You’re 17, 18 or maybe 19 years old. You’ve graduated high school and it’s time to make the decision about which university you’d like to attend. Choice made, you sign up for classes and start going to a school to which you pay an extraordinary amount of money to essentially teach yourself everything that you couldn’t understand in the lecture hall.

Then one day, the question comes to mind — “Should I just drop out?” It’s the same question that many have asked for years before you and many will continue to ask long after you’re gone. Sadly, there’s no true answer in one direction or another, but at least the waters are becoming a bit more clear…or at least that’s the intention, as noble as it might be.

The average public university (in the US) is going to set you back nearly $80,000 for a 4-year program. Going to private school? Up that cost to in excess of $150,000 depending on the school of choice. At the end of that time, you have a bellybutton. Oh sure, you might have a piece of paper that says you have a Bachelor of Science or Art degree but what you actually have is something that has become so ubiquitous that it’s really not worth much more than the lint inside your own navel.

Anyone who meets Freada Kapor Klein will quickly realize she puts the passion in compassion.

Freada sent her son to the top high school in the nation, Phillips Academy in Andover. When she discovered the school had filled its allotted seats for low income minority students to attend its outstanding summer program, MS2 (math, science squared), she decided to do something about it. Alongside her husband, Mitchell Kapor (Designer of Lotus 1-2-3), and her friends Christina Feeney and Cedric Brown (CEO, Mitchell Kapor Foundation), Freada set out on a mission eight years ago that resulted in the formation of the Level Playing Field Institute and the SMASH Academy (Summer Math and Science Honors).

Today, the SMASH program hosts 100 percent students of color and boasts 100 percent college acceptance. Additionally, 73 percent of students pursue STEM fields (science, technology, engineering and math). SMASH provides a blueprint that high schools and colleges across the nation can use to cultivate collaborative curricula that addresses the entrepreneurial and workforce needs of the 21st century Innovation Economy.

Dr. Janice Presser, CEO, The Gabriel Institute

Last week I was on the panel for the opening session of the Society for Information Management's CIO Forum & Executive IT Summit, near Philadelphia. There was a whole lot of IT talent in one big room - but more importantly, I'll bet there were a lot of leadership team members in the crowd who aren't appreciated nearly as much as they should be.

It may seem odd, but even at the 'C-level', some executives are 'insiders' and some are not. During the past decade or two, many IT leaders (along with HR leaders) have found themselves left out of key decisions, even when they clearly could have provided relevant - even essential - business insights. Finding that this is still true gave me a flashback to the time when getting 'a seat at the table' was something I really craved. Happily for me, I get to pick where I sit these days, and my special chair (petite, like me) is usually at the head. But it isn't about 'the table' any more. It's about the team.

I like IT, and I value IT people a lot. Years ago, before we developed the interlocking behavioral simulators that generate our product (TGI Role-Based Assessment reports), it would take us about 11 hours to produce a single report. Today, the reports are ready almost instantly, and they are delivered automatically to boot! The fact is, we wouldn't even have a marketable product today were it not for the truly gifted developer who created the simulators from my very crude design. That project alone took 8 1/2 years.

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Students need to know more than business theory to ace an entrepreneurship program at the University of Missouri-Kansas City.

They need to actually start a business with the potential for expansion.

Seven students are marketing an implantable wireless monitoring service for dog owners and their veterinarians. Two students are automating work for attorneys. One student is creating a web service for businesses to create, share and complete forms.

This spring, those students were among 32 who were part of the first class graduating from the E Scholars Program run through the university's Henry W. Bloch School's Institute for Entrepreneurship and Innovation. Henry Bloch, co-founder of tax preparation company H&R Block, was part of the clapping crowd.

The latest post in www.sramanamitra.com, at the time of writing, is about a free online strategy roundtable ‘for entrepreneurs looking to discuss positioning, financing, and other aspects of a start-up venture,' held on May 5.

“We strongly recommend that you address the following items in your roundtable pitch: (1) A validated customer value proposition; (2) Detailed segmentation analysis and target customer definition at a fairly granular level; (3) A customer acquisition strategy that is pragmatic; and (4) We also recommend that you present a succinct summary of whatever customer validation work you have done. Your roundtable pitch should be no more than three minutes, and consist of four slides…” reads the guidance from Sramana Mitra, founder of One Million by One Million, US (http://bit.ly/F4TSramana).

Earlier this week I issued a report about the positive changes that have recently taken place in the venture capital industry. These changes are profound and will have a lasting effect on both the venture capital asset class as well as today’s start-ups.

Much has been written about the so-called “golden age” of venture capital in the late 1990s dot-com era, when the likes of Netscape, Yahoo, Amazon and eBay were created.

Yes, those certainly were great times for founders and early stage investors, but I will let you in on a little secret: for all of the brilliance, ambition and hard work that went into building these iconic companies, the vast majority of the capital appreciation in these businesses took place only after they went public.

ALL right, class, here’s your homework assignment: Devise an app. Get people to use it. Repeat.

That was the task for some Stanford students in the fall of 2007, in what became known here as the “Facebook Class.”

No one expected what happened next.

The students ended up getting millions of users for free apps that they designed to run on Facebook. And, as advertising rolled in, some of those students started making far more money than their professors.

I’ve been getting at least one invitation a day to speak on at a conference or on a panel. My general rule is to only say yes when it intersects with my travel, if it is for an organization I’m already involved in or a person I want to support, or if it’s in a place I’m interested in visiting. When invited, I typically end up getting asked to give a keynote, be interviewed on stage, or be part of a panel. I enjoy the first two and hate the last one.

Fred Wilson and I were both on an email thread today from a good friend of ours asking us to be on a panel with him at an event in November. Based on my rules above, I said “yes, if it’s really important to you.” Fred had a better answer:

“i have a no panels rule.
i am trying like hell to enforce it.
panels are awful and should be eliminated from planet earth.”

As an entrepreneur, it’s never too early to start selling yourself and your idea. I hear lots of excuses from startup founders, like “I’m too busy,” concern over IP security, can’t afford an agency, and it’s too early. The result is they get no feedback, no credibility, no visibility, and no investors until months later than they expect.

I’m definitely not lobbying here for promising things you can’t deliver, or hiring a publicist before your first programmer. I’m talking about doing some real networking to test your elevator pitch, and get to know some potential investors before you ask them for money. How about talking to some real customers to see if they are as excited about your idea as you are?

There's a lot of talk about the need for more entrepreneurs in SA. There's also a perception that many would-be entrepreneurs simply lack the funds to take their business idea to the streets.

While raising seed capital may be a legitimate bugbear for some, it seems there are plenty of opportunities for small businesses to access finance, provided the business idea is strong enough - and that's where most entrepreneurs need to apply more effort, experts say.

Allon Raiz, CEO of Raizcorp, said the entrepreneur's need for money was often a myth. "Many small business owners tend to default to that view. But I think what you really need is paying customers; many businesses overlook customers as a source of income. It's important to make money."

One tried-and-true innovation trick is to look for analogies. When you feel like you're working on an intractable problem, find someone who has already solved the problem, but in a different context. Apply their learning to your situation, and see where it takes you.

Let's practice by using this approach on the act of innovation itself. What do innovators do? At a basic level, they transform a blank piece of paper into a successful growth business. Can you think of anyone else who faces the same challenge? Architects would seem to fit the bill.

Think about how architects approach the blank-sheet-of-paper challenge. They don't just start by building a business. Instead they sketch or create physical or computer models to bring their ideas to life. The design community calls this "rapid prototyping."

Every entrepreneur wants to know how they can improve their odds on the road to success, and why some entrepreneurs seem to be able to squeeze success out of even a marginal business case. Most experts agree that is has lot to do with your level of passion, determination, and innovation, modulated by a strong focus on reality, common sense, and street smarts.

John Bradberry, in his new book “6 Secrets To Startup Success” explores many of these attributes, especially passion, and defines some useful principles to help enthusiastic entrepreneurs squeeze the most out of their passion, while not being trapped by it.

What are the secret ingredients needed to transform a city or region into a hotspot in the green economy?

Necessity can be a primary driving force. In 1974, in the wake of the first oil embargo, Japan embarked on Project Sunshine to create a solar industry and promote efficiency. Brazil’s ethanol industry launched around same time for the same reasons.

Israel has become a leader in drip irrigation, desalination, sustainable development and drought-resistant agriculture because of its environment. Approximately 93 percent of the country’s land mass consists of “dry lands” that receive 600 millimeters of rain or less a year; as a result, the country remains a leader in drip irrigation, desalination, sustainable development and drought-resistant agriculture.

Scott Case strolled into the Nashville Entrepreneur Center this morning in a pair of red, white and blue Converse sneakers. Each shoe was embroidered down the heel: One said “startup,” the other “America.”

It’s that pair of kicks that illustrates Case’s charge as CEO of the Startup America Partnership, a private-sector alliance launched by the White House in January to celebrate and accelerate entrepreneurship.

To Michael Cleare, executive director of Penn’s Center for Technology Transfer (CTT), it’s not enough that the University is a hotbed of scientific research. If all that knowledge is to be truly meaningful, it must make its way off campus.

“Penn is one of the biggest receivers of federal research funding in the country, so we have a massive responsibility to be diligent in translating that technology into opportunities in the outside world,” says Cleare. “It’s nice to push back the frontiers of science, but it’s even nicer if you can get that knowledge used to make a difference.”

One of the ways Cleare and his colleagues are making this happen is through UPStart, Penn’s business incubator at the CTT, currently celebrating its one-year anniversary. 
“There’s a pool of entrepreneurs-in-waiting here at Penn, and what we’ve created is a way for them to launch companies around their own work,” says John Swartley, CTT’s deputy  executive director.

Last week in Alexandria, VA, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Office of Grants and Acquisition Policy and Accountability (OGAPA) recognized the National Institutes of Health's Commercialization Assistance Program (and its Niche Assessment Program) for a special "team" recognition award for superior efforts to assist over 600 companies in bringing their applications to market and "contributing to public health." The award was made at the 2011 Acquisition, Grants, and Small Business Symposium. CEO Rohit Shukla was present and recognized as part of the team. The two-day symposium also highlighted various aspects of the acquisition, grants, and small business planning process to enrich stakeholder and customer knowledge.

The Pipeline Fund Fellowship (PFF) recently hosted an all-day conference to educate, train and empower women on how to become angel investors. Founded by 85 Broad member Natalia Oberti Noguera, PFF’s mission is to diversify the investor pool and connect women social entrepreneurs with investors. (See ForbesWoman’s December 2010 q&a with Oberti Noguera here.)

PFF was launched to address the lack of gender diversity in the venture capital investment world and the lack of funding for profit-seeking social ventures. The PFF trains women to become savvy investors while focusing on the triple bottom line – people, planet, and profits.

According to Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation’s 2006 report, of the estimated 225,000 active angels who invested $23.1 billion in 50,000 deals, no more than 8% were female. Women are under-represented in the investor pool.

In recent years, blogging has become an incredibly central part of the startup landscape. Founders, startup employees, and tech enthusiasts all comment on everything from new developments at their startups to their favorite bands. Many VCs have become avid bloggers as well. A select few VCs, such as Fred Wilson of USV and Mark Suster of GRP, have built massive followings and rich personal brands through their regular blog posts. Indeed, individual posts from popular VC bloggers like Wilson and Suster can often generate well over 100 user comments. This phenomenon has led more than a few people in the VC ecosystem to believe that having a popular blog is an important part of being a good VC. However, there are many other VCs who do not blog at all and seem to be doing just fine. With powerful evidence both for and against VC blogging, we sat down with Fred Destin, popular blogger and Partner at Atlas Venture, to get the inside scoop.

You know the moment in a start-up’s life where, if you need to buy toilet paper, you need to check your Excel charts to see if you can afford it? Well, that’s where we are. To tell the truth, we are not checking for toilet paper, but we do consider every software/service that we decide use and need to pay a considerable amount for.

Our lead investor told us that, from his experience, giving the investment money in chunks forces the entrepreneur to think: creativity, creativity, creativity. In the beginning, I thought that Yotpo is a creative start-up by definition and we don’t need any more enforcements. Well, I don’t know what would have happened if he didn’t do it, but here are some of the creative ways and methods:

At precisely 20-years-and-four-months old,
Shai Magzimof is one of the hottest young entrepreneurs to emerge from Tel Aviv’s Silicon Wadi this year.

He also happens to be on loan from the Israel Defense Force – free to wander the civilian tech world until further notice.

Magzimof is the creator of Innobell, a mobile application that makes phone calls and instant messages more interactive through a platform of dashboard add ons. The app allows users to easily play games with eachother, watch videos, send money through Paypal, cruise Facebook profiles and share all sorts of other media while chatting over the phone or IM. Currently available in beta on Android, Innobell is slated for release on the iPhone this summer. It’s already gaining traction.