AngelHack has always been a little different from your average hackathon — rather than taking place in one spot over one weekend, it has become a global event that takes place in multiple stages. As a result, the projects are usually pretty polished, though not yet at the level of full-fledged startups. Now it’s taking another step in that direction with the launch of its very own accelerator.

The program will admit 40 teams into a 14-week program – 12 weeks of local mentoring, then two weeks in San Francisco pitch training, investor meetings, and events. In that sense, it follows the broader AngelHack model, where there are local hackathons which feed into a big competition among the finalists in Silicon Valley. In exchange for the mentorship (and tickets to this fall’s TechCrunch Disrupt), AngelHack takes 2 percent equity.

Prepared by: Robert Merson, March 21, 2013 

Investing in jobs and manufacturing was a key theme of the Canadian federal budget presented March 21, 2013. Continued investment in research and innovation was also highlighted as an important element of the budget.

Existing funding programs received investment; however the investments are in line with sustained funding levels from previous years, with no significant investments in new funds. These investments include: a total of $37M across the tri-councils (which has been the same commitment for several years now); $165M for Genome Canada in 2014/15; and $225M for Canada Foundation for Innovation. The National Research Council (NRC) was provided with an additional $121M over 2 years to support innovative businesses as the NRC continues to evolve to a new model for partnership with industry.

An interview with Elizabeth Grace Saunders, founder and CEO of Real Life E and author of The 3 Secrets to Effective Time Investment.

Who is the world's most innovative company? The editors of Fast Company say Nike. Last year, number crunchers at Forbes found that Salesforce.com is the company with the highest "Innovation Premium" baked into its stock price. MIT Technology Review didn't pick a winner, but on its recent list of top 50 "disruptors," the magazine mixed stalwarts such as General Electric and IBM with up-and-comers, Square and Coursera.

The difference of opinion isn't a new thing — in fact, if you look back a few years at similar lists you'll see less than 50% overlap. Why? Perhaps a company's ability to innovate doesn't last long. Or perhaps it is difficult to really tell how well a company's innovation engine is functioning — so magazine editors are susceptible to the latest hot product or service.

And it’s also why you’re not. Data shows that there is something as important as what you eat to your overall health: how where you live is laid out. 

Academic literature defines an "obesogenic environment" as "promoting gaining weight and one that is not conducive to weight loss.” But there’s a simpler way of putting it: It is a neighborhood that makes you fat.

Fred Wilson--as in, the New York-based venture capitalist who bet on Etsy, Foursquare, Kickstarter, and Twitter--didn't make an investment last year. Roelof Botha, the prominent Silicon Valley investor who backed Instagram, Square, and YouTube, opted not to lead an A round. Paul Graham--as in, the guy behind the early-stage startup-mentoring program Y Combinator, which helped usher Airbnb, Dropbox, and Reddit into the world--decided that he would accept fewer than 50 companies into his winter 2013 batch of startups, 40% less than the class size the previous summer. Wilson took a stab at explaining his reticence in a blog post, when he wrote, "The wind that has been at our back for seven to eight years in consumer Internet is no longer there. It's tougher sledding and will likely continue so for some time to come."

The differences between Northern and Southern California have long formed the basis for a competitive relationship, with Southern Californians thinking of their northern neighbors as self-righteous tree-huggers and NoCal-ers writing off Angelenos as superficial flakes with surgically enhanced body parts. The same culture clash exists in business, where it’s Silicon Valley and the land of hoodie-wearing tech geeks selling a breakthrough app for a billion versus Hollywood slicksters making yet another blow-up movie for $300 million.

What's the secret formula behind why the Harlem Shake and Gangnam Style went viral? How do you land a spot on the New York Times' "Most-Emailed" articles list? Wharton Marketing Professor Jonah Berger set out to answer these questions in his new book, Contagious: Why Things Catch On. "It's not luck, it's not random, it's not cats," he says. "There's a science behind it. We have to understand the psychology and the social transmission process."

Get out now. In the US, the taxes are going up, the middle class is dying and the value of college degrees is becoming inflated.  You really want to be a cog in a corporate machine? Or just another “tech entrepreneur” competing for the same VC money in a huge Silicon Valley marathon?

Tel Aviv

It has been ranked over and over again as number two in line for best cities for entrepreneurs, so it’s no surprise it’s also a great place for young people as well.  It has a balanced mixture of startups in all stages, so you can choose whether to join a validated company or to start your own.  There’s a great ecosystem of R&D there also, which really encourages a protocol to learning in the initial periods in startups.  As Israelis tend to be early adopters,  Tel Aviv is also a great test market for new products or apps.  Despite the hype about Tel Aviv, there is no funding gap.  Since English is also widely spoken and often used by young people in Tel Aviv, being acclimated to city life there will be much easier.

Culture is a very real and meaningful part of a company that determines how team members feel about the business, the product, and one another. But building a strong company culture is also an opportunity to motivate the team by making everyone feel like they’re working toward a common goal.

At my company, culture has made all the difference in our product and our business — especially when we grew from 12 employees to 30 in just a matter of months. From the hiring practices to the onboarding process to daily interactions with seasoned employees, small changes to your company’s culture can make a huge difference in employees’ attitude and work.

This quote from an unknown author might be the most apt description of my life as an entrepreneur. Some decisions will change your life, but only if you ask the right questions.

In 2007 I was faced with one of those decisions — what to do with my life. I was finishing my master’s degree in Management of Innovation and Business Development at Copenhagen Business School. The economy was bullish, industry was growing and graduates were in high demand. Like many of my peers, I got a steady influx of news about recruiting events and even a few interview requests too. At the same time, there was my study-mate, Gus.

Apple‘s iPhone is outdated, according to the chief executive of BlackBerry-maker Research In Motion Ltd.

Thorsten Heins made the comment Thursday on the eve of the much-delayed launch of the new touchscreen BlackBerry in the United States. AT&T begins selling the Z10 touchscreen BlackBerry on Friday, more than six weeks after RIM launched the devices elsewhere.

Heins also told The Associated Press that a new keyboard version of the BlackBerry won’t be released in the U.S. until two or three months from now. He previously said it would be eight to 10 weeks, but now he’s saying it could be delayed an additional two weeks.

Entrepreneurs – successful ones – learn to keep an eye on the proverbial bottom-line. Mission-driven entrepreneurs often have their sights on a dual — or triple — bottom line: they see a need and want to meet it. If you want to do good and do well, how do you know what model is best for your venture?

Are you a philanthropist? You can leave a legacy through your personal and corporate giving, supporting causes that matter to you by contributing a portion of your personal income or the revenues generated by your for-profit business.

Summary

Small businesses across America are being encouraged to sign the White House Crowdfunding Petition (http://wh.gov/vjao) to respectfully insist that the Securities Exchange Commission (SEC) expedite issuing Title II and III Crowdfunding guidelines.

Description

“All small business associations need to join together and sign the White House Crowdfunding Petition to motivate the U.S Government to do what is right from our country,” said Robert Dobyns, CEO of Conzortia Business Funding, Inc. “As soon as the Crowdfunding guidelines are issued, 98% more Americans can invest up to $2,000 per year in local businesses they know and trust in return for a payback from a portion of future profits. Please help us get America back on track!”

Choosing office space can be very challenging because your decision will have so many repercussions for your business. The wrong location, for example, could cost you employees or clients. What's more, you have to base your choice on your company's future needs, not just your current situation.

Given that landlords prefer lease terms of three to five years, entrepreneurs should consider these questions carefully before signing on the dotted line:

A new kind of three-dimensional display developed at HP Labs plays hologram-like videos without the need for any moving parts or glasses. Videos displayed on the HP system hover above the screen, and viewers can walk around them and experience an image or video from as many 200 different viewpoints—like walking around a real object.

The screen is made by modifying a conventional liquid-crystal display (LCD), the same kind of display found in most phones, laptops, tablets, and televisions. Researchers hope these 3-D systems will enable new kinds of user interfaces for portable electronics, gaming, and data visualization. The work, carried out at HP Labs in Palo Alto, California, relies on complex physics to make 3-D displays that are as thin as half a millimeter.

In an effort to help researchers fast-track their technologies to the marketplace, Michigan is launching a new entrepreneurial training program called Michigan I-Corps.  Applications for the program, administered by the University of Michigan, opened last week.

Michigan I-Corps is modeled after the National Science Foundation’s I-Corps (Innovation Corps) program. Two Michigan Tech teams have participated in the national I-Corps. Earlier this month a team led by Ezra Bar Ziv, a professor of mechanical engineering-engineering mechanics, was selected as the top team among the 24 participating teams from universities throughout the nation. The first NSF I-Corps team from Michigan Tech was led by Physics Professor Yoke Khin Yap.

Companies don't innovate. People do. But in today's business world, the people behind the innovation and groundbreaking ideas and inventions can be overshadowed by their creations.

Sometimes that anonymity is by design. (USB co-creator Ajay Bhatt, for example, prefers to pass the credit on to his team. Even when Intel made his name famous in a 2009 commercial, he declined to appear. An actor played him instead). More often, though, it's one of the side effects of the business world.

One of the challenges leaders face in times of uncertainty and rapid change is helping senior managers to engage in bigger-picture thinking. To enable this process, a growing number of companies are creating “decision rooms” – dedicated areas that help them visualize challenges and opportunities from a number of perspectives and make better decisions.

So much of our success in business and life depends on our ability to be a “people person” and our likeability factor.

We spend a great deal of time interacting and dealing with people in person and equally online now.  Not everyone is a people person, or cut out to be a social butterfly. But it is an important skill that impacts our success.

From his book Engage, Brian Solis says:

“Engagement is shaped by the interpretation of its intentions. In order for social media to mutually benefit you and your customers, you must engage them in meaningful and advantageous conversations, empowering them as true participants in your marketing and service efforts.”