One of the first questions that I get from many entrepreneurs is “How should I set up my company to minimize my setup costs, tax liabilities, and risk of lawsuits?” The answers are different in every part of the world, but the parameters here in the US should give you the considerations you need in any environment. I’ll offer you a few simple rules of thumb.

If you are certain that you are building a large national corporation with more than 100 investors, and multiple classes of stock, then you might as well start with a Delaware or Nevada C-Corp. If you aren’t so sure, need something fast, or need to keep your costs low, then an LLC is the best legal and taxable entity to facilitate your startup. Here are the key steps:

It's no secret that Africa has become a major success story. In 2012, six of the world's 10 fastest-growing economies were in sub-Saharan Africa, and this trend shows no signs of slowing. In 2012, growth hit 5.3 percent and it is predicted to increase this year. Meanwhile technology is transforming the continent. With 650 million subscribers, Africa's mobile phone market now exceeds that of the U.S. or EU -- a development that is changing lives. In addition to these startling figures, there is Africa's young population, which, according to projections, will double over the next four decades.

These findings are a source of enormous excitement but they also require thoughtful consideration. I suggest that in looking to Africa's future, six principles should govern decision-making in business and policy: independence, investment, incubation, innovation, infrastructure and inspiration -- the six 'I's.

During lunch hour, the hallways of Ossining High School have a kind of barely contained chaos. Whistles bleed from the gym, students squeeze every last minute of freedom before they’re due back in class. Even the library, where Dan McQuaid sat with two of his science teachers two weeks ago, buzzes and hums.

None of this hubbub drew even the tiniest acknowledgment from these three. Instead they were there to talk about Dan’s cancer research.

LaunchHouse is seeking early stage, broad-based technology startups focused on technology, Internet, mobile, hardware and robotics to apply for the LaunchHouse Accelerator (LHX) program.  Applications for the LHX 2013 program opened March 8!

With the $200,000 ONEFund grant, LHX will invest in the next batch of ten awesome, up-and-coming tech companies consisting of 2 or more co-founders, to participate in the LHX program. Startups will call Cleveland their home for the duration of the 12-week, boot camp-styled accelerator program.  LaunchHouse has a clean formula for success: Capital + Mentoring + Basics of Business + Networking.

We revere companies with great culture, and idolize CEOs like Tony Hsieh who put culture first in a very public way. Young startup founders in particular invest a lot of energy into defining their values, and often put “culture fit” at the top of their hiring must-haves.

But much of what we call “culture” is about the day-to-day interactions between staff and executive team members, or customers and your service or sales departments. And so the actions you do (or don’t) take as a leader are what really influence perceptions of your company’s culture, both inside and out.

Here’s the thing: if you do a cold-call pitch to a Venture Capital (VC) investor using email, your proposal is already at the bottom of the pile before anyone has even read the subject line. The reason: VCs mostly rely on warm referrals from within their trusted networks to generate dealflow, as this acts as an automatic filter and increases the quality of proposals. It also says a lot about an entrepreneur that goes through the trouble to “stalk” a VC and infiltrate his or her networks to ultimately get introduced, or introduce themselves face-to-face in the right forum.

Hanhai zPark is an 80,000-square-foot incubator for tech startups that opened in June in San Jose. It's backed by investors from China, including the largest state-owned developer of business parks in Beijing.

The group plans to open a biotech incubator twice the size in South San Francisco, near Genentech's campus, by the middle of 2013. They're searching for a third Bay Area property to turn into a 200,000-square-foot space for clean-tech companies next year.

1. "The best way to find yourself is to lose yourself in the service of others." - Mahatma Gandhi

2. "Never worry about numbers. Help one person at a time, and always start with the person nearest you." - Mother Teresa

3. "How can I be useful, of what service can I be? There is something inside me, what can it be?" - Vincent Van Gogh

4. "Everybody can be great because anybody can serve. You don't have to have a college degree to serve. You don't have to make your subject and verb agree to serve. You only need a heart full of grace. A soul generated by love." - Martin Luther King Jr.

Innovation is not a solo sport. It requires rich ecosystems we call Rainforests. Relationships, trust, and culture are what drive growth. In the Rainforest Revolution, we showcase leaders who are building ecosystems, and we provide practical insights for entrepreneurs, economic developers, executives, policymakers, investors, professionals, inventors, and other innovators.

Today we feature one of Silicon Valley's leading "Rainforest Revolutionaries"... Tim Draper. Tim lives and breathes the philosophy of the Rainforest in all of his work. Tim is the founder of venture capital firm Draper Fisher Jurvetson, and a pioneer in the venture industry through the DFJ Global Network, which now reaches over 30 cities around the world. His new passion, Draper University, is a school for mentoring the brightest 18-26 year old entrepreneurs, whom he calls "heroes."

Your city is probably considered a “thriving startup community.”

Your mayor and news station can confirm this is true. It sounds good. It feels good.

However, what proof do you have that you live in a thriving startup community? You might point to the increasing number of startups or growth in incubator space, but these measures do not necessarily lead to a sustainable future.

The Virgin Group has launched (or merged with) hundreds of companies over the years, and our team has become fairly practiced at the process of folding new companies into our brand. This used to be a concern mostly for established companies, but with the growth in information technologies especially over the past decade, I've been increasingly getting questions on this topic from new entrepreneurs, as startups explore combining their products and services with those of established companies, or even other startups.

Recently I traveled to the northeast of Britain to celebrate the one-year anniversary of Virgin Money’s entering the banking sector there. It was amazing to see how much had changed over the course of 12 months. When we bought Northern Rock and began the process of rebranding the bank, this industry in Britain was on its knees in the aftermath of the financial crisis -- consumers had little confidence in our most storied institutions. It was beginning to have an effect on the employees, who had been doing their best in very difficult conditions.

Think you're too small or too new to need a board? Not if it's an advisory board populated by pros with specific expertise regarding the ins and outs of your company. Startups of all types can benefit from teaming with the kind of people who can help them grow to become established businesses--at little to no expense. For advice on how to get started, we spoke with Boston-based business coach Susan Hammond, author of the Advisory Board Kit.

What is the advantage of having an advisory board? Many times entrepreneurs and business owners get myopic. They're just trying to get their business off the ground, and they forget to look at the big picture. Your advisors won't, and they also become your advocates and network on your behalf.

During the Interactive portion of the South by Southwest (SXSW) festival, downtown Austin, Texas, becomes a hub of activity and excitement. Droves of entrepreneurs and investors gather to showcase innovation at the confluence of technology and creativity.

I've been here since the festival started on Friday, sitting in on panel discussions and scouring the trade show floor and venues across town to find out what new ideas the brilliant minds in tech are dreaming up next. While far from exhaustive, here's a look at three of the coolest products and concepts I've come across so far:

Everyone agrees that social enterprises need to use data to assess their effectiveness. But precisely what data should organizations capture? How should they incorporate it into meaningful evaluations that prove their approaches work? And, how should potential funders analyze these evaluations to determine which enterprises are most effective?

At GiveWell (where I'm co-founder) we've analyzed data and evaluations from hundreds of social enterprises and programs to identify standout organizations. We serve donors who want to be confident that their money is going to the most effective programs they can find. The best data and evaluations we've seen have two characteristics:

A decade ago, South Florida embarked upon a quest to build a life sciences cluster. Their first act was to lure Scripps Research away from San Diego. Then, a few years, ago, they tried to lure Jackson Labs away from Maine. In between, the state of Florida and Palm Beach County have spent a combined $856 million to land Scripps and Germany's Max Plank Society. When these deals were being crafted, projections of over 44,000 jobs were bandied about. The actual numbers - 944 so far, 509 of them at Scripps, and two dozen biotech start-ups in the region. If you are doing the math, that's a little less than $ 1 million per job.

WE’VE ALL THOUGHT IT: IF ONLY I WORKED AT SO-AND-SO, MY GENIUS WOULD BE RECOGNIZED AND I’D CHURN OUT AWARD-WINNING WORK. BUT YOU DON’T HAVE TO WORK AT SO-AND-SO. HERE ARE SOME WORKAROUNDS TO GETTING YOUR BEST IDEAS REALIZED RIGHT WHERE YOU ARE.

What can I say? I needed the money. My kids were small, my own agency had just ground to a halt, and I needed a job--tomorrow. The phone rang. A headhunter told me about a place that wanted me for a ton of money and I could start right away. The only catch: It was a dreadful, dreadful advertising agency. Walking into its reception was like entering a scene in a horror movie. It wasn’t blood on the walls that broke me out in a cold sweat; it was the ads.

Your mental image of a mentor is probably a dignified older man with spendy cufflinks. In reality, the best mentor may be sitting in a cubicle right next to you.

I worked for more than a decade in white, male-dominated environments before I started my own company. During that time, very few people at the top stared down at my brown skin and long brown hair and thought, “She reminds me of me,” and reached out to give me advice or mentorship. Yet, I never lacked for great mentors because I learned three key approaches.

If you had the choice between exploring a cave alone with no flashlight and exploring a cave with an experienced guide who carried a torch, which would you choose? Alone in the dark, you might still be able to use sound and touch to make it through the cave, but you would be doing a lot of guesswork. Clearly, it would be an easier (and more enjoyable!) journey with a guide.

The same goes for navigating an organization. Innovation-oriented leaders need to be paired with mentors who have traveled the organization’s winding path and can offer a greater understanding of its unique politics and methods.

People crave the company of a good listener because most people instead of spending more time evaluating what the speaker is saying, spend more time composing their responses.  Sometimes they choke poorly, I’ve been actively involved in many start-up events conducted locally in Dubai and I see these things happen more often than people would care to admit.

What is entrepreneurial listening?

It is the technique of listening mastered by the entrepreneur / early stage entrepreneur who has considerable amount of listening to do more.