In today’s guest post on Tech Cocktail I talk about my observation that many startups are spending too much time on business plan competitions and not enough time on building their business. Just last night I spoke to one company that has crushed it in the business plan competition world, having won hundreds of thousands of dollars of prize money. While that clearly gave them a huge lift, they admitted that the discipline of winning the competitions was very different than building their business.

Eye-tracking has become the tech trend du jour. Advertisers use data on where you look and when to better capture your attention. Designers employ it to improve products. Game and phone developers utilize it to offer the latest in hands-free interaction.

But eye-tracking can do more than help sell products or give your finger a rest while playing Fruit Ninja. Years of research have found that our tiny, rapid eye movements called saccades serve as a window into the brain for psychologists just as for advertisers—but instead of giving clues about our preferred cookie brands (pdf), they elucidate our inner mental functioning. The question is, can capturing such movements help clinicians make diagnoses of mental and neurological disorders, such as autism, attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder, Parkinson’s disease and more? For many researchers in this growing field, the outlook so far looks positive.

The No. 1 place to work in IT Quicken Loans: Great work, great location IT employees enjoy the company's relaxed atmosphere and culture of innovation, but they're equally thrilled to be part of the revitalization of downtown Detroit.

I’ve taken to using the word ‘cluefulness’ and all its glorious variants because I’m tired of hearing people bandy about phrases like ‘he hasn’t got a clue’ and ‘she’s the most clueless person I ever had on my staff.’ Listen up: that language misses the point, and here’s why.

First of all, people who don’t have a clue don’t realize what they are missing. Duh. (Why would they have a clue about themselves if they don’t have a clue about others?

Second, I realized that it doesn’t matter if you have a clue or not. How many times have you found yourself in a situation where you really didn’t have a clue? (For me, the first video game after Pong left me in the cold. Blasting Space Invaders and chomping power pills just wasn’t an attraction.) What matters is whether or not you care.

As Governor McCrory and North Carolina legislators consider rewriting the State tax code, we urge them to focus on policy changes that will encourage job creation and economic growth. We believe that one of the most powerful sources of both is innovation.

Two provisions of our current tax code are critical to our innovation economy. For established companies, the Research and Development Tax Credit encourages investment in the commercialization of new technologies. For early-stage companies, the Qualified Business Venture Tax Credit, sometimes known as the QBV Credit, helps attract investments that fund early stages of product development.

AT&T has picked Atlanta as the site for its fourth Foundry innovation center — a development that could seed dozens of technology startups in the area. The Foundry program helps AT&T tap independent developers, venture capital firms and startups to develop new applications and services for its network. The Atlanta Foundry, which will focus on mobile technologies, will be located on the ground floor of the Centergy building on the Georgia Tech campus, according to a source.

The National Venture Capital Association (NVCA) today announced that Bobby Franklin has been elected by the Board of Directors to become the next President and CEO of the Association commencing in September 2013. Mr. Franklin comes to the NVCA from CTIA – The Wireless Association® where he has served as Executive Vice President since 2006, following two and a half years as Vice President of Government Affairs. He will succeed Mark Heesen who has been with the NVCA since 1991. Mr. Heesen will become President Emeritus and remain with NVCA during the transition period to advise the Association.

I clearly remember the day in the ninth grade that a classmate accosted me in the hallway of my junior high to recruit me for the high school debate team. I thought he was crazy. My heart would beat frantically at the prospect of answering a question in class. I could not talk in front of people—and I made this clear to my classmate. It didn’t matter, he said. The coach was looking for smart kids, he went on, and someone (I am not sure who) had decided I was one of those. My scholarly aptitude seemed irrelevant to me, but he spoke as if the decision had already been made. And it is probably fair to say that this brief conversation changed my life.

If you want to raise money for something these days, the answer often is: Ask the public for it.

Crowdfunding sites such as Kickstarter, Indiegogo and GoFundMe have become the go-to resource for projects as diverse as starting a business, turning an invention into reality or funding a personal goal or need.Talked-about tech—including the Pebble smartwatch and the vibrating HAPIfork—got a start on crowdfunding sites, and after the Boston Marathon bombings, friends and family of victims used such sites to raise money to help with medical bills.

Higher education is becoming big business as more students head off to college, but they're also about developing businesses, and the state is turning research and development into new business ventures.

Maryland leads the nation in how much it spends on research but the University System of Maryland -- which includes 13 colleges and universities -- is trying to take research to a new level by creating more small businesses off campus. The goal so far is to try and create more than 300 new businesses over the next decade.

There’s a reason inspiration often strikes in the shower or on your drive to work: “Eureka!” moments happen when your mind is relaxed. Special relativity occurred to Albert Einstein while riding a streetcar home one day. Philo Farnsworth realized how an electrical television could work when he was plowing a potato field. These moments of inspiration rarely happen while sitting upright in an office swivel chair.

By definition, the creative side of our brain doesn’t work linearly or logically. Creativity isn’t formulaic, and it only requires a single ingredient: comfort. Few people can experience “Eureka!” moments while under pressure or when experiencing discomfort. And while business leaders understand that creativity in the office is important to developing new products and business solutions, many of these leaders don’t follow through by designing comfortable workspaces to help foster creativity.

South Korean President Park Geun-hye’s “creative economy” policy initiative is the talk of the town.

In her meeting with Facebook FB +0.37% chief Mark Zuckerberg on Tuesday, Ms. Park said nurturing startups will be central to her policy aimed at revitalizing the sagging economy and raising the employment rate. 

With "smart immigration" still in the headlines, the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation is offering a free ebook to help more people understand the issues related to immigrant entrepreneurs and how current policies affect this important economic force in America. 

In his pivotal book, The Immigrant Exodus: Why America Is Losing the Global Race to Capture Entrepreneurial Talent, Vivek Wadhwa, a leading scholar and public voice on entrepreneurship and public policy, draws on fifty years of research and his Kauffman Foundation report, "America's New Immigrant Entrepreneurs - Then and Now," to show that growth in immigrant entrepreneurship in the United States has peaked, is stagnating, and is on the verge of decline. This looming decline is historically unprecedented, and has huge implications for the already-ailing U.S. economy. 

State lawmakers on Tuesday approved legislation that would invest millions of dollars in public and private money in Wisconsin startups despite criticism that the investment targets only limited industries.

The bipartisan legislation, sponsored by Sen. Alberta Darling, R-River Hills, would create a program that invests $25 million from the state and at least $50 million in private money in young Wisconsin companies. The investments would be limited to companies involved in agriculture, information technology, engineered products, advanced manufacturing, and medical devices and imaging.

As work takes up a substantial part of our lives, it’s a question that often evokes a see-sawing set of emotions — and yet, the answer is simple, really. What compels us to leap, despite a menacing set of fears? I think it has to do with desire. Very simply, the chains of apprehension will snap at a disproportionately great desire to explore the uncharted. So the short answer is: you will if you want to. But do you really want to?

The AARP released on Monday its list of the Best Employers for Workers Over 50. A Washington-area employer took the No. 1 spot, and several other local organizations made the list. Click through the slideshow to see the entire list and where the local employers ranked.

The University System of Maryland is attempting to take scholarly research to a new level by creating more small businesses off campus, WBAL-TV Channel 11 reported. The goal is to create more than 300 new businesses over the next decade. The University System of Maryland said it hopes to tap into millions of state dollars already set aside to help start many of those new businesses.

Over the weekend my wife and I and a friend saw Man of Steel--the latest reboot of the Superman franchise. Note: Spoilers below! If you haven't seen the movie yet, you might want to stop reading. But then again, it's Superman. You probably know the story already.

Afterward, as we left the theater, my mind wandered to what the movie had to say about entrepreneurship. (It's a sickness. I can't stop thinking like this. Maybe you can relate.) Nobody actually starts a business in Man of Steel, but the movie is as much about leadership, integrity, and gathering teams to achieve a worthy goal as it is about action and explosions. In other words, it has a lot to do with the best principles of entrepreneurship. Here are my top takeaways:

Mississippi is getting national recognition for going beyond the traditional mom and pop model for small businesses.

The Kauffman Foundation is a national entrepreneurship organization. It ranked Mississippi fifth in the nation for the work being done.

Entrepreneurial activity is on the rise with over 10,000 more small businesses being created in the state this year.

Mississippi colleges are also putting more focus on business creation.

"I'm a workaholic, I thrive from this"

When I tell people they have to turn off, a lot of people say, "I don't want to. I don't know to, I'm a workaholic, I thrive from this, I make these choices, I'm at this stage in my life," and you get all this value for working all the time: They send you all of these positive signals, people also find it rewarding, you carry your phone around, it beeps. The more you respond, the more people email you, and so there's very positive reinforcement.