs for all of humanity—drugs that don’t necessarily pull a profit.

Minnetonka, Minn., (Golden Shovel Agency) –- Executives from Golden Shovel Agency will attend The Economic Development Association of Minnesota's (EDAM) 2011 Winter conference January 20-21. Aaron Brossoit, VP of Business Development and John Marshall, VP of Sales will represent the Minnesota Web development firm.

The two-day conference on New Technologies Driving Minnesota's Economy Forward will be held at the Minneapolis Marriott Southwest in Minnetonka. EDAM's mission is to advance economic development in Minnesota. Golden Shovel Agency prospects the latest technologies and trends in community development and provides them as Web solutions to their clients. The firm recently launched Economic Gateway, a first-of-its-kind Web system for Greater America.

With today’s biblical flood of information and communication, how do you get your message heard by the right people? How do you get people to pay attention?

Do’s

1. Be brief, specific and easy to understand - Keep the message short and simple. Use 8th grade language. Use bold, vivid words and images that “stick” in people’s skulls. Avoid the bland words that have lost all meaning – value, synergy, solution provider.

In the midst of the implosion of the financial markets in 2008, True Ventures raised its second fund. Founder and partner Phil Black tells us that shortly after this raise in early 2009 (which he calls the “dark days in the financial world”), the fund’s partners were sitting at a meeting looking for innovative ways they could help jump start the tech economy. Inspired by President Obama’s 2009 inaugural address, True Ventures decided to launch their own program to encourage college students to work at early-stage startups, and to help inspire and educate the “entrepreneurs of tomorrow.”

Called the True Entrepreneurs Corps (TEC), the program places 12 undergraduate students in the fund’s early-stage portfolio companies. The internships take place during the summer in the San Francisco area and range in terms of focus, from technical coding to finance to marketing to business development. And TEC offers students a $3000 stipend for the summer.

Let’s face it. It’s cool but tough to be an entrepreneur. Jeffrey Paine previously shared with us that entrepreneurship is not about making money because you can do that better at a job and reach home by 7. He further explained that an entrepreneur is required to work 24 hours a day, 7 days a week and 365 days in a year (24/7/365).

Even with all the hard work, most entrepreneurs do not make much money. He urged those who wish to follow the entrepreneurial path to find a right reason to do so. To explore this deeper, we have gathered several founders and partners to share with us their reasons on why they want to be an entrepreneur.

My last post (University Entrepreneurship Centers in America) listed many organizations that promote entrepreneurship education in the USA. This is a list of similar organizations in other countries.

• Aalto University - Aalto Centre for Entrepreneurship

• Aarhus University - Aarhus Entrepreneurship Centre

• Acharya Institute of Management Sciences – AIMS Entrepreneurship Excellence Centre

• Bradford University – Centre for Entrepreneurship and Innovation

• Carleton University - Sprott Centre for Social Enterprises

Non-profit organizations need innovation every bit as much as for-profit firms. Some might argue they need it more because they lack the resources and cash flow of large commercial firms. Non-profits need innovation in:

• Fund Raising
• Expanding their reach
• Mission delivery
• Resource utilization

The need for innovation in the non-profit sector is widely recognized. Awards, grants, and other forms of recognition for innovative programs help stimulate managers to be more aggressive.

While the need is recognized, the approach to innovating non-profits is not. These organizations should use the same methods found so effective in corporate innovation. Structured methods based on patterns inherent in inventive solutions can be applied to the non-profit business model just as effectively as the for-profit model. A method like S.I.T. can help an organization "break fixedness" about its role, resources, and process, thus opening new possibilities and approaches.

RIYADH: King Saud University has launched a fund with initial capital of SR160 million to invest in innovators and inventors.

The announcement was made Sunday by Dr. Abdullah Bin Abdul Rahman Al-Othman, President of King Saud University, at the opening ceremony of a two-day international business forum.

The King Saud University’s 1st International Forum for Entrpreneurship and Knowledge-Based Economy is being held under the patronage of Crown Prince Sultan Bin Abdul Aziz, Deputy Premier, Minister of Defense and Aviation and Inspector General. Dr. Metlab Al-Naifissa, Acting Minister of Higher Education, inaugurated the forum in the presence of former British Prime Minister Gordon Brown.

Today's Globe column focuses on three new seed stage firms in the Boston area: NextView Ventures, Project 11 Ventures, and Boston Seed Capital. All three plan to invest in Internet and mobile start-ups; all three started making investments within the last year; and all three have yet to finish actually raising their first fund. NextView seems to be targeting $15 million, and Project 11 aiming for about $5 million. Boston Seed hasn't been specific about a target number yet, but I have a feeling it'll be somewhere in the middle there.

Here's a bit of bonus material...

- All three of NextView's founders left local VC firms in 2010: David Beisel split from Venrock's Cambridge office, Lee Hower took off from Point Judith Capital in Providence, and Rob Go departed Spark Capital. They told me this month that they're especially interested in mobile apps and services; software-as-a-service; and ad tech and analytics. They've made nine investments so far (some were made as individual investors, and then rolled into the NextView fund), though two are still in stealth mode. Six local entrepreneurs, including the founders of CSN Stores and Dataxu, serve as venture advisors to NextView. Beisel is best known as the founder of Web Innovators Group, the demo-fest where he still serves as the host. (Here are some fun posts from the very first Web Innovators gathering in 2005.)

In the last few months, I had begun to form an opinion that, as a staunch supporter of emerging talent, I wasn’t necessarily proud of: “Far too many in the ‘young talent’ category aren’t willing to work or sacrifice to achieve their goal of being an entrepreneur.”

It seemed there were so many who saw a “real job” as automatic expulsion from some exclusive (yet mythical) “Entrepreneur Club” they so want to join. To make matters worse, it seemed that relying on parents and sacrificing one’s own independence and self-confidence was a better choice than getting a job just to pay the bills. Far too often, a young CEO would discuss the launch of his new “start-up” – just to say he was a “CEO.”

This past week, on a trip to New York, my perception changed. My faith has been restored.

Beware of random collisions with unusual suspects. Unless, of course, if you want to learn something new. In that case seek out innovators from across every imaginable silo and listen, really listen, to their stories. New ideas, perspectives, and value creating opportunities are in the gray areas between unusual suspects. It seems so obvious and yet we spend most of our time with the usual suspects in our respective silos. We need to get out of our silos more.

It’s human nature to surround ourselves with people exactly like us. We connect and spend time with people who share a common world-view, look the same, enjoy the same activities, and speak the same language. We join clubs to be with others like us. I want to belong to the non-club club. The only tribe I want to be in is a tribe of unusual suspects who can challenge my world-view, expose me to new ideas, and teach me something new. I founded the Business Innovation Factory to enable random collisions of unusual suspects.

“In public Congress hugs them, in private they mug them!” So said the late Milt Stewart, one of the architects of the Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Program in the 1980s and a renowned advocate for America’s small businesses.

I first met Milt in 1992 and eagerly joined forces with him and others from business and government to generate more research opportunities for America’s small businesses – then and now, the most potent force for innovation and job creation on the planet.

Unfortunately, small business continues to get what Fred Patterson, echoing Milt Stewart, calls the "Huggem-Muggem": lots of lip service but very little productive legislative action that facilitates their creation of jobs.

Charlottetown, PE – January 17, 2011 - Dr. Harold Robertson, a resident of Belfast, PEI and researcher with Neurodyn Inc. (PEI bioscience company) has recently been inducted as a Fellow of the prestigious Royal Society of Canada (RSC), the Canadian institution devoted to recognizing excellence in learning and research, as well as recognizing accomplishments in the arts, humanities and sciences.

Dr. Robertson is Professor Emeritus of Pharmacology with the Faculty of Medicine at Dalhousie University where he was Carnegie and Rockefellar Professor and Head of the Department of Pharmacology for a decade. He was the first Neuorfortis Visiting Professor at Lund University in Sweden and is co-founder of the Brain Repair Center (BRC) at Dalhousie University. Dr. Robertson holds an appointment as adjunct professor at the University of Prince Edward Island (UPEI) and is currently a member of the research team at PEI-based Neurodyn Inc.

Dr. Robertson’s scientific career has focused on research into the treatment of Parkinson’s disease and other neurological disorders. He serves on the peer review committee of the Parkinson Society of Canada and has been instrumental in the establishment of several clinical trials for treatment of Parkinson’s.

If only we could start 2011 and the new decade by putting up a “closed for renovation” sign clearing the way to transform our education, health care, energy, and economic systems. We don’t have the luxury. Tweaks won’t work and nothing short of systems transformation is needed. Our collective challenge in 2011 is to catalyze transformational change while continuing to pedal the bicycle of today’s systems. We need real-world platforms, connected to existing systems, with the autonomy and resources to design, prototype, and experiment with transformational solutions. Going to war with current systems won’t work. If we’re going to transform the next decade we should start by putting up an “open for renovation” sign.

Have you ever done a major renovation of your home while you were still living in it? We did. I don’t know what we were thinking. I’m not talking about a tweak. It’s the familiar story about a project that started off as a manageable kitchen remodeling. Then the “while we’re at it we might as well do this too” started. Before the dust finally settled, 75% of the living space in our home was transformed, all while we continued to live in the house. Talk about disruption! Like all transformations it took twice as long and cost twice as much as predicted. If you ask our three children, who had to live through it, I’m sure each would say they were scarred for life by the trauma. For two years we were nomads in our own home with sleeping arrangements changing constantly. It was an adventure to find the temporary kitchen location on any given day. Tweaking is easy. Transformation isn’t. No wonder our social systems are so resistant to transformational change.

When you’re starting out, you need money – While you might have the best idea in the world, you can’t get a business off the ground without cash – and often, lots of it!

True, you could be one of those companies that maxes out their credit cards and tries to use all of your personal resources because you believe in your company. But where does that leave you if things don’t work out? In a difficult situation, that’s where. Assuming you don’t have a spouse or a family that can support your less expensive venture, it’s time to think about approaching investors. However, just like choosing your spouse, you don’t want to end up in a divorce. ‘Til success do you part – that should be your motto with investors.

For most surfers, a really long ride might last about 20 seconds and cover 50-60 yards, so imagine the thrill experienced by a group of standup paddlers recently when they rode waves for a distance of nearly five miles -- amid the splendor of the pristine Alaskan wilderness.

The magical event played out on the Turnagain Arm in the Cook Inlet near Girdwood, thanks to a phenomenon called a tidal bore, caused when the leading edge of an incoming tide pushes against an opposing current or the direction of a river. This creates actual tidal waves.

Thanks to Richard Bendis Jr. for sending this great video.....

Pitching is an art and the best ever discussion I have come across is this

An “Elevator Pitch” is a concise, carefully planned, and well-practiced description about your company that your mother should be able to understand in the time it would take to ride up an elevator. [source]

What makes a great pitch?

Reproducing from my earlier article (Pitch! The Missing Element), here are a couple of points that one needs to keep in mind while pitching your product.

• Your Product doesn’t really matter
  It’s who you are and your insights that matters. Do not simply pitch your product, but instead pitch your business solution.
• Do not get into feature level.
  Please be good to yourself by not telling why feature X can take your company to the next level.
• Do not get into technology depth
  Avoid sharing too much of technology details. Instead focus on the customer/user benefits.

A very good article.

The true entrepreneurs are those who are successful, straight to the point and yet humble in their words.

He is right on the dot about the entrepreneurial attitude in Singapore.

He is also dead right on the part that our past success is our barrier to entrepreneurship. The government has trained the people to be workers, not entrepreneurs and our over emphasis on results is also helping to kill the entrepreneurial spirit.

Great minds meet in Palo Alto, as the men who brought you the four-point shot meet the man who brought you Facebook.

Yesterday, the Harlem Globetrotters trotted over to Palo Alto, where they paid a visit to Mark Zuckerberg at the Facebook headquarters. Globetrotters Curly Neal and Hot Shot Branch regaled Zuckerberg with a Globetrotters jersey featuring his name and the number 4.

Why 4? It's not that it's Zuckerberg's favorite number. Rather, it commemorates a Globetrotters basketball innovation--the first four-point shot. In December, the Globetrotters announced this important innovation to the world in a press release. “The Globetrotters have been at the forefront of basketball’s evolution throughout the sport’s history,” the Globetrotters' CEO Kurt Schneider (who, we're guessing, may not be from Harlem) said in a press release. “From the alley-oop to the slam dunk to the behind-the-back pass, the Globetrotters have long brought innovations to basketball that are now staples of the game, and we’re confident the 4-point shot will change the game of basketball going forward.”