“WHEN your heart stops beating, you’ll keep tweeting” is the reassuring slogan greeting visitors at the Web site for LivesOn, a soon-to-launch service that promises to tweet on your behalf even after you die. By analyzing your earlier tweets, the service would learn “about your likes, tastes, syntax” and add a personal touch to all those automatically composed scribblings from the world beyond.

LivesOn may yet prove to be a parody, or it may fizzle for any number of reasons, but as an idea it highlights the dominant ideology of Silicon Valley today: what could be disrupted should be disrupted — even death.

Barriers and constraints — anything that imposes artificial limits on the human condition — are being destroyed with particular gusto. Superhuman, another mysterious start-up that could enliven any comedy show, promises to offer, as its co-founder recently put it, an unspecified service that “helps people be superhuman.” Well, at least they had the decency not to call it The Übermensch.

On a recent business trip to China, I was automatically assumed to be an interpreter or assistant because I was helping with communication on both sides. I had to assert myself and remind my colleagues that I, too, had original thoughts to contribute. This small example shines light on the issue of how Asian women are often perceived. We are seen as competent and hard-working, partly due to stereotypes, but not necessarily powerful or influential. In fact, projecting an image of power can invoke some resentment and cause discomfort. A man I once supervised admitted to me that he was not used to having a woman as manager. At least he was honest, which made it easier to work out the problem.

With celebrity status, thanks in part to programmes like Dragon's Den and The Apprentice, entrepreneurs have become a byword for wealth and glamour.

But we're not all going to be the next Richard Branson. Starting up a business requires certain character traits without which there is no point even considering it as a career option. At the New Entrepreneurs Foundation I meet hundreds of successful entrepreneurs, many of whom are household names. There are certain qualities they have in common and which you will need – or at least have the potential to develop – if you want to succeed.

If you plan to sell anything online, having an e-commerce plan is as important as your original business plan.

The first step in writing an e-business plan is to decide what kind of experience you want your online customers to have. Think not only about today but also two and five years down the road.

Your e-commerce plans starts with website goals. Who are your target customers? What do they need? Are they getting information only, or can they buy products at your site? These key questions, asked and answered early, will determine how much time and money you'll need to develop and maintain an online presence.

Two years ago, it seemed as though Groupon's Andrew Mason could do no wrong. With an unorthodox resume -- he earned a degree in music from Northwestern University -- and an offbeat leadership style, he founded and led the Chicago-based daily deals site to an impressive IPO, with a $12.7 billion valuation. All in a span of three short years. But the era of Mason as Groupon's CEO ended yesterday, and an interim leadership team is taking over as the company searches for a new chief executive.

In a memo to employees, Mason was bluntly honest about his dismissal. "If you're wondering why I'm leaving," he told them, "you haven't been paying attention. From controversial metrics in our S1 to our material weakness to two quarters of missing our own expectations and a stock price that's hovering around one quarter of our listing price, the events of the last year and a half speak for themselves. As CEO, I am accountable."

Doha, March 2nd , 2013: Enterprise Qatar announced a new strategic partnership with TechWadi to launch a "Technology Incubator" during a workshop held last week in the Four Seasons Hotel - Doha. Major stakeholders with interest in technology and research participated in the workshop.

Representatives from The Qatar National Research Fund, Qatar Computing Research Institute, The General Secretariat for Development Planning, ICT Qatar, Qatar Foundation, Selatech, Qatar Science and Technology Park, Qatar First Investment Bank, Al Jazeera, Microfsoft, I Horizon, Qatar University and Carnegie Mellon Qatar University have also attended the workshop.

Like many leaders I feel like I am becoming a hiring expert. Between building my own organization and serving on multiple search committees, I have spent a lot of time thinking about hiring and developing talent. That’s a good thing, because there’s nothing more crucial to the success of an organization than bringing the right people on board and encouraging their growth, especially if you consider a bad hire could cost you tens of thousands of dollars.

So what makes you good at hiring? You need to know who you are as an organization, what you want from your employees, and what process determines if a candidate is a good fit.

NEW GLOUCESTER, ME – In order for the country’s healthcare system to survive in the next few years with more insured patients under the Affordable Care Act (ACA) and less funding and reimbursements, every healthcare provider is going to have no choice but to make innovative changes and involve patients in the care process. So said longtime health IT advocate C. Peter Waegemann, founder of the now-defunct Medical Records Institute, during a webinar Thursday.

During the webinar, Waegemann described what he believes to be a healthcare “tsunami” headed toward the healthcare system. He suggested 10 steps healthcare providers can take now in order to bring measurable benefits in efficiency and cost to the system.

Feeling frustrated with your career? You’re not alone. A recent discussion in Connect: Professional Women Network, powered by Citi asked for advice on what to do when you feel stuck. The comments quickly revealed that if someone wasn’t currently unhappy in her career, she’d been there at some point before.

Feeling stuck in your career can manifest itself in various forms — being disinterested in your work or not challenged by your job are some warning signs. So how do you turn things around once you decide you’re ready for a change?

So much to say, so little time to say it.

That’s one of the predicaments entrepreneurs face when they go into a meeting with a potential VC investor.What information should be included in a pitch deck? What questions should founders be prepared to answer? What aspects of the business don’t investors need to know about when they’re considering an investment?

To find out, the Ohio Venture Association put microphones in the hands of Mark Kvamme of Drive Capital, Mike Stubler of Draper Triangle Ventures and Steve Haynes of Glengary as they listened to a mock pitch at its Eighth Venture Capital Summit on Friday. As Intelligent Mobile Support’s John Steidley gave his presentation, they interjected with questions, suggestions and praises and answered questions from the audience during the pitch.

The nonprofit sector is facing a massive talent shortage, which makes scaling a social enterprise extraordinarily difficult. To achieve impact, it's critical that social entrepreneurs attract, retain, and develop skilled talent. Competing directly with the private sector to do so is not only a good idea; it's a necessity for the best organizations to succeed.

As the head of Year Up, a social enterprise that has grown rapidly since 2001 (we have a 49% average annual growth rate in students served), I'd like to share what I've learned about going head to head with for-profit enterprises to secure the best talent. Year Up is empowering urban young adults with the skills, experience, and support to move them from poverty to professional careers in one year. We've been able to bring in and keep the right people by focusing on our mission, paying competitively, getting occasional help from professional recruiters, and ruthlessly focusing on talent development.

Despite making up more than half of U.S. degree earners and roughly half of the U.S. workforce, women comprise less than one-quarter of STEM (science technology engineering and mathematics) professionals.

According to the U.S. Department of Commerce, women's share of STEM jobs has not increased over the past decade, despite the demographic's rise in college degrees.

This Women's History Month (March), we're celebrating the innumerable contributions from women toward today's tech landscape. Women have created computer programming languages, changed the way we connect on social networks and innovated in the e-commerce space.

The just-opened Mayo Clinic Business Accelerator is already bursting at the seams with companies, including some promising local startups.

"Being in the Accelerator is great for a young, virtual company like us. It gives a chance to interact with venture capitalists and network with other businesses," says Dr. John Burnett Jr.,who with Dr. Horng Chen founded Zumbro Discovery just a few weeks ago. "And it is just a short walk from our lab."

Crowdfunding can be a relatively simple, quick way to raise capital to fund a new venture but what many startup entrepreneurs don’t know could hurt them.

Many crowdfunding campaigns entail perks for those who invest money into projects. It could be copies of an album you wish to record, tickets to the film you’re planning to shoot or samples of a product your burgeoning company intends to produce. The problem is that when you take money in exchange for an item, you could be subject to sales tax.

I’ve always said that startups are all about execution. Sometimes I encounter self-proclaimed entrepreneurs who have been “thinking” about a concept for many years, and haven’t started yet. Some of these may be visionaries, but none are real entrepreneurs - yet. Richard Branson has started over 400 companies, and is worth about $4.2 billion, so I doubt if he spent too much time thinking about any one of them.

Great entrepreneurs live by the principles discussed by Leonard A. Schlesinger, President of Babson College, in his book titled “Action Trumps Everything” which he wrote in conjunction with friends Charlie Kiefer and Paul Brown. In it he explains how the power of entrepreneurial action helps people create what they want in an uncertain world.

There's always a defect, always a slow drip, somewhere. Every plan, every organization, every venture has a glitch.

The question isn't, "is this perfect?" The question is, "will this get me there?"

While San Francisco's Mission Bay biotech cluster represents a transformation of an entire neighborhood — from rail yards to life sciences ecosystem — Connie John's Bioscience Laboratories a short walk away is trying the same thing on a smaller scale.

The 7-year-old Third Street incubator, located in the former MJB Coffee Co. building, is unknowingly passed by thousands of baseball fans as they hustle through SoMa to San Francisco Giants games. A dozen young life sciences companies — including Universal BioMining, which is training bacteria to extract metals in space, and Avalanche Biotechnologies, which is in a mid-stage clinical trial with a treatment for a blinding eye disease — call the 6,000 square feet that John leases as their shared home.

Dawn of the Innovation Age

Urban America currently accounts for almost one-fifth of the world’s GDP, but our cities are entering an era of unprecedented competition in the ever more global, knowledge-based economy. Population demographics are also no longer working in America’s favor. If our communities are to thrive, they need to be great places. We must design new incubators of creativity and reconfigure our cities to attract top talent with transformational spaces.

Amid diminishing resources and public health challenges, this is the time to seize unique opportunities. The American Institute of Architects’ Cities as a Lab initiative aims to tap the power of design to foster innovation and meet Americans' changing needs. In 2013 its insights, case studies, and partnerships will offer policy and design solutions for buildings and neighborhoods that help to grow jobs, attract investment, and build next-generation economies.

Majoring in Computer Science is a good way to jump start a career in the app developing business. Attending one of the top universities in the world will certainly help secure a great job with companies that develop some of the hottest apps around. We combed through U.S. News 2012 Best Computer Science schools in the world and came up with this top 10 list.

Richard Bendis will be a speaker at the South by Southwest (SXSW) Conference which takes place from March 8-17 in Austin, Texas. SXSW is a set of film, interactive, and music festivals which occur every year in March. Mr. Bendis will be speaking on March 9th at a session titled "Entrepreneurs in Residence: Not Just for VCs." In his presentation, Richard will introduce the BioHealth Innovation, Inc. EIR program and speak about some of the commercialization challenges being addressed creatively by the biohealth community in Maryland.