It was a day packed with over five consecutive meetings. As I huffed and puffed towards my final destination, meeting up with the private banker of a tech entrepreneur whose achievement badges include his NASDAQ-listed gaming company. It would be a typical investment pitch, like millions of other pitches I had done. The only difference was pitching to a private banker — a career I was going into until I got mesmerized by the tech world. Let’s call him Paul.

Paul was sharp, astute, and surprised me with his knowledge in the startup scene and tech industry. He certainly knew what he was dealing with, and what he was saying. I sat intently, answering him patiently and factually whenever he had questions, at least, until the last quarter of the meeting when Paul asked, “So what is exactly unique about your business? There is no stopping anyone in China to copy whatever you have, in minutes”.

Dan Lyons's provocative question about Why Do American’s Hate Android And Love Apple?, got me to thinking about even larger questions involving my fellow countrymen's relationship to technology.

A.J. Schuler, in his 2003 paper, "Resistance to Change," lays out 10 reasons why people resist change. His first two points may help us understand why we cling to technology that might not be the best for us.

1. The risk of change is seen as greater than the risk of standing still. 
2. People feel connected to other people who are identified with the old way.

Two leading biotechnology companies are competing to be the first to implement cheaper, faster processes for producing drugs inside living cells, making it easier to manufacture human proteins, antibodies, and other medications.

The new approaches will be “disruptively different” says Robert Bradway, the CEO of Amgen, one of the companies pursuing a manufacturing breakthrough. Today’s systems for producing drugs in bacterial or animal cells and then isolating them are hugely expensive and can take months. With more efficient processes in place, companies could swiftly increase production of drugs in high demand, and they could produce medicines for rare diseases more cost-effectively as well.

Michigan Pre-Seed Capital Fund has struck again, investing $1 million into four local start-ups.

The four start-ups include Fusion Coolant Systems, Local Orbit, New Eagle Products, and Seelio. Seelio, New Eagle Products and Local Orbit are based in Ann Arbor. Fusion Coolant Systems was launched in Ypsilanti and is now based in Detroit on the campus of Focus: HOPE.

"The seeds that were planted several years ago are starting to bear fruit," says Skip Simms, senior vice president at Ann Arbor SPARK who oversees the Michigan Pre-Seed Capital Fund. "The ecosystem the state has created has really improved the quality of entrepreneur who is coming to us with better thought-out ideas and products that are further along."

For small companies selling consumer products such as makeup or snack food, a partnership with a big multinational company can mean the difference between obscurity and becoming a household name. How does a small brand get a behemoth’s attention?

CircleUp, a crowdfunding website that connects startup consumer brands with investors, wants to be part of the answer. Today, the company announced a partnership with Procter & Gamble (PG) to get companies on CircleUp in front of P&G executives scouting for new brands. It made a similar deal with General Mills (GIS) last year.

When I heard a friend make the statement “Your startup can’t fail if you don’t quit,” I realized that every entrepreneur should adopt it as their mantra. Pivoting or dealing a new hand is not quitting. If we all repeat this mantra, perhaps we can improve the statistic that over half of new startups fail within five years. Nothing is more discouraging to future entrepreneurs than a failed startup.

Why do most startups fail? There are a thousand reasons listed by pundits across the media, but most of them agree that the number one reason is NOT running out of money. The number one reason is that the founder quits. Of course, they may be quitting because they ran out of money, but good entrepreneurs tell me that running out of money is most often an “excuse” rather than a “reason.”

Why is it a bad idea to be the first and only player in a market? Serial entrepreneur Steve Blank outlines a host of reasons, including limited market opportunity, the expense of defining new markets, and the positioning risk involved in setting the market standard. Blank cautions that it may not be wise to be break new ground, and that safer terrain can be found in the footholds of the "first fast follower."

The sluggish economy has prompted many to consider starting their own businesses. But too often, people are still held back by myths about who’s cut out to be an entrepreneur, says Candida Brush, Chair of the Entrepreneurship Division at Babson College and Director of the Arthur M. Blank Center for Entrepreneurship. “If you pick up almost any magazine, the hero is usually a white male figure: you’re either born Bill Gates or you’re not, and that’s off-putting” to many would-be entrepreneurs. But entrepreneurship can be learned by anyone, she says, and people need to recognize that “you don’t have to do it all by yourself.” Just as Bill Gates had Paul Allen, “Businesses are more successful when they’re started by teams of two or three people. Five people is too many, and one is not enough.”

Welcome to the 2013 Assets & Opportunity Scorecard, the leading source for data on household financial security and policy solutions. To view the data, click on a state above or an issue area below.

Health IT venture capital funding totaled $1.2 billion in 2012, according to a report by communications and consulting firm Mercom Capital Group, Healthcare IT News reports.

The amount is more than 200% higher than 2011's total of $480 million (Miliard, Healthcare IT News, 1/29).

According to the report, 163 health IT venture capital funding deals occurred in 2012, compared with 49 deals in 2011 and 22 deals in 2010 (Mercom report, January 2013).

The concept of higher education has little meaning if ideas aren't constantly bubbling up on campus to change what people think or do. Frequently, however, the adult staff-members and administrators have put themselves in charge of turning most ideas into decisions for the campus, even though it's really the students being served. The use of crowdsourcing within idea generation can turn that tradition on its nose by allowing students to share their ideas, letting other students decide which ones have the most merit, and then implementing the best among them. That's how it works at the University of Virginia, the school founded by Thomas Jefferson in Charlottesville in 1819, currently serving about 21,000 students.

There’s been a flurry of good news for tech companies here in Northeast Ohio. Just last week, The Venture Capital Task Force announced that in 2012, 105 tech-based companies in Greater Cleveland raised $201 million from venture capitalists and angel investors, activity representing a 34 percent increase from 2011. Investors from all across the nation continued to discover the region’s investment opportunities, with 28 out-of-state funds making first-time investments in the region last year. “The breadth and quality of first-time Northeast Ohio investors in 2012 speaks to the region’s growing reputation,” says Lynn-Ann Gries, JumpStart Chief Investment Officer. Since 2007, more than 150 organized equity investors have put money into Northeast Ohio.

At its annual awards event Thursday, Pipeline, the Kansas-based entrepreneurial fellowship program for high-growth entrepreneurs, revealed its new class of fellows. Chosen from what's described as an "extensive selection process," these 13 individuals will work with Pipeline staff, mentors, alumni and one another over the next twelve months to complete the organization's business leadership development program.

The selection of these fellows, as described by Pipeline president and CEO Joni Cobb, is a difficult process. We spoke to Cobb earlier this week for a bit of insight into that process. We asked if the selection committee puts more focus on the entrepreneur or their startup. Her answer: "the primary focus is on the individual."

If innovation were a dress, what would it look like?

Iridescent and remote-controlled — that was the take on a dress Pipeline Inc. CEO Joni Cobb wore Thursday night to the organization’s black-tie event dedicated to entrepreneurship.

Aglow with LED lights, Cobb’s full-length frock drew buzz from a crowd of more than 300 when she walked onto the stage of the Midland Theatre in Kansas City.

At Reebok, the cushioning in a best-selling basketball shoe reflects technology borrowed from intravenous fluid bags. Semiconductor firm Qualcomm's revolutionary color display technology is rooted in the microstructures of the Morpho butterfly's wings. And at IDEO, developers designed a leak-proof water bottle using the technology from a shampoo bottle top.

These examples show how so-called "peripheral" knowledge -- that is, ideas from domains that are seemingly irrelevant to a given task -- can influence breakthrough innovation. "The central idea of peripheral knowledge really resonates," says Wharton management professor Martine Haas. After all, who can't think of examples when ideas that seemed to bear almost no relation to a given problem paid off in some unexpected way? By bringing peripheral knowledge to core tasks, it is well known that work groups can recombine ideas in novel and useful ways. But the problem, Haas notes, is primarily one of attention: How do you get workers focused on a particular task to notice -- and make use of -- seemingly irrelevant information?

Purdue University innovations in research areas including personal health monitoring, advanced diabetes treatment and energy-efficient metal sheet processing, received more than $260,000 in the most recent round of awards through the Trask Innovation Fund.

The Purdue Research Foundation-managed Trask Innovation Fund is a technology development program to assist faculty who have disclosed a discovery to the Purdue Office of Technology Commercialization.

Start by answering these questions:

• Are you in a working environment that drives you nuts?
• Do conditions in your workplace support positive and creative thinking? 
• Are you putting in a whole lot and yet it feels as though you are doing nothing?

Surroundings can have a big impact on your mood, emotions, and productivity. When your office space feels dead and lifeless, you’re employees and customers, not to mention yourself, may also feel dead and lifeless while you’re there.

Create an environment where people enjoy working by following these power packed tips to develop an inspiring workspace:

1. Organize Your Place

As part of the DOE’s SunShot Incubator Program, the Department recently announced the availability of $12 million to accelerate solar energy innovation that reduces manufacturing, installation, and permitting costs for American homes, businesses, and utilities.

The SunShot Incubator Program is an aggressive pay for performance program focused on helping solar startups rapidly refine and commercialize promising, proven technologies and ideas. The program seeks to accelerate the commercialization of solar energy products and solutions that dramatically lower the cost of solar power. 

This new funding opportunity expands on previous Solar Incubator rounds to support both hardware efficiency and soft cost reduction goals, while helping companies transition lab-scale ideas to prototype phases or move early-scale projects to commercial launch.

In response to the increase of growth equity investing, NVCA recently created a new member sub-group to collect and disseminate relevant information and shared practices to its members who are active in this stage of investment. In addition, NVCA’s Growth Equity Group will support members through political advocacy, education and networking opportunities.

All NVCA Member firms that are actively investing in growth equity transactions are encouraged to participate in the activities of this new Member Sub-group.  If you would like more information or would like to receive information about Growth Equity related activities and information, please email Janice Mawson at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

We have a two year rotation program at USV for most of our non partner positions. We hire incredibly talented people, suck them into everything we are doing for two years, and then ask them to leave. The USV alumni group is becoming quite a collection of talent.

For much of last year Christina debated what she was going to do at the end of her stint. We made it even harder on her because we flirted with extending her stay. But at the end of year, she packed up her desk and headed out.