Name: Identified

Quick Pitch: Identified is a professional marketplace that helps users improve their professional marketability.

Genius Idea: Provides users with real-time, interactive feedback on how companies evaluate your professional information online.

What do companies find when they search for you? Do they like what they find?

People naturally want to know what companies think about them and how they compare to other professionals in the job market. The problem is most resume databases and job sites don’t provide any feedback or responses.

Ever heard of Harvard Business School? Odds are that you have, since brand awareness has never been a Harvard problem. What was a Harvard problem was the perception of the school as a stuffy, arrogant, blue-blood playground. And so, back in 2008, Harvard Business School hired Brian Kenny to be its first chief marketing and communications officer and to help tell the Harvard story to alumni and prospective students.

Kenny’s background is in marketing — he spearheaded U.S. marketing for Genuity, Inc. and oversaw global marketing at The Monitor Group before moving to academia — and was the VP of marketing at Northeastern University prior to moving to HBS. As CMO, Kenny and the interactive marketing team are tasked with telling the Harvard story and providing information to the 70,000+ HBS alumni and anyone who’s learning about HBS, 70% of whom are getting information through digital means.

Over the course of a given quarter I will actively engage with a long list of entrepreneurs to discuss their business and fundraising objectives. These initial conversations are, in many instances, OpenView’s first touch point with some of the most exciting, high-growth startups in the software and tech world. A lot can be learned from these early interactions that will greatly shape the state of the relationship moving forward. Here are a few thoughts on how both parties can be sure they are sending the right signals on their “first date.”

Ask good questions

IMAGE CREDIT: KOREANBEACON.COM Asking the right questions is definitely a two-way street. I always stress to CEOs and founders that, just as I am looking to learn more about their business,  it is equally important they get to know their potential funding partners. (us) When an entrepreneur is asking the right questions in return, it is a very encouraging sign…whether it be trying to find out how we can help them execute against their go-to market strategy, or what relationships and doors we can open for them moving forward. These questions are equally as helpful for us as they help paint a clearer picture of the company’s vision and strategy. I try to be an open book when it comes to chatting about OpenView’s value-added proposition, and I find that by doing so it becomes far easier for these entrepreneurs to chat more openly about their business.

Driven in part by the explosion of vibrant social-networking media, the crowdfunding sensation now stretches to the far reaches of the globe. Fostering creativity, philanthropy, and growth, crowdfunding sites have fundamental social and economic impact, and are altering the allocation of capital.

Every generation rebels against their parents. When parents approve, their offspring disapproves. Parent says black, adolescent teen says white. Psychologists who are expert in these matters explain that rebellion is a factor in establishing identity. It’s part of the journey of growing up -- personalities are taking shape and a sense of self is being nurtured. Even if you haven’t quite worked out what you want, it helps to know what you don’t want.

But the times seem to be a-changing, yet again. Today’s teens are surprisingly in harmony with their parents. They wear the same branded jeans, have similar music in their iTunes library, are happy to accompany one another to a U2 concert, and if you ask them, many will talk about their friendly, supportive relationship.

How do you transform an opportunity into an idea? Well, the first thing is to get comfortable with the belief that any old ideas won’t do. What we’re interested in are disruptive ideas; that is, ideas with the power for great impact and influence. Ideas that challenge assumed boundaries and inspire a sense of what’s possible. In my experience, however, most ideas never get anywhere near this level. There are three major stumbling blocks:

1: Feeling overwhelmed, directionless, and without focus

In my experience, this is the direct result of relying on traditional brainstorming approaches, which, by the way, have been around since the 1930s, when ad-man Alex Faickney Osborn first popularized them in his book, Applied Imagination. But the problem is that traditional brainstorming has ignored the huge difference between generating lots of ideas and capturing quality ideas. As a result, brainstorming sessions often leave organizations and teams feeling overwhelmed and directionless—a state Beth Comstock at GE insightfully calls, “paralyzed by possibility.” Simply put, if your ideas are going to have any disruptive impact, you need to move beyond a shotgun approach to brainstorming and start pursuing creative effort with a laser-sharp focus.

This Friday the Washington Biotechnology & Biomedical Association (WBBA) will release findings from its 2010 Economic Impact Report at their Governor’s Life Sciences Summit and WBBA Annual Meeting. With the sometimes volatile ups and downs of our industry, these findings have the potential to propel WBBA forward in both current and new initiatives and strategies to build Washington state’s life sciences sector.

Google is setting up an “incubator” for technology start-ups in Israel, one of several ways the California-based Internet giant is trying to get an early look at innovations.

Reuters The Google logo is seen on a door at the company’s office in Tel Aviv. A Google research director made the announcement Sunday at the company’s annual conference for developers in Israel, saying that the incubator will open in August of next year in the same building as Google’s office in Tel Aviv.

New investments help Eastern Ontario entrepreneurs grow emerging companies in Information Communication Technology (ICT), life sciences, clean technology and digital media sectors

The demand for commercialization support is at an all-time high in Ontario.  Since beginning operations in 2007 as the OCRI Investment and Commercialization Group, then expanded with an Eastern Ontario mandate in 2010 as the Regional Innovation Centre for Ottawa and Eastern Ontario, the Centre’s team has provided services to more than 750 companies, and helped to leverage more than $100 million of investments into portfolio companies.

“Our regional innovation centre is a tremendous asset to all of Eastern Ontario,” says Bruce Lazenby, President and CEO of OCRI. “I also see it as a catalyst to attract more and varied funding sources. The fact is Ottawa’s got the highest concentration of knowledge-based talent in Canada, and that’s a tremendous draw for the wider entrepreneurial community.”

Organized by: The National Council of Entrepreneurial Tech Transfer (NCET2) Association of Public Lang-grant Universities (APLU) Association of American Universities (AAU)

Sponsored by: The National Venture Capital Association (NVCA), the National Association of Seed and Venture Funds (NASVF) and the University-Industry Demonstration Partnership (UIDP) representing the venture capitalists (VCs), angel investors and Global 1000 private funders of research commercialization

About this Series: On September 16, 2011, President Obama announced new steps that will help America's universities and research labs convert ideas into new products, expand the economy and create 21st century jobs. In coordination with the Administration, 135 university presidents committed to working more closely with industry, investors, and agencies to bolster entrepreneurship, encourage university-industry collaboration, and advance the nation’s social and economic interests. The commitments are aimed at helping achieve the President’s goal of strengthening commercialization of the nearly $148 billion in annual federally-funded research and development.

The top talent in countries around the world have a new suitor: the Chinese government.

China has a severe shortage of skilled talent and, in a policy reversal, has decided to open its doors to talent from around the world. This could mean that the brilliant NASA scientists the U.S. laid off, could find new employment — and a new home — in Shanghai or Beijing.

Chinese research labs have long had difficulty recruiting qualified workers to perform necessary research and development, and its corporations struggle to find competent managers. The situation will likely get worse as China’s high-tech industries grow and it increases its national R&D spending from the present 1.62 percent of GDP, according to the Chinese government, to the planned 2.5 percent by 2020. China’s President Hu Jintao, in May 2010, declared talent development a national priority in order to fill the void. The goal is to dramatically increase the education level of China’s workforce and to build an innovation economy.

Before we get too far into the new fiscal year, we thought we’d go back and look at how the IBED world fared in the last round of state budgets. Tax credits continue to be a favored tool to spur growth and investment in the IBED world. Even though budgets are tight, many states have maintained or increased funding for IBED-related tax credits, and a few, such as Nebraska and Virginia have introduced new ones. Supporting commercialization efforts was also high on the list this legislative season. Ohio’s Third Frontier, for instance, has a new Commercial Acceleration Loan Fund worth $25 million. With waning investment from traditional venture capital firms, several states are stepping in to fill the gap. Maryland’s new InvestMaryland program allocates $70 million for venture capital in the innovation economy sector. And though it was developed back in 1989, Economic Gardening has only recently started to catch hold on the regional and state level. Nebraska, Virginia, Pennsylvania, and Michigan have all introduced new initiatives this year. The trend of the year, though, seems to be the restructuring of state-level economic development efforts, with a particular emphasis on engaging the private sector. Many of these efforts are currently facing some controversy, but we wouldn’t be surprised if once the wrinkles get ironed out, this is a trend that’s here to stay.

Barely a month has passed since the release of India's "$35" Aakash tablet, but its creators already have its successor--a sleeker, more powerful low-cost tablet--ready to launch.

When the Aakash was launched in October, it was greeted with enthusiasm--what potential it holds for a developing market!--followed almost immediately by skepticism--could it possibly work for that cheap? What's the catch?

Aakash, or Ubislate 7 as U.K. manufacturer DataWind calls it, has a 7-inch screen, runs Android 2.2. It comes with a USB drive and microSD slots. Suneet Tuli, cofounder and CEO of DataWind, tells Fast Company that DataWind will follow through with their plans to sell the tablet commercially in India, at the price of Rs. 2,999, about $60 ($35 was actually the price the government paid--read on). Eventually, he hopes they'll sell upgraded versions of the tablet in the U.S. and U.K.

Companies that make semiconductors and other electronic components are collectively the most innovative industry, according to an analysis of patents carried out by Thomson Reuters, an information-services provider. Its "Top 100 Global Innovators" report rates companies by the proportion of their patent applications that are granted; the number of "quadrilateral" patents (those granted in China, Europe, Japan and America); how often patents are cited by other companies; and whether patents relate to new techniques or inventions or are refinements of existing ones. This approach is intended to overcome the limitations of using the number of patents filed or granted as a measure of innovation. Of the 100 companies in the list, which is not ranked and relates to patent activity from 2005-2010, 40 are from America, 27 from Japan and 11 from France. No Chinese companies qualified. The report says this "underscores the fact that although China is leading the world in patent volume, quantity does not equate to influence and quality."

U.S.-based venture-backed startup companies continue to be significant job creation engines with more than 10,800 positions currently available at more than 3200 companies today according the National Venture Capital Association (NVCA) and the job board StartUpHire.com.  Since the beginning of 2011, more than 37,000 jobs have been posted on the site. Positions are open nationwide, spanning a diverse set of industry sectors including software, IT, and clean tech/energy.

The data was announced today in conjunction with the 2011 Global Entrepreneurship Week Initiative, an entrepreneurial movement of individuals and organizations dedicated to inspiring, connecting, and equipping entrepreneurs while showcasing the support that is available to them year round.

“Venture-backed startup companies have consistently added value to the American job market, even in this difficult economic environment. The commitment of the venture capital industry coupled with the strength and vibrancy of the startup companies in which it invests fuel an efficient job-creating engine that’s become a vital part of the national economy,” said Mark Heesen, president, National Venture Capital Association.

Microbes will be the (human) food- and fuel-makers of the future, if J. Craig Venter has his way. The man responsible for one of the original sequences of the human genome as well as the team that brought you the first living cell running on human-made DNA now hopes to harness algae to make everything humanity needs. All it takes is a little genomic engineering.

"Nothing new has to be invented. We just have to combine (genes) in a way that nature has not done before. We're speeding up evolution by billions of years," Venter told an energy conference on October 18 at the New America Foundation in Washington, D.C. "It's hard to imagine a part of humanity not substantially impacted."

You know the type. The people with obnoxious laughs, pushy pitches, and the ability to corner you at industry conferences and talk about themselves continuously for what seems like hours? The ones who clearly mean well, but their lack of etiquette can make you wish you hadn't even gone?

Here's a friendly suggestion: Don't be that person.

Networking is a critical part of any job hunt, yet it's probably the easiest thing to get wrong. Using living, breathing connections works better than blindly sending out resumes over the Internet, but for many, approaching people they don't know for help finding or getting a job is uncomfortable and nerve wracking.

It has become extremely difficult to foresee competition. But this isn’t cause for alarm. It’s now far more important to forge ahead with innovation, allowing a product or service to evolve in new ways, than trying to crush or outsmart perceived competition.

All business people know that they have to compete with someone. Conventional wisdom suggests that a company’s competitor is simply another company in the same business. Toothpaste brands compete with one another, as do car manufacturers, as do airlines, and so on and so forth.  But this is not the full story. In many cases, competition is not a question of services, offers, or functions of a company, but rather the use of the product that is produced.

Renowned US billionaire Warren Buffett announced that his Berkshire Hathaway investment firm has been quietly buying up shares in technology giant IBM to the tune of US$10.7-billion since March this year.

Speaking to television network CNBC, Buffet said that his company’s investment in IBM amounts to about 64-million shares, or a 5.5% stake.

If accurate, the investment would see Berkshire Hathaway become IBM’s second biggest shareholder, behind investment advisory group State Street.

The 81-year-old Buffett, sometimes called the “Sage of Omaha” for his investing skills, said that his company had paid an average price of US$170 a share, some 10% lower than the previous week’s closing price of US$187.38.

Last spring, a research team at Japan's RIKEN Center for Developmental Biology created retina-like structures from cultured mouse embryonic stem cells. This week, the same group reports that it's achieved an even more complicated feat—synthesizing a stem-cell-derived pituitary gland.

The pituitary gland is a small organ at the base of the brain that produces many important hormones and is a key part of the body's endocrine system. It's especially crucial during early development, so the ability to simulate its formation in the lab could help researchers better understand how these developmental processes work. Disruptions in the pituitary have also been associated with growth disorders, such as gigantism, and vision problems, including blindness.