"No Man's Land" is traditionally known as the area between two trenches. This is a reference to World War I and the vicious trench warfare and hand-to-hand combat that characterized that war. In "No Man's Land" lay a wasteland of dead bodies and other debris and shrapnel. Increasingly, I am seeing many startups who were ably seed funded get caught in "No Man's Land" between the seed round and a true Series A round led by a venture capitalist.

This is happening because there are way too many companies raising seed capital but not enough executing their way to a Series A. This can happen for many reasons including not raising enough capital in the seed round to begin with and of course not getting your product out the door.

The recent televised debates by candidates for the Republican presidential nomination bring to mind expressions from a bygone era such as “gadzooks” and “ye gods!” “Holy Toledo, Batman” is much too modern. Who would have thought that a return to the nineteenth century would be embraced with such fervor by those who want to lead the nation, especially in the current environment of global competition? No taxes, no regulations, no EPA, no infrastructure investment, no social nets, no health coverage – in short, no federal government. It’s every man for himself with government restricted to local communities and states. Oops, this sounds more like a feudal society. Maybe the nineteenth century is also much too modern for the candidates. And, shucks, I’m told those folks in the nineteenth century actually invested in public financed infrastructure!

This question was posed on Quora, and received a ton of answers, including my own. Given how popular it is, I thought I’d go back to all the advice I’ve been giving on my blog over the last few years, and pick out the more popular ones.

So here it goes… my advice to entrepreneurs:

1. Focus on the few things that matter. A CEO does only three things: 1) Sets the overall vision and strategy of the company and communicates it to all stakeholders, 2) Recruits, hires, and retains the very best talent for the company, and 3) Makes sure there is always enough cash in the bank.

Any business owner knows there’s a lot involved in starting a business. There’s choosing what kind of business entity you should be; renting commercial property; paying payroll taxes; setting up a business bank account; marketing…The list goes on, and it seems like every time you master one thing, something else pops up. And while you certainly could spend years online researching everything a small business owner needs to know, you want the information now.

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When you hear about kids like Abbey Fleck, who helped her parents achieve their dream home, adopt a few more kids and put all five through college on her Makin' Bacon money, it makes you wonder, how did she do it?

Enlarge man-cans.com Hart Main created candles with "man-friendly" scents, such as coffee, sawdust, new (baseball) mitt and campfire, sold in recycled soup cans. Well, if we're honest, it makes you wonder how your kids can become entrepreneurs — and maybe millionaires — too.

We talked to several kid inventors and their parents about what makes them different from the rest of us. What are they doing that we're not?

Landing angel investment involves a little bit more than calling up a bunch of rich guys and hoping for the best.

Obtaining that initial investment is often a huge hurdle for startups, but once the cash comes in, it provides a critical source of early funding — lifeblood for young, hungry companies. And as the traditional model of venture capital increasingly appears to be broken, angels have often stepped up to fill the void in early stage funding.

In Ohio, in particular, angel funding has taken on an important role for startups. The state boasts two of the five-largest angel groups in the country — Ohio TechAngel Fund in Columbus and North Coast Angel Fund in Cleveland — plus numerous wealthy individual investors. But the thing about angels is that they generally don’t want anyone besides other insiders to know that they’re angels, so they aren’t easy to find. And finding them is only the beginning of the journey.

September 27, 2011 (Thuwal, Saudi Arabia): King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST) and the University of Toronto (U of T) have signed a first-of-its-kind license agreement for rights to quantum dot solar cell technology coming out of the U of T.

Developed by Dr. Edward Sargent, Canada Research Chair in Nanotechnology at the U of T, Canada's premier research university, the technology uses quantum dots to convert the sun's power efficiently into electrical energy. Dr. Sargent's work has been funded by KAUST since 2008 as part of its Global Collaborative Research Program.

This technology has made great strides towards the goal of breaking the present-day constraining paradigm between high efficiency and low cost in solar cells. "Dr. Sargent has established himself as one of the world's leaders in developing innovative approaches to the provision of solar power and has the potential to have a positive impact on millions of people," said Professor Peter Lewis, Associate VP of Research at U of T. As a result of the potential of this research discovery, a technology licensing agreement has been signed by U of T and KAUST, brokered by MaRS Innovations, which will enable the global commercialization of this new technology.

There are a lot of assumptions made about small businesses.  For example, they're the drivers of our economic prosperity, the creators of the world, and they all want rapid growth in their ventures.  Further discrepancy arises when sizing out small businesses. Depending who you ask, a small business can be a company that has two employees or 100, with revenues under $100,000 or over $5 million.

New research has shed light on some well held small business “truths” and statistically shown that they might not necessarily hold water.

This week the Census Bureau released its 2010 data from the American Community Survey. The ACS is what contains many of the core demographic characteristics that are frequently opined upon, such as college degree attainment, commute times, etc.

It used to be that the Census Bureau collected this information during the decennial census using the so-called “long form” that went to one out of every ten households. But that was discontinued as of this census and has been replaced with with the ACS. The ACS reports data more frequently (annually for geographies larger than a certain size), but has a smaller sample size and so there’s lot of statistical noise that I don’t think we are used to dealing with yet. For example, in 2008 the Indianapolis metro area ranked #3 in the US for growth in college degree attainment over the course of the decade to date among metros greater than one million people. But in the 2010 data Indy ranked #28 on the same measure. There are fluctuations year to year and the margin of error needs to be accounted for in serious statistical analysis. Nevertheless, this is what we have to work with.

After decades of venture capital investment, growth and exit, the traditional focus areas of venture capital (such as IT, web and software) have developed strong entrepreneurial ecosystems. A high percentage of start-ups in these traditional areas come to market with one or more experienced entrepreneurs or with a strong and active network of investors/advisors who have "been there, done that."

They know what it takes to raise capital and to build a great fast-growing business.  Cleantech companies, however, are much more likely to be led by first-time entrepreneurs who often struggle to create an ecosystem of experienced people around them.

As a venture capitalist, I review hundreds of business plans each year and physically meet with roughly 100 entrepreneurs seeking capital.  I have the advantage of doing this through the eyes of someone who has been on the other side of the table, having raised venture capital for my own start-up before becoming a VC.  And while there are certainly numerous exceptions, there are themes I see across cleantech start-ups that are not specific to their technology or market but which nonetheless impede their ability to raise capital.

In this video, Google’s executive chairman and former CEO, Eric Schmidt, talks to the Washington Post about how he’s come to define innovation.

Vinod Khosla admits he’s not really known as a polite guy. But he comes by it honestly.

“I sort of had a habit at age 12 of insulting priests in India, because it was fun for me. I was a troll,” Khosla said Friday. “There is fun in that. If there’s a lot of conventional wisdom, challenging it is fun.”

Khosla, a well-known venture capitalist and entrepreneur who co-founded Sun Microsystems, had the crowd laughing at an education-focused Startup Weekend event in Seattle, organized by TeachStreet. But Khosla also was giving out some serious advice for entrepreneurs.

It is an article of American faith that family meals are important. Social science underscores our secular belief. Children who eat with their families have stronger vocabularies than those who do not. They do better in school. They are less likely to suffer from obesity. Family meals prevent teenage pregnancy. They are a bulwark against depression. Those who eat chicken around a table with kin tend not to sneak off to the park later to huff paint.

But what about the children of double-shift police officers and nurses, of corporate attorneys, night-shift laborers, key grips and regional sales reps, anyone for whom a nightly meal with the family borders on the impossible? What happens to those who simply cannot manage to join the roughly 50 percent of Americans who eat with their families every day? Are they doomed?

What about my kids, so long as we’re asking questions? For the past two years, as the restaurant critic for The New York Times, I have eaten out at restaurants nearly every day and night, mostly with people who are not my children or wife.

The University of Michigan struck 101 technology licensing deals with businesses and startup companies during its 2010-11 fiscal year, reflecting the most active year for deals in the Technology Transfer Office's history.

That was up from 2009-10, when the university signed 97 technology deals — then tied for its all-time high.

The Tech Transfer Office — which is responsible for commercializing intellectual property created by U-M faculty members — also spawned 11 startup companies in 2010-11. That was up from 10 in 2009-10 and eight in 2008-09. The office has created 104 startups over the last 11 years.

To support high-potential companies that are moving past the conceptual stage, Oxford Entrepreneurs is proud to offer a vibrant incubation centre.

If you’re a current Oxford University student or recent graduate of the University looking for value-priced office space to incubate your early-stage business in central Oxford, you’ve found it! Thanks to the generosity of Keble College and donations from alumni, OE has created the Oxford Entrepreneurs Incubation Centre based at Keble’s Acland site.

The OEIC proffers the use of ample desk space with 24/7 access for a mere £150 per month per desk. This monthly rate includes high-speed Internet access, a mailing address, use of a conference room (including data projector), printer, kitchenette, and exposure to key OE contacts in industries such as PR and venture capital.

When finance executive Ane Ohm joined Harqen, an early-stage company that makes tools to index and analyze recorded phone conversations, one of her reasons for taking the job was, in a sense, lofty: she hoped to meet angels. While the ones she was targeting are not quite as rare as the heavenly variety, angel investors are not as commonplace as smaller companies would like.

With bank financing still uncertain, small and midsize companies are looking to alternatives, with mixed results. Angel groups generally invest in only 1% to 10% of the opportunities that come before them, according to Marianne Hudson, executive director of Angel Capital Association. Those are slightly better odds than companies seeking venture funding or private-equity infusions will encounter, according to a recent survey by the Pepperdine Capital Markets Project, but just 13% of businesses that responded to that survey reported getting funding from any of those sources.

A couple of weeks ago, Wichita entrepreneur Jeremy Jones completed his start-up company's first big round of investment capital fundraising.

Reaching its $2 million fundraising goal puts Nitride Solutions much closer to beginning manufacturing aluminum nitride substrates, which are used in solid-state electronics, light-emitting diodes and ultraviolet laser diodes.

"We're pretty much there," said Jones, CEO and co-founder of Nitride.

Jones and others said raising private investment capital is easier locally and in the state than it was a few years ago. Attracting venture capital from outside Kansas is getting easier, too.

CELEBRITIES such as George Clooney may believe in aging gracefully - proudly displayed their greying locks - for many people the change is an unwelcome part of the aging process. Well soon, grey hair may become a thing of the past, with scientists from the world's largest cosmetics and beauty company claiming they have found a way to prevent it with a pill.

The daily medication, based on a fruit extract, is due to be launched within four years, The (London) Sunday Times reported.

It is the result of more than a decade's research at the laboratories of L'Oreal, the cosmetics and hair product company, which hopes to win the race to capture the world's £8 billion (approximately $12.9 billion) hair colour market.

THE government's long-awaited intellectual property reforms have been held up as instrumental to creating a better environment for innovation. But they are peripheral to what universities are most in need of right now.

Commercialisation has long been considered a nice to have, rather than a must have, for academia.

While he quality of university research is outstanding _ Australia was amongst the top 10 countries for quality research institutes in 2010, according to the World Economic Forum. But if we can't point to the social impact of that research, it will become even more difficult to attract government funding, inevitably eroding research quality. It's a vicious circle: no outcome, no funding, no funding, no outcome.