The national spotlight is shining on Blue Valley’s Center for Advanced Professional Studies (CAPS) program. CAPS was awarded the National Business Incubation Association’s (NBIA) 2013 Incubator Innovation Award for the CAPS Incubator program.

“To be recognized on an international level is truly an honor,” said Donna Deeds, executive director of CAPS.

Why prefer Coke over Pepsi or GE over Samsung or Ford over Chevy?

In markets that aren't natural monopolies or where there are clear, agreed-upon metrics, how do we decide?

Where did this pervasive sense of entitlement in our business culture come from? I’ve written about this before, but I was surprised again recently at a conference for startups when a couple of entrepreneurs started berating investors for their low rate of funding for early-stage startups. It sounded to investors like me that they expected a funding entitlement for their startup idea.

As a society, we seem to think we've evolved to the point where we can fashion a large portion of existence according to how we wish it to be. We notice what we like and what we dislike, so we work to make society match our dreams. Somehow, these dreams and wishes have morphed in many people’s mind to an entitlement.

As part of the Creative Industries Innovation Centre's mission to support the business of creative enterprise, one of the Centre's business advisers, Tony Shannon, delivered a presentation on business planning to members of the Victorian games development industry last week.

The event, hosted by Film Victoria, attracted around 30 representatives from all sectors of Victoria's diverse games industry – app-based games developers, firms involved in console games and everything in between.

With the immigration debate in Washington heating up, Americans across the country recognize that we need smart and practical solutions to help reform our country’s broken immigration system.

Our immigration laws haven’t been significantly updated in almost 50 years, while other countries are implementing immigration programs to lure entrepreneurs, innovators, skilled workers, and other valuable potential employees.  Meanwhile, our system still works to support a Cold War economy in the 21st century. It’s an outdated and outmoded system that is as frustrating as it is ineffective.

Do we know where to look for a development solution?  At USAID, we commit ourselves daily to finding solutions for the challenges faced by the world’s poor.  We start by listening to the wisdom and needs of the government, community, and local organizations and people.  If a farmer’s crop yields are way below global norms, we conduct trainings to increase farmer capacity and crop adaptability and deploy new technologies for greater harvests and market access.  If sanitation is poor in a community, we incentivize entrepreneurs and communities to build self-sustaining toilets that process waste into fertilizer.  We know which aid organizations have expertise in a particular area, and we have standing relationships with implementers who assist us with our on-the-ground work worldwide.

My Wall Street Journal article about why I discourage students who want to become entrepreneurs from doing an MBA provoked a far stronger reaction than I expected. The vast majority of the emails and comments were in agreement — including from business-school professors. What shocked me were the angry online comments, Tweets, and emails from a few MBA students—because of their lack of professionalism. So it is clear that this issue is highly contentious and deserves further discussion.

I spent countless hours with VC firms, startups & LPs (the people who invest in VC firms).  I find these trips invaluable both from a relationship-building perspective as well as stretching my mind about our industry. I ask questions, test theories, debate topics of the day and then reflect upon what I’ve learned.

There's been a lot of activity over the past two years in the Southern California accelerator/incubator market, with numerous groups (Amplify, EvoNexus, K5, LaunchpadLA, MediaCamp, Science, StartEngine, and many, many others) looking to help entrepreneurs start and fund their companies. But, how successful have they been? Although it might still be on the early side for an analysis, we've run our numbers again to figure out who's having the biggest success so far in the market, where entrepreneurs are most likely to find capital providers hanging out, and where (if anywhere) are exits happening? We've analyzed our database of angel and venture capital deals, looking at venture capital deal activity, exits, and more, to try to track what exactly is happening at local accelerators, to try to help prospective entrepreneurs, partners, venture firms, and others understand the landscape in the region.

A startup is a team that searches for a repeatable, scalable and sustainable business model. Incubators can help in this search. But there are some Pros to this and obviously some Cons (red flags to watch out for). This post covers some of the Pros and Cons of joining an Incubator. Resources listed at the end will provide more information on a startup-incubator match-making.

New York - It is a terrifying prospect – a would-be hijacker seizes control of a plane from the ground armed with nothing more than a smartphone.

But such a scenario could come to pass, according to an internet security consultant.

He says he has created an app that can take over a plane’s computers, giving the phone and its user total control of the aircraft.

A healthy tech economy has multiple types of players who play multiple types of roles. From small tech startups to mature companies still pushing the innovation envelope; from major health care employers with a deeply ingrained research culture to the anchors of the tech economy—Tech Valley covers this range.

Being married to an entrepreneur presents a unique set of challenges for both spouses and business owners.  

Despite those challenges, there are a number of steps spouses can take in order to improve and survive a relationship with entrepreneurs. To help, Nicole Bailey, wife of Petra Coach founder and CEO Andy Bailey, offers the following tips.  

The venture capital industry continues to meander, renewing questions about its future, even as the technology industry thrives and the stock market soars.

The NVCA and Thomson Reuters reported this month that U.S. venture capital firms raised $4.1 billion in the first quarter of 2013, an increase of 22 percent from the fourth quarter of 2012. This isn't horrible, but just 35 funds were raised in the first quarter, down 34 percent year over year. All in all, the first quarter was dismal, "the slowest quarter for venture capital fundraising" by number of funds since the third quarter of 2003.

With the news that Chris Coburn is leaving Cleveland Clinic Innovations comes the question who’s going to take over? The Clinic isn’t giving any clues, but it’s going to be a huge undertaking for whoever that might be.

In the 13 years its been around, CCI claims to have spun out 50+ companies that have raised $700 million in investments and resulted in three exits. Here’s a quick look at some of the highlights (and lowlights).

Chairman Schweikert, Ranking Member Clarke and subcommittee members, thank you for inviting the Angel Capital Association to speak on the progress of the JOBS Act.

My name is Jean Peters, and I am a managing director of Golden Seeds, the country’s 4th largest angel group. Our 280 members are among the most active angels in the U.S. Collectively, we have funded more than $50 million of equity over the past 8 years in 60 women-led startups. Golden Seeds is a charter member of the Angel Capital Association, on whose behalf I am appearing today.

"I think multinational companies like to recruit women in China," an ex-pat female senior executive in Beijing explained to me recently. "They are more likely to have the language skills, a cooperative management style, and are enthusiastic about working for foreign firms which are more likely to promote them." That may be why the leadership team I was working with last week was the reverse of what I see in most countries: women outnumbered men.

Most people agree that entrepreneurs have to think differently and take risks to have much chance of building a successful business. Yet I have found that serious entrepreneurs usually go way beyond these platitudes in their actions and thinking, and often won’t volunteer their real views, for fear of alienating “regular” people, and being branded a fanatic.

In his new book “The Entrepreneur Mind,” by serial entrepreneur Kevin D. Johnson, he outlines 100 essential beliefs, insights, and habits of serious entrepreneurs. Most of these are predictable, like think big and create new markets, but I found a few, like the ten below, that will likely raise the hackles of many people outside this lifestyle, and many “wannabe” entrepreneurs.

Have you dreamed of starting your own business but find yourself unsure of how to make the transition from employee to entrepreneur? Melinda Emerson, the Small Biz Lady, joins Brent Leary to share her “Emerson Planning System;” six steps to transition from employee to entrepreneur.

Crowdfunding has proven to be an effective way for small businesses to generate revenue, and the trend is expected to double that success in the next year.

According to the Crowdfunding Industry Report from MassSolution, campaigns raised at least $2.7 billion last year, and that amount should double in the next year. Much of that activity has occurred in Europe and the United States, where bank lending to small businesses has been in decline for a number of years.