Kiss your boss goodbye--it's time to become an entrepreneur

I recently read a reliable report on the attitude of the American workforce.  To my surprise I learned more than half of all employees are not engaged at work. In other words, most workers are not happy, not satisfied, not productive, not loyal, not inspired and will jump ship if another opportunity arises.  In fact, most are looking to leave now and have polished their resumes.   If this is the case, I would also assume that the managers who supervise these disillusioned employees are probably jerks, or are carrying out the mandates of thoughtless upper management.

Startup incubators have been multiplying so fast there’s talk of a bubble, and there’s no sign of slowdown anytime soon. Jenna Rose says the growth is justified and has come from both entrepreneur and investor demand.

You could say that she’s biased, given that she’s the director of Healthbox, a Chicago-founded health startup accelerator that announced earlier this spring that it’d be expanding to Boston. But it looks like there’s data to support the claim. San Francisco-founded Rock Health, the grant-giving healthcare accelerator that also brought its program to Boston this year, published a report last month showing that by June, investments in digital health startups during 2012 had hit $675 million, a 73 percent jump from the funding raised in the first six months of 2011.

There are times in a startup when there is just too much of investor interest. Typically this happens when you get some mega coverage (in blogs/press) or announce key partnership/customers. For instance, startups that launched at UnPluggd have been sharing the VC interest they received post the demo.

Is that good? bad? Well, if you are looking for funding – there isn’t a better time when you have too many suitors. So how does one handle a situation like this?

Here are some tips/suggestions :

1. Control that excitement.

Do not get overly excited if you are getting calls from VC firm. Stop forwarding those emails/updating FB status that they ‘got a mail from afund’ – a lot of first-time entrepreneurs go thru’ this and while this is quite natural, do understand that it’s the firm’s job to reach out to the upcoming/hottest startups. And like I said, if you have been in news for some reasons, you will be in huge demand.

Perhaps we can save the whales — or at least their hearing.

Scientists have long known that man-made, underwater noises — from engines, sonars, weapons testing, and such industrial tools as air guns used in oil and gas exploration — are deafening whales and other sea mammals. The Navy estimates that loud booms from just its underwater listening devices, mainly sonar, result in temporary or permanent hearing loss for more than a quarter-million sea creatures every year, a number that is rising.

Last week on July 9, we brought together oodles of small biz people (together with BlackBerry and SmallBiztechnology.com)  for an online chat on Twitter, netting almost 1,000 tweets and retweets before, during and after the chat using the chat hashtag of #BBSMBchat.

We’ve put together this recap in case you missed it, with some key answers to 8 questions asked during the chat.  The questions and a small number of selected answers are below.

FullContact will now pay an employee $7500 to go on vacation. The rules are simple:

You have to go on vacation. You have to disconnect entirely (no phone, no email). You can’t work. If that whets your appetite, take a look at the presentation about the new policy.

Ray Kurzweil, a world-renowned scientist and author of The Singularity is Near, thinks the world as we know it will be unrecognizable in 20 years.

One of the changes he thinks is possible: Scientists may finally crack immortality.

"I and many other scientists now believe that in around 20 years we will have the means to reprogramme our bodies' stone-age software so we can halt, then reverse, aging," he writes in The Sun. "Then nanotechnology will let us live forever. Ultimately, nanobots will replace blood cells and do their work thousands of times more effectively."

Today, Google's first female engineer, Marissa Mayer, resigned. She spent 13 years at Google.

Tomorrow, she begins her first day as Yahoo's new CEO. At age 37, she's had an impressive career and amassed a ~ $300 million fortune.

Here's the work and life experience that made Yahoo decide to put its life in Mayer's hands.

If you are new to the entrepreneurial world of startups, you are likely confused by the terminology of seed-stage, lean startups, micro-VCs, and Super Angels. Don’t be embarrassed, since even professional investors are often confused these days by the new terms, as well as old terms used with new meanings. In any case, it’s time to look again at the options you really have.

A while back I heard a talk by Dave McClure, a long-time angel investor, who also proclaims to be one of the “new breed” of venture capitalists in Silicon Valley, as CEO of 500Startups, which is either a micro-VC seed fund, or a startup incubator, or both. He is going gangbusters, and is now targeting a $50M second round of funding. The good news is that he is all about helping early-stage startups. The hard part for entrepreneurs is figuring out what it takes to play.

Innovation is the currency of progress. In our world of seismic changes, innovation has become a holy grail that promises to shepherd us through these uncertain and challenging times. And there isn't a more visible symbol of innovation than the iPad. It's captured the hearts and minds of disparate subcultures and organizations.

In education it's been widely hailed as a revolutionary device, promising to transform education as we know it. Unfortunately, it's not as simple as bulk purchasing iPads and deploying them into the wilds of education. Innovation can't be installed. It has to be grown -- and generally from the margins.

The vast majority of species extinctions in the Brazilian Amazon are yet to come, predicts a paper published in Science today.

Deforestation has declined to record lows in recent years, and just over 50% of Brazil’s rainforest now falls under some form of protected status. But the effects of habitat loss take time to manifest. “Cutting down trees doesn’t kill a bird directly. It takes a lot of time for those birds to actually die. They’re all crammed into the habitat that’s left. Then gradually you’ll have this increased mortality,” says Robert Ewers, an ecologist at Imperial College London and the study's leader.

The root of the word "manager" comes from the same root as the words "manipulate" and "maneuver", meaning to "adapt or change something to suit one's purpose".

Although these words may carry a pejorative meaning, there is nothing inherently wrong with them. Indeed, into each life a little manipulation and maneuvering must fall.

For example, if the door to your office gets stuck, a handyman might need to manipulate it to get it working again. If there is a log jam at the elevator, you might decide to maneuver around the crowd and take the stairs.

A series of workshops across the country are helping older adults find their inner entrepreneur.

The programs are the brainchild of the Center for Productive Longevity, a nonprofit group in Boulder, Colo., that’s focused on expanding the contributions of workers age 55-plus.

With the daily barrage of calls, emails and texts considered standard ways to keep in touch at work, Entrepreneur's third-annual Best Business Bars feature celebrates an often overlooked tactic to building relationships with clients and business partners: face-to-face communication. The featured venues represent ideal spots across the country for various business scenarios, from celebrating to head hunting to wining and dining a client. Profiles of each bar reveal their unique vibes, crowds and signature drinks, helping make entrepreneurs everywhere feel like regulars.

The July 2012 feature serves as a guide to doing business in a bar the right way. "Technology is obviously necessary to keep entrepreneurs connected, but the bonds built after face time together are irreplaceable," says Amy Cosper, VP and editor in chief of Entrepreneur magazine. "The right bar can be a great setting for collaboration, brainstorming and, ultimately, communication that can expedite a turning point in business."

It seems like a really difficult time to be an entrepreneurial innovator in America. The venture capital industry has grown risk averse, and angels are only half-heartedly stepping into the breach. Crowdfunding may help, but this has its own risks. Meanwhile, entrepreneurs in Europe are getting lots of support from industrial policy—and that’s not to mention China’s lavish government-led push for “indigenous innovation”.

These days, the media are getting better at reporting on entrepreneurship outside Silicon Valley. Within Silicon Valley, however, people tend to be somewhat cocky about the region’s place in the entrepreneurship landscape. But technology entrepreneurship is happening all around the world, and here at the 1M/1M global virtual incubator we have always tried to present an international and non-parochial view of the entrepreneurial universe. In my recent blog post Far Away From the Valley, I presented a list of interviews with successful companies from across the globe.

Ever wondered whether you should be using your smartphone for something slightly more worthwhile than playing Angry Birds?

A growing number of experts are saying that mobile devices just may be the next big breakthrough in public health.

“There is incredible potential for using cellphones and mobile apps to engage people about their health and wellness in a new way — to help them take better care of themselves and especially to manage chronic conditions like obesity, diabetes and high blood pressure — because of the immediacy and the interactive nature of the technology, and the fact that it is now so widespread,” says Susannah Fox, lead health researcher for the Pew Internet and American Life Project. “In a snap, clinicians can use cellphones to communicate with far-flung patients. In an instant, medical information can be relayed out to the field and forwarded to the people who need it. And just as quickly, those people can text back with questions or on-the-ground reports.”

The 2012 Kansas Day of Innovation including the Ninth Annual Great Plains Capital Conference will bring together the region’s technology leaders, entrepreneurs and angel investors for presentations by emerging businesses seeking funding. Presenting companies are seeking venture capital from several hundred thousand to $5 million each.

Conversations between people include a lot more than just words. All sorts of visual and aural cues indicate each party's state of mind and make for a productive interaction.

But a furrowed brow, a gesticulating hand, and a beaming smile are all lost on computers. Now, researchers at MIT and Tufts are experimenting with a way for computers to gain a little insight into our inner world.

The last time your doctor asked how much you exercise, did you tell the truth? Do you even really know the truth—not just how many visits to the gym you've made this month, but how many hours you sit or how many calories you burn in a day?

What if your doctor had already received the information from a tiny device built into your cell phone, wallet, or undershirt? Sonny Vu believes a device like this could fundamentally change health care. "You can't just lie to your doctor—it's all there, recorded," he says. "You cut right to the chase rather than having to tease out all that information."