When a start-up launches, especially a start-up built for start-ups, it tries to anticipate the most common questions – and answer them in a FAQ. At YouTern, it seems we missed one.

The most common question we receive from companies posting internships…

“How do you define a start-up”?

Over the past few days, I’ve seen this question asked in several other places…including an interesting series of Tweets today that referred to Steve Blank’s (http://steveblank.com) definition: “A startup is an organization formed to search for a repeatable and scalable business model”.

China's focus on science and technology is relentless, and it's occurring at all levels of its society. Its labor pool is becoming increasingly sophisticated, its leadership is focused on innovation, and the country is adopting policies designed to pressure U.S. firms to transfer their technology.

The trend is causing increasing worry in Washington, but there are five reasons why China may yet succeed in its goal to achieve world dominance in technology.

1. China's leadership understands engineering

In China, eight of the nine members of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau, including the Chinese president, Hu Jintao, have engineering degrees; one has a degree in geology.

Anyone who has stood beside a Great Lake on a winter's day, with the cloudless sky overhead an icy blue and the wind pelting down from somewhere in Manitoba, knows the power of elemental nature. The water, the wind, the frosty sun -- this is energy, pure but untamed.

Recently, advocates of alternative forms of "green" energy have looked at this abundance of nature and seen something just as basic -- dollars, jobs, a new economy for the Midwest. If green energy is the energy of the future, and if the Midwest is so richly endowed with these elements, how can we miss?

The only problem is getting there from here. So far, we don't have the science to make this happen. We don't have the money to pay for the science. The Midwest is not exactly alone in seeing riches in the green economy, so the competition with other regions will be fierce. Private industry seems unlikely to make the huge investment necessary in an industry that may or may not pay off. Midwestern states should do it but these states, hard hit by the recession, are having trouble paying current bills and seem unlikely to make this investment in the future,

Looking for some inspiration and tips on how to make your company more conducive to innovation? Here's some food for thought and action -- Idea Champions' ten most popular postings on the subject.

HOW TO FOSTER A CULTURE OF INNOVATION

1. The Garden of Innovation

2. 50 Ways to Foster a Sustainable Culture of Innovation

3. 56 Reasons Why Most Innovation Initiatives Fail

4. Innovation: It's About Time 

5. The Paradox of Innovation

6. The Art of Seeing the Invisible

7. The 100 Lamest Excuses for Not Innovating

8. Innovation Is An Inside Job

9. Here's to the Crazy Ones!

10. The Four Currents of a Culture of Innovation

This document replaces NSF 08-583.

The composition of the institutional base of the partnerships and other program requirements underwent substantial change. This solicitation should be reviewed in its entirety as essentially all sections underwent revision. Proposers should carefully read the following sections:

* Eligibility Information
* Mandatory Letter of Intent
* Supplementary Documents
* Additional Review Criteria

Proposals not meeting the requirements of this Solicitation may be returned without review.

Please be advised that the NSF Proposal & Award Policies & Procedures Guide (PAPPG) includes revised guidelines to implement the mentoring provisions of the America COMPETES Act (ACA) (Pub. L. No. 110-69, Aug. 9, 2007.) As specified in the ACA, each proposal that requests funding to support postdoctoral researchers must include a description of the mentoring activities that will be provided for such individuals. Proposals that do not comply with this requirement will be returned without review (see the PAPP Guide Part I: Grant Proposal Guide Chapter II for further information about the implementation of this new requirement).

On July 3, President Obama announced that the U.S. Department of Energy offered a conditional commitment to Abengoa Solar Inc. for a $1.45 billion loan guarantee to finance the construction and start-up of a concentrating solar power (CSP) generating facility in Solana, Arizona. Once operational, the plant will add 250 megawatts (MW) of capacity to the electrical grid using parabolic trough solar collectors and will feature the first molten salt thermal energy storage system in the United States.

The plant, located 70 miles southwest of Phoenix, will use mirrors to direct sunlight onto receiver tubes that will heat the molten salt fluid to more than 700°F. The system's heat will turn steam turbines and will be capable of storing six hours of thermal energy, which will allow the plant to dispatch power during early morning and late evening utility loads. The thermal storage will also enable the plant to continue operating during intermittent cloudy weather.

Despite the hype surrounding equity capital, very few startups raise money from outside investors. The Census Bureau's most recent Survey of Business Owners shows that only 2.7 percent of U.S. companies obtained startup financing from a venture capital firm, strategic investor, friend, or family member. Even raising external equity after the startup stage is uncommon. Data from Angelsoft, a provider of angel investment tracking software, reveal that only 2.8 percent of those seeking money from angel groups receive it. The share of successful requests for venture capital is even lower. A primer on venture capital produced by the Small Business Administration estimates that only 0.1 percent to 0.2 percent of funding requests made to VC firms result in an investment.

So why do so few succeed at getting others to invest in their businesses?

I doubt that Steve Jobs has ever asked Apple customers what type of products they want, or that he cares about what they need. Jobs believed that if he developed a mobile phone that plays music and surfs the web, he could create both the want and need. He was right: his iPhone changed the industry and started a mini technology revolution.

Most of the entrepreneurs I know fancy themselves to be like Jobs.  They think they know—better than their customers—what the customers want, and what they need. Or they believe, as in the movie Field of Dreams, that if you “build it, they will come”. But it just doesn’t work this way in real life. The vast majority of technology startups fail because no one buys or uses their products.

Minnesota’s newly passed $60 million angel investment tax credit will officially debut the week of July 19. That’s when the state Department of Employment and Economic Development (DEED) will start accepting applications from investors and start-ups hoping to be certified for the program.

“DEED is developing and testing the back office systems which will allow us to manage the Angel Tax Credit Program,” coordinator Jeff Nelson wrote in an e-mail. “Our current expectation is that this work will be largely done by July 16^th, allowing us to launch the program during the week of July 19^th. Thanks for your patience!”

This is either a great joke a very strange coincidence.

As many soccer fans and TV news viewers know, there's an "oracle octopus" named Paul in Germany who has been winning acclaim for his ability to predict World Cup games. Well, it turns out that his full name is Paul Allen. That, of course, is also the name of Microsoft's co-founder -- who happens to own a yacht named "Octopus."

"We all got a good laugh out of it," said David Postman, a spokesman for Allen's Vulcan Inc., when we called to find out if they knew how the octopus got its name. "We’ve got no idea who named him."

Looks like the Octopus picked the World Cup winner.... Spain!

Back in 1958, Ted Schwarzrock was an 8-year-old third grader when he became one of the “Torrance kids,” a group of nearly 400 Minneapolis children who completed a series of creativity tasks newly designed by professor E. Paul Torrance. Schwarzrock still vividly remembers the moment when a psychologist handed him a fire truck and asked, “How could you improve this toy to make it better and more fun to play with?” He recalls the psychologist being excited by his answers. In fact, the psychologist’s session notes indicate Schwarzrock rattled off 25 improvements, such as adding a removable ladder and springs to the wheels. That wasn’t the only time he impressed the scholars, who judged Schwarzrock to have “unusual visual perspective” and “an ability to synthesize diverse elements into meaningful products.”

The accepted definition of creativity is production of something original and useful, and that’s what’s reflected in the tests. There is never one right answer. To be creative requires divergent thinking (generating many unique ideas) and then convergent thinking (combining those ideas into the best result).

Top 10 Blogs and Websites for Startups and Entrepreneurship Advice

Here’s a list of the best blogs and websites I’ve come across which focus on startups and entrepreneurship. Most of these blogs have really informative articles which provide excellent advice for aspiring entrepreneurs who want to start their own company.

Top 10 Startup Blogs

Paul Graham

Paul Graham is the founder of Viaweb, Y Combinator (the most popular startup incubator which provides seed funding and advice to early stage startups) and Hacker News. His essays are some of the best articles on startups and entrepreneurship ever and should be on the reading list of every aspiring entrepreneur.

It’s time for Wisconsin to take further steps into the venture economy, according to recommendations from the Wisconsin Technology Council in its 2010-11 “white pages” report released this week.

Tom Still, president of the council, said the advisory group had focused in the past on angel capital to fund startup companies and has seen success.

“When we launched the Wisconsin Angel Network in 2005, there were five angel networks; today there are 22,” Still said. “We feel like we’ve built the farm system, now it’s time to focus on the big leagues.”

Angel investors are typically individuals who invest in startup businesses. Venture capital typically comes from firms or institutions often wanting quicker returns or a share in the business.

Recommendations by the Wisconsin Technology Council, the bipartisan, nonprofit science and technology policy adviser to the governor and the Legislature, fall into four main categories. But the recommendations for increasing access to capital are some of the council’s new points, Still said.

I just reviewed several hundred startup pitches for Capital Factory. Most were on paper and video; 20 were invited to pitch in person.

Interesting patterns emerged:

• Everyone makes the same classes of error.
• Those who avoided just one of those errors stood out in the crowd.
• These are problems with the business concept or the founder's attitude, not specific to raising angel money.

Despite the growing recognition that innovation is the only sustainable source of growth, competitive advantage, and new wealth, an Arthur D. Little survey of 669 global company executives found fewer than 25 percent of the companies believe innovation performance is where it needs to be if they are to be successful in the competitive marketplace. Having tried an endless array of alternatives, company leaders are now accepting enterprise wide innovation as a key operational discipline, just as in the past they adopted the disciplines of quality, planning, and management.

Of course, innovation is not a new discipline in most organizations. But the old ways, even those that may have worked in the ’80s and ’90s, are no longer adequate. Firms across the board are engaged in exciting experiments to reinvent the way they create the future, because “business as usual” hasn’t produced the desired results.

Everybody wants to know just where the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico will spread. Intel’s Encanto supercomputer in New Mexico has calculated that information, using a complex ocean current simulation.

As the company described in a blog post, the computer model predicts that the oil on the surface will be carried by the gulf’s Loop Current over hundreds of miles to Florida. Then it will curl around the state and head into the Gulf Stream in the Atlantic Ocean. The spill could thus cause damages thousands of miles up the East Coast of the U.S.

The model was created by scientists at the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colo. The Parallel Ocean Program had already been created as part of a theoretical experiment to model the weather in the ocean, and scientists adapted it for the spill. The simulation ran on Intel’s Encanto supercomputer in Rio Rancho, New Mexico. The supercomputer, No. 32 on the list of fastest supercomputers, is a water-cooled machine with 28 tall cabinets and more than 3,500 Intel quad-core Xeon processors.

Google has quietly (secretly, one might say) invested somewhere between $100 million and $200 million in social gaming behemoth Zynga, we’ve confirmed from multiple sources. The company has raised somewhere around half a billion dollars in venture capital in the last year alone, including $150 million from Softbank Capital last month and $180 million late last year from Digital Sky Technologies, Tiger Global, Institutional Venture Partners and Andreessen Horowitz. The Softbank announcement was never officially confirmed by the company, however, and the Google investment was likely part of that deal as well.

The investment part of the deal closed a month ago or so. A larger strategic partnership is still in process.

Bresslergroup Builds a Better Mousetrap

Made in USA, new Victor mousetrap is job and environmentally friendly.

Philadelphia – July 6, 2010. The Victor Quick Set Mousetrap, long a category leader, has been redesigned in order to move manufacturing from China back to the U.S. The move increases employment and positive economic impact, while at the same time, decreasing environmental impact.

Woodstream selected new product development firm Bresslergroup to re-design its leading Victor Quick Set mousetrap to reduce assembly and parts costs so that the traps can be cost effectively made in the U.S. By re-thinking the configuration of the parts and the spring mechanism, Bresslergroup came up with a more efficiently-designed trap that can be assembled in half the time as the prior generation of Victor Quick Set mousetraps.

The environmental impact is significant. First, Woodstream has eliminated one million plastic blister packs a year in favor of an all-cardboard package. Second, 15 40- foot HC container trips from China have been eliminated which reduces overall carbon emissions. Finally, the new Victor traps are made of HDPE No. 2 plastic, which can be recycled more readily than the previous plastic material used in Chinese manufacturing. “Redesigning to engineer out costs and carbon impact is a major focus of our client work, across all industry categories. Making small changes can have a huge impact for consumers and the work force,” says Mathieu Turpault, Director of Design, Bresslergroup.

The new, Made in the USA Victor mousetraps are available in Wal-Mart, grocery and hardware stores.

# # #

Bresslergroup, based in Philadelphia, offers innovative product solutions via integrated user research, industrial design and production engineering. The consultancy serves consumer, medical and industrial manufacturers. Since its founding in 1970, Bresslergroup has won more than 80 major design awards and has authored more than 100 patents. www.bresslergroup.com.

Woodstream Corp. is a leading manufacturer and marketer of quality-branded rodent control products, caring control products for pets and wildlife, natural solutions for lawns and gardens and wild bird feeding products. Woodstream’s growth is fueled by a consumer-driven approach to product development. For example, a key focus for Woodstream Corp has been to add organic and or environmentally friendly products to its portfolio. www.woodstream.com.

NORTH LAS VEGAS, Nev. — At the Bigelow Aerospace factory here, the full-size space station mockups sitting on the warehouse floor look somewhat like puffy white watermelons. The interiors offer a hint of what spacious living in space might look like.

“Every astronaut we have come in here just says, ‘Wow,’ ” said Robert T. Bigelow, the company founder. “They can’t believe the size of this thing.”

Four years from now, the company plans for real modules to be launched and assembled into the solar system’s first private space station. Paying customers — primarily nations that do not have the money or expertise to build a space program from scratch — would arrive a year later.

In 2016, a second, larger station would follow. The two Bigelow stations would then be home to 36 people at a time — six times as many as currently live on the International Space Station.

I wish you could have seen what I awoke to last Saturday morning.

My room was perched on a slight hill, in a clearing overlooking the edge of the water.

Through the picture window just beyond the foot of my bed, I could see the green outline of a giant lake's mountainous rim sloping gradually into the blue vastness.

The only thing wrong with the image was the clock on the nightstand.

It claimed that it was 2 PM... I almost never slept past 7 in the morning.

And then I remembered...

I was 13 times zones from home.