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Startup Weekend. Play a vital role in building startup culture and creating impact in your community.Join a family of over 1000 passionate, capable and connected Organizers around the globe.Meet amazing people.Potential to travel around the world as a Startup Weekend Certified Facilitator.Potential to attend the annual 3-day Startup Organizer’s Summit. Startup Weekend is not your typical company. We are an Organization built around an extended network of hundreds of passionate, skilled, and empowered volunteers around the world. Every event is operated semi-autonomously, with all aspects of the event being planned and executed by a team of local Organizers. Our small, full-time Events team provides ongoing support to each Event’s Organizing Team throughout the event planning process, from systems management, advice on best practices (see The Organizer’s Guide), facilitating connections, and more.

Think you’re up to it? All Startup Weekend Organizers must have previously attended a Startup Weekend event. Startup Weekend. TechStars. How To Create a Sustainable Entrepreneurial Community. Last week I posted an article on peHUB titled How to Create a Sustainable Entrepreneurial Community. Here it is in its entirety. I’ve lived in Boulder for 15 years after living in Boston for a dozen. While I’ve spent a lot of time in Silicon Valley — both as an angel and venture capital investor — I’ve never lived there. While the firm I’m a partner in — Foundry Group — invests all over the United States, I regularly hear statements like, “The only place to start a tech company is in Silicon Valley.” When David Cohen (CEO of TechStars) and I co-founded TechStars in Boulder, Colo., in 2006, we had two goals in mind.

First is the recognition that Silicon Valley is a special place. Next, get ready for a 20-year journey. But these two things — playing to the strengths of your community and going on a 20-year journey — are table stakes. First, do things that engage the entire entrepreneurial community. Next, you have to continually get fresh blood into the entrepreneurial ecosystem. MsuENet | MSU Entrepreneurship Network. Land Policy Institute - Pages : Innovation Club for Entrepreneurs (ICE) How To Craft a Winning Startup Pitch [INFOGRAPHIC] Rockefeller Brothers Fund. 15 Must Know Tips to Rock Your New Facebook Timeline Business Page. Yup, Facebook did it to us again. This time they have added the new timeline to business pages. With it come both good and bad changes. As I wrote in this earlier post “ Quit Blaming Facebook and Fix Your Own Marketing Problems” it’s important you don’t waste too much time complaining. Instead use that same negative energy and turn it into a positive.

The best thing you can do is stop complaining and get to work. Below are some must know tips as well as loads of Facebook reference urls at the bottom to hopefully save you some time in case you get stuck or have further questions. Note, there are more changes than what I included in this blog post. 15 Must Know Tips to Rock Your New Facebook Timeline Business Page 1. The new Facebook timeline is set to launch on all business pages March 30, 2012. 2. The cover image provides amazing opportunities for branding and to visually inspire and connect with your fans. Image dimensions: 851 x 315 3. What you CAN do: 4. 5. Apps are the new tabs. 6. 7. Advancing Advanced Manufacturing Region by Region - Up Front Blog. At last a more serious discussion of manufacturing has begun. In just the last month, strong voices have by turns questioned whether manufacturing merits special attention, contended that it does, and then begun to say which sort of manufacturing matters most.

Just last week the Metropolitan Policy Program joined with the CONNECT Innovation Institute to produce a major event that contended that regardless of its diminished employment manufacturing remains a powerful engine of innovation, a driver of exports that are taming our trade deficit, and a source of good-paying jobs. Now, the National Science and Technology Council has taken a stab at laying out what the federal government might do to advance the more “advanced” higher-tech segments of the manufacturing sector. Again, all of these goals are important, but it is gratifying to see that the new strategy heavily stresses the critical role of regional industry clusters in propelling advanced industries. Region 2000 | Building a More Entrepreneurial Region 2000. 21 Books Every Entrepreneur Should Read - StumbleUpon. Illinois' business climate outshines its neighbors' | In Other News.

Lost amid headlines about rising corporate taxes, companies threatening to leave the state and rival governors wooing others is an important fact: Illinois is a better place to do business than surrounding states. A Crain's analysis of the factors most important to a healthy business climate shows that Illinois outranks Wisconsin, Indiana, Missouri and Iowa. Dozens of interviews with CEOs, entrepreneurs and experts in corporate site selection confirm that Illinois has more of what businesses need to thrive. The state has a larger pool of talented workers, bigger markets, more money for investment and better transportation. Together, these advantages outweigh the rising taxes and state budget deficits that have put Illinois in an unwelcome spotlight.

"It's not just taxes or a patch of land: It's all about the people and the human capital," says Gregory Brown, CEO of Schaumburg-based Motorola Solutions Inc., which employs about 5,000 in the state. Tax burden in Illinois lower than neighbors. COST News Release: Competitiveness of State and Local Business Taxes on New Investment. The Council On State Taxation (COST) is pleased to announce the release of a new study ranking states by tax burden on new investment. The study, “Competitiveness of State and Local Business Taxes on New Investment,” is the latest contribution by Ernst & Young in conjunction with COST to the growing field of research in the state and local business tax arena.

The study assesses the competitiveness of current state and local business taxes on mobile capital investment on a state-by-state basis.The rankings consider state and local statutory tax provisions and the financial characteristics of the new investments. The analysis focuses on capital investments in industries that have location choices such as factories or headquarters, rather than those like retailers or hotels that are tied to a specific geography. The estimated tax burdens on selected investments are combined to provide an overall measure of the business tax competitiveness of each state. Click here to view the full study. Do State Business Taxes Really Matter?

These days talk about taxes of any kind, unless cuts are being proposed, is the third rail of American politics. Many business people and of course doctrinaire conservatives insist that lower tax rates create more incentives for investment, business formation and economic growth. Tax cuts, they continue, are thus a key mechanism for spurring economic growth. Though we haven’t seen much of the Laffer Curve since the heyday of Reaganism, a new generation of supply-siders is arguing for more tax cuts despite our already-staggering deficits. A new study gives us a new tool with which to measure the effects of state taxes on economic development.

“Competitiveness of State and Local Business Taxes on New Investment: Ranking States by Tax Burden on New Investment”, a collaboration between the Council on State Taxation (COST) and Ernst & Young, ranks the 50 states according to a business tax competitiveness index. Comfort food (and a coupon) | coupon, white, carried - Sun Journal. One dish is served free -- with gratitude -- at Cafe Gratitude | Daily Dish... There’s one dish at Café Gratitude, the new vegan restaurant on North Larchmont Boulevard in Los Angeles, that stands out from the others. It’s called the I Am Grateful bowl. Piled high with shredded kale, quinoa, black beans and garlic-tahini sauce, it's filling, flavorful, healthful and free. That's right. $0. The cafe says it’s the "community supported grain bowl" and lists the dish's suggested value ($7) but doesn't require payment. You can order the dish and pay nothing or something, or pay the suggested value and add a donation for those who can't pay.

It doesn't matter how much is in your wallet. One customer, Daudi McLean, a vegan chef himself, made his way to the cafe when it first opened. Recently, McLean’s family found themselves without the money they once had. “My son and I used to feed the homeless,” McLean said. Items on their menu are all named “I Am [fill in the blank]” — be it “Dazzling,” “Peaceful” or “Fulfilled.” Before every shift, servers are asked two questions. Freelance Tools, Advice, and Resources | Freelance Folder.

Four Things Businesses Need to Learn From Recent Discoveries in Evolutionary Theory. Evolution in nature has long been a metaphor for business. You know, survival of the fittest, might make right, only the selfish thrive, etc. These analogies are clearly oversimplifications and they are based upon a superficial understanding of the biological underpinnings, but they are nonetheless quite pervasive in the business world. So it only make sense that new research in evolutionary theory be applied to the business metaphor as well. Evolutionary theory looks at how organisms respond to environmental changes. Those that can't adapt, disappear. For example, when temperatures rise, some plants and animals are able to adapt to the withstand the new temperatures. Those that can't, die out. 1. Nature: It was once thought that nature changes slowly, through many small incremental steps.

Business: Fear and uncertainty drive businesses to knee-jerk reactions. Case in point: a competitor comes out with a new product that is eating away at your market share. 2. 3. 4. Springwise | New business ideas, trends and innovation. Startup America Partnership | A campaign to celebrate, inspire, and accelerate high-growth entrepreneurship throughout the nation. Email Marketing Blog for Small Business: Who Else Wants to... 20 Must-Read Blogs for Online Entrepreneurs. 10 Common Mistakes That Startup and Small Companies Make. Young companies have small margins for error. Mistakes made early on can sink a company before its gets off the ground. Below is a list of 10 common mistakes made by young, small companies. In the list below, I use the generic term “product” to refer to either a product or a service.

Over the next few posts, I will expound on these ideas; for now, here is the list : “Drinking Your Own Kool-Aid” – Overestimating the Enthusiasm for Your Product/Service – thinking your product is more special than your customers perceive. In the entrepreneurial spirit of “under-promise and over-deliver,” here are two more mistakes young companies make: Never Finishing the Product – the “never time to do it right, but there is always time to do it over” syndrome. Disclaimer – as the veteran of six startup companies (two that were successfully sold), these are mistakes I have seen time and again.

The 5 Things I'd Tell My 21 Year Old Entrepreneurial S... 12 years ago I set out on my first foray into the world of entrepreneurship. The company was called MCSETutor.com (we later changed the name to the equally obtuse 2000Tutor.com) and while it wasn’t a huge success by dot com era standards we did sell it for a tidy profit. But looking back I’m shocked at how little I knew about entrepreneurship. As I’m sure any entrepreneur would love to do, I’d give anything to step back in time 12 years and have a chat with my 21 year old self.

And while I can’t do that I do love to share lessons with as many young entrepreneurs as I can. . #1 – Take as much risk as you can as early in life as you can. I’m not talking stupid risks. . #2 – Nail the fundamentals. Take some of that time and use it to build skills that will make you more effective and productive the rest of your life. . #3 – Surround yourself with people who expect you to succeed in a big way. “You are the average of the five people you spend the most time with.” I’m lucky. Fantastic.