Washington has been busy on several fronts important to entrepreneurs these past few months.  One we must not forget to reflect on is the recent U.S. Senate approval of a bipartisan-sponsored amendment to the financial reform bill that protects against creating new barriers for high-growth entrepreneurs seeking to raise angel capital. This “Angel Amendment” addressed two of the original provisions in the bill that had the potential of creating regulatory obstacles for entrepreneurs raising angel financing and weakening the pool of angel capital by reducing the number of accredited angel investors.

More specifically, the amendment that passed eliminated the language in the bill requiring a 120 day Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) review period for investors that prove an annual income in excess of $200 thousand and net worth totaling more than $1 million. The incentive embodied in this language could have proven harmful for the availability of seed investment, which is already difficult to attract. Angel capital is essential to entrepreneurial start-up activity in the United States. Angel investors are high net worth individuals who make high-risk equity investments directly into growing companies, usually as the ventures are starting up. A 2007 Kauffman study revealed that the majority of angel investments between 1990 and 2007 were mostly made on seed or start-up firms, with nearly 45 percent of the investments in companies that had no revenues at the time of the first investment. This contrasts the trend among venture capitalists, who are estimated to invest less than 2 percent in seed and start-up companies. Angels thus fill an important void. Not surprisingly, the bipartisan “Angel Amendment” was strongly supported not only by early-stage actors such as the Angel Capital Association and the Association of University Research Parks, but also by those who usually enter the entrepreneurial scene at later stages of the growth of young businesses, such as the National Venture Capital Association, the North American Securities Administrators Association, and the Private Equity Council.

The Council for American Medical Innovation (CAMI), launched in 2009, has brought together leaders in research, medicine, public health, academia, education, labor, and business, who are working in partnership to encourage public policies that
advance medical innovation and the development of lifesaving treatments, enhance job growth, and promote patient access.

CAMI believes leadership in medical innovation is a key part of America's economic recovery, future prosperity and health. For additional information, please visit www.americanmedicalinnovation.org.

Download the complete report here
Download the complete report and appendix here

RICH BENDIS, PRESIDENT AND CEO OF INNOVATION AMERICA WAS ONE OF PARTICIPANTS INTERVIEWED FOR THIS REPORT.

Big news for the coffee house crowd. Starbucks said today it will offer free, "one click" WiFi at stores nationwide starting July 1. Starbucks currrently offers up to two hours of free WiFi for customers now but requires them to log in with a Starbucks card or with their AT&T account. The new system will be available to anyone.

Starbucks is also partnering with internet search giant Yahoo on a digital network that will launch in the fall and be "unique in its content offerings, allowing customers free unrestricted access to various paid sites and services such as wsj.com, exclusive content and previews, free downloads, local community news and activities, on their laptops, tablets or smart phones."

There is some fine print to the new WiFi system. It will be only be available in Starbucks-owned stores in the U.S., and not in licensed stores, at least initially. (There were more than 8,800 Starbucks-owned stores and more than 7,800 licensed stores at last report in fall 2009; I'm trying to get an updated count).

Clay Shirky doesn't like television. The Chronicle's Jeff Young reports this week that the New York University scholar and Internet guru figures Americans spend 200 billion hours each year of their thinking time—or time they could be thinking—on sitcoms and their ilk. He also figures that all of Wikipedia took about 100 million hours of thought to produce. So Americans could build 2,000 Wikipedia projects a year just by writing articles instead of watching television.

He does like reading, however. In an interview online in The Atlantic, Mr. Shirky says he starts his day checking Twitter, then moves to an RSS feed reader to check sites like Al Jazeera (his favorite for world news) and tech sites like Boing Boing. Then there are books and magazines and newspapers and NPR. But in general, Mr. Shirky says, "there's no real breaking news that matters to me. I don't have any alerts or notifications on any piece of software I use."

If the United States truly wants to boost the economy and narrow its ginormous trade deficit, then medical technology would seem like a good place to start.

Minnesota’s bread and butter industry generated a $5.4 billion trade surplus last year, one of the few American industries to do so. Which is why Obama Administration officials visited Medtronic Inc. (NYSE: MDT) Friday, to encourage small to medium medical device companies to pursue emerging overseas markets like China, Japan, Eastern Europe and Latin America.

Ever since President Obama announced his National Export Initiative (NEI)- an ambitious plan to double American exports in five years- during his State of the Union address in January, top trade officials have been crisscr0ssing the country, “targeting high growth, high potential sectors like medical devices,” said NEI Director Courtney Gregoire.

“Our economic recovery requires that we continue to reach outside our borders,” Gregoire said.

Like a cable TV news show free-for-all replete with raw emotion and derisive accusations, the creative class has recently been confronted with a lively debate between two of its most influential members, the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation and the Association of University Technology Managers. They may not be household names, but the disagreement between the two organizations highlights an important public policy issue that must be addressed in order to strengthen America's leadership in innovation, economic growth, and job creation.

Academic researchers should be "unleashed" from the "inefficient, monopolistic" technology transfer offices at their universities, leaders from the Kauffman Foundation suggested in a Wall Street Journal op-ed last November. They then applied the coup de grâce in a January-February 2010 Harvard Business Review piece by calling for "any inventor professor to choose his or her licensing agent—university-affiliated or not—just as anyone in business can now choose his or her own lawyer."

RICH BENDIS PRESIDENT AND CEO OF INNOVATION AMERICA ,HAS THE PRIVILEDGE OF SERVING AS A BOARD MEMBER OF THE SCIENCE CENTER IN PHILADELPHIA, THE OLDEST AND MOST SUCCESSFUL URBAN SCIENCE  CENTER IN THE UNITED STATES.

Cheered on by some of Gainesville's most successful innovators, Gainesville startup company Tutor Matching Service received the first $50,000 Cade Prize for Innovation on Friday night.

The company was chosen from more than 100 inventions from throughout Florida, most from the Gainesville area.

The prize will help the company market its Facebook application that matches students and educators from around the world based on students' learning strengths.

Eight universities and think tanks have all converged on four policy principles to enhance technology innovation in the effort to mitigate climate change, says a new report released earlier this week by the Clean Air Task Force and the Consortium for Science, Policy, and Outcomes (CSPO) at Arizona State University.

The report, "Four Policy Principles for Energy Innovation & Climate Change: A Synthesis" (PDF) combined the recommendations made in eight studies conducted by universities like Harvard and MIT as well as think tanks like the Brookings Institution and the National Commission on Energy Policy to create the following four policy principles:

1. Recognize that innovation policy is more than R&D policy

2. Pursue multiple innovation pathways

3. Recognize CO2 reduction as a public good, and pursue energy innovation through a public works model.

4. Encourage collaboration on energy innovation with rapidly industrializing countries.

On June 18th, leaders from many of the Greater Rochester area’s leading innovation organizations will be coming together for a unique and powerful collaboration event.  The “Digital Rochester Innovation Jam Session” will bring together many of our region’s most influential leaders to identify solutions to the largest barriers to building a vibrant innovation economy in the greater Rochester area,” said Josh Bouk, President of Digital Rochester and Senior Vice President of Veramark Technologies. “Xerox has been, and continues to be, a global leader in technology innovation and a strong supporter of the Upstate New York region.  So we are thrilled that they have partnered with us to create the first ever “Digital Rochester Innovation Jam Session.”

The Digital Rochester Innovation Jam Session, sponsored by Xerox, will draw together:

• Large enterprise. Executives who drive the research and technology development efforts through global R&D efforts.
• Research universities.  Leaders of our regional research institutions that are driving IP creation and licensing
• Serial entrepreneurs. Those men and women who have repeatedly proven to have the vision and leadership to drive new business creation and technology commercialization.
• Funding partners. The leaders of investor and venture organizations that focus on seed and mezzanine investments.
• Supporting organizations and government. Leaders from the organizations and agencies that support economic development and technology commercialization efforts at the local and state level.

RICH BENDIS, PRESIDENT AND CEO OF INNOVATION AMERICA WILL PARTICIPATE IN THE DIGITAL ROCHESTER INNOVATION JAM SESSION THIS WEEK.

In an April blog post, "Want to be an entrepreneur? Drop out of college," Caterina Fake identified a number of successful tech founders who had quit school. The co-founder of Flickr (YHOO) and Hunch then argued that aspiring entrepreneurs should drop out of college and apprentice.

While Fake's headline is provocative, the data don't support her assertion. Statistically speaking, entrepreneurs are more likely to be successful if they graduate college than if they don't.

Education Increases Entrepreneurs' Performance

A 2008 study by Vivek Wadhwa, Richard Freeman, and Ben Rissing that surveyed chief executive officers and product development heads at more than 500 high-tech companies showed that "education provides an advantage in tech entrepreneurship." Specifically, the companies founded by college graduates had twice the sales and employment of the companies founded by people who didn't go to college, on average. These numbers are consistent with many other studies that show that founder education reduces business failure rates and increases profits, sales, and employment.

How would you like to be part of a 90-day startup accelerator program, that could result in start-up financing for your business idea?

The coIN Loft, Delaware’s first coworking space, has invited entrepreneurs from Delaware and the immediate surrounding regions to apply to be a part of BetaFish, which will result in five businesses receiving up to $8,000 in seed capital.

As the world’s greatest soccer players take to the fields at the FIFA World Cup in South Africa, many are wearing jerseys made almost entirely from plastic bottles rescued from landfills in Japan and Taiwan.

It is, if nothing else, good publicity for Nike, the maker of the jerseys and the official sponsor of nine teams, including the United States, Brazil and Portugal.

Yet what many might view as a gimmick is also part of a broadening effort by the company to incorporate sustainability, or environmentally responsible practices, into its product design. Around the globe, a growing number of manufacturers are including more recyclable or biodegradable components into products.

David Park and Eric Bahn are earning more at their startup, called Beat The GMAT, than they ever did in the corporate world. Every penny of profit from the business goes directly into their bank accounts. They enjoy being their own bosses; have become experts in sales, marketing, customer support, computer programming and graphic design; feel good about helping students gain admission to business school; and are grateful that they can spend their time doing things rather than discussing things—because they don’t answer to anyone. Why should they sell their business and be back to working for companies like Intuit or McKinsey & Co., they ask?

Ryan Sit, who runs a website called Picclick.com, feels the same way. His visual sales site attracts 300,000 unique visitors per month and generates millions in product sales for eBay and Etsy sellers—netting him a healthy six-figure income. He works from home and spends as much time as he wants to with his two small children and wife.  Ryan cherishes the freedom to do anything he wants—like experimenting with new website ideas. The last thing he wants to do is to raise capital or merge with a bigger company. “You become a slave when you are funded, and having lots of employees is just a pain”, Ryan says.

American Automotive Policy Council - America's auto manufacturers — Chrysler Group LLC, Ford Motor Company and General Motors Company — are committed to investing and keeping jobs here in the United States and delivering the most advanced and green technologies to U.S. consumers.

We will strengthen U.S. manufacturing by building the next generation of environmentally-friendly products consumers expect, and investing in plants, research, and people here in America.

Lack of funding for startup ventures is stunting the growth of Colorado's biosciences sector, industry leaders and entrepreneurs said.

Promising drug treatments and medical products are being developed more slowly or abandoned and some small companies are closing because of lack of capital, they said.

"There isn't enough capital coming in to fund all of the good deals," said Denise Brown, interim executive director of the Colorado BioScience Association. "Our whole pipeline of innovation is going to be stymied unless we come up with a new model."

The problem is national, even global, in scope. But it's being felt acutely in Colorado's biosciences community of mostly small companies served by a dwindling handful of local venture-capital firms.

Social capital, intellectual capital and creative capital are the factors of production for the Innovation Economy; next economic paradigm. Few people realize that Silicon Valley arose from a perfect storm of social capital from the 1960’s, the music and arts scene of the same era, and the proximity of academic centers Stanford and Berkeley. The Bay area corporations may have been the beneficiaries, not necessarily the originators of innovation.

Creative Capital remains the least understood, yet most important element of the Next Economic Paradigm. As we continue our march into the regime of social media it is imperative that we understand, support, and develop this critical factor. We cannot “take it for granted” that creativity exists and will always exist. It must be recognized, developed, and integrated into the fold of Social Media.

A global shift towards a vegan diet is vital to save the world from hunger, fuel poverty and the worst impacts of climate change, a UN report said today.

As the global population surges towards a predicted 9.1 billion people by 2050, western tastes for diets rich in meat and dairy products are unsustainable, says the report from United Nations Environment Programme's (UNEP) international panel of sustainable resource management.

It says: "Impacts from agriculture are expected to increase substantially due to population growth increasing consumption of animal products. Unlike fossil fuels, it is difficult to look for alternatives: people have to eat. A substantial reduction of impacts would only be possible with a substantial worldwide diet change, away from animal products."

The environmental, economic and personal tragedy unfolding on the Gulf Coast is a clarion call to the country to redefine, expand and embrace the idea of sustainability.

For most Americans, "sustainability" conjures up images of granola-eating tree-huggers wearing hemp clothing and making extreme choices to reduce their carbon footprints.

We think the Deepwater Horizon's enduring legacy could be a new understanding of sustainability, rooted in economic realism and accepted across much of the political and economic spectrum.

Some people, ahem, are predicting a big resurgence in business software. Given how outdated most tools are, that’s probably a safe bet –  whether it happens now or in the next few years. While software as a service and open source have plugged many holes, most large companies still run themselves on one of two companies: Oracle or SAP. That can’t last forever.

But the amazing thing is, when it comes to small business software, the market is still pretty wide open, with most businesses still running themselves on pen-and-paper or Excel spreadsheets. There is a reason that Intuit has managed to keep a stranglehold on small business software—because it is hard to build and even harder to market to such a huge, fragmented market with so many different needs. Especially when the revenues per customer are necessarily puny.