RIM cofounder Mike Lazaridis has spent more than $250 million to establish a new tech hub in . . . Waterloo, Ontario?

Mike Lazaridis will admit that Waterloo, Ontario, is not often confused with Silicon Valley. It has no ocean beaches nearby. It has fewer Teslas and private jets. It gets substantial amounts of snow, and people there talk more about hockey than angel investors. Above all, Waterloo, located roughly 70 miles west of Toronto, is not a place that comes to mind when you mull the future of technology.

Ben Horowitz, one half of Andreessen Horowitz, was the top billing for the opening of the annual DLD event which started in Munich on Sunday. His engaging presentation essentially shot down the idea of the wisdom of the crowds, at least as a way of suggesting investment opportunities, by suggesting that the ideas worth investing in are often those that look the most insane.

22 January 2013 -- Venture capital firm SR One has launched “OneStart,” its first business plan competition, in association with Oxbridge Biotech Roundtable and Stevenage Bioscience Catalyst. OneStart is designed to inspire and encourage its participants to become the next generation of European bio- entrepreneurs. The £100,000 winner-takes-all prize will be the largest of its kind in the world. Uniquely, OneStart will actively connect individuals from a range of institutions and backgrounds. OneStart is open to aspiring life science entrepreneurs age 35 and younger who are studying or working in Europe. The competition will be run in stages and cover four tracks: drug discovery, medical devices, diagnostics and health information technology. The competition will team up those who have developed a technology or idea, such as academics, with individuals who have complementary backgrounds and skills, e.g. business school students, or young professionals from pharma or biotech.

The University City Science Center kicked off its 50th anniversary year with three new life sciences companies taking space in its Port business incubator. Despite the three companies all having a focus in the life sciences, healthcare, or medtech, each came to the Port with different needs. DoseCue, formerly a virtual resident of the Port, has taken space at 3711 Market St., Philadelphia, PA; Biomated Solutions is occupying a lab space in the Port’s Hubert J. P. Schoemaker Lab at 3624 Market St.; and Znetics has taken residence in the Bullpen, the Port’s co-working space also located at 3711 Market St.

After three years as a virtual resident of the Port, DoseCue has established a physical presence at the Science Center. With the goal of improving patient compliance and treatment outcomes by automatically prompting patients at the dose time of their medication, DoseCue hopes to improve patient health and to reduce healthcare costs, significantly, due to non-resolution or recurrence. DoseCue's product offers brand differentiation to pharmaceutical manufacturers, while offsetting the costs of low medication compliance.

OLATHE — The Kansas Bioscience Authority committed more than $1.6 million Tuesday to help companies expand or open operations in the state. One grant went to HylaPharm, a Lawrence drug company led by two Kansas University professors.

The KBA board voted to award up to $1 million in funding to SynTech Research Laboratory Services to open a facility in Stilwell; $400,000 to PRA International to move a training program to its existing facility in Lenexa; and $200,000 to HylaPharm to help with the development of new cancer drugs.

What’s the next big thing? There’s a good chance someone on this list is either starting it or funding it. The investors below have been a there as founders or investors for many of the companies that have shaped the internet  like Amazon, eBay, AOL, Paypal, Facebook, Twitter, Google and many more. These investors have had incredible success and are major players in the tech industry.

Even if you never have the opportunity to work with them they can provide you with incredible insight into the tech world as well as provide an unlimited amount of knowledge and expertise for achieving whatever you want.

BioHealth Innovation Inc., a nonprofit that seeks to commercialize technology in the biotech and healthcare fields, could open an accelerator for health information technology startups this year.

Co-located in Rockville and in Baltimore, BioHealth wants the accelerator to serve entrepreneurs and small businesses in central Maryland. Upon board approval, the organization plans to identify a location by the first quarter of this year and have it operational by the fourth quarter.  

“We are evaluating it. We believe there is a need for one. We know there is interest,” BioHealth President and CEO Richard Bendis says. 

Many startups begin with a nugget of technology, says Glenn Egan, vice-president at BDC Venture Capital. To transform it into a product that will generate revenue, entrepreneurs must find ways to displace vendors of existing technologies or discover new markets and products where it can be applied.

To move a technological discovery from the lab to the marketplace, entrepreneurs first need to focus on its unique aspects, Mr. Egan says. “This allows a broader view of how the technology may be applied.”

A realistic evaluation of its potential helps identify the market segment where the greatest value will be recognized to give the entrepreneur the best chance for success. “This is important because a high-value proposition normally translates into a high price and very good margins, and that’s what small companies need to fuel their growth.”

It isn’t just athletes who fail to live up to their early potential--if you are a “high draft choice” in life, you have responsibility to focus your gifts. Here are some tips on doing just that, from Bing Gordon of Kleiner Perkins Caulfied & Byers.

One of my pleasures is watching and helping younger people develop from high potentials into young leaders. Former NHL hockey player and Wayne Gretzky's one-time roommate Geoff Courtnall once told me that the formula for winning the Stanley Cup was an equal measure of veterans who deliver and emerging rookies who overachieve. I believe that most healthy organizations, like hockey teams, need the excitement and energy of youth.

In ice hockey, as in life, hall of fame careers usually start fast. Wayne Gretzky was the NHL MVP at age 19, and Bill Gates, the Gretzky of software, founded Microsoft at age 20. If you are a “high draft choice” in life, you have some responsibility to focus your gifts. It isn’t just athletes who fail to live up to their early potential.

“The mind is like a parachute. It doesn’t work if it is not open.” – Frank Zappa

Being an entrepreneur doesn’t just mean you’ve started a company, it means you’ve set out to begin a conquest of success, failure, and overcoming your fears.

One of the most important lessons I have learned is that you must think differently to become a successful entrepreneur. My largest struggle, when developing and creating ideas, has been to maintain a positive attitude and to stay focused on my vision for the longevity of the project.

Many think that “successful” people of this world have created their lifestyles because they were given more opportunities than others or they just have an extra bit of “luck.” This is a sad misconception in society and is simply not true. The thing that people need to understand about being an entrepreneur is that you have to think differently than the rest of society. You have to modify your thoughts away from life’s daily obstacles to the future you want and the solutions you want to create in your life.  You have to release all negativity towards others and yourself and focus on the positive aspects of life. As you turn your thoughts from negative to positive, your life begins to transform and the world begins to open up to you.

Funding is an integral part of getting your startup off the ground.  Last year, the rise of crowdfunding and a decline in venture capital investments opened new doors of possibilities for small businesses.  Here are some trends that will influence the funding environment for 2013:

When serial entrepreneur Mike Hooven founded the medical device startup AtriCure in November 2000, Cincinnati was considered to be a swerve of the wheel for venture capitalists located on the coasts. In fact, some would say it was hardly even on the map.

Today, AtriCure is one of the region's success stories. The company has over 200 employees and more than $50 million in annual revenue, having benefited from first-mover advantage on its FDA-approved Synergy Ablation System. The device treats atrial fibrillation, a problem that affects two million people in the United States and can lead to congestive heart failure and stroke.

In many ways, AtriCure is a success story that emerged from Cincinnati's diverse, teeming health care ecosystem. When Hooven left a job at Johnson and Johnson in 1994 to create his own company, Enable Medical Corporation, he was able to tap the expertise of people he'd worked with at Ethicon. He received support from Cincinnati Children's Hospital, Ohio Third Frontier and the Cleveland Clinic.

Venture capitalists are betting that technology will play a major role in fixing a broken U.S. educational system. Accel Partners, Spectrum Equity and Meritech Capital Partners put their chips down last week with a $103 million investment in Lynda.com, which sells monthly subscriptions for training videos in business, technology and creative skills.

The investment was so important for Accel that the global firm was willing to woo the online education company for four years. For Lynda.com, which topped $100 million in revenue last year, the outside investment was the first in its 18 years of operation.

In 1953, Cambridge researchers Watson and Crick published a paper describing the interweaving ‘double helix’ DNA structure – the chemical code for all life.

Now, in the year of that scientific landmark’s 60th Anniversary, Cambridge researchers have published a paper proving that four-stranded ‘quadruple helix’ DNA structures – known as G-quadruplexes – also exist within the human genome. They form in regions of DNA that are rich in the building block guanine, usually abbreviated to ‘G’.

The findings mark the culmination of over 10 years investigation by scientists to show these complex structures in vivo – in living human cells – working from the hypothetical, through computational modelling to synthetic lab experiments and finally the identification in human cancer cells using fluorescent biomarkers.

There are a couple of fundamental questions at the bottom of Washington's ongoing battles over deficits and debt: (1) How big should the U.S. government to be? and (2) How should we pay for it? The answers to both will ultimately have to be political ones — messy calculations based on who pays, who benefits, who votes, and who makes the campaign contributions. But it would be nice to know what the economics are, wouldn't it?

It turns out economists have lots of theories of optimal government spending and optimal taxation. This isn't the same as saying they have reliable or consistent answers. As one critic wrote of Robert Lucas's American Economic Association presidential address on economic growth in 2003, in which the Nobel laureate cited several studies showing dramatic welfare gains from hypothetical tax cuts in France and the U.S.:

District-based Acceleprise, a business accelerator program for companies that sell technology or services to other companies or organizations, is expanding in an effort to serve more start-ups and raise its national profile.

Started last spring, the program is the brainchild of managing partner Sean Glass and partners Allen Gannett and Collin Gutman. In addition to a $30,000 investment, participating start-ups spend several months honing business models and products at the Acceleprise office.

At the start of every year, I create a list of quotes to guide and inspire me for the next 12 months. Here are the quotes I've selected for 2013:

"Cherish your visions and your dreams as they are the children of your soul, the blueprints of your ultimate achievements." Napoleon Hill

"The key to success is to focus our conscious mind on things we desire not things we fear." Brian Tracy

"Success is getting what you want. Happiness is wanting what you get." Dale Carnegie

"Obstacles are necessary for success because in selling, as in all careers of importance, victory comes only after many struggles and countless defeats." Og Mandino

Two liquids that turn into a solid foam after being injected into the body may one day save the lives of injured soldiers and wounded civilians by slowing internal bleeding so that they can make it to a hospital. The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency awarded Arsenal Medical a $15.5 million grant in December to further develop the foam technology, which would be delivered to a wounded soldier through the belly button.

Currently, battlefield medics and paramedics have no tools to stop internal bleeding before an injured person reaches a hospital. “The only thing you can do for that is get to the hospital as soon as possible,” says David King, a trauma surgeon at Massachusetts General Hospital and a co-investigator on the foam project. King, who has served as a military doctor in both Iraq and Afghanistan, says death in these military contexts from uncontrolled internal bleeding is a “regular and routine occurrence.”

Q: When building a financial projection model for a pitch to VC’s, should you include future rounds of funding in the model or simply show what measurable goal you are trying to achieve with the current round you are seeking?

A (Brad): It depends on the stage of the company. But first, it’s important to understand how a VC is going to look at your projections in the first place.

• Early and pre-revenue: Investors are going to be most interested in your near term burn rate and how long their money is going to last. Focus on putting this information front and center – don’t hide it. Recognize that your revenue is totally speculative so the “base case” is going to be zero revenue. 
• First product in the market, < $100k / month of revenue: Revenue matters here and the projections out into the second and third year will give a good indication of how you are thinking about the ramp of your business. However, if your revenue is modest, a smart investor is going to look at your gross margin also. If you are a recurring revenue business, the month-over-month growth – both of revenue and gross margin, is going to be important.

My daughter Maia and a couple of friends decided to start a card making company. Of course, they immediately hit me up for some business.

I appreciate an entrepreneurial spirit, so I bought a few cards – and MWM Card Shop was born.

I've been her first client in a variety of business endeavors, so I was surprised when my completed cards came in a folder complete with a typed invoice.

I was further surprised when I called her phone and heard a voicemail greeting for "Maia with MWM Card Shop." And I was downright shocked when she and her friends sent me an email to schedule a "phone conference to discuss creating a website at my convenience."