For one week, millions of young people around the world will join a growing movement of entrepreneurial people, to generate new ideas and to seek better ways of doing things. Countries across six continents are coming together to celebrate Global Entrepreneurship Week, an initiative to inspire young people to embrace innovation, imagination and creativity.

From November 16-22, 2009, Global Entrepreneurship Week will connect young people everywhere through local, national and global activities designed to help them explore their potential as self-starters and innovators. Students, educators, entrepreneurs, business leaders, employees, non-profit leaders, government officials and many others will participate in a range of activities, from online to face-to-face, and from large-scale competitions and events to intimate networking gatherings.

Global Entrepreneurship Week 2008 was a great success and a brilliant example of what can be achieved by bringing together different ideas and cultures around the theme of enterprise. In 2009, the goal is to unleash young people’s ideas around the issues that matter most to society, from poverty reduction through to climate change, and to foster a global culture which recognizes entrepreneurs as drivers of economic and social prosperity.

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton videotaped a public statement of support for the Kauffman Foundation’s Global Entrepreneurship Week, praising its efforts to create new opportunities and businesses; encourage youth to pursue fresh ideas; and improve the global economy. This year, Global Entrepreneurship Week will be celebrated by more than three million people and 8,800 organizations (1000+ in the U.S.) in 85 countries.

Global Entrepreneurship Week is the vision of the Kauffman Foundation, the world’s leading foundation for entrepreneurship and Make Your Mark the UK’s campaign to give young people the confidence, skills and ambition to make their ideas happen.

The campaign is backed by an unprecedented coalition of businesses, charities, education bodies and government - it’s unique in being young-people focused, business-led and government-backed. It is funded by the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills and was founded by the four main UK business organizations - the British Chambers of Commerce, CBI, Federation of Small Businesses and Institute of Directors. Make Your Mark leads a campaign coalition of 25 national organizations from education, the voluntary sector, business and government.

Post from: GreatStartups.com

In September, we did a story on a site called Hiztoria.com. Hiztoria is a Kansas City based start up launched in July of 2009. It billed itself as a place for people to share and discover anything and everything about websites. At Hiztoria, users can rate, review, share, and discuss websites both big and small. Users can earn points and level up by contributing to the site and writing reviews.

We thought Hiztoria was an excellent place to help surfers make their point of view known. Now comes Surcentro.com to help analyze where you surf.

Surcentro.com is a web site statistics and web analytics service. Surcentro.com is helpful for everyone on the web from the webmaster and to the simple surfer. With Surcentro you can find the amount of visitors, page rank, indexed pages, and other additional information about every single page on the web. You can also view Alexa and Compete graphs.

By simply putting in the URL of any site, you will receive gobs of information. You initially get a description of the site. From there you are provided with the numbers on the unique visitor and total visits.

They also provide charts and graphs from Alexa.com and Compete.com, pulling the information from those sites into one area. There is also a “Wayback Machine” so you can see how certain websites looked in the past, which is rather fun.

They also provide you with a list of similar sites, and finally a list of new sites on the web.

Surcenter.com provides a nice clean alternative to other sites operating in the Internet market research space such as Adgooroo, ComScore , Hitwise, Netcraft, Quancast.com and the previously mentioned Alexa and Compete.

Post from: GreatStartups.com

Are you an Entrepreneur who has never taken a business class? Are you hoping to parley an idea based on your real world experience into a thriving business? Well, as I will discuss here, it can be done. If you are an Entrepreneur who is also a vegan, then you should really pay attention.

Only a few short years ago, Veronica Bosgraaf and her six year old daughter embarked on a journey in their kitchen in Holland, Michigan to create an all natural, healthy snack made with nothing but the best ingredients. Bosgraaf’s daughter Anna was six years old when she decided to become a vegetarian. In looking for healthy snacks, Bosgraaf discovered that conventional energy bars meet the vegetarian criteria but they usually included a lot of sugar and other additives.

The main goal when creating pure bar was that it had to be delicious and nutritious, and of course vegetarian. On that basis, “The Pure Bar” and ThePureBar.com were created.

The Pure Bar came to life through experimentation. The original version included almonds, dates, walnuts, and a couple of items not everyone has on kitchen shelves — brown rice protein and agave nectar. The positive responses of parents and pupils when she sent bars to school for class treats made Bosgraaf think about manufacturing them commercially.

The first product run launched in January 2006.

“I had a lot of doors slammed, because food manufacturers like to deal with companies, rather than a woman who thinks she has a good idea,” Bosgraaf said. She finally found one manufacturer willing to start off with smaller minimum runs — 50,000 items twice a month.

Business picked up considerably after Meijer agreed to carry her product. Meijer was recently cited as the 18th largest private company in America by Forbes.

“I’ve had a wonderful experience with Meijer,” Bosgraaf said. “They took us on, they understood our position as a small company. They’ve been a huge springboard for us, because it opens a lot of door when you can say, ‘I sell at Meijer.’”

Bosgraaf also went to natural-food trade shows to expand her distribution base, including the Natural Food Expo West, in Anaheim, Calif., and Boston, and All Things Organic in Chicago. Smaller shows such as the Seattle Green Festival and the Toronto Green Festival have yielded distributor outlets as well.

The Pure Bar has as close to raw ingredients as you can get, and provides essential vitamins and nutrients, boasting energy naturally without compromising taste.

The Pure Bar doesn’t have any refined sugar, additives, artificial flavoring, preservatives, cholesterol, trans-fats, dairy, gluten or soy. The Pure Bar is not cooked. The Pure Bar offers vegan, vegetarian and raw nourishment. It is available in 6 flavors – cherry cashew, chocolate brownie, apple cinnamon, wild blueberry, cranberry orange, and chocolate chip trail mix.

You can order them on the site or find a store that sells them using the site’s store locator.
ThePureBar.com is a great entrepreneur success story and gives hope to all those who have an idea and a dream.

Post from: GreatStartups.com

In the 1982 movie Ron Howard movie Night Shift, Michael Keaton (before Batman) gave a career launching performance playing Billy Blazejowski, a wacky would be entrepreneur who comes up with the idea of running a brothel out of a morgue.

One of his other big ideas is to mix mayonnaise into tuna cans or (improbably) as his character posits “Why not feed mayonnaise directly to the tuna? I should call StarKist.”. I thought of this when I heard about ShaveMate. It seems the founders must have said to themselves “Why not put shaving cream directly in the razor?” Unlike Keaton’s character’s far-fetched ides, ShaveMate is an idea that not only makes sense, it actually works.

Florida residents, Louis and Peter Tomassetti came up with what they term a ‘why didn’t I think of that’ product-ShaveMate (Titan 6 for men and Diva 6 for women). It is the first and only razor that comes with shaving cream right inside the handle.

The way it works is that you just push the bottom of the handle to dispense the shaving cream. This obviously makes the product ideal for travel. The Tomassetti brother’s invention is apparently a huge hit and has already been picked up by major national drug stores such as Walgreens and Target.com.

According to a company press release, ShaveMate is the first nationally branded razors ever to include six precisely positioned in-line blades in one razor head. The new six blade head is designed to pivot smoothly and effortlessly to keep the blades flat against the skin. Though Diva (for woman) and Titan (for men) contain this six-blade technology, the advanced razor head is slimmer than other razor heads with fewer blades—allowing consumers to shave even in hard-to-reach areas.

According to a company press release, ShaveMate is the first nationally branded razors ever to include six precisely positioned in-line blades in one razor head. The new six blade head is designed to pivot smoothly and effortlessly to keep the blades flat against the skin. Though Diva (for woman) and Titan (for men) contain this six-blade technology, the advanced razor head is slimmer than other razor heads with fewer blades—allowing consumers to shave even in hard-to-reach areas.

In addition to the six blades technology, what sets the patented ShaveMate brand razors apart is that they are the only razors on the market that come with high-quality real shaving cream inside the handle for easy dispensing. Users simply press the bottom of the razor handle to dispense a stream of foamy shaving cream. This razor design prevents the need for extra cans of shaving cream in showers or on crowded bathroom counter-tops. The lanolin-enriched shave cream formula inside the handle is ample enough for approximately 10 smooth shaves.

“We believe Diva and Titan are the future of shaving,” says Lou Tomassetti, President of LPI Consumer Products, Inc. “The long evolution of razors and shaving has brought us to the new Diva and Titan All-in-One razors. Diva and Titan offer fundamental benefits over all other razors. The six blades are for super shaving performance and the shaving cream inside provides super shaving convenience. We think Diva® and Titan® are the perfect razors for everyone, and so far our customers seem to agree.”

The ShaveMate razors also sport a patented “Flex-Neck” technology that maintains even pressure for smoother strokes. It also comes with the “Aqua-Flow Blade Rinse” feature that channels water through the blades for easy cleaning. Additionally, the ShaveMate razors are equipped with a moisturizing glide strip of soothing Allantoin. Another handy feature is the on/off setting for the dispensing valve to stop accidental activation of the shaving cream. Diva and Titan razors are also better for the environment because combining shaving cream inside the razors means one less shaving item to discard. The ShaveMate 6-blade Diva and Titan come in 3-packs and include a convenient shower hook.

The combination of these multiple new features and the moderate price of the Diva and Titan All-in-One razors provide considerable value for consumers. The 3-pack sells for only $9.99. ShaveMate razors are expected to be sold through Direct-to-Consumer sales and online stores, and will be in retail stores in the coming months.

Post from: GreatStartups.com

Technology, according to Merriam-Webster Online, “technology is defined as (1) the practical application of knowledge especially in a particular area, (2) a manner of accomplishing a task especially using technical processes, methods, or knowledge.

Thus, there are a wide variety of “tech” companies that are not located in California and do not have much to do with computers. GBSI-Step.com (Global Building Systems, Inc. or GBSI) fits that bill. While I don’t suppose that many of our readers are in the construction business, our readers as a rule are always interested in stories that are informative if somewhat off the beaten path. As such, we bring you this Arizona based company.

GBSI, located in Prescott, Arizona has invented a patented technology that is an efficient, affordable, low-tech method for a complete building system. The system creates structures that have a true thermal envelope for super energy efficient buildings. The mission is to become the national standard for high performance sustainable building technology using the STEP-Tech System.

STEP-Tech is an engineered system using lightweight steel struts embedded in EPS foam to create interlocking panels for exceptional strength and versatility. The roof and wall connection creates a continuous thermal break with virtually no air infiltration. The system is suitable for residential, commercial, industrial, and high rise construction. It is cost effective for both high and low-end markets, and it is highly resistant to fire, mold, water, termites, rodents, and hurricanes. It offers significant cost savings in material and labor vs. traditional stick/mortar construction

The STEP-Tech System combines two common recycled materials, expanded polystyrene (EPS) foam and galvanized steel studs, to create wall and roof panels bolted to an insulated foundation. The continuous foundation, wall and roof connection results in a true thermal envelope, with little or no air and heat transfer through the roof or walls, fabricated and shipped to the construction site for assembly; 4-6 laborers can put up a 2,000 square foot building in one day.

GBSI’s system is environmentally friendly and efficient. The STEP-Tech System products are made entirely from recyclable materials. EPS foam is made from a byproduct of the gasoline manufacturing process from crude oil, which is otherwise disposed of as industrial waste. GBSI’s products are thus ideally suited to the market needs of the housing industry as a cost-effective alternative to traditional stick-built and its alternative building materials competitors, while at the same time providing an environmentally responsible building product.

STEP-Tech’s foam-steel interface is designed and engineered to take full advantage of the strengths and of different building materials. The wall panel system is well suited for residential, commercial and exterior “curtain” wall panels for high-rise construction. Due to its characteristics, this integrated wall panel will eliminate many procedures required in stick-built construction.

The Company completed a luxury condominium in Belize. It was done by hand in three days. Here is a video showing the process.

Post from: GreatStartups.com