Wisconsin's new intrastate equity crowdfunding exemption officially take effect June 1, but questions and cautions abound. Here's a roundup of need-to-know details for investors, entrepreneurs and curious parties. First, the background: find a great primer from the bill's initial proposal here, including a helpful comparison of Wisconsin vs. federal proposals. The short version is that this amends Wisconsin's securities law to allow for online crowdfunding (think Kickstarter, Indiegogo and their ilk).

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If any institution is equipped to handle questions of strategy, it is Harvard Business School, whose professors have coined so much of the strategic lexicon used in classrooms and boardrooms that it’s hard to discuss the topic without recourse to their concepts: Competitive advantage. Disruptive innovation. The value chain.

Image: Minh Uong/The New York Times 

WHEN I was 7 years old, I knew the capitals of most major countries and their currencies. I had to, if I wanted to track down a devious criminal mastermind in the computer game “Where in the World Is Carmen Sandiego?” On screen, the ACME Detective Agency would spit out clues like notable landmarks to help players identify the city where Carmen’s globe-trotting henchmen were hiding out. I wouldn’t learn how to pronounce Reykjavik for more than a decade, but I could tell you that its currency was called the krona.

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China's creative industry is booming. It is not only a way for people to exhibit new ideas and express themselves, but will also be a driving force for the economy. The 798 Art District is a case in point.

"The 798 Art District is an amazing place. It has long been a symbol of the upsurge of creativity both in Beijing and in China at large," says Mr. John Howkins during an interview with China.org.cn on May 30.

The art district is not only a place for China's artists to work but also to sell, thus give artists incentives to be more creative.

Image: Mr. John Howkins (R) in an interview with China.org.cn on May 30, 2014. 

In one of the most war-weary regions of the world, a new initiative is attempting to change a country’s brand from ‘conflict’ to ‘cocoa and coffee’.

The Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) has been the site of umpteen bloody conflicts and continues to face widespread security, poverty and humanitarian issues. However a new collaborative campaign is looking to alleviate some of those problems by tutoring small-hold farmers in the east of the country in how to properly grow, harvest and prepare cash crops such as coffee and cocoa.

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You’re logging in your tenth hour of work for the day as a startup founder. Or perhaps you’re still in school or employed at a job that excites you as much as watching paint dry. The idea of doing your own thing—running your own startup—is something you’ve dreamed of for ages. But you keep asking yourself: do you have what it takes to succeed? Can you make it as an entrepreneur?

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Entrepreneurs looking for investor funding often fail to realize that all money comes with strings. For example, if you have watched the Shark Tank TV series, you probably noticed that the Sharks always ask the entrepreneurs for their intended “use of funds.” Those who respond with one of the wrong answers, such as “I want to pay myself a salary,” usually go home empty-handed.

Twitter. Dropbox. Zynga. These name brand startups are part of the revitalization of previously underdeveloped and “affordable” neighborhoods in San Francisco.

However, if you are not one of the aforementioned startups, you probably can’t afford to blow through hundreds or even tens of thousands of dollars on annual rent (especially after hiring your developer and engineering teams). While the experts debate if we are in the midst of another tech bubble, it’s never a bad idea to take a more organic approach to growth and to analyze how efficiently you are managing your cash burn rate.

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Incubators and accelerators are places for developing startup founders to rapidly test their ideas, get expert guidance from more seasoned entrepreneurs, earn some seed funding and hopefully emerge with a fully viable company.

They are so hot right now among tech startups that one of my favorite shows, Silicon Valley, lampoons one. 

Last Thursday, there was a pitch day event much like others held by business incubators all over the country: Investors heard startup entrepreneurs explain their ideas, and gave them some money. The amount raised wasn’t huge — just $80,000.

What made it special? The entrepreneurs were all juniors and sophomores at Barrington High School in Barrington, Ill., who spent this school year attending what organizers believe is the first lean-principles business incubator program based on a high school campus.

In the 1988 sci-fi flick They Live, a local drifter named John Nada stumbles upon a magic pair of sunglasses that give him the ability to see aliens. Turns out, the entire ruling class in America are nothing but aliens disguised as humans, and they're controlling society through subliminal messages in TV ads.

Being both an action film and the '80s, it takes a predictable turn: Nada grabs a shotgun, flips on his shades and restores democratic order, all while coining the catchphrase, "I have come here to chew bubblegum and kick ass. And I'm all out of bubblegum."

Image: A model poses with a prototype of Drexel University student Troy Hudson's "light therapy" glasses, which he says can be used as a wearable treatment to seasonal affective disorder. IMAGE: DREXEL UNIVERSITY  

Wisconsin's angel and venture capital landscape looks a lot different today than 10, five or even a few years ago.

Ten years ago, only a handful of Wisconsin angel networks and a similar number of venture capital funds were active. Most deals involved biotechnology, medical devices and medical imaging companies.

Dollars-per-deal were high because most life science companies faced long regulatory runways before their products could take flight. While a few local venture firms were syndicating deals outside the state, most co-investment activity was confined to Wisconsin.

On a recent visit to the Entrepreneurship Lab at Pace University in New York City, my friend Jim Duffy and I watched a presentation by a student describing the business he was seeking to launch. The budding entrepreneur figured out how to produce small quantities of high-quality printed promotional products for small businesses and organizations and make money to boot. From both a business and tech proposition, this was a smart kid.

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Contrary to popular belief, the modern professor is not just an academic intellectual but also an entrepreneur.

He (or she) may be an entrepreneur who spends the morning wearing a pair of Google Glasses and digitally reviewing his portfolio of angel investments. Tomorrow, he’ll submit a grant to National Institute of Health and a draft of his next New York Times bestseller to his editors. He'll attend a regional industry conference next month on the way to giving a TED Talk and appearing on the Oprah Winfrey Network.

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Three Central Ohio nonprofit advisers have joined forces to create a TechColumbus-like incubator for nonprofits and an investment fund to accompany it. The Community Investment Network of Central Ohio - CINCO Fund LLC - and its sister program Center for Social Enterprise Development are aimed at helping nonprofits in the Columbus area to generate streams of revenue that support overall operations.

Image: Allen Proctor is working to boost the revenue streams of nonprofits with the new venture. 

Bulking up on venture capital doesn’t always result in a happy payday down the line. It can actually lead to a less valuable exit, a new study from the research group Exitround finds.

Lots of startups talk about staying “lean and mean” capital-wise during scale-up, but the temptation to take on new investment can be tough to resist given the growing number of seed investors.

Following a slow 2013, US venture capital firms are aggressively raising money to invest in new startups as the technology industry has heated up.

Spark Capital of Boston, which previously backed Twitter Inc. and virtual reality company Oculus VR, announced this week it had raised $375 million for a new fund, a little more than a year after raising a $450 million fund.

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Returns on venture investments beat Wall Street's major indexes at the end of last year, something that hasn't happened very often since the tech bubble burst 14 years ago. Late-year jumps in IPOs and mergers and acquisitions drove the U.S. Venture Capital Index up to 11.91 percent in the fourth quarter, according to a report this week from the National Venture Capital Association. That beat the Dow Jones Industrial Index (10.22 percent), Nasdaq Composite (10.74 percent) and S&P 500 (10.51 percent).

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Have a Solid Plan

Before coming into the program I would highly stress putting together a comprehensive product roadmap for the duration of the program as well as 2 months after. Start by splitting the upcoming 3 months into individual weeks & writing out goals both for the tech side (development, design, ux etc.) of the company as well as the business side (sales, fund raising, partnerships etc.). If possible have them written on a huge calendar for everyone in the company to see & be aware of. Then go more granular and translate those weekly goals into individual tasks using any project management software, here I’d recommend Trello since its very intuitive, has great array of browser plugins to support different styles of task management & it’s totally free.

A report recently showcased at the Code Conference in the US by tech analyst Mary Meeker brilliantly highlights the important differences between digital market trends across the globe. Though extensive, we’ve trimmed down what we thought are the most significant findings in the report.

What do we like how?

Facebook, Twitter and somewhat interestingly Pinterest, are the most notable leaders in terms of social media traffic referrals. Facebook leads the pack hosting 21% of all interactions, while Twitter has only 1%.

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