I’ve started a series on negotiations in startups. In it I list some books and also link to some of my previous posts. It’s the first functional series I’ve done since sales & marketing.

The very first time I ever negotiated a term sheet (and then legal docs for closing the round) I found the experience very frustrating. I was desperate to get my funding finalized to derisk my business as well as to get capital in the bank to meet our growing cash needs.

Out in California, Tina Lee asked about the best definition for civic innovation. As someone who has served as a fellow in the City of San Francisco’s Department of Technology Services, Lee has some personal context and interest.

According her tweets, she wants to distill the various definitions available online down to one working definition for educational purposes that would enable her to tease out the skills that are needed for 21st century civic engagement.

This isn’t an anti-entrepreneur rant. It’s also not a piece to discourage anyone from launching their own business. It’s a warning for those who seek to launch their startup to understand some of the lesser-discussed reasons why 99% of new businesses are Dead On Arrival.

As outlined, success is

1) subjective, relative and fluid:

i)                    we define success based on what drives us,

ii)                   but we tend to measure it relative to other people’s success and over time,

iii)                 we convince ourselves to change its definition, revising upwards or downwards, depending on the conditions on the ground.

In the summer of 2010 I caught the startup bug. Some close co-workers and I had day jobs that paid reasonably well but weren’t quite as fulfilling after almost a decade in the same business. We were really tired of using bad CRM in our sales team, and had a good idea of what a sales management app should look like: the trouble was that we all had families and mortgages. So we started looking for ways to bring our software to life.

Nearly two years later Pipedrive is growing 30% or more each month, and we’re almost cashflow positive — all through bootstrapping. Here are some things we learned from our experience:

Don’t quit your day job too soon

I have had more than one request to write more about sustainability and its role in radical management and the emerging Creative Economy.

• Sustainability is important. Obvious? Anyone with common sense would think so, but not necessarily economists. Some years ago, I spent an unfortunate amount of time in the World Bank listening to high-powered practitioners of the dismal science argue against the need to give explicit attention to sustainability. They would say that the use of profitability ratios like ROI and NPV obviate the need to think separately about sustainability. The argument was that all future environmental costs could in principle be incorporated in the various cost and benefit streams of these ratios. The problem here is that environmental and other costs are often not included in the financial calculations of private sector firms at all, Even if they are, the discount rate can reduce to insignificance even catastrophic events like the environmental destruction or loss of whole sectors of the economy. As Clayton Christensen has pointed out, the total reliance on these financial ratios for decision-making has led many a firm to disaster.

There is so much information out there when it comes to venture capitalists. What do you say to them? What is the best way to approach a VC? Will they even care what I have to say?

As our team discusses the process of raising our first angel round, these sites have proved to be an invaluable resource for us. We believe it is always best to hear directly from the source. We did a brief summary of 6 blogs that we read (I am sure we missed some..feel free to suggest other blogs).

Finding venture capital in Silicon Valley has become even more difficult in the last couple of years.

“Venture capitalists (VCs) currently have the luxury of being very selective and have raised the bar in terms of opportunities they are prepared to invest in,” says Tab Borden, Trade Commissioner at the Canadian Consulate General in San Francisco/Silicon Valley.

Borden says beyond the basic requirement that companies have disruptive science or technology (technology that has the potential to change the norm), raising venture capital is really about building relationships.

The heart of a venture capital deal is an exchange of cash today for an obligation to grow the value of your company and eventually find an exit. Hopefully the reason that you raised venture is that value growth and exit were in your plans anyway, in which case the major difference is that once the money is in the bank it becomes much harder to change course, e.g. to run a lifestyle business. In other words, raising venture capital commits you to a path.

If you hit your plan then most likely you won’t want to change tack and raising venture will simply have been an enabler. It will have got you access to cash and other resources that will have helped you build your business. The bigger difference comes if you miss your plan, in which case raising venture will most likely have limited your options you have going forward. When an investment misses plan most VCs will either want to double down and have another go at hitting the original plan or sell early, and they will exert whatever pressure they can to make their preferred option happen. That is their duty to their investors.

Welcome to BioHealth Innovation News, a new Central Maryland e-newsletter focused on bringing to you the latest news and developments in the vibrant biohealth industry. This newsletter is produced and distributed by BioHealth Innovation Inc. (BHI), a new private public partnership whose mission is "to connect market relevant biohealth assets to appropriate funding, management and markets that will result in commercially viable products and companies."

Have you noticed that most people don’t get right to the point in conversation? They ramble on a bit, tell stories, go back and add in a few details, and occasionally wander off on a tangent. Eventually they might get to the point, but not always. And in normal conversation, that’s fine, but in a job interview it’s a disaster — a very common disaster.

A job interview is not a normal conversation, so normal conversational style is held against you when you interview. An interview follows four very different rules than normal conversation.

Leaving Google behind, Dave Girouard is leaving to launch his own startup, backed by Kleiner Perkins, NEA, and Google Ventures.

The company is called Upstart, and it lets you “raise capital in return for a small portion of your future income,” according to the company’s website.

Upstart is aimed at funding people, not companies, VentureBeat has learned. Upstart makes no reference to equity on its site, indicating that it may be thinking of making cash loans to companies, much like a bank makes loans in return for getting paid back with interest — but we were unable to confirm this. Interest rates are extremely low right now, suggesting that many entrepreneurs would consider this a smart strategy. Giving up equity in return for cash is considered one of the most expensive ways to fuel a company’s growth.

During the past 25 years, I've asked more than 10,000 people where and when they get their best ideas. I get all kinds of answers, but the one that has always fascinated me is "the shower" -- maybe because I also get so many of my good ideas there.

And so, at the risk of overstating my case, I hereby offer you 20 reasons WHY the shower is so conducive to new ideas.

The Ben Franklin Technology Development Authority (BFTDA) approved $3.15 million in funding for five University Research Commercialization Program grants to support energy, advanced materials and nanotechnology research and development activities.

"The support the commonwealth provides to our universities, researchers and entrepreneurs is often that last piece of the puzzle needed to take new products to market, build new companies, and create high-paying jobs," said Department of Community and Economic Development Secretary C. Alan Walker. "With continued growth in early-stage and established technology firms, Pennsylvania can become a world leader in accelerating and supporting innovation."

Innovation has always been linked with huge financial and time investment. In the modern business environment, innovation rules the roost. Companies that fail to innovate rarely survive. However, advances in technology have made innovation easier, a far cry from the traditional notions of innovation as a financially and time consuming endeavor.

With open innovation, any business can stay competitive and successful. How can SMEs leverage open innovation?

Legislation that would make it easier for small businesses to get capital is in danger of dying in the Senate after sailing through the House last week.

The Jumpstart Our Business Startups Act passed the House by a 390-23 vote. President Barack Obama endorsed it. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid agreed to bring it up quickly in the Senate.

So things seemed to be looking good for the JOBS Act, which would do the following:

The next time you begin to feel a little worn thin, keep in mind these tips from Forbes.

Schedule many regular micro-breaks.

Build 5, 5-minute breaks into every day. Stress accumulates in your body, your mind, and in your work. Taking care of your self also takes care of your work.

Give yourself permission to regroup.

Human organs made-to-order in a laboratory using one's own stem cells, the ability to conquer heart disease by 'switching off' genes responsible for it, low-cost housing that can be 'printed' with just a click of the mouse, robotic blood cells swimming across your body to keep it fit. All this is not just science fiction but in the realm of possibility.

Inventor, author and futurist Ray Kurzweil predicts that many of these technologies, which have passed 'proof of concept' stage, will become mainstream and commercial in 10 to 15 years.

One has to take Ray's word because most of the predictions - such as emergence of a worldwide web of communications - made by him 25 years ago have indeed come true.

Led by the University of Massachusetts Medical School, the state’s public university system raked in $40 million in licensing fees in 2010.

The UMass system ranked 13th among 183 institutions participating in the 20th annual survey of licensing fee revenues by the Association of University Technology Managers. This was the second consecutive year UMass placed in the top 15. UMass was one of only two New England universities in the top 15, with MIT. The 2010 data are the latest available.

For good or ill, unreasonable individuals run things. They are the ones who care the most, shout loudest, want it more and get their way — in politics, in life and in business.

Entrepreneurs are very much of that breed: They are more stubborn, more radical, resilient, manic — more intense than Joe Average. I know, for I have spent 30 years trying to cope with them as business partners.

All that energy and ambition create new companies, great innovations and material progress. But inevitably it comes at a price. And often that price is paid by those around them — in particular, their spouses and families.

D M C

ד ו נ י צ ה    ת ק ש ו ר ת

www.donitza.co.il

NanoIsrael 2012 (held on March 26th-27th, 2012) to Highlight Alternative Energy, Nano-materials, Nano-bio, Nano-medicine and Nano-electronics

NanoIsrael 2012, the 3rd international conference & exhibition, which will be held on March 26th-27th, 2012, at the Tel–Aviv David Intercontinental Hotel, Israel, will focus this year on innovations and business opportunities in the fields of energy, water, environment, Nano–materials, Nano–electronics, Nano–photonics, Nano–bio and Nano–medicine. The event, is expected to draw 1,000 participants from Israel and around the world, including Nano related companies, venture capital experts, institutional and organisational investors, regulators, government decision makers, leading scientists and researchers.

"Israel is recognised asa centre for innovation and research in Nanotechnology, with documented achievements across many business sectors such as energy, water and the environment, aerospace and defence, medicine and biotechnology, electronics and communications" says Nava Swersky Sofer, the conference co–chair. "Top researchers from around the world will come to Israel to share their knowledge, the best of Israel’s achievements in science and business, will be presented and potential investors and business partners will attend the event to seek collaborations”.

NanoIsrael 2012 is organised by Kenes Exhibitions , which also organizes the "BioMed Israel Week", in cooperation with INNI – the Isreal National Nanotechnology Initiative – and the nano–technology centres in the different universities and is supported by the Israel Ministry of Industry Trade and Labour and Israel the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

The conference site: http://www2.kenes.com/nano/pages/home.aspx

Commercializing technologies – This is what will stand out in this year Israel’s NanoIsrael 2012 conference: