I’m sure you’ve all heard saying derived from Voltaire, “don’t let perfect be the enemy of the good” which in a way is encapsulated in the lean startup movement and the ideology of shipping a “minimum viable product” (MVP) and then learning from your customer base.

Companies that have received funds from Ames Seed Capital LLC have seen steady growth in revenues and employment, investors were told at the group’s annual meeting, where it was revealed more than $1.6 million has been committed to the group’s sixth fund.

Ames Seed Capital LLC was created in 1987 and has launched six funds to invest in local businesses in Ames and Story County.

Companies around the world are still undergoing digital transition. Some believe they are there already whilst others still have their heads buried in the sand. Digital is a loose term and can encompass many things, so for the purpose of this article, I am talking specifically about the use of digital as an organisation’s “window to the world”. I have listed 5 things that may indicate that your organisation has made the digital transition.

As the unemployment rate fell in 2012, another economic indicator dropped too: the overall business creation rate. According to the annual Kauffman Index of Entrepreneurial Activity released today, the 2012 rate declined slightly from 0.32 percent of American adults per month starting businesses in 2011 to 0.30 percent in 2012. That translates to approximately 514,000 new business owners per month in 2012 compared to 543,000 the year before. The 2012 business creation rate is slightly higher than pre-recessionary and long-term levels.

The Kauffman Index of Entrepreneurial Activity is a leading indicator of new business creation in the United States. It provides the only national measure of business creation by specific demographic groups. The 2012 data allow for an update to annual reports dating back to 1996. Interactive data spanning all 16 years is available at www.kauffman.org/kiea.

Let me guess. You began your small business with a bottomless pit of hope, enthusiasm, and energy, right? You were downright unstoppable. Then, one day you woke up and realized that “it” should have happened already. You and your business should have already “made it.” Perhaps you’re running out of capital or maybe your passion for your business is fizzling fast. Whatever the circumstance, it’s time to pull yourself up by the bootstraps if you want your business to have an iota of a chance of taking off in spite of your utter faithlessness and negativity. That’s right; it’s time for some tough love. Brace yourself because with all due respect, here are the top 10 reasons why your small business is failing, and they’re all about you:

Breakout Labs, an offshoot of PayPal Co-founder Peter Thiel’s eponymous Thiel Foundation, has funded its first two startups of the year: SkyPhrase and Stealth Biosciences. The former is trying to improve data analysis and interaction via better natural language processing, while the other is trying to improve our health by literally sticking straws into our cells.

One of the hardest places to get capital to commercialize a great growth idea is within corporate america. Startups can tap the venture capital market. Corporations can go to the general capital markets by issuing stocks or bonds. But let's say you are a general manager or director/VP level of a business unit or brand within a corporation. Your options for funding a corporate idea are very narrow — basically, you have to go through the often bureaucratic and political process of getting a budget from the managers above you. Many great commercial ideas never blossom because they get choked out by internal politics, risk avoidance, shorter payback horizons, or perceived lack of capabilities.

Yes, just two.

A company is either Brave New World — or Faster, Better, Cheaper. One is not better than the other. Neither is more noble or impressive. Put another way: a company can be a huge success no matter which model it embraces. But the trick of success depends on acknowledging your company's core identity with unflinching honesty. Otherwise, it's like putting on a Superman cape when you're the Incredible Hulk — you may look the part, but you'll never fly. And playing to win means more than just playing to your strengths; it starts with knowing them.

Venture capitalists and entrepreneurs are rallying to help victims of the Boston Marathon bombing, launching a fundraising drive that had netted $110,000 through 1,200 donations as of Wednesday morning.

Fundraising began Monday night through Fundraise.com, a startup backed by Atlas Venture, and Technology Underwriting Greater Good, a nonprofit founded by Atlas Partner Jeff Fagnan. TUGG, which makes grants to local nonprofits, will work with the office of Boston Mayor Thomas Menino to determine the best way to get the funds to those affected, said Executive Director David Brown.

Kathy Giusti founded the Multiple Myeloma Research Foundation after being diagnosed with the disease in 1996. As head of worldwide operations at a major pharma company at the time, she was horrified by the lack of drugs in the pipeline for her deadly "orphan" cancer. John Quackenbush is the director of the Center for Cancer Computational Biology at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and CEO of the startup GenoSpace, which provides tools for genomics research. Senior editor Linda Tischler sat down to hear about their new collaboration to upend cancer research.

For most of the 20th Century, Northeast Ohio’s economy was supported by its material sciences, engineering, transportation infrastructure, and steel and auto manufacturing sectors. But, like other regions across the country, it saw these competitive advantages disappear under the pressures of global competition. Northeast Ohio lost tens of thousands of manufacturing jobs in the steel and tire industries in the 1970s and 80s, and Cleveland became a poster child for post-industrial challenges.

It’s 6:45 a.m., and Ben Darr is coming back from the gym to a hideous smell from the refrigerator. A roommate shuffling past the kitchen shrugs. Another confirms the bad news: Last night, in a cleaning frenzy, someone moved the fridge and forgot to plug it back in. Darr just shakes his head and unloads the dishwasher.

That’s life at Enstitute, where 11 wannabe entrepreneurs, aged 18 to 25, are packed in a Lower Manhattan loft. Shopping, cooking, eating and cleaning together, they share one remote control and many secrets in three bedrooms at night. Come daylight, they’re off to work. Just under half the “kids” have already founded a company; only three have graduated from college. Maybe they’ll come out of this experiment knowing if they have the right stuff.

If you think "I better not start a startup now, because the economy is still not booming" you will be making a comparable mistake to the people who thought during the dot-com bubble "all I have to do is a startup, and I'll be rich." In reality, what matters more is who you are, not when you do it.

Like Paul Graham, of Y-Combinator fame, said a while back, I see startups succeed or fail every day based on the qualities of the founders. The economy has some effect, certainly, but as a predictor of success it’s a rounding error compared to the founders. If you're worried about threats to the survival of your company, don't look for them in the news. Look in the mirror.

Leaders of 11 top high-tech companies — including Microsoft Corp. and Intel Corp. — signed a partnership agreement Monday with a fairly new Rockville-based center on cybersecurity, pledging to work together to further that growing industry.

The companies will help the National Cybersecurity Center of Excellence — an agency formed a year ago by the federal National Institute of Standards and Technology, Montgomery County and the state of Maryland — develop leading-edge technology to combat hackers and other cyber-criminals, officials said.

The founders behind Thinx underwear jumped into their bold social venture with a collection of impressive resumes and big ideas. What they didn't have was much experience in the complex world of high-tech apparel and marketing.

They decided to treat their collective lack of experience as a springboard for new ideas, a decision that has allowed the company to develop a completely unique--and entirely self-funded--business model. The trio literally reinvented women's underwear with cutting edge research and design, and ultimately developed a creative product with major potential for social good.

About four years ago I started working for myself. I wanted the freedom and flexibility to own my schedule and the space to bring my ideas to life.

One of the biggest challenges was structuring my time so I was fully experiencing the benefits of working for myself while also being as creative and productive as possible. At first, the idea of systems and planning made me cringe. I felt like they would hold back my creative potential. Eventually, organization and effectiveness challenges pilled up and I decided to give structure a try.

Visit San Francisco’s Pier 15 anytime on or after April 17 and you’ll get to take in a bridge enveloped in manmade fog, a 3-D topographic map of the Bay Area with data sets projected onto its surface, mouse stem cell research, and items from patients who lived at a now-shuttered mental institution. It’s all part of the new Exploratorium, a $300 million upgrade to the mother of all experiential learning science museums.

An Austin-based angel investment group was the fourth most active in the nation during 2012. The Central Texas Angel Network ranked No. 4 behind groups in New York, Southern California and Boston on the 2012 Halo Report, according to a survey by the Angel Capital Association.

There’s been discussion recently about a lack of life science venture capital enthusiasm for emerging digital health companies. I happen to feel that this concern is misplaced. I engaged industry and opinion leaders on this subject plus have my own thoughts on the digital health funding environment.