After rising in 2011, U.S. venture capital investment fell 15% last year.

Taken at face value, that’s bad news for startups. But what does it really mean?

VentureSource The $29.7 billion invested in 2012 was slightly ahead of 2010, according to Dow Jones VentureSource. And the $35.1 billion invested in 2011 was the most since 2001, as the tech boom took its final gasps. Since then, venture investment has stayed in a range of about $20 billion to $35 billion a year.

The latest investment drop came in a year that saw venture fundraising by investment firms flatten with $20.3 billion raised, only slightly more than in 2011, according to Dow Jones LP Source. (Both VentureSource and LP Source are databases owned by VentureWire publisher Dow Jones & Co.)

When great ape keepers at the Smithsonian’s National Zoo were deciding how to add more variety and enrichment to their animals’ lives, they turned to Orangutan Outreach and a program that had seen great success in 12 other zoos around the world: Apps for Apes.

With the tap of a finger, keepers are introducing the Zoo’s six orangutans to iPads, which provide unique stimuli. They found that 36-year-old Bonnie  likes to bang on the drums, 16-year-old Kyle prefers the piano and 25-year-old Iris is content to listen to the soothing sounds of the koi pond while watching animated fish splash. “Apps for Apes fits perfectly in this new era of zoo keeping,” said Becky Malinsky, great ape keeper at the National Zoo. “It’s about changing up the day-to-day lives of our animals. We already vary their food, toys and social interactions every day, but the iPad offers another way to engage their sight, touch and hearing.”

Six of the world’s most prestigious public drug discovery organisations are joining forces in a bid to improve the conversion rate of basic research into much-needed new therapies.

Karimah Es Sabar, President and CEO of CDRD A new alliance has been set up to strengthen the international academic and not-for-profit drug discovery and commercialisation network and accelerate the translation of basic research into new drugs.

The Global Alliance of Drug Discovery and Development Centres (GADDDC) brings together the Centre for Drug Research and Development (CDRD) in Canada, Germany’s Lead Discovery Centre (LDC), The Scripps Research Institute, Scripps Florida, The Centre for Drug Design and Discovery at KU Leuven in Belgium, Medical Research Council Technology Ltd, UK and Cancer Research Technology, UK.

ON Monday, President Obama said that during his second term, Americans would act together to “build the roads and networks and research labs that will bring new jobs and businesses to our shores” and that “we cannot cede to other nations the technology that will power new jobs and new industries — we must claim its promise.”

The president is right that digital communication networks — especially high-capacity fiber networks reaching American homes and businesses — can be a powerful economic engine. But we are far away from being able to realize that vision, even as we cede the advantage such technology offers to other countries.

Although Julius Genachowski, the chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, has challenged the country to build additional gigabit fiber networks — about 100 times faster than most residential connections today — his words won’t advance our digital future unless they are backed up with the leadership necessary to enact pro-growth, pro-innovation and competition-enabling rules.

At this year’s Consumer Electronics Show, chipmaker Intel demoed its latest big idea: “perceptual computing.”

What is perceptual computing, exactly? At first glance, it looks like little more than a me-too version of Microsoft’s Kinect: clip a camera-like peripheral onto your Ultrabook, and presto, instant gestural interface!

But unlike Kinect, or competitors like Leap Motion (see “Leap 3-D Out-Kinects Kinect”), perceptual computing isn’t a specific product or platform. Instead, like “cloud computing,” it’s an open-ended vision for what computers should be able to do. With perceptual computing, Intel envisions a new kind of interface for devices that will let users switch fluently between keyboards, trackpads, touch screens, voice commands, and gestures—or use several modes of interaction at once.

Mid-level or even top executives who “grew up” in large companies often look with envy at startups, and dream of how easy it must be running a small organization, where you can see the whole picture and it appears you have total control. In reality, very few executives or professional stars from large corporations survive in the early-stage startup environment.

The job of a big-company executive is very different from the job of a small-company executive. The culture is different, the skills required are different, and the experience from one may be the exact opposite of what you need for the other. I agree with the seven survival challenges from Michael Fertik, in an old Harvard Business Review article, for executives making the transition:

One of the guys who taught me the venture capital business used to say "success is in inverse proportion to the number of VCs you have on your board." He was right. For a few reasons. First of all, most VCs get on your board by virtue of financing rounds you do. If you do a lot of financing rounds, you will collect enough VCs on your board to field a basketball team. And that sucks. And it means you had to raise too much money too. All of which are bad things.

But there is another reason and it became perfectly clear to me on Tuesday when I had back to back board meetings.

Gov. Martin O'Malley proposed in his fiscal 2014 budget a new cyber security tax credit that would set aside $3 million to encourage cyber security companies to expand or set up shop in Maryland. "The impetus for it came from the fact that we regularly talk with not only cyber security companies but also investors in that space, some who are just discovering Maryland," said Ursula Powidzki, assistant secretary of business and enterprise at the Maryland Department of Business and Economic Development.

Raising capital is one of the hardest things you will ever have to do as an entrepreneur. Whether you are seeking your first few thousand euros or looking for tens of millions, pitching to an investor is a test of both character and tenacity.

In setting up Hellas Direct we raised EUR 8.5m in angel financing. We approached more than 2,500 investors and we met up with 300 of them. This was a long rollercoaster ride, which spread over 14 different countries and lasted approximately 18 months. It was a humbling experience, but one that we would not change for the world. It was a journey, which taught us a number of lessons and gifted us tons of entertaining stories to share with friends in gin-and-tonic sessions to come. How else could one have met a Russian oligarch, drink afternoon tea at the House of Lords and find himself bodysearched in a Tel Aviv restaurant, all within two weeks?!

Chile has put itself on the entrepreneurial map. It was named an “entrepreneurial hub” by the Start-Up Genome Project, surpassing such metropolitan cities as Madrid, Berlin, Chicago, and Austin. One in four Chileans have started a business in the last three years. Certainly, programs like Start-Up Chile have cast a global spotlight on the small Latin American country, but ecosystems do not spring up overnight; they are assiduously developed and cultivated.

So how did a country with a population only 5% as large as that of the U.S. become such an entrepreneurial hot-spot? A new Endeavor Insight study analyzes the complexity of this question and attempts to quantify the direct impact of Endeavor Entrepreneurs and the Endeavor program itself on the creation of this ecosystem.

It’s no longer a transportation hub, but on the eve of its 100th birthday, Union Station is starting to become something of a mini-hub for high-tech business innovation.

Making the case for its new identity were two developments Wednesday: the rollout of a fledgling videoconferencing business in the train station called SightDeck KC and the announcement that a mentor program for high-tech startup companies, SparkLabKC, is setting up shop across the street at 215 W. Pershing Road.

Building on both announcements, officials say, will be next week’s scheduled unveiling of the previously announced Digital Sandbox program, a $2 million effort spearheaded by the University of Missouri-Kansas City and others that is also aimed at helping Internet startups. It will be housed in the basement of the train depot.

I love seeing social innovation in action: hackathons, conferences, demo days, you name it.  What excites me most about being involved in this space is the opportunity to interact with others exploring new ways to create positive change in society.  With that said, I wanted to share a recent experience which took place in Silicon Valley as I participated in the Social Innovation Summit.  This invitation only event explores “What’s next?” in the world of social innovation, and let me tell you, it far exceeded ALL of my expectations.

The first thing to note is that I have never been to the Valley.  I was aware of the entrepreneurial culture but did not grasp how vibrant it was until I trekked through Palo Alto, Menlo Park and Mountain View awed by the campuses of VMware, Facebook, and Google.  After a few wrong turns and days exploring, I pulled up to the Computer History Museum to begin a remarkable day at the Social Innovation Summit.

This week’s 2013 World Economic Forum calls for social entrepreneurs as architects of this year’s theme: Resilient Dynamism.  Last year at Davos 2012, after a panel on social entrepreneurship, I witnessed the room buzzing with phrases like “creative capitalism” and “solving the problems of the world’s poor” as bubbly champagne was poured and shrimp cocktail served. The world business owners,celebrities, and athletes, dressed in black suits and armed with blackberries, vigorously engaged in discussion, forming a new social enterprise mafia. But is this a bit of self love and self congratulation? What has arisen for elites is social enterprise as the solution, a remaking of the world in the image that has made them successful. Charity is no longer charity: it is applying capitalism to make the poor rich.

While it would be convenient and gratifying if maximizing profit and minimizing social suffering worked well together, evidence suggests that in many instances, the combination is a volatile one. Social entrepreneurship is just a buzz word, and it never succeeds without a deep understanding of the local environment, corporate governance, and long-term infrastructure.  If I were Bill Gates or any other elites at Davos, I would remove the champagne and shrimp cocktail and bring the CEOs to India for a week as an assessment team. The concept of social enterprise, so attractive in sites like Davos, tends to fall apart when we actually step outside the Western world. I know it did for me and I wish I could give theelites at Davos the same experience.

Many entrepreneurs are guilty of obliviously sabotaging their success by falling victim to certain behaviors and thought-patterns. Entrepreneurship is a constantly evolving world with no set rules on how to succeed, it’s easy to become overwhelmed or fall victim to bad advice. Get back on track by avoiding these 10 common blunders that may just be holding you back from true success.

1. Focusing on Too Many Tasks at Once

The most common mistake that both the inexperienced and experienced make on a daily basis is attempting to juggle far too many things at once. Begin every day with a prioritized list of tasks that must be done and stick with a specific work schedule.

Recently, there has been a lot of talk about how America is on a slow slide to oblivion given our lowest-in-history birthrate and U.S. Census projections showing slower population growth. While it’s true that fewer babies were born last year than in previous years (due to the recession, most likely), our total fertility rate – the number of babies born to the average woman over her lifetime – has barely budged. Most American women want about two kids. That’s been true for decades, and it likely will remain true for decades to come. But what if the professional fertility doom-mongers are right? What if the United States’ population stops growing and instead remains level? I’d like to shuck common wisdom and offer five reasons why a higher birth rate isn’t a panacea for us or the rest of the planet.

On Oct. 11, 1868, a young and ambitious telegrapher from northern Ohio applied for a patent for an invention, a gadget he called an electrographic vote-recorder, which he hoped would be used to tally votes cast by members of the House of Representatives. Regrettably, the House declined to buy the recorder. But 21-year-old Thomas Alva Edison was unbowed by this failed business venture, and three months later he sold the rights to his next invention, a form of stock ticker known as a printing telegraph.

Edison was the quintessential American entrepreneur, committed not only to advancing technology--even inventing new industries--but also to securing ample profit for his labors. Yet for all his success, Edison embraced his role as a champion of failure. For the man who held 1,093 patents--who changed the way Americans lived every bit as much as Bill Gates or Steve Jobs would a century later--failure was elemental to the process of innovation. "Results!" Edison once exclaimed, as recounted in Edison, His Life and Inventions by Frank Lewis Dyer and Thomas Commerford Martin. "Why, man, I have gotten a lot of results! I know several thousand things that won't work."

The British Private Equity and Venture Capital Association (BVCA) just published a report dispelling many of the stereotypes and myths about the performance of Europe’s VCs.  The conventional wisdom has been that Europe’s risk-adverse nature and difficult IPO environment has constrained the potential and success of Europe’s venture and startup communities.  As the report points out, we often here the “Where is the European Facebook” argument all the time from across the pond without data to back it up, namely concrete data on how Europe’s VC sector has actually performed vs the US over time.  Fortunately, the BVCA in conjunction with the London School of Economics have conducted a in-depth study of the situation, which examined 35,798 companies (34% in Europe  and 66% in the States) receiving VC funding between 1980 (1995 in Europe) and 2011. The main findings of the study challenge three of the biggest myths head-on:

Gov. Scott Walker said he’d like to work with lawmakers on a structure for a venture capital fund before putting it in the state budget he’ll unveil next month.

If that doesn’t happen, Walker said he’d be inclined to continue working on an outline for such a fund with lawmakers before plugging it into the budget later in the process.

Walker told reporters Tuesday his fear is if the fund was put into the budget without a prior agreement, lawmakers may grab the money and use it for other priorities.

“If they agreed on a process, there would then be a number to draw,” Walker said after addressing the Wisconsin Technology Council Board of Directors.

Europeans and Americans differ in a lot of ways–the currency they use, the beer they drink and what they call football come to mind–but one thing that isn’t very different in either place is the venture industry, a new report from the British Private Equity and Venture Capital Association argues.

The following “performance myths” about venture in Europe that formed in the wake of the dot-com collapse continue to harm the industry there, it says:

The likelihood of a successful exit is lower in Europe than in the U.S. Some vaguely understood determinants of success are tilted in favor of the U.S. and against Europe There is a chronic stigma around failure that harms European entrepreneurs

During the closing luncheon of PTC'13, ICF announced the Top7 Intelligent Communities of 2013, finalists for the Intelligent Community of the Year award:

Columbus, Ohio, USA With an economically and racially diverse population, the city trails the US average in terms of per capita income, but has America’s highest concentration of Fortune 1000 companies per capita. Being the state capital has helped but the success of Columbus has been forged through collaboration among city government, academic institutions, businesses and nonprofits.

Oulu, Finland The mobile communications business has been good to Oulu, and the mobile business has become a threat to its future. The “Nokia risk” as Oulu’s leaders called it, materialized in the new century as the company failed to adapt to the rise of the smartphone. Yet Oulu has created 18,000 new high-tech jobs since 2007, thanks to a decades-old culture of public-private collaboration and its many high-quality educational institutions.