Nationwide 1Gbps broadband, the creation of a ‘European Accelerator' to attract the world’s most innovative start-ups and a sea change in structures and attitudes to start-ups were among the recommendations of the Innovation Taskforce revealed today.

The plan envisages that if the recommendations – which centre on taxation, intellectual property and spinouts from multinationals, indigenous firms and universities – are followed through anything between 120,000 by 2014 even up to 215,000 jobs by 2020 could be created.

But the long-awaited report with 24 recommendations to transform the country’s economic fortunes is right now just that, a report. Now that it has been presented to the Government it is now open to debate whether the Government will pick up the ball and run with it.

Angel investor Ron Conway has put money in over 500 companies, so he knows a few things about what works and what doesn’t. In this Entrepreneur Thought Leader Lecture at Stanford University, Conway and fellow investor Mike Maples Jr. of Maples Investments discuss ways to stay competitive and make your money last. Tip one: Don’t be in a hurry to grow your staff as fast as you might be tempted.

The Board of County Commissioners on Thursday quietly took a step that could have important and beneficial results for our County. Following the recommendations of County staff and County Manager Leo Ochs, the Board directed staff to designate an individual to serve as Executive Director for Business and Economic Development. This person would be an already serving member of staff and not an additional hire. This Director would be involved in the daily oversight and operation of County economic and business development programs, and would report directly to the County Manager. He or she would serve as liaison with County agencies and work with private, public and not-for-profit entities involved in economic development.

This decision underscores and reemphasizes the importance that our County government places on economic development. In itself, it is an important signal that the County wants to be seen as a business-friendly community. In his remarks, Mr. Ochs set out to goal of focusing economic and development actions into a concentrated community effort.

The spat between Google and the Chinese government has been rumbling along for weeks, but just now it's been elevated to "fist fight" status: The inevitable strongly-worded Chinese warning about "consequences" has arrived.

The warning came today from the Minister of Industry and IT, Li Yizhong, who was speaking to reporters at the annual National People's Congress meeting. Li was, of course, diplomatic about the matter and noted that the government does actually support Google in its efforts to "expand its business and market share in China."

But then the gloves came off: "If [Google] violates Chinese laws it would be unfriendly and irresponsible and [it] will definitely be responsible for the consequences." This is the most direct threat yet toward the global search engine giant, and highlights that the Chinese government is not going to budge one millimeter from its official legal position. If Google, for whatever reason, decides to stop censoring its search results which it currently does to comply with the strict Dark Ages-style active censorship laws the Chinese demand, then China will simply snip off access to Google, and really won't care about the matter.

Thanks to the Florida Economic Gardening Institute and its statewide program GrowFL, second-stage companies are getting the technical assistance they need to advance to the next level.

PR Log (Press Release) – Mar 10, 2010 – Economic gardening technical assistance programs funded in a 2009 special session are beginning to bear fruit and should be expanded, leaders from Florida’s economic development community told members of the House Economic Development and Community Affairs Council today.

“Though only in its fifth month, this economic development tool has proven to be a tremendous success to business,” said Amy Evancho, president of the Florida Economic Development Council (FEDC), a 450-member statewide association of economic development professionals working in both the public and private sector to advance Florida’s economy.

The Florida Economic Development Act created a $1.5 million fund for economic gardening, which focuses on support of second-stage companies that have grown past the startup stage. In November the Governor’s Office of Tourism, Trade and Economic Development selected a team at the University of Central Florida (UCF) to create the Florida Economic Gardening Institute to administer a statewide technical assistance program for second-stage growth companies.

Earlier this week, I [Jeff Amerine] attended the Building the Arkansas Innovation Economy symposium at the Clinton Presidential Center in Little Rock. The U.S. National Academy of Sciences and UALR, led by Dr. Mary Good, organized the two-day event.

The event included speakers from the White House staff, other federal agencies, universities, state government and industry. I think there would be little debate amongst the attendees that the most inspiring and compelling speech of the event was delivered by Gov. Mike Beebe.

Beebe spoke with great conviction about Arkansas’s determination and tenacity in the pursuit of dramatic educational improvement. He painted a clear picture as to how education drives entrepreneurship and economic development.

(Fortune Magazine) -- Gregg Fairbrothers wasn't born to business. He grew up in an academic household. "I didn't know a debit from a credit," he admits. Fairbrothers studied earth sciences at Dartmouth in the '70s, got his master's at Rutgers, and eventually moved to Tulsa, where he joined Samson, a gas driller, and earned his chops at the right hand of the company's "hard-nosed founder." He picked up an MBA, but that was "just to get the toolkit," he says. "I learned my business on the job."

Today, as founding director of the Dartmouth Entrepreneurial Network, Fairbrothers teaches a wildly popular course on entrepreneurship at the Tuck School of Business. As befits the professor's background, Introduction to Entrepreneurship is all about learning through experience. Recently MBA candidates from all over the world filled the lecture hall and spilled into an adjoining room. There was a lecture on marketing, and then the real fun began, as students lined up to pitch their startup ideas.

Veronica Rose, founder and CEO of Aurora Electric, a Jamaica, N.Y., electrical contracting company, has spent nearly 20 years successfully bidding on government contracts. One of the first women to obtain a master electrician's license in a heavily male-dominated industry, Rose has worked on major projects at JFK International Airport and the World Trade Center. Her seven-person firm boasts a customer list that includes General Electric, NBC and Columbia University.

So how much of the $787 billion in stimulus money that the government approved last year has ended up in Aurora Electric's bank account?

"We haven't seen any of it," Rose says. "The stimulus money went to the big infrastructure companies that build highways and bridges--the bigger, deeper, heavier part of our industry where you have to be a big company in order to compete."

Aurora Electric is not alone. A year after the government rolled out the biggest economic stimulus plan in history, small businesses like Rose's are wondering where the money went and why so little of it came their way. While VC-backed startups like Tesla Motors, the Palo Alto, Calif., company that makes electric cars, got a $465 million taxpayer loan, most of the stimulus dollars have ended up in the pockets of big companies that employ thousands of workers, not the millions of small businesses like Rose's that each employ only a handful. In fact, much of the stimulus money has gone to government agencies, bypassing the private sector completely.

Greater Rochester Enterprise will partner with Forbes for a special section of the May 24 edition of the magazine. The section will focus on the quality of life, Rochester’s importance as a regional Northeast transportation hub, and its educational intuitions.

NASVF member Greater Rochester Enterprise (GRE) is a regional economic development organization supported by a team of private and public sector leaders dedicated to improving economic performance in the Rochester/Finger Lakes, New York Region. Its primary goals are to retain and expand existing business and to professionally market this region as a competitive, vibrant and high-profile place for business location and growth. To support business attraction, expansion, entrepreneurship and innovation, GRE collaborates with local businesses, universities, not-for-profit organizations and government leaders to deliver a unified response to regional economic development opportunities.

In every political capital, the gap between rhetoric and reality is wide. But in Brussels, a new standard has been set for this kind of political vaporware, with the launch of the Europe 2020 Strategy.

For those who missed it, on March 3 the European Commission released a fairly concise report outlining its vision for Europe over the next decade.

Remember, this is from the same people who, at the turn of the new Millennium, grandly announced a 10-year vision called the Lisbon Strategy – to make Europe the most competitive economy in the world, with full employment, by 2010. They doubled the rhetorical bet in 2002 with a further pledge to double Europe’s R&D spending to 3 per cent of gross domestic product. Fairy tales, all (R&D spending, for instance, is still stuck below 1.9 per cent, and 31 per cent of those between ages 20 and 64 are not working.) So it is with considerable scepticism that we read the latest set of New Decade’s resolutions.

First, a straight summary. The Commission proposes to the EU governments (subject to confirmation this Spring) a 10-year strategy to achieve “smart, sustainable and inclusive growth.” Translation: more innovation, more green policies, and a rise in employment and education across the EU. It will achieve this through setting five targets, and proposing seven ‘flagship’ programmes (three goals, five targets, seven programmes; the Commission has a Medieval fascination with numerology.)

Making human knowledge and intentions tangible in a market place opens up the possibility of a whole new class of business plans.  We call this Social Power by the Hour.

A Social Trifecta

1. Obviously, Social Media is powerful.

2. Fractional ownership or rental of assets is an emerging trend in our environmentally, geographically, and monetarily constrained economy.

3.Vendor Relationship Management (Doc Searles) promises to change the shape of traditional advertising in the future.

What if we combined all three?

ZipCar is an excellent example of the fractional membership for automobile transportation. There are many advantages but also huge drawbacks. $7.00 per hour is a lot to add to a casual lunch at a sidewalk café or any social experience. Then there are all the lost options like the one-way-trip, guaranteed availability, all those rules and regulations. So, it’s pay now or pay later.

With venture capital in the dumps, angel groups across the country say the quantity and often the quality of potential deals is up as entrepreneurs look for alternatives.

Angel groups—collections of high-net-worth individual investors, usually—in the San Francisco Bay Area, Seattle, New England, and Washington report companies appealing to them for money are increasingly far down the road in terms of having products and services. Yet prices are low.

The Alliance of Angels in Seattle actually had its biggest year ever in terms of investments, with members sinking $8.5 million directly into 29 companies, nine of them new investments and 20 follow-on.

"Almost two thirds of the companies we invested in were post-product, post-revenue, so the risk profile has really improved for angels," said Susannah Malarkey, executive director of the Technology Alliance,which runs the Alliance of Angels. "Valuations are very attractive, and that has made angels much more willing to invest."

You’re wealthy and wired. You just read Become an Angel Investor in 2010: An HBS Framework and 2010: The Ultimate Buyers’ Market for Investor. You’re getting antsy. You’re ready to invest in a startup. You’re ready to tap into your Rolodex and pave the road to success for any startups that cross your desk.

Whoa. Slow down! Angel investing is risky — the exact reason why it garners such high potential rewards.

On average, 55% of startups fail within 5 years. Even accredited angels who invest with organized angel groups see a negative return in 40% of their investments, according to Scott Shane, author of “Fool’s Gold?: The Truth Behind Angel Investing in America.”

If angel investing is so risky, why on earth would anyone in their right mind do it?

Porsche has come up with a nifty little marketing campaign for its Cayenne models, using a couple of Google APIs. It's basically a virtual test-drive where you can plot yourself a nice little route--I plumped for the Golden Gate Bridge, followed by a spin in the Cumbrian Pennines, in the North of England--and sit back and enjoy the German carmaker's spiel about how its torque is second to none while dramatic music is piped through your speakers.

The two minute-or-so flash movie segues seamlessly (no doubt like the car's transmission) between Google Maps and pictures taken from Google's geolocation photo-sharing Web site, Panoramio. Porsche nerd will, I'm sure, appreciate that the video window measures 911 pixels across. It's fun, although, speaking as a cyclist, I'm waiting for the mash-up between this and the cycle routes that will soon be appearing on Google Maps. Billed as "the most requested addition to Google Maps," the routes will be available in 150 cities across the U.S. (I'm hoping they come to the U.K. more quickly than it might take me to cycle from NY to London.) The mash-up could be the goriest game ever invented.

The state of entrepreneurship education and training in U.S. schools has declined sharply, with a 2008 survey of experts rating it barely half as good as it was in 2005.
 
The findings are part of the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) Special Report: A Global Perspective on Entrepreneurship Education and Training, released today at Babson College, the project's lead sponsor and co-founder.

GEM teams conduct surveys in 31 countries, polling a sample of people who are considered experts in some 10 areas including financial support for entrepreneurs, bureaucracy, and taxes, and, of course, education itself. The experts rate conditions such as whether the education system "encourages creativity, self-sufficiency and personal initiative," and whether it provides "adequate instruction in market economic principles."

What do Flash, Android, Hotmail, Google Analytics and Powerpoint all have in common? Can you guess?

The answer is: None of them were created by the companies who now own them. They were acquisitions.

These products have continued to develop at their new homes, but the seed of innovation that sparked an actual, new product came from the outside. The key word here is innovation.

Sometimes you wonder how much big companies really innovate. A significant amount of today’s most popular and successful products originated with smaller companies which were later gobbled up by one of the big players (Google, Microsoft, Yahoo, IBM, Oracle, etc).

We’d like to call this phenomenon “innovation by acquisition.”

VENTURE CAPITAL: IRELAND NEEDS to increase the amount of capital it has available for young business ideas if it is to start and grow enterprises on an “unprecedented scale”, according to the draft report.

A key goal for the State in the period to 2020 must be a “transformation in scale and nature of the Irish venture capital environment” through the attraction of top tier venture financing to Ireland so as to successfully grow innovative companies.

The State should nurture a national portfolio of “business angel funds” so as to direct capital into innovative companies.

Until this occurs, the report recommends temporary State intervention by way of a new Seed Capital scheme. The report also suggests a set of tax incentives that would incentivise start-up and angel funding activity.

Recently I’ve been debating with a number of young startup companies that are raising money in the next few months, “what is the right about of capital to raise at a startup?”

It’s a tricky question with no clear answer. There are trade offs. And it obviously depends on the kind of business you’re building. Let me assume for this discussion it’s a garden variety 2010 IT or Internet business (as opposed to something requiring capital equipment or a life sciences project). Any answer will be subjective and any real answer will just be explaining the tradeoffs to you.

On the upper end I’ve spoken openly on many occasions that I think that raising too much money too quickly can be destructive.  It’s like adding rocket fuel to space ship before you’re sure that it’s pointing in the right direction for take off (or even if all of the people on board are qualified to take this into outer space).  It places undue pressure early in the company’s history to “do big things” when sometimes what is warranted is more prudence.  It also takes options off the table if you eventually find out that this isn’t a VC backable business.  I’ve spoken about this in a post entitled, “Do you even need VC?” to which the answer for most people is “no.”  If you’re interested in that topic the link also has a short video I did on the topic for Fox Business News.

The tech bubble popped ten years ago today.

In the intervening years, a lot has changed.

• In 2000, Google had just $19 million in revenue.
• Only 400 million people in the world were on mobile phones.
• WebVan was one of the world's best-funded startups.

Now, none of that is true.

The World Bank Institute, the learning arm of the World Bank, has launched an online computer game called EVOKE, designed to get young people involved in finding solutions to urgent problems like hunger, poverty and education. The winners of the ten week game could be mentored by social innovators and business leaders and win a trip to a conference in Washington DC.

This is a computer game with worldwide implications. It's a crash course in changing the world and an urgent call for innovation.

Each week until the middle of May, players are presented with a different world problem that needs to be resolved.  Bob Hawkins, at the World Bank Institute in Washington, produced the game.