So you’ve got a startup. How sexy of you, how innovative, how new. Well I hate to burst your bubble but startups are a dime a dozen these days, it’s the new black and wearing it doesn’t make you special. In such a competitive sphere such as the tech scene (in Africa or around the world) being a startup isn’t enough, you have to figure out how to stand out in the crowd. One way to do just this is to present your company, your idea or product, to whomever your audience member(s) might be at any given time, with confidence and passion (and some panache never hurt anyone). You need to know the art of the pitch.

Silicon Alley, Silicon Beach, Silicon Prairie, even Silicon Roundabout (just doesn’t have such a sexy ring to it, does it?). Cities across the country and the world are jumping on the entrepreneurial bandwagon, trying to nurture startup communities and stoke the flames of new business creation.

And why not? Silicon Valley, the origin of all these Silicon knockoff names, is a economic marvel, forging both millionaires and innovations at an impressive rate. But wait, that’s a good question, if startups are so obviously economically beneficial, why are more countries and regions not having success in nurturing them?

After 8 years the standard agreement will be revised, following evidence that it is little used and is seen as straightjacketing relationships between industry and academics, rather than enabling and supporting them.

The UK government’s Intellectual Property Office (IPO) is to lead a revision of the country’s model agreement for university–industry collaboration, following evidence that it is too restrictive and does not support open innovation. The move was confirmed last week at the Triple Helix conference held at University College London. 

Tabletop computers have not exactly taken the world by storm, as some predicted they would. While a few have appeared in shops, bars, and hotels, it’s not hard to understand why devices that until recently cost more than $8,000 have failed to gain wider adoption.

But prices are falling, with one model from SmartTech now selling for $1,499, and new innovations could increase their appeal. Christian Holz and Patrick Baudisch of the Hasso Plattner Institute in Potsdam, Germany, have developed Fiberio, the first touch-controlled tabletop computer that can identify multiple users from their fingerprints each time they interact with it.

Just when you thought Silicon Valley couldn’t get any more popular, it has. Startup hubs across the country are increasingly snapping up the “Silicon” moniker,” hoping to emulate its success.

Portland, Ore., adopted “Silicon Forest,” New Orleans calls itself “Silicon Bayou” and even Des Moines, Iowa now has the nickname “Silicorn Valley.”

I knew saying “if you want to be a successful entrepreneur, there is no such thing as work-life balance,” would trigger strong emotions.  That’s not why I said it, though.  It was something that I had observed in interviewing thousands of people and I wanted to know how you would react.

And boy, did you.

I was surprised that most of you agreed with me.  About 70% of you said some variation of what Cassandra Heilbronn did: “Successful people want to be the best and they are willing to do what it takes to get there.”

Gov. Scott Walker signed legislation Thursday to provide $25 million in taxpayer money to start-up companies , realizing a goal he has sought for more than two years.

Providing venture capital has had a rocky history in recent years. Bills to do that last session couldn't get through the Legislature, and this year's legislation has had its share of glitches, falling well short of the original dollar amount sought by supporters.

“We are a team of guerrilla fundraisers who have launched a global campaign to fund research into a potential treatment for the cancer that killed Steve Jobs. The potential therapy, a cancer-busting virus, is currently sitting in a freezer in Sweden – but it can’t be tested for lack of just £2million” was iCancer’s pitch on Indiegogo, a crowdfunding portal. The company brought in more than $160,000 from this campaign.

Last week, federal securities regulators lifted a ban on advertising by startups and companies seeking to raise capital, a decision hailed by supporters who believe the move will make it easier for entrepreneurs to find investors.

The Securities and Exchange Commission approved the change that was part of the Jumpstart Our Business Startups (JOBS) Act, which was passed by Congress in 2012.

The Angel Capital Association, a trade group that represents networks of angel investors, however, is raising concerns about the new rule’s impact.

Almost four years ago, Jonathan Rosenberg sent an email around Google stumping for more open systems, products, and services. As SVP of Products, he argued that more openness would mean a better Google and a better world. But not everyone agreed. In fact, it set off a fiery internal debate that culminated in the Google Blog post: "The Meaning of Open," authored by Rosenberg At the time, he was building teams around Chrome and Android. And his prescience paid off. Today, they are two of Google's most strategically important gains.

The roadshow you take in conjunction with your company’s initial public offering (IPO) represents an exciting and action-packed two weeks. Over that period, you will crisscross the country, meet hundreds of potential investors and spend way too much time on airport tarmacs.  While your bankers will have thoroughly prepared you to deliver your “story” to the Street, I thought it would be helpful to share some other thoughts about roadshows based upon the thousands of IPO roadshow meetings Westwicke team members have participated in during our Wall Street careers. Here is my list of the top 10 things bankers probably won’t tell you about IPO roadshows:

Students at the University of York are challenging what they see as the closed worlds of nanotechnology and healthcare by crowdsourcing funds to produce a new type of treatment for cancer using magnetic nanoparticles.

Atif Syed and Zakareya Hussein, students in the department of electronics and nanotechnology engineering, are using US-based funding site Microryza to find $3,000 to develop a pharmaceutical patch that delivers tiny nanoparticles into the body via hair follicles.

Physicians are used to having complete authority when in an operating room, a command-and-control environment that doesn’t allow for deliberation or consensus.

That mentality, however, doesn’t work very well when it comes to entrepreneurship and building startups. “Physicians are terrible at entrepreneurship because they work in a bubble,” says Sudhen Desai, a Houston radiologist. “You need to collaborate and bring in others who have expertises beyond yours.”

Last fall the entrepreneur Josh Weinstein went on a pilgrimage with his friend Ethan Penner and Ethan’s wife, Marisol.

Marisol, a professional triathlete of Venezuelan extraction, had an interest in and knowledge of esoteric fitness equipment, and she had heard that somewhere in Cheyenne, Wyoming, a man had developed a distinctive device. The man’s name was Doug Brendle, and he was said to hold a black belt in several martial arts. Brendle, who had consulted with the military in the past, had developed the Fitwall, a device resembling the offpring of a ladder and a bookcase. Brendle had invented the device six years prior and acquired some renown, but the Fitwall’s fame was mostly local.

As you may have heard, it's hot outside.

We know. We're hot, too.

If you're lucky, your office has some form of air conditioning. But you've still got to get there without becoming a melting blob of sweat. So how do you deal with the heat?

Maybe you're thinking about wearing a little bit less, or only certain fabrics to beat the heat. That's a fine strategy, as long as you do it right. Just like a stinky lunch can ruin a perfectly good office environment in an instant, a few questionable wardrobe choices can do the same.

A forewarning: I’m an entrepreneur running a successful business without any sort of business schooling. I majored in Industrial Design and Italian so you won’t find any fnacy MBA lingo here, just a straightforward real-world perspective.

Hold Your Horses

I was fortunate to have the time to let my business idea mature and evolve while I was still a student in college. I was able to explore various opportunities, research and survey the market, interview experts, and flesh out a pretty strong business plan before we were ever under pressure to turn a profit. In hindsight, this incubation period was crucial for the success we’ve had in the last three years. As soon as you launch your concept into a full-fledged business, you’ve got overhead to worry about and expenses pile up out of now where. The extra time gives you the chance to think through more scenarios, experiment with different models, and get everything in line to take your competition by surprise. Getting a startup off the ground is hard enough, and near impossible if you’re trying to figure out your model while providing and marketing your products and services. Spend as much time as possible in the nest to make sure your wings can carry you after you lunge into the wonderful abyss of entrepreneurship.

Whether you call them Generation Y, Millenials, the 9/11 Generation, or the Facebook Generation, they are different.  Perhaps better, perhaps worse than the cohort of young people that preceded them, they are distinctive in behavior and attitudes.  Entrepreneurs these days often find themselves dealing with this group of talented folks, as indeed all employers will.  They have been written about, and, thanks to blogging, they have written themselves in volumes.  They are stereotyped as having the attention span of a particularly scatterbrained flea, being permanently attached to some sort of device, and needing constant affirmation, just to mention a random few characterizations.  How accurate are these notions?  Are there some characteristics that might indeed apply to many of these young adults?  How can a savvy boss exploit their strengths and work around the rest?

Austin Ventures is partnering with two other venture firms to create an accelerator program that will back startups developing open source technology. Called OpenIncubate, the program is being launched with an initial $3 million investment by Austin Ventures, Battery Ventures of Boston and the Valley Fund of Menlo Park, Calif.

Few toys have caught the imagination of children everywhere more than LEGOs -- the multi-colored plastic blocks that can snap together to construct houses, castles, space ships or fantastical imaginary figures.

The Danish company (whose name roughly translates to "play well") traces its roots to a failed carpenter named Ole Kirk Christiansen, who in 1932 decided to put his skills to work creating toys made of wood. In the late 1940s, Christiansen invested in the then-risky injection molding technology needed to make the plastic blocks. In the late 1950s, Ole Kirk's son, Godtfred, came up with the interlocking stud-and-tube design that made the company a household name.