This latest wave of funding for Internet startups has resulted in a slew of applications that seem to benefit the one percent: Limos via smartphone! On-demand wash-and-fold laundry! Cheeseburgers and shakes to your desk! Snail mail opened and scanned for you!

At the same time, concern over rising rents and perks like private buses to the office enjoyed by workers in the technology industry have riven the city of San Francisco, which many of these young companies call home.

Image: http://readwrite.com - Rose Broome, Cofounder, HandUp 

Two years ago, I joined a startup. I was the first employee, actually. To be honest I had absolutely no clue what to expect and even less of a clue as to what I was doing. The truth is, joining a startup kind of feels like joining a crazed gang. You aren’t entirely sure what’s going to happen next and how you’re going to pull off the job you just pitched, but gosh darnit, there is so much excitement.

If your subject line is lame, your email doesn’t get read. The average person receives more than 50 emails a day and a quarter of us receive more than 100, according to a 2012 study by the software company Varonis Systems.

So let's assume you’ve made the cut and your email has been opened, there’s an often-overlooked element you may want to rethink--your signature at the bottom on the email. It can be your opportunity to leave a lasting impression.

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McKay Thomas’s newest venture, First Opinion, aims to solve a different need for new parents — a direct line to doctors who can answer questions about everything from nutrition to childhood development. Backed by $1.2 million in funding from the likes of Greylock Partners and Felicis Ventures, the San Francisco-based company connects moms to a network of full-time doctors, who are also moms, via its free app and $9 monthly subscription service. Entrepreneur spoke with Thomas about how technology can reinvent the doctor visit.

Image: http://www.business-opportunities.biz 

On an average, Indian founders took home 40% less salary as compared to their counterparts in the Silicon valley.

According to a study by the folks at Compass, founder salaries in India were persistently lower compared to Valley based founders even when the revenue of the company is high.

Experience also does not seem to be a determinant factor, as opposed to most of the rest of the world, the study found. 

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There is a sense of romance in starting a business. There is novelty and a childlike naivety but, most importantly, there is romance. You have to love an idea and be so much in love with it that you forgo all rational thought and plunge into a world of the unknown. What could be more irrational than to take on the responsibility of building a successful business and ownership of the livelihoods of employees? Why would you choose to leave a well-paying job to begin a journey that is, given the numbers, likely to fail?

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Back in 1956, an engineer and a mathematician, William Fair and Earl Isaac, pooled $800 to start a company. Their idea: a score to handicap whether a borrower would repay a loan.

It was all done with pen and paper. Income, gender, and occupation produced numbers that amounted to a prediction about a person’s behavior. By the 1980s the three-digit scores were calculated on computers and instead took account of a person’s actual credit history. Today, Fair Isaac Corp., or FICO, generates about 10 billion credit scores annually, calculating 50 times a year for many Americans.

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Zohar Gilon and Yossi Vardi are at the apex of angels - private high-tech investors who usually participate in early-stage financing rounds in companies - but are a mirror image of each other in character and business. Vardi is well known, has frequent media exposure, and diversifies his (usually very small) investments among a large number of early-stage companies, and often loss the money. Gilon is media shy, refuses to give interviews, acts discretely, invests various amounts in companies at different stages, and his name has come up in connection with quite a few past and present Israeli high-tech successes. His standing has changed in the past few years. Few are the entrepreneurs who have not heard about him, and quotes and interviews already appear in the press. Yet, to hear Gilon speak openly and for the record about his experiences from more than 20 years of investment in 160 Israeli high-tech companies is very rare indeed.

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When entrepreneur-turned-venture capitalist Mark Bivens first moved to Paris in 2001, he regularly introduced himself as someone who had started three software companies in the U.S., two of which had flopped. That’s a badge of honor in Silicon Valley, where failure is viewed as a rite of passage. Not in France. One day, a French colleague took Bivens aside and gave him some friendly advice: if you want to reassure people, stop talking about the companies that didn’t work out. “I soon realized that failure carries a stigma,” Bivens says.

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 It would, of course, be criminal to pass through the mid-US without mentioning the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation (WARF), the technology transfer unit of the University of Wisconsin-Madison, the biggest university in the state and one of the two main research institutions (the other being University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee).

One of the oldest – if not the oldest – technology transfer organisations in existence, WARF can trace its roots back to 1925. The unit was founded by Harry Steenbock, a professor at the university, who invented the process for using ultraviolet radiation to add vitamin D to food – most notably milk. After testing the process on rodent food, he found the rodents were cured of rickets, a bone softening disease which we now know to be caused by a lack of vitamin D. Rather than leaving the process unpatented, which was common practice at the time for university innovations, Steenbock patented it with his own money.

While some entrepreneurs quit their day jobs to follow their dreams, U.S. News & World Report senior money editor Kimberly Palmer started a side business because she was worried about the stability of her dream job.  

"I felt a lot of financial stress myself in 2009, at the height of the recession, and I felt I had very little job security - people were getting laid off all the time," says Palmer.

Spurred by the need for a backup plan, Palmer launched a business in 2011 selling money workbooks on Etsy - an experience she talks about in her new book, The Economy of You: Discover Your Inner Entrepreneur and Recession-Proof Your Life, out this month.

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A decade ago, my friend Bill said, "Perry I've got a million-dollar idea for you. There's just one catch: If you sell a million dollars, you have to give $10,000 to my favorite charity."

"OK Bill, you're on," I said. He insisted I was leaving tons of money on the table by only writing and publishing books. He advised me to expand into business coaching.

I decided he was right. And guess what? I had the hardest time getting myself to actually do it. When I sat down to execute the details, my inner procrastinator said, "Wait a minute, why don't you go get a haircut."

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Gov. Martin O’Malley’s FY15 budget includes increased funding for the state’s biotech tax credit, cyber tax credit and R&D tax credit, and provides level funds to continue longstanding tech-based and workforce initiatives.

The budget recommendations submitted last week to the legislature would provide the following increases for tax incentives:

• $2 million increase for the Biotechnology Incentive Tax Credit, bringing the total funds to $12 million to assist life sciences companies in raising funds. The program provides refundable income tax credits equal to 50 percent of an eligible investment. 
• $1 million increase for the newer Cybersecurity Investment Incentive Tax for a total $4 million. This incentive provides a refundable tax credit equal to 33 percent of an eligible investment up to $250,000. 
• $1 million increase for the state’s R&D tax credit for a total $9 million.

The Bucks County Retirement Board and Ben Franklin Technology Partners of Southeastern Pennsylvania (BFTP/SEP) will announce Venture Capital For Bucks County (VC4BC) tomorrow.  VC4BC is a partnership to invest $4 million in emerging and growing companies, located in or willing to locate in Bucks County, who are developing and commercializing advanced technologies.

A press conference will be held tomorrow at 10 A.M. at the Pennsylvania Biotechnology Center of Bucks County (Please click here to register).

Billionaire AOL co-founder Steve Case has re-invented himself as an influential national technology policy power broker and investor — able to move with ease on both sides of the government-industry and Republican-Democrat divides in D.C. The new Steve Case — head of the Revolution LLC early stage investment firm and chairman of the Startup America Partnership — spoke to me this week about the growing friction between Silicon Valley and government leaders.

Image: JOANNE S.L AWTON - Steve Case says tech leaders need to work with government to be successful, without losing their sense of urgency. 

The lifeblood of any successful company stems from a sustained stream of commercially viable innovations, both incremental and breakthrough.

As any seasoned executive will tell you, maintaining that steady stream is one of the most difficult management challenges he or she faces. Successful new products quickly attract competitors; star employees get wooed away or burn out; product extensions fail to generate as much excitement as the initial product; and fickle, price-sensitive customers continually scan the market for the next game-changing innovation or less expensive knock-off.

Image: Image courtesy of: Eon Productions 

Innovation ecosystems: Empowering entrepreneurs and powering economies was written by Social i Media, a Cambridge-based media communications start-up.

The report, commissioned by the Economist Intelligence Unit on behalf of Barclays, explores the factors that influence and cultivate location-based hubs of innovation and entrepreneurial activity – such as ‘Silicon Fen’ - enabling policymakers and global business leaders to understand how to provide these nurturing environments.

A new business accelerator has launched to support entrepreneurs in the North West, with a goal to develop 500 “super businesses” in the region over the next five years.

Modelled on America’s “rigorous” four month accelerator MassChallenge, Liverpool-based Spark Up will initially offer 15 start-ups access to workspace, IT equipment, mentoring and master classes in order to help maximise their business growth.

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New Danish research shows that the New Nordic Diet lowers the amount of unhealthy cholesterol, which is one of the main causes of cardiovascular disease and strokes. According to two new research studies from Aarhus University, bad cholesterol and blood pressure can be lowered if people eat according to the New Nordic Diet, a spin on the classic Mediterranean diet. 

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The past decade has seen a rapid expansion of the world of startup accelerators and incubators. TechStars, DreamIt Ventures, AngelPad, Launchpad LA, and, of course, the infamous Y Combinator are but a few of the hundreds of accelerators around the country.  For the aspiring entrepreneur, the accelerator landscape can be a tough one to navigate. I’m a Wharton undergrad. I took a year off from school and participated in two different startup accelerators—one on the east coast and one on the west coast—for 3 different companies. Weather put aside, my experiences were quite different. My conclusion was simple. The accelerator experience is not for everyone. Here’s why.

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