The Venture Edge

For some reason, I'm on the e-mailing list of an outfit by the name of OnlineMBA.com. Every once in a while, these folks send me a cool infographic that encapsulates a lot of interesting and useful information in an easily understandable way. Such is the case with the infographic Failing Gracefully: The Secret to Startup Success posted below. 

What prompted what will be one of my rare rants was an email I received this morning touting several new books on women and entrepreneurship, which came on the heels of debate in the media about the appointment of Marissa Mayer as the new CEO of struggling search engine Yahoo, the ongoing questions about why there aren’t more women in C-level positions in Fortune 500 companies or on their boards of directors, and arguments about why women-owned firms tend to be smaller than men-owned ones.  Being a woman who has worked in male-dominated fields her entire adult career I had to weigh in, even if it might stir up some women who don’t necessarily agree with me.

Your business may be well established where it is, but just maybe you're thinking of starting something new. Or maybe you're thinking of expanding your successful enterprise into some new locations. So where will you build your next business? If you believe a recent Thumbtack survey of more than 6,000 small businesses, you'll consider doing business in one of the following seven most business-friendly cities: 

 Many entrepreneurs breathed a sign of relief when Congress reauthorized the Small Business Innovation Research program for five years.  If only it were that simple.  One of the most important ways that small businesses get money to develop their new technologies is through the SBIR grant program (Small Business Innovation Research).  “S” does stand for small in this case.  But apparently the SMALL Business Administration, which considers a small company anything under 500 employees, is proposing new rules that seem to violate the intent of the law producing unintended consequences (how often have we seen that recently).

I think the current outrage directed against U.S.-based clothing manufacturer Ralph Lauren is pretty interesting. If you're not familiar with the story, here's a quick summary. On July 27, the U.S. Olympic team will march in the opening ceremony of the 2012 Summer Olympic Games in London -- in uniforms manufactured in China. When word recently hit the media about this turn of events, members of Congress erupted -- roundly chastizing Ralph Lauren for outsourcing more jobs to China, and the U.S. Olympic Committee for allowing our athletes to wear uniforms made outside the United States. Typical was Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid's comment that the Olympic Committee should “burn them and start all over again.” 

Can paradise and productivity exist in the same place?  I'm not so sure, but then maybe it's not a good idea anyway.   I have been vacationing on the Big Island (Hawaii) for over a week now, barely checking email and not working on any of the projects I'm involved in.  As much as is humanly possible, I've been off the grid.

A week ago I had not heard about the Internet doomsday virus by the name of DNSChanger. However, the media has suddenly decided that it's something that deserves our attention, and I have seen a lot of press about it over the past few days. If your business (or personal, for that matter) computers are infected with the DNSChanger virus, then starting on Monday you will not be able to access the Internet. Period. According to the FBI, the virus at its peak infected up to 4 million computers. While that number has declined, there are still a lot of computers out there with the virus. And one of them could be yours.