“Tech Transfer” is the deceptively mild title of a mordant satire about scientists and universities and how they do business.

The best scene in this hilarious first novel is a meeting of the trustees of Kershaw University, an elite research university only 200 years younger than Harvard. The trustees have to select a new president. They listen with mounting dismay as the professional headhunter in charge of the search reads out the polished résumés of each candidate, but notes in each case the fatal flaws revealed by background checks, ranging from spousal abuse to bestiality and, even more fatal, plagiarism.

The Kansas Bioscience Authority plans $36.9 million in new financing commitments for bioscience researchers and businesses during fiscal 2011.

The KBA ratified the plan, which goes into effect July 1, on Monday. The estimated investments include $21.4 million in research and development and $15.5 million in commercialization projects, which will make for $263 million in total KBA investments since its creation by Kansas legislation in 2004.

Two pieces of legislation of particular interest to the startup community continue to wind their way through Congress: Senator Lugar and Kerry's Startup Visa Act and Senator Dodd's Financial Reform bill.

We've written about both here before.

In an article this past Sunday titled Hungry for cash, start-ups seek better angels for their ventures, Scott Kirsner of the Boston Globe quotes a variety of commentators from around New England regarding their common aspiration to build up the regional Angel investment community, and increase the number and quality of their investments.

Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair is now the adviser to a Silicon Valley venture capital firm Khosla Ventures. The company is into the promotion of environmentally friendly technology.

The California-based firm is run by Vinod Khosla from India. Khosla is one of the founders of Sun Microsystems. He recently raised $1 billion from investors to be used in promoting technologies that would reduce carbon emissions such as ethanol fuel.

How many times have you heard something like the following in response to the state's job decline and overall economic implosion?

"But California is the venture capital of the country."

"But we have so much cleantech investment, we're going to lead the country."Venture capitol is good. Cleantech venture capitol is good. High wage job creation is imperative.

In working with creative individuals I have found that it is hard for many of them to define what success means. “I want to be a successful artist working in my studio” seems to be about as far as many of them can go in defining their success.

When you ask other entrepreneurs what success means they will describe their success in terms of being a market leader, capturing market share, developing new and innovative products, their distribution chain, market capitalization and the financial rewards. Thinking in these terms is not so easy for many creative types.

Success for many creatives is simply being able to pursue their passion – not a bad measure of success for any business. In some respects many businesses have to work hard to instill and keep passion thriving with their owners and employees. Passion for one’s work will get you a long way but it is not a guarantee of success.

Google's Larry Page addresses a high powered audience who came out this past weekend for the X Prize Foundation fundraiser in San Francisco.

IndustryWeek (Minter) - Resources such as business incubators and economic development agencies are available around the country to help entrepreneurs with a good idea pursue the dream of opening their own manufacturing companies.

There are more than 1,100 incubators in North America, predominantly in the United States, according to the National Business Incubation Association (NBIA). These incubators are overwhelmingly nonprofit organizations that provide entrepreneurs with a variety of business support services, including rental office space, management guidance, technology support and assistance in obtaining financing. In a 2006 report, NBIA estimated that North American incubators in 2005 assisted more than 27,000 startup companies, provided full-time employment for more than 100,000 workers and generated more than $17 billion in annual revenue.

Tracy Kitts, NBIA's vice president and chief operating officer, says five characteristics define business incubation programs: 1) they have a selection process; 2) they work primarily with new companies, either startups or very young companies; 3) they offer comprehensive business assistance; 4) there is on-site management that coordinates and facilitates the delivery of those services; and 5) there is a graduation policy.

CEOs around the world today place more emphasis on the creativity of their leaders than their rigor, management discipline, integrity, or vision, according to a newly released study from IBM. Indeed, the study finds that the creative management style--which is marked by taking calculated risks and communicating in new ways--will lead to more success as companies struggle to find their way in an increasingly complex and interconnected world.

The key message that IBM heard over and over from the 1,500 CEOs, general managers, and senior public sector leaders that it interviewed from September 2009 through January 2010 was that creativity has become a more valuable leadership attribute than in the past. What's more, creativity--meaning not only the capability to create something new but to drive "disruptive innovation and continuous re-invention"--is now more important than other leadership qualities, like management discipline, rigor, or operational acumen.

In other words, it's now better to be able to rapidly generate potentially innovative or disruptive business plans and products than it is to be able to carry them out, to maintain one's integrity in carrying it out, or even to be able to conjure up grandiose and strategic "visions" of where an organization ought to be headed. Of course, there will always be a place for true business visionaries, but the idea here is that tactical, short-term creative thinking in smaller chunks is more conducive to surviving and thriving in the "new" business climate than the big-chunk, long-term planning that has served corporations so well in the past.

(05-23) 14:40 PDT -- Technology innovation is something anyone can undertake these days. Or so we are told.

The notion that low barriers to entry (via low cost or free online office management tools, open-source software and Internet connectivity) enable anyone with a laptop, a cell phone and a good idea to become an instant tech entrepreneur is one we hear often in tech circles.

But what we don't hear or talk about is the fact that the new innovators fit a very narrow profile. They mostly come from more affluent backgrounds, are well educated and are rarely minorities. Many have gone to well-known business schools and colleges and fit comfortably into the mainstream business culture found in places like Silicon Valley. The obsession with hiring engineers and other employees from top schools at companies like Google is Exhibit A.

With Jacques Steinberg's piece in last Sunday's Times (Plan B: Skip College), the "Is college really worth it?" meme seems to be in full flower, in part because it's an interesting issue and in part because the media suffers from a fatal weakness for novelty and counterintuition. But most of these discussions suffer from confusion about what question they're actually trying to answer. In roughly ascending order of importance, here's how various people are framing the issue:

Is college for everyone? This is a dumb question. Of course college isn't for everyone. Just last week, the Post profiled 17-year old high school senior Bryce Harper, who definitely shouldn't go to college. Instead, he should (and will) become a professional baseball player and earn millions of dollars. The number of good career paths that don't require a college degree is small and shrinking but not non-existent. Some people start families, others aren't smart or hard-working enough enough to complete college-level work. Defining the question in absolute terms does little other than identify the questioner as a sloppy thinker.

[CEBU, PHILIPPINES] The Philippines has introduced new intellectual property rights legislation in an attempt to get the fruits of government-funded research out of laboratories.

The Philippine Technology Transfer Act of 2009, which took effect this month (May), makes research and development (R&D) institutions the default owner of intellectual property rights (IPR) arising from the results of government-funded research.

This means scientists will now be allowed to create, manage or serve as consultants to companies that can commercially exploit technology arising from their government-funded research.

You don't need a lot of money to start a company, sometimes none at all.

The first company I started, while still in college, didn't require a dime of up-front money. I worked for a data processing training school as a teacher. They had a computer that was busy from 8 a.m. to 10 p.m., but it sat idle the rest of the time. I proposed to pay the school a percentage of my income in exchange for use of their system. The deal was done when I pointed out that there would be negligible cost for them, and the machine wasn't helping their bottom line at all during the period I wanted to use it. They said "yes" and Business Computer Systems was born. We were profitable the first month with no debt on the books and no money out of my pocket.

But when you do need money to start a business, where should you look? Venture capital, private investors, or a bank?

Maybe none of the above. Here's why.

May 24 (Bloomberg) -- To start their company and get its first product out the door, the founders of software maker 280 North Inc. needed little more than a half-dozen computers and a roof overhead.

Francisco Tolmasky, Ross Boucher and Tom Robinson kept costs in check by using code available free on the Web and renting storage on the cheap from Amazon.com Inc. Expenses are about $4,500 a month, and the San Francisco company -- two years after getting off the ground -- is close to making a profit.

From Silicon Valley to New York, technology startups are tapping individual investors, friends and their own savings to fund operations and product development. That helps owners keep greater control of their companies and more of the equity. After only raising about $100,000, 280 North says it has plenty of cash to get another product to market.

The survey found California to be the most entrepreneurial state online (12.3% of those polled), followed by Texas (8.4%) and Florida (7.0%). Two thirds of online businesses had no paid employees, and two in five generated a household income upwards of $75,000. Surprisingly, half (51%) of online businesses claimed that they were not negatively affected by the past year’s recession.

Washington, DC (PRWEB) May 24, 2010 -- Almost a third (31%) of online entrepreneurs today are 50 years or older, revealed a national survey of 25,000 business by the small business website company, CityMax.com. Released to mark National Small Business Week, the study also found that the morning newspaper has become almost irrelevant to small business owners, with 48% going online immediately after waking (compared to just 3% reading print news).

Before I begin to give you additional information on this topic, take a moment to think about how much you already know.

Are you setting up to begin and run your personal business? Do you identify the correct qualifications and characteristics an entrepreneur must have to succeed? Does your profile match that of a successful person? If not, you should also start developing these characteristics.

1. Honorable and work ethic

Although it is a fact that the trade world is cruel, but the successful entrepreneur will struggle to make every trade deal honorable. The spot of a successful entrepreneur lies in a good individual work ethic that eventually leads to good business practices, outstanding status and good association with industry peers and business partners.

There’s an old Chinese quote (Lao-tzu) that says, “the journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.” The modern interpretation could be that “nothing will happen until you get off the couch”. But getting started is only a fraction of the equation and isn’t actually the most difficult part. The real work begins after you take the first step.

Over the years, I have met many people who describe themselves as ‘serial entrepreneurs’. It is a romantic notion and some of these people fit the description well. Many others are just serial ‘business-starters’ who have never been able to move any venture past the start-up phase. They may start a lot of businesses but many, if not all, of their businesses no longer exist. There are two main reasons for this, either they didn’t identify and then solve a market problem better and more efficiently than anyone else or they didn’t execute their proposition well enough.

A reader asks: My buddy and I are coding up a new site and we will be ready to launch the beta in about a month. We have a couple of angel investors who are interested, and we don’t want to screw anything up. What are the biggest mistakes that you’ve seen that guys like us make?

Answer: Here are six quick ones:

IP Ownership. Some entrepreneurs make the mistake of creating IP for their new venture while they are still working for someone else. They then quit and launch their startup, not realizing that the IP is actually owned by their prior employer. This is a tricky issue, and you should carefully review all employment-related agreements to determine if there are any provisions that may inhibit your new venture.

Choice of Entity. Choose your entity formation carefully. Investors generally only put their money in corporations – not LLC’s or partnerships. So it’s usually best to stick with a corporation when you’re getting started. Consult with an accountant as to whether you should make an S corporation election (and then convert to a C corporation down the road).