Awe.sm founder Jonathan Strauss recalls the wrenching lead-up to his resignation.

The decision to hire outside management for your growing business is never easy. Investors and owners are flooded with questions: Is now the right time? How should founders behave? And most of all, How will I cope?

That's the topic of an honest and thoughtful post by Jonathan Strauss, who founded awe.sm. After devoting blood, sweat, and tears to his startup for four years, investors told him there needed to be a change at the top, or else he'd be forced sell. It was a painful wake-up call that forced him to recalibrate his mindset:

"I put hiring a CEO in the same category as taking an acqui-hire or just closing up shop and moving on--things I would think about at 4am in the office on those darkest nights when I’d have a bout of sobriety about the insanity I’d turned my life into. And ultimately, things that represented the one unacceptable option motivating me to push even further beyond my limits I’d long surpassed: failure.

"In the early days, the only way for me to keep awe.sm from failing was to tie my fate with the company’s. If awe.sm failed, I failed. But as we switched from lean startup to growth company, I didn’t fully realize how making my ego a shareholder went from being necessary for survival to being a limitation on what we could achieve."

Giving up control would be painful, but his emotions were much more complex.

"After three and a half years of fusing my self-worth with the success of the company in the crucible of startup survival, it was impossible to tear them apart without pain. But while my first reaction was disappointment and failure, it was almost immediately washed away by a wave of relief. I knew change was inevitable, but I had no idea how stressful and exhausting maintaining my internal reality distortion field had been until they gave me permission to turn it off."

Strauss details the pros and cons of selling his company versus hiring a new CEO. He doesn't shy away from admitting his mixed feelings--or the fears that kept him up at night.

If you're facing a similar decision or just up for an unvarnished view on one of the toughest decisions a founder can make, the post is well worth a read.

Could you ever resign as CEO of your company?

The future of retail is at the intersection of e-commerce and bricks-and-mortars, says co-founder Neil Blumenthal.

When Warby Parker opened a flagship store in New York City, many people were shocked. No one expected the digital eyewear disruptor to expand their business to a bricks-and-mortar store.

Speaking at Internet Week this week, Neil Blumenthal, one of Warby Parker's founders, said the move was strategic.

"We believe the future of retail is at the intersection of e-commerce and bricks-and-mortar," he said. "People think it's crazy that we went and signed a 10-year lease in SoHo, next to Ralph Lauren, across the street from the Apple Store. But we have actually been dabbling in bricks-and-mortar for about three years, almost as long as we have had the website open."

When it launched, the start-up offered customers the option to try a number of glasses at home, he explained.

"That in itself was a physical form of sales, but what happened was that within 48 hours of launch, we were overwhelmed by demand and had to suspend the home trial program. And people would call up and say, 'Hey, can we come to your office and try on glasses?' And we would say, 'Uh, we are working out of my apartment.'

"People would come in, and we would lay out the glasses on the dining room table. And we thought it was going to be a sub-optimal experience, but it ended up being a very special experience in that we could build relationships with our customers. They could try on all the glasses. We started to realize maybe there was a place for traditional bricks-and-mortar retail."

The idea for the Warby Parker showroom and pop-ups was born. When those raked in profits, the company decided to open a flagship to anchor the brand. Now, 50 percent of their foot traffic and sales are driven by word-of-mouth, which Blumenthal says was exactly the point. "Our philosophy from the get-go has always been: How can we grow this primarily through word-of-mouth?

"It's about how can we create special moments. When you walk into the store, most people are really surprised, because it doesn't look like any place they have ever been that sells eye glasses."

No matter what happens, you should never stop learning, says Matthew Brimer and a panel of entrepreneurs.

Entrepreneurs should think of their education as always being in beta with room for growth and improvement, said Matthew Brimer, co-founder of General Assembly, a start-up academy.

"We have this idea that education is this kind of an adjective that you can apply to yourself after you go through four-plus years experience in your late teens and early twenties," he said in a panel held Tuesday at Internet Week. "So you come out with a college degree and you are educated."

But this doesn't mean we're always prepared. The knowledge needed at different stages of an entrepreneur's life and career evolves over time.

"Rather than thinking of education as this thing that happens in a four year period of your life and then you are over, you are done, we like to think of education as something that should be tracked to both your life and your career, as well as your progress through it, so that it is suited to what you need and when, but is also attached to the world as it exists today," Brimer explained.

Some entrepreneurs learn from watching their peers, chimed in Bridgette Beam, moderator of the panel and Google's global entrepreneurship manager. In her experience, she's learned a lot just by talking with colleagues.

"It starts with asking for help," added Matt French, director of business development for Startup Weekend. "Most entrepreneurs don't know the answer to every question, and surrounding yourself with smart people can help answer them."

Brimer agrees. "Hire people who are better than you at specific things," he urged. "Ideally, as your company grows, you should be the least talented, the least capable and the dumbest person in the room. And if you are not, if you are the most talented, the most capable, and the smartest person in your company, then you are hiring all terrible people."

This might not make entrepreneurs feel like kings of their castles, but it will help them to build more sustainable companies and boost the value of their products.

Ready to kiss your start-up goodbye? VC principal Geoff Lewis offers four ways to tell if you're prime for the picking.

Exit strategies are rarely mentioned by start-ups, yet they are something every business owner needs if they hope to be acquired, said Geoff Lewis, principal at Founders Fund, a venture capital firm.

Speaking Tuesday at Internet Week in New York, he explained, "entrepreneurs and VCs don't often talk too candidly about how to think about getting acquired, because the best start-ups don't actually sell. The truth of the matter is that the vast majority of start-ups will not IPO, and most start-ups are also not suicidal. They do not want to die. Start-ups do not want to go off into the night with no exit whatsoever."

There might not be an incentive to plan, as there's nothing to gain for investors, but entrepreneurs don't want to risk running their company into the ground before the deal has been finalized.

Here are four ways to tell if your company needs a makeover before you try to offload it:

Your old plan isn't working. Perhaps there is a lack of product-market fit or there's conflict within the team. If you no longer believe in the company's vision, perceive a threat from outside, and have no fundraising traction, you'd better grab a parachute and jump.

... Or you don't have a plan. If you've finally hit a wall, with no more restarts and pivots, something is definitely wrong.

Only you see the problems. "Ideally, the outside world thinks that your start-up is doing great," said Lewis. "Preferably crushing it; at minimum, doing OK. People on the outside don't realize the sort of issues or concerns that you have within the company," which might sound good, but could ultimately prove fatal as the cracks begin to show.

You have enough time. Lewis recommends entrepreneurs give themselves at least six months to plot their way out. Your team should have confidence in you as a leader and be able to work through this time.

Feel proud of your 70-hour weeks? You may as well boast about working while drunk.

Just how deep does the lionization of long work hours run in the entrepreneurial community? Pretty deep, according to Forbes writer Michael Simmons. When he started asking around Silicon Valley if 70-hour work weeks were worth it, he noticed founders turned cagey.

"Talking publicly about the topic brought fear of judgment," he wrote. "Two of the people I interviewed said that things like sharing vacation photos was a taboo as investors might see them. People who start ‘lifestyle’ businesses and who talk about balance and stress are often put into a bucket of people who aren’t serious about business."

In fact, taking breaks or getting a good night's rest are viewed as signs of weakness. Some even exaggerate how many hours they put in, according to time use expert Laura Vanderkam.

This valorization may be popular among entrepreneurs, but it has Julia Kirby, an editor at the Harvard Business Review, hopping mad. So mad, in fact, she wrote a strongly-worded blog post, "Change the World and Get to Bed by 10:00," a must-read for any professional.

Kirby includes a chart every business owner should take a look at. Getting drunk and not sleeping enough have roughly the same impact on performance, and neither are good. If you're coming to work consistently sleep-deprived you're basically functioning drunk. Take a look:

Kirby argues we need a social movement against sleep deprivation much like the cultural shift against smoking. Whether Hollywood producers will heed her words is an open question, but as a business owner in possession of a pillow and an alarm clock, you can take action today simply by going to bed at 10pm.

Or take things a step further, as Kirby suggests, and encourage your team to do the same. "If you're a corporate leader, you have the reasons and you have the means to change today's dysfunctional culture around sleep."

Do you think our cultural attitude toward sleep is unhealthy?

If you use any of these words, consider this your start-up slang intervention.

Ninja / • noun, a person with advanced skills. As in, "Dave is our secret ninja; he's the best coder we've ever hired." Is this a real company or a 6-year-old's fantasy? Why not throw teenage, mutant, and turtle in there while you're at it?

Value prop (or proposition) / • noun, the reason a customer would want to buy your product. As in, "I don't see the point of another crowdfunding site. What's the value prop? Another thing customers value? Plain English.

Killing it / • verb phrase, to perform successfully. As in, "Our team is really killing it right now. We hit 10,000 users two months after launch." All you are killing is my desire to have a conversation with you.

Productize / • verb, to turn a custom feature into an independent product. As in, "We took that process and productized it." Sorry to break it to you, but no one knows what you are talking about. Everyone is just nodding to be polite.

Rockstar / • adjective, outstandingly good. As in, "We're looking for a rockstar developer to join our team." OK, but don't be surprised when one of them trashes a hotel room at South by Southwest.

Grind / • verb, to work very hard. As in, "Our team is just grinding it out." Wow, sounds like a great sweatshop you've got going there! Sign me up!

Inflection point / • noun, a moment of dramatic change in the life of a start-up. As in, "We're growing 10x, month over month, and we haven't even hit our inflection point yet." Let me guess--you have a chart with a hockey stick on it.

Stealth / • adjective, secret. As in, "Ben won't talk about the stealth start-up he's working on. All I know is that it has something to do with the cloud." Are you protecting missile codes or launching a company? Careful; I think your phone may be bugged.

Not being afraid to ask, "What's in this for me?" makes women more in tune with their customers, says Forrester Research's James McQuivey.

Entrepreneurs who want to be digital disruptors should pay more attention to how they use tech, says James McQuivey, vice president of Forrester Research.

During a conference held at New York's Internet Week on Monday, the business man said women approach technology with a practical mindset. Whereas men are too focused on passion, women tend to see things from the customer's angle and ask, "What's in this for me?" This makes them in tune with their market and better able to serve its needs.

"Seeing the need on the other end of the technology, not the technology," is crucial to being a digital disruptor, explained McQuivey. "Men can genuinely say they love their technology," but "it gives us the desire to seek new things to love and to be content with their flaws."

On the other hand, women "use technology," but do not love it. Instead, they're more focused on getting things done, connecting to people, and managing resources. It's for these reasons they're helping tech to evolve and become more user-friendly.

McQuivey also pointed out women tend to be better than men at creating product experiences, which are crucial to digital products and services.

Do you agree that women are pushing technology farther?

The founder so believes in his company model, he says there's no limit to what it can do.

Like many entrepreneurs, Jon Oringer, founder and CEO of Shutterstock, became a businessman out of necessity.

He began his professional life in math and computer science, but quickly found he was lost without photos.

"Each time I went to create my website, I needed imagery," he said during Internet Week. "It was complicated to get, the process was expensive, I had to negotiate rights. I knew there had to be a better way."

On Shutterstock, anyone can sell their imagery, which is reviewed on an individual basis. Buyers pay $249 per month for the privilege of being able to download whatever they need. Before that, users had to pay "hundreds to thousands of dollars," he said, and producing custom shoots or negotiating rights was annoying.

Oringer opened the stock photography market for users and shutterbugs, which helped everyone promote their content. "There was no longer that generic content," he explained. "We realized we had high-volume marketplace as a platform. Anyone can come in and buy with a subscription."

While Shutterstock is mostly focused on footage and stills, Oringer said he's open to other possibilities.

"Really, we can put anything in this model and sell it," he said.

Want to raise more responsible kids? Then put them to work, says the Texas businessman.

Charlie Hamilton, a serial entrepreneur and champion of Lemonade Day in Lubbock, Texas, knows all about running a successful business. But when it comes to raising successful kids, he realizes you sometimes just have to say "no."

“Successful adults often worked when they were young," he writes in The Kansas City Star. "They mowed lawns, baby-sat, or had a lemonade stand. Learning how to work hard, provide good customer service, overcome challenges, ask for the sale, and understand the value of a dollar are invaluable life lessons that kids simply can’t get from a textbook.”

Those are great building blocks for any entrepreneur.

"When told they will have to spend their own money on that toy at the checkout line, they don't want it quite as badly," Hamilton continues.

Quality family time is another perk with this training. Helping your budding entrepreneur think through projects and face challenges will strengthen your bond, and the skills learned are useful for both business and everyday life.

"The self-satisfaction and confidence that the child develops as a result of these experiences prepare him or her for adulthood," Hamilton says.

The Texan opened his first business, a fireworks stand, when he was 12.

Mark Suster on why trying to win the "war on talent" is a losing battle.

For the past five years or so Google, Facebook and a handful of tech industry giants have been quietly buying scores of early-stage startups for their talent. And to keep up with the Jones's it seems that Yahoo! has now employed the same strategy.

And who cares, right?

A couple of tech giants throw millions around in either cash (for which they have hoards) or part with some publicly traded stock. And a few teams of super talented, educated and bright entrepreneurs make a few mill. in their 20s. What could be more capitalist than that?

It has even gone so far that we now have evocative headlines in the tech press such as "Buy or Die," which is what got me thinking about this post.

We've been here before--trust me. Every era has its own amnesia for M&A gone wild.

In the end, it doesn't really matter. It's not some big tragedy on a grand scale. But the press (and I suspect many of the senior execs of these companies) don't really explore the corrosive downside of these acquisition.

So I thought I would.

Buy. Or Die.

Really?

If I don't commit to millions of dollars of acquisitions I will … die? I'm supposed to believe that my best innovation can only come from scores of startup founders who just made millions and have now become CVOs at my company? (Chief Vesting Officers)?

Meh.

The Aqui-hire Business

Many buying companies price these deals on the basis of $1 million per engineer on the team for an early-stage deal. And they might give a premium if the team has been around a longer period of time, has built some hard-to-build proprietary technology or has some customer traction.

Usually the location of the engineers matters great so having offshore engineering makes acquihires unlikely.

Let's assume an early-stage company around for two years with limited traction. It is probably purchased in the $5 to $15 million range even if you see higher numbers in the press.

Almost certainly the startup would have raised some capital. Let's assume $2 million in seed money.

If the money comes from professional investors it usually has a "liquidation preference" meaning that their money comes out before the founders or common stock. (If you don't know venture economics--there is an overview here.)

While at initial glance this sounds unfair, when you think about it -- it doesn't. If you give $2 million for 20 percent of a company ($8 million pre + $2 million investment = $10 million post-money valuation) that has no product and no customers and it turns around three months later and sells for $5 million it would hardly be fair for investor to get $1 million back (20 percent of the proceeds). That's why liquidation preferences exist -- downside protection.

After the liquidation preference the founders (probably one to three people) are likely to get 90 percent of the remaining proceeds and the staff -- those engineers that the acquiring company so desperately wants -- would ordinarily receive a very small proportion.

I talked about the math of this in this post, "Is it Time to Learn or to Earn."

Mark, doesn't the acquiring company mostly care about the super innovative founders? Those one to three you're talking about?

If they do, then they're naive. And most buyers aren't. Most founders stick around for their lock-up period--one to two years--before going on to found their next company.

Think about it -- they were the ones most willing and most able to take risk in the first place. They founded their last company with no money in their pocket. Now they get to go out and try again with $2 million in their pockets plus the credibility of having just gotten a big W.

Most founders stay the least amount of time they can.

I know the buyers try the best to believe that [insert well known founder name here ... David Sacks, Max Levchin, Dennis Crowley, Keith Rabois] will stay and help lead their company in a totally new direction. But evidence suggests otherwise.

So the buying company usually wants to pay $0 for the company. And wants to structure a huge payout for the employees that will remain. That way investors (dead money for the buyer) and founders (flight risk) don't get all the spoils while the faithful staff who will stick around get nothing.

And precisely because buyers usually prefer to have limited money go to investors -- investors almost always have the ability to say "no" to transactions in the terms of their funding documents (aka "blocking rights").

And that is the tension in the acquihire -- What is the purchase price for the company? What is the "earn out" if the acquired company hits some performance targets? What is the amount of money set aside for staff retention? And will investors allow a deal to happen in the first place?

The numbers you see announced in the press for deals are hardly ever right.

OK, Mark, we get the mechanics. But what is so corrosive about this?

Why Acquihires Hurt the Acquiring Company

How about if we look at it from the "rest of company" perspective?

You have been at Google, Salesforce.com, Yahoo! for years. You have worked faithfully. Evenings. Weekends. Year in, year out. You have shipped to hard deadlines. You've done the death-march projects. In the trenches. You got the t-shirt. And maybe got called out for valor at a big company gathering. They gave you an extra two days of vacation for your hard work.

And that prick sitting in the desk next to you who joined only last week now has $1 million because he built some fancy newsreader that got a lot of press but is going to be shut down anyways.

What kind of message does that send to the party faithful who slave away loyally to hit targets for BigCo?

I'll tell you what is says.

It says if you want to make "real" money -- quit.

Go do a startup. Get some famous angel or seed money. Get yourself in a big demo day competition. Woo the press. Hire legions of young, impressionable graduates from the top engineering universities. And then come back and sell me your company.

I know many rank-and-file employees. I've had the chats with them. You rarely meet people who don't resent the scores of entitled acquihirees of their company.

Does Yahoo! et al really have to keep up with the Jones's to build its future?

For the 200 new employees they'll get through acquihires do they unleash 2,000 unhappy existing employees? Sure, most won't quit. Because they know that it's not a slam dunk to start a business and get acquired. But the most talented of those 2,000 will.

What if the $100 million you're going to spend trying to win this alleged "war for talent" instead went into big retention plans to keep your most talented employees.

You can't "Roll Out the Red Carpet When Your Best Employees are on the Way Out the Door" as I wrote in this post. So why not announce big, hairy audacious goals on recruiting the best mobile talent with sign-on bonuses and retention plans? And reward your existing top 10 percent of employees handsomely.

I'll bet the ROI would be higher than acquihires.

Acquihires and Venture Capital

I'm a VC. I know I'm supposed believe in acquihires to bury my investments that aren't working.

I would never discourage any teams of people I'm working with against early acquisition if they felt it was in the company's best interests.

But that's not how you make money in the venture capital business. You make money by backing winners that build real businesses.

I look for entrepreneurs who set out on their journeys to do exactly that--build big businesses. Change industries. Not looking for quick flips.

And on many occasions I have passed on deals where it was clear that the founding team was over-optimizing the deal structure to focus on a quick exit.

When I have great teams with products that are taking longer to show traction than they or I would like, I usually spend time trying to figure out how we can build a better business versus selling early.

I don't blame entrepreneurs who go for an early exit when it comes up. To the contrary. On many occasions where I've met with teams of people in whom I've never invested I've encouraged exactly that -- an early exit at a "small" price. Because if your business isn't working or isn't likely to work, it's obviously better than running into a brick wall or over-capitalizing yourself.

And, of course, many small acquisitions work for the buyers when there is a clear strategy for owning the asset or a clear alignment with the team you're acquiring.

But as a repeatable strategy for large companies to try and compete with each other it still strikes me as a wasteful strategy. And few in the press are willing to call this out.

Sarah Lacy did. It's why I love reading her writings -- she's one of the few remaining journalists in the tech sector (along with Kara Swisher and a few others) who have been around long enough to have earned their critical eyes or cynicism.

She wrote this excellent piece last year called, "The Acqui-hire Scourge: Whatever Happened to Failure in Silicon Valley."

And I thought I'd finish with a quote from Sarah:

"Allowing entrepreneurs -- and their investors -- to save face by saying they were "acquired" instead of failing is nice, but it's a bit like the pre-schools where everyone wins a trophy for showing up."

How humility and honesty brought one start-up founder life-changing publicity.

Long before bloggers were household names, John Lusk, along with his co-author and business partner Kyle Harrison, leveraged their humble company's newsletter into The MouseDriver Chronicles, a New York Times bestselling book. Along the way, they created a supportive community of emotionally attached stakeholders that would be the envy of any social media manager. Here's how they pulled it off.

After graduating from Wharton in the late 1990s, John and Kyle launched a start-up based upon a simple product: a computer mouse shaped like the head of a golf driver. They named their novelty product a "MouseDriver".

The company's newsletter was initially created to share their entrepreneurial journey with a few family and friends. Says John, "I said, 'Hey, listen were going to start writing this newsletter and it's going to highlight our trials and tribulations, our failures and our successes. It's gonna highlight our emotions, our ups and our downs. If you want to be kept informed just send me an email and let me know that you're in, and that was it. And of those 35 people... everybody opted in."

Here's what was in that first newsletter:

Dear Friends,

We have no income and no venture capital funding. Our inventory is being financed by companies with names like Chase, Citibank, First USA and Capital One. Our office consists of a refrigerator, oven, sink, two desks, a bay window and one very large Texas flag... We're motivated, passionate, excited, terrified and at many times, have absolutely no idea what we are doing. Every hour of the day is filled with constant mood swings and the question of "What the hell are we doing?" enters our minds on a daily basis.

Without realizing it, John and Kyle had begun to build a community of virtual stakeholders who were developing an emotional bond with the company.

To John's surprise, the number of subscribers to the company's newsletter began to quickly grow."Within three months, we had over 500 subscribers and again, you had to send me an email that said,' I'm in.' We weren't marketing the newsletter, it was just out there, sort of growing organically."

Crowdsourced Advisors

In addition to providing a source of emotional support and encouragement, John began to use the newsletter to solicit advice. "The newsletter became sort of a de facto Advisory Board for us. We would send out some of our issues, we would highlight some of the problems and the challenges we were having with MouseDriver and all of a sudden, people would respond. I'm not talking about one or two people responding, we get 10, 15, 20 responses for a particular problem.

The popularity of the company's newsletter soon began to grow--faster than MouseDriver's sales. Per John, "We continue to grow the business and as the newsletter grew, the media kind of picked up on the story as well. The media... wasn't... saying, 'Wow, this is the best product ever and you guys are just killing it.' It was...'Wow, we've heard about your newsletter, and it seems to be motivating and inspiring entrepreneurs around the country. We'd love to talk to you about it.'"

Enter Inc. Magazine

The turning point for John and Kyle was a cover story in Inc. magazine. "February of 2001, Inc. magazine ended up doing a cover story on Kyle and me called, An American Start-Up. Again, the story wasn't about how our product was just knocking it out of the park. It was about our newsletter and how we weren't afraid to put things out there, and to talk about how hard it was to be an entrepreneur.

The Inc. article generated tremendous interest in the newsletter. In the pre-blogging days of 2001, John had to literally send each newsletter out via Outlook, which limited the number of recipients that could be included in each email. As the number of subscribers grew, so did the cost and time committment.

In John's words, "(After the Inc. article) our newsletter completely took off. We went from five thousand subscribers to ten thousand subscribers in less than... six months. We got so many responses we kind of were trying to figure out, 'What do we do with all these people?"

From 10,000 Readers to Bestseller

However, before John and Kyle could fully harness the power of their growing newsletter audience, their focus was drawn to codifying their entrepreneurial experiences in book form. "Once the media picked up on it, every major publishing house... (called) from Time Warner and Harper Collins and Harvard Business Press and Perseus. Saying, 'Hey, we want to pay you to write a book.'

We really wanted to encourage people to do what we had done. You know, despite the fact that we had all these highs and lows, we felt like we had learned so much about ourselves. The 4 years that we spent with MouseDriver, we'd learned... everything we learned in business school and then some, especially around common sense and street smarts and how to read people and these are things that you just don't get from any other corporation and these are things that are going to help you in everyday life."

Not every business will be able to transform its story to a bestseller. Nevertheless, there are a number of community-building lessons entrepreneurs can draw from John and Kyle's experiences:

1. Journalize: Maintaining a journal helps you keep your successes and failures in their proper perspective. It will be invaluable you when it's time to write your own bestseller.

2. Consistency: Communicating with your constituents on a set schedule keeps your community engaged and forces you to create content, even when you feel you don't have time to spare.

3. Vulnerability: Most people tend to be more empathetic, and thus more helpful, when you share your shortcomings and mistakes, along with your triumphs.

4. Ask For Help: Don't be afraid to call upon your community for specific assistance.

5. Speak, Don't Preach: These folks are already believers; don't alienate them by talking "at" them. Rather, write in a conversational style that encourages your fans to add to the discussion.

6. Sales Matter: Although they did many things right, John and Kyle failed to generate significant MouseDriver sales from their community. As John noted at the conclusion of his talk, "The book did help us increase sales... but we could have increased a lot more, had we had the distribution, had I been actually focused on sales like I probably should have been, instead of writing the book."

You can watch/listen to how John and Kyle turned their email newsletter into an international bestseller in this nine-minute excerpt from John's recent talk at UC Santa Barbara.

A productivity junkie who's done it all decides to stop planning entirely. Will his experiment work?

Have you tried about a dozen different productivity systems but failed to see long-term results?

Computer scientist and professor Cal Newport empathizes. After noticing he had more research ideas than he could possibly turn into papers, he "launched at least six different plans aimed at increasing my research output," he wrote on his blog.

Were any effective? Not really, he confessed, so he decided to try something new: the anti-plan plan.

He defines it this way: "An anti-plan has you to throw out all … rules and just dive in, adapting, the best you can, to your circumstances. It requests only that you keep a record of your experience, capturing, for later review, your thoughts, triumphs, and frustrations."

To keep this record, Newport devised a system called a "gournal," where he regularly emails updates and reflections to a special email address, which automatically sorts them by labels. Here's what he hopes to get out of it:

The theory behind anti-planning is that it exposes you to a much wider swath of the productivity plan landscape. Your journal will keep you updated on how well you’re doing, which provides the selective pressure needed to drive you toward some novel approaches to getting more depth out of your working habits.

People sometimes worry that anti-planning will tank their productivity. The reality is usually the opposite: the flexibility and constant self-reflection tends to increase the rate at which you produce valuable output.

For these same reasons, however, anti-planning can be draining (all that reflection and decision making reduces willpower). So I usually only last a month or two before falling back onto a more structured set of rules.

The key, however, is that the system I end up after anti-planning is often more effective than where I was before.

The anti-plan, then, is not so much a long-term change as a means to get a better sense of how you work. Rather than blindly adhere to someone else’s system, you watch your own patterns to develop tricks and schedules that maximize productivity. It's an approach Newport thinks many folks could benefit from.

"If you’re frustrated with the effectiveness of your productivity plans, spend some time without one, and see what bubbles to the surface," he suggests.

Want to track Newport's progress? You can follow developments on his blog.

Will you give the anti-plan a try?

The two online food delivery services are merging to scale growth.

Two online food delivery services, Seamless and GrubHub, agreed to merge, Bloomberg tweeted Monday morning.

GrubHub CEO Matt Maloney will keep his title at the new company, while Seamless CEO Jonathan Zabusky will assume the role of president. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed. The name of the combined team--Grubless, anyone?--has not yet been announced.

TechCrunch explained the significance of a possible merger over the weekend, noting how big the online food biz has become. Citing research from Cornell University, TechCrunch said more than 40 percent of adults have ordered food online, and 10 percent of restaurant orders originate online.

While Seamless has traditionally dominated the New York City market, particularly in worker hub midtown Manhattan, GrubHub has made the midwest its launch pad.

GrubHub, which was founded in Chicago in 2004, has expanded to more than 500 cities and more than 20,000 restaurants, and raised $84 million in venture capital funding in the process.

Seamless, on the other hand, launched in 1999, was acquired in 2000, and then became its own entity in 2001. It rebranded from its earlier name Seamless Web two years ago. Today it's in 12,000 restaurants, and reportedly generated $85 million in revenue last year, according to Reuters.

Both brands are also visible--through signage--in restaurants and cities they serve.

The merger will, ideally, enable both companies to expand farther.

Neither company had an easy time of it, and to this day the founders struggle with balancing life and work. As GrubHub's co-founder Matt Maloney told Inc. in a video: "It's super tricky all the time."

Concerned about getting your money's worth when your team is spread across the country--or the world? Relax. Here are the secrets from a virtual-company pro.

Entrepreneurs and small-businesses sometimes need support, but don't want to take on the overhead of a physical office space. And for those who are bootstrapping a start-up, office space is rarely an option. Hiring staff to work remotely may be the answer but how can you be sure you are getting your money's worth out of team members who aren't physically present?

We ask James DeJulio, the president of Tongal, a social video crowdsourcing platform, what lessons he's learned from his experience in using thousands of remote staff.

"I will never de-emphasize the value of collaboration with team members, but we're really in an age where collaboration can happen in a lot ways other than purely physical ones," says DeJulio. "For example, if Yahoo started to look at the work its remote staff was doing as if no one would do it unless they really wanted to, they'd completely reexamine how they motivate employees."

Tongal also advises that employers should provide the opportunity for remote workers to be physically present whenever they feel the urge.

"This has worked wonders for us, both with the Tongal community and our staff," he says. "We have employees in various parts of the country, and if they ever want to spend time at the Tongal mothership, the door is open."

Since 2008, Tongal's formula for using remote workers to create stellar video content has earned it major clients, such as Procter and Gamble, Google, Coca-Cola, Ford, Lego, Lucasfilm, and NASA. The best part is, the company's network of crowdsourced remote staff gets the opportunity to work with these huge companies from anywhere in the world. Videos produced by Tongal's remote workforce have been used as commercials during major events, including the Super Bowl and the MTV Movie Awards.

Here are DeJulio's tips for successfully building and managing a successful virtual team.

Make the Work Enjoyable

Find ways to motivate your remote workforce--and that doesn't just mean higher pay.

DeJulio stresses that motivation is not directly correlated to economics. Just because you're willing to pay a lot, doesn't mean that someone will do a good job. Provide a mix of challenge and fun. If you can capture the magic that makes work feel more like play, you can ensure that you'll get a great effort whatever area code your staff is in.

Provide Latitude and Structure

DeJulio believes that if people are working remotely, chances are they prefer working when they want to tackle tasks--kind of like an employee Montessori school. However, you need to impose deadlines and structure in the work. In DeJulio's experience remote workers, like right-brained people, need this--and will thrive if you give it to them.

Hire People Who Have (Successfully) Worked Remotely in the Past

If your candidate has excelled at remote work with other companies, you'll know that the work ethic and discipline are already present. If that's not an option, DeJulio recommends seeking potential employees who are motivated to do their job (or former jobs) unconventionally. For example, don't hire a remote worker whose goals are purely economic, hire a remote worker who is motivated by developing a new product, fixing a problem, or disrupting the way things have been done in the past.

Reward Overall Results

Maximize results by letting your virtual team know that you value a sustained contribution. Show that that their work is appreciated and contributing to a bigger vision and plan. For example, Tongal has a bonus system that rewards its top performers over a predetermined amount of time. Consider: What creative opportunities will you have in store for your remote staff?

The innovative production company received top honors for its brand-driven content this week.

It's no secret the advertising production company B-Reel is changing the industry. The company made waves last year with the viral sensation The Wilderness Downtown, and this year it released The Beauty Inside, an interactive branded film that invites viewers to play the lead role.

On Friday, B-Reel announced it had swept the prestigious CLIO awards, winning not one, but two Gold distinctions in the Film and Branded Entertainment categories. Other recent award wins include six One Show awards, two Golds for SXSW, five Art Directors Club awards, and four Webby awards.

"The Beauty Inside is a truly integrated project, where the boundaries between traditional storytelling and user interaction is totally blurred,” Pelle Nilsson, executive producer and founding partner, said in a statement. “And it shows that a great collaboration between agency and production company is what makes for outstanding execution."

B-Reel, which has its roots in Scandinavia, has traditionally shied away from straightforward ad work, even as it lacked the technology.

"Limitations are frustrating, but they can also trigger a really creative side in you," Petter Westlund, the company's chief creative officer, said of the company's hacker mentality. To date, the company has created dazzling ad campaigns for Mitsubishi, State Farm, Doritos, and Google.

The Beauty Inside is not the first B-Reel production to receive accolades this year. Both that film and another short for Google Maps Cube received numerous nominations and won four Silver Pencils and one Bronze Pencil from The One Club, which promotes excellence in advertising and design.

B-Reel currently runs six offices worldwide and five divisions, including commercials, content, digital, feature films, and products.

Harvard Business School grad Angela Newman left a high-paying consulting career to launch her own line of high-tech women's undergarments. Below, she shares five tips that any start-up CEO can learn from.

When Angela Newman was getting an MBA at Harvard in 1994, creating a line of undergarments couldn't have been further from her mind. "Never in a million years," she laughs now. But after graduating with her MBA in 1996, she landed a consulting position at McKinsey where she became an expert in textiles. It was something that was already in her blood. She grew up North Carolina, the heart of the U.S. textiles industry, and for many years watched her father hard at work as an executive at Milliken, a high-tech textile company that was big on R&D.

In 2009, Newman started developing what would eventually become Knock out!, a line of specialized undergarments made from odor- and moisture-absorbing fabric. In April, Newman beat out some 130 global entries to become the first woman-owned business to win Harvard Business School's Alumni New Venture Contest. Below, Newman shares some of the lessons she's learned from spending 11 years in the textiles industry and five years at the helm of her own company.

1. Play the Field
Every founder has "positions" they love to play, but this is a hazard in a start-up! With my passion to make undergarments, I spent nearly all of my early time on R&D and production. I eventually had to force myself--sometimes over strong objections--to get involved in EVERY area--including IT, legal, distribution and customer service. My goal was to gain an understanding, not necessarily do everything. Knowing enough about each area to ask the right questions and establish the right measures should be a part of every CEO's tool kit. Plus, it keeps life interesting!

2. Stay close to the customer
With all the breadth of work and pace of change that occurs in start-ups, it is easy to lose contact with the most important aspect for success of any business--the customer. We don't have a big market research budget, but I get valuable information by going direct to our wholesale and retail customers on everything from marketing messaging to prototype testing. These unfiltered customer opinions help us avoid mistakes and actually enhance the overall relationship between our company and our customers--which is invaluable in our over-marketed world.

3. Enter business competitions
Start-ups are often operating on a tight budget and everyone is going 200 miles per hour, so the idea of adding some non-critical item to the TO DO list is not popular. But the benefits business competitions offer cannot be overlooked--feedback on the concept, new contacts, and publicity to name just a few. I entered Knock out in three business plan competitions within our first two years--investing over a full month of my time toward these contests. Was it worth it? Absolutely! Knock out won the Harvard competition and was chosen one of the Top 15 Global Startups by Kauffman Foundation. The payoff was enormous. Experienced feedback, money, many contacts with venture investors and faculty, and lots of publicity.

4. Don't forget to live
No person can keep up the start-up pace indefinitely. It is easy to become engrossed in the business and forget friends, family, fitness, and hobbies. Every founder must learn to step back and enjoy life--not only will it improve health and happiness, but it will provide the much underappreciated time to take a step back and reflect on the business. I never miss my gals trips.

5. Be willing to let go
Every entrepreneur will tell you the "new venture" is more like a new baby. Full of energy, endless needs, joyous and frustrating all at the same time and all consuming in the early days. But just as babies grow up and become more independent, so should the startup. Building infrastructure, hiring great people and making yourself "expendable" should be the goal of every startup that wants to grow up.

One YC partner makes an exit, while Paul Graham introduces five new ones--including Groupon founder and ex-CEO, Andrew Mason.

Y Combinator founder Paul Graham took to his blog yesterday to announce the hire of four new part-time partners--including Groupon founder and ex-CEO Andrew Mason.

The other part-time partners, who will advise the next class of YC start-ups, include Michael Seibel, the founder of Socialcam, Steve Huffman, the co-founder of Hipmunk and Reddit, and Dalton Caldwell, the co-founder of Imeem and App.net.

Kevin Hale, the co-founder of Wufoo, will join YC as a full-time partner.

"We've known all these guys for years and we can already tell it will be great to work with them," Graham wrote. Harj Taggar, the first-ever YC partner will be leaving the firm.

But the big news here is the surprise return of Andrew Mason, the Groupon founder who was, for all intents and purposes, canned from his last gig as Groupon's CEO. He's not just becoming a part-time partner at YC, either. In a blog post on his own site--timed with Paul Graham's post--Mason had a few announcements of his own.

"If there's a silver lining to leaving Groupon, it's the opportunity to start something new," Mason wrote. "I've accumulated a backlog of ideas over the last several years, my favorite of which I'll be turning into a new company this fall."

He doesn't offer many details about the new company, but Mason also used the post to announce a third new project that's currently in the works--a music album targeted at young people entering the workforce.

Yes. For real. (Well, so he says. But honestly, we're talking about Andrew Mason, after all.)

In his words:

I came to realize that there was a real need to present business wisdom in a format that is more accessible to the younger generation. It was with this in mind that I spent a week in LA earlier this month recording Hardly Workin', a seven song album of motivational business music targeted at people newly entering the workforce. These songs will help young people understand some of the ideas that I've found to be a key part of becoming a productive and effective employee.

We'll be sure to stay tuned.

Forget shiny objects and distractions. How people who grew up with nothing, people like you and me, build big-time success.

There's way too much focus on amorphous concepts like leadership and entrepreneurship these days. If you spend enough time around successful executives and entrepreneurs, you quickly learn that none of them ever set out to become either. That's just not how it works.

The more I think about it, if I came into the workforce now instead of 30 years ago, I'm not sure I would have made it. Frankly, the odds are much slimmer now. There's just too much distraction, too many shiny objects, too much information keeping people from focusing on what really matters.

Make no mistake: It's still possible to make it big. It just takes some focus, and the ability to tune out the noise and the pomp. This is how real people who grew up with nothing end up making it big in the real world.

By making their own luck. They say luck is when preparation meets opportunity. That's absolutely true. Take baseball. When you get a high fastball right where you want it, it doesn't do any good if you can't hit it out of the park. You've got to be ready when that break comes.

By trusting their gut. I don't get crowdsourcing; it makes no sense to me. When everyone collaborates and has to agree on everything, you don't get innovation and you don't get great work. Sometimes you just need a focus group of one.

By making smart decisions. There's a good reason why smart people do well in this world. They can reason. They don't throw caution to the wind based on one data point from a source that isn't credible. There's simply no way around it. Good things come to people who make good calls.

By taking risks. The single biggest reason why the vast majority of people go nowhere in life is because they don't or won't take risks. They take the easy way out, the path of least resistance. You don't make it big that way. Ever.

By finding big problems that need to be solved. There's a huge misconception that innovation is mostly about inventing or coming up with cool new things. More often than not, innovation is about figuring out what people really need or want but can't have or afford.

By saying "sure, no problem" a lot. If you're always telling people why you can't do something, if you parse everything and nitpick, I've got news for you: You're not going anywhere. If you want to make it in this world, learn to say, "sure, no problem." Practice. It's good for you.

By working their tails off when they need to. Sure, there are people who became rich and successful the easy way. There must be. But I've never met or known one. Not one out of thousands. So forget it. If you're not ready to work your tail off whenever you need to, settle in for a life of mediocrity. And one more thing. First you do the work. Lots and lots of work. Then success happens. In that order.

By focusing on what really matters. You know all the personal branding, blogging, tweeting, liking, messaging, posting, status updating, and social networking everyone spends all their time doing these days. None of that matters. Period.

By negotiating hard. And getting equity. Whether it's your own company or a piece of somebody else's, if you want to make it big, you've got to get a piece of the pie. The catch is that nobody wants to give it up, at least not easily. So you've got to negotiate hard. Do it. It'll pay off big-time.

By finding ways to resolve their issues and complement their weaknesses. I keep hearing about strengths-based leadership. What a crock. If you've got big issues or weaknesses that are holding you back, you need to face reality and find a way to either resolve them or partner with others who can put up with you and fill in the gaps.

By listening and learning from smart, accomplished people. This is the argument for getting out in the real world and working for a stellar company or two while you're young. You'll learn how things work in the business world. You'll learn how to manage. You'll learn the ropes from people who've actually accomplished what you aim to do.

By doing. Nobody ever got anywhere by sitting on their butts and saying, "Someday I'll do that ... maybe tomorrow." Successful people are people of action. They do things. They get things done.

Now go out and make it big.

Procter & Gamble's former CEO offers simple but useful tips for better discussions at work and elsewhere.

A great deal of our lives is spent talking to people. The proportion may go up for salespeople and down for introverts, but everyone could stand to have more productive conversations.

Maybe you had good role models or instincts, but if you feel your conversational skills are lacking, a new book by A.G. Lafley, Procter & Gamble’s former CEO, offers good advice on how to make discussions less shallow.

In the book, Playing to Win: How Strategy Really Works, Lafley reveals his principles for fruitful conversation.

"People’s default mode of communication tends to be advocacy--argumentation in favor or their own conclusions and theories, statements about the truth of their own point of view.

"The stance we tried to instill at P& G was a reasonably straightforward but traditionally underused one: 'I have a view worth hearing, but I may be missing something.' It sounds simple, but this stance has a dramatic effect on group behavior if everyone in the room holds it. One, they advocate their view as a possibility, not as the single right answer. Two, they listen carefully and ask questions about alternative views."

This approach has obvious benefits--it's far more likely to promote problem solving than meetings where each participant argues their point of view.

Improving the quality of discussions should lead to better decisions and better meetings, but these skills could also strengthen your personal relationships. So how do you employ "assertive inquiry?" Here are three steps:

Advocate your own position, then invite responses. Try saying, “This is how I see the situation and why. How do you see it?”

Paraphrase the other person’s view and ask for their take. “It sounds to me like your argument is this. Is that what you're saying?”

Explain a gap in understanding. “It sounds like you think this acquisition is a bad idea. Could you tell me how you came to that conclusion?”

Advocating for your ideas may help you get your way, but blending assertiveness and inquiry is guaranteed to get people on your side. The reason: "Inquiry leads the other person to genuinely reflect and hear your advocacy rather than ignoring it and making their own advocacy in response," says Lafley.

How have you improved conversations?

Handle founder Shawn Carolan explains why pursuing email perfection is all but pointless.

For many of us, the constant ping of inbox alerts and the 24-hour nature of today's news cycle serve as a symbol for the stress of being constantly ON. If you could just get your inbox under control, then you could get off the tech treadmill and be fully in the moment, right?

It's an understandable goal, writes Handle co-founder Shawn Carolan on GigaOM, but it's never going to happen, at least not long term.

How does he know? Carolan has chased the inbox zero mirage and learned what's on the other side. He writes:

Over the past year-and-a-half while developing Handle, our entire company was in a race to zero. Inbox zero, to be precise. We set out to create a product that would allow us to leave work with zero emails in our inboxes and, so the thinking went, would lead to lives of zero stress (or at least until the next morning). We wanted to go home for dinner with friends and families and be fully present, in both body and mind. Wouldn’t that be amazing, transformative - invaluable, even?

Yes. So would alchemy, but neither exist. Inbox Zero, we discovered, is a mirage.

Like a fad diet, getting your inbox to zero only yields short-term results. In a burst of extreme discipline you can scrub your email account to sparkling, pristine condition. But just like that extreme diet, the results will soon fade away, leaving you more anxious and discouraged than before. So what's the inbox equivalent of sustainable, healthy living?

Setting priorities according to your individual values and getting everything floating around in your brain down on paper (or pixels). Psychologists have determined the real value in to-do lists is quieting something called the Zeigernik effect, which causes incomplete tasks to nag us. Simply writing down a detailed plan will kill the buzz and clear the mind.

Of course, as Carolan notes, this type of organization is essential but not sufficient as priorities are also about values. "Each moment is a value judgment, and only yours to make," he writes. Establishing what constitutes an unmissable "must-do" versus a message you can leave well alone involves values.

Is making a speaking engagement more important than your child's school play? Is mentoring a must, or is writing more important? These decisions, taken together, will define your life values, and nothing will make them easier.

With your values nailed down and must-dos planned out, pursuing inbox zero will be less important. If you want to feel better, much like getting in shape, it needs to come from a change in behavior and understanding your values--not bursts of obsessive guilt.

Have you had success achieving inbox zero?

Yes, you can enjoy the warm weather and stay sharp at work. Here's how.

Summer is almost upon us. Roll out the barbeques, calm the kids, and ... begin the inevitable hand wringing about the slump in productivity at work.

Warm weather, vacation distractions, and a general easy feeling can add up to productivity declines of 20 percent, according to one study released last summer.

But must your joy be marred by concerns that your business will suffer? Can't you enjoy the summer and keep things humming at work? Rest assured that you can.

Constant work isn't the same as maximum productivity. Discipline has its limits, and flexibility its advantages.

Here's The Atlantic defending the right of the man with the toughest job in America--the president--to go on vacation:

"Breaks are better for our brains than overtime. Where you get your break -- from an hour on blogs, a day in the park, or a week golfing at Martha's Vineyard--doesn't matter so much as that you get it. If you care about your own productivity, don't be afraid to goof off online. And if you care about decision-making at the national level, tune out the critics and root for your president's golf game."

If psychological and management research shows the president is more productive with a vacation, shouldn't you go on one too?

If you shouldn't feel guilty about taking off work, you shouldn't have to plan every break with your team. With people off on holiday, "summer means you might have to tackle projects without a critical team member, or pinch-hit for a co-worker to keep the wheels turning," says Brazen Careerist. "If your organization doesn’t already have a shared vacation calendar, spearhead the effort to create one." Basics like communicating plans in advance, working ahead, and covering essential tasks should all be written down.

One of the biggest productivity drains over the summer is all the time you spend daydreaming about being somewhere else. Rather than fight this weather-induced daydreaming, roll with it. But keep working.

"If work is starting to feel a little stale, you may be able to get a kick-start simply by changing your routine or environment. Try getting outside more during the workday (e.g., holding meetings outside or taking a walk during breaks) or working at a coffeeshop for some renewed creativity," suggests Lifehacker. Studies have shown "telecommuting helped workers increase their productivity in the summer."

Keep this in mind not just for yourself but your employees. Will forcing them to stay cooped up in the office make them feel motivated?

"Achievements trump hours spent," writes Forbes' Jacquelyn Smith. "Just because you’re in the office for the required eight hours doesn’t mean you’ve done your job."

She has a good point: Business owners shouldn't fetishize face-time. Get out if it helps get more done.

How do you keep productivity up over the summer?

The founder of Pakistan's first hackathon boldly goes where few women have gone before.

Sabeen Mahmud could easily fall into the Silicon Valley stereotype. But the entrepreneur lives and works in Karachi, Pakistan, a region more commonly associated with violence and a struggle for women's rights.

The hackathon Mahmud launched in her Second Floor Café in 2006 was Pakistan's first, though bringing something new to this ancient city wasn't easy. Mahmud had no money, no experience, and zero market research. She was also disillusioned with "mainstream politics," and was living with her mother and grandmother. None of this detered her.

“Fear is just a line in your head," she told Wired this week. "You can choose what side of that line you want to be on."

For Mahmud, who fell "passionately in love" with the first Mac she saw in 1992, the decision was simple.

Using word-of-mouth, the hackathon drew over 120 applicants and welcomed a government representative--an especially bold move considering two of apps proposed to address government inefficiencies.

“I felt we needed to not create a competitive environment,” Mahmud said, “and as a result the collaboration was incredible.”

Recently I told you about the 10 worst states for new business in America. Now here's where entrepreneurship is thriving.

Recently, I told you about the 10 worst states in America for new businesses--at least, according to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. Today, it's time for the best of the bunch.

First, the background. In its Enterprising States report, the Chamber took "an in-depth look at the priorities, policies and programs of the 50 states that are vital for job growth and economic prosperity," including "entrepreneurship and innovation."

While states like Arkansas, Maine, and West Virginia didn't fare very well according to that report, other states shone in a more positive light. Some of them might surprise you.

10. Florida

What brought the Sunshine State into the top 10? In a phrase, "business creation."

Florida ranked first overall among the states in "business birthrate," and third in the increase in self-employed workers.

You might be excused for asking whether that's always a great statistic, especially since people often start their own businesses in response to not being able to find a job elsewhere. And the state wasn't a leader for high-tech industries.

Instead, the Chamber reported, Florida's "fastest-growing self-employed occupations since 2002 include personal financial advisers (59,000 new jobs), managers (40,000), property managers (39,000), and securities and financial services salespeople (38,000)."

9. Georgia

The Chamber isn't alone in ranking Georgia pretty high on its list of entrepreneurial states. The National Venture Capital Association called Atlanta the No. 12 American city for tech start-ups last year.

Georgia's high rank was driven by its concentration of high-tech establishments, "with particularly high employment concentrations in computer facilities management," and software, according to the Chamber.

The report also cited the efforts of a state program called Entrepreneur-Friendly Communities that tries to teach communities to create an entrepreneurial environment.

8. Arizona

"Go west," young men (and women). Arizona had a "solid all-around performance," according to the report, and ranked "at least 15th in five of the six entrepreneurship and innovation metrics."

Top 5 in business creation rate, the state has a number of interesting government-funded projects. These include the yearly Arizona Innovation Challenge, which awards $3 million to its winners, an Angel Investment Program offering tax credits to investors in Arizona small businesses, and a Fast Grant Program helping companies with promising technologies.

7. Washington

With more than 57,000 Microsoft employees alone, it's probably not surprising to learn that Washington's STEM workforce was a big factor in placing it high on the list.

"The state is already home to the 3rd-highest concentration of STEM workers and is adding STEM workers at the 4th-fastest rate in the nation," according to the report.

The Chamber also cited Impact Washington, a nonprofit that supports manufacturing and also consults with very small businesses, and state financial support for manufacturers.

6. Texas

Its fifth-in-the-nation STEM job growth pushed Texas near the top of the list, along with being ranked No. 2 in growth of the number of self-employed workers. Since 2009, Texas has created 34,000 STEM jobs, "many of them in computer and IT-related occupations," according to the report.

The state has more than 2.2 million small businesses--meaning Texas has more small businesses than 13 other states have people.

More than 390,000 are direct employers, the report said, "and they account for over 45 percent of private sector jobs in the state. Small firms make up more than 98 percent of the state's employers."

5. Massachusetts

Massachusetts is a middling performer when it comes to many of the Chamber's criteria, but its status as a center for STEM jobs--combined with research and development at colleges like Harvard University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and other institutions--were enough to bring it into the top five.

Among the non-academic efforts that the study cited was a 2012 law that creates a matching grant fund to "invest in two or three technology areas that hold high potential to create a competitive global advantage."

4. Utah

Did you know that Utah adds STEM jobs at the 3rd-fastest rate in the country, and that it's No. 7 in high tech business concentration?

"The state scores well in business creation. It ranks 3rd in business birthrate and 7th in growth of self-employed workers," the Chamber said.

The report also cited a state program through Weber State University that "offers technology and business skills training to residents and to start-up businesses in the community," and another mentorship and education program for companies considering moving to Ogden, Utah.

3. Virginia

It might not be surprising that Virginia is near the top of this list, especially given the growth of the defense and broader government sectors over the last several years.

Virginia may just be "the best state in the nation for STEM jobs," according to the report, ranking No. 1 in STEM job concentration, and No. 2 in STEM job growth.

Virginia also has "the highest share of business establishments in high-tech industries," the Chamber said.

2. Colorado

It's not just beautiful scenery and fresh mountain air. Colorado ranked in the top 20 in every metric that the Chamber used to rank the states, which led to its No. 2 ranking for entrepreneurship and innovation.

Colorado clocked second place in the concentration of high-tech businesses, along with 4th place in business birthrate, and 5th place in STEM job concentration, with lots of new jobs in software development, engineering services, and physical and life sciences research.

1. Maryland

Maryland topped the list on the basis of three things: its No. 1 overall ranking for "academic R&D intensity," combined with its huge share of STEM jobs and high-tech businesses (enough to rank No. 2 and 3 in the country respectively).

"Recognizing the value of connecting tech start-ups with experienced entrepreneurs, Maryland launched the Maryland Entrepreneurs Resource List," the Chamber report said. "By connecting nascent firms with people who have been through the process, the list offers a chance to increase the survival rate of promising start-ups, ultimately creating jobs and increasing economic activity."

Interestingly, Maryland was middle-of-the-pack in two of the six categories: business birthrate and growth in self-employed workers. Maybe that demonstrates one of the truths of entrepreneurship: Just because you start a business doesn't necessarily mean you're an entrepreneur.

The National Venture Capital Association hosts World's Largest Office Hours, its first-ever matchmaking event

It’s not easy for entrepreneurs to get the introductions they need to venture backers. So on May 14th in San Francisco, the National Venture Capital Association lent a helping hand, in the form of a speed dating event for entrepreneurs.

“We were thinking, ‘How can we reboot the NVCA conference?’” says Venky Ganesan, a managing director at Menlo Ventures. “It was becoming a little insular and a little low-energy.”

NVCA invited entrepreneurs representing 170 companies, from 20 states and five countries, to pitch 100 venture capitalists from 64 firms. (Full disclosure: I participated in the event as an entrepreneur.) American Airlines provided free plane tickets to 85 out-of-town entrepreneurs. “With such a large list of venture capitalists attending, it was a great opportunity,” says Maider Apraiz, chief sales officer of Gamelearn, which makes video games for mastering life-long skills.

Ganesan expects that out of the 170 companies attending, 10 to 15 will be funded as a direct outcome of the matchmaking event. “That would be amazing impact,” he says.

As you might expect, “It was a bit of a madhouse,” said Christine Sommers, co-founder of ePact, which she described as a “LinkedIn for emergencies.” Some venture firms, such as Scale Ventures, sent a team of partners to take turns speaking with entrepreneurs.

While the speed-dating format isn’t for everyone, Jacqueline Thong, co-founder of mobile health app Ubiqi Health, says it eliminated some of the awkwardness of traditional networking events. “Entrepreneurs could focus on having a good conversation with investors rather than on figuring out how to initiate the conversation,” she said.

Sommers was similarly positive. “I got to meet with funds whose domains are very much aligned with what we’re doing and have some good follow-ups booked. I also got some great advice and insights, all within 20 minutes.”

It’s probably impossible to satisfy nearly 200 entrepreneurs, all of whom are vying to meet their favorite venture capitalist. But attendees said it would be great if, instead of being matched to a particular firm by the NVCA, they were able to indicate which firms or individuals they’d most like to meet with. “Jockeying to try to get time in a room of more than 100 start-ups can be painful,” says Sommers. “I hate feeling like we have to swoop in on VCs, even though I know they are used to it.”

Ganesan’s on it, saying that next year he’d like to have a mobile app for remote matchmaking to make the networking part of the event easier.

He also had a few tips for entrepreneurs who want to partiipate in next year’s event. One part of the application asks for a 100-word description of your company, and in some cases, said Ganesan, he wasn’t able to figure out exactly what the company did. “You need a clear thoughtful idea,” he says. “Keep it simple.” Also: Apply early.

The majority of companies that ever reach the $100 million mark in revenue are not tech start-ups, and are not based in California.

Paul Kedrosky, a Canadian venture capitalist (and loquacious tweeter), recently asked a very good question: How many tech start-ups actually matter?

In an 11-page study released by the Kauffman Foundation earlier this week, Kedrosky parses through economic data to dissect a couple of rather large tech start-up clichés.

"Specifically, it is often claimed that there only are fifteen to twenty information technology companies created per year in the United States that turn out to 'matter,' where matter is defined as the company (relatively) promptly going from founding to $100 million in revenues," Kedrosky writes. "Further, and of real consequence to cities and regional economies, is that most such companies founded in any given year are thought to be in California."

"This paper," he writes, "tries to find out if the preceding is true."

First, and perhaps most importantly, Kedrosky lays out the precise definition of a company that matters. First, it must be scalable, and grow to at least $100 million in revenue. Second, it must be a "disproportionate creator of jobs." And third, the company must be a "disproportionate creator of wealth," which is to say, they not only make its founders wealthy, but put wealth back into the company's ecosystem. (Also important to note: Kedrosky isn't saying that companies with less than $100 million don't matter at all; while they're certainly vital for the economy, "even if high growth is not in their future.")

Below, Kedrosky shows the number of $100 million companies in the United States from 1980 to 2012. There are between 125 and 250 companies that reach this level of scale in any given year. Now, it's important to note that private company data is notoriously hard to verify, and the numbers represented here may be slightly undercounted due to survivorship bias.

But considering there are 552,000 new employer firms that start each year, this is a sobering reminder of how few companies ever actually become really sizeable.

"It is, as one might expect, a very small percentage, even if often by design, given that most companies are not growth firms, with little expectation to grow beyond a level that supports its founder's needs or objectives," writes Kedrosky. "Nevertheless, this number is important, and worth keeping in mind, both in the context of this paper and in the context of the economy itself."

Next, Kedrosky asks another important question: Do information technology companies really take up the lion's share of the country's highest-growth companies?

The verdict: Not really.

"Unsurprisingly, but contrary to some rhetoric, while information technology is important, it is not the most important contributor in percentage terms to the $100-million firms in the United States on a founding cohort basis," he writes.

The largest contributors, he found, were consumer discretionary companies (i.e. nonessential goods and services firms) and industrials. That would make sense, too: "After all, the consumer discretionary and the industrial sectors are the largest non-government segments of the U.S. economy, so it stands to reason they produce more companies, many of which, in turn, go on to become large and successful."

And what about the claim that high-growth companies are found in California? Sort of. Kedrosky analyzed the number of companies that reach the $100 million mark by region, and found the highest amount in the Southeast--comprising of states like Louisiana, Georgia, and Kentucky. The Pacific region, including California, comes in second. But what's actually important here is the sectoral skew (seen below): California still reigns supreme for creating hugely profitable IT companies.

"Putting it in relative perspective, the Pacific region's production of $100-million companies alone would, in standalone terms, be larger in $100-million company creation than are the U.S. Midwest or Mountain regions in all sectors," he writes. "That is fairly remarkable."

CoachUp.com's founder went through three business incubators, has investment from 15 venture capitalists, and gets advice from his board--but his favorite entrepreneurial advice comes from Mom and Dad.

Since it was founded a little longer than a year ago, my company, CoachUp.com, has gone from one to 20 employees. We started with nothing, but today have more than 7,000 coaches. Our revenue is growing more than 30 percent month over month. Today, we are the nation's leading private coaching company.

I've had a lot of great advice along the way. We've been in three incubators already: the Cambridge Innovation Center's Critical Mass program (where we were hatched), the Mass Challenge Accelerator program (where out of over 1,200 applicants, and 120 finalists, we won the No. 1 "Most Likely to Succeed" prize), and the prestigious Boston TechStars program. I have 15 angel investors and three VC firms. I have a five-person board and two formal advisors. Last but not least, I have really bright employees with great ideas of their own, who oftentimes have more "on-the-ground" knowledge about our community than I do.

I am very fortunate to have access to a lot of great advice. But I'm finding that if you are successful early on, your main challenge quickly shifts from getting access to amazing people who can help (my pain point in the first few months) to suddenly having information overload. That is, having so many ideas thrown at you, so little time, so many decisions, and so many people depending on you that it becomes difficult to pick out what's most important and focus on getting it done.

Which is why the best advice I ever received all has to do with managing a busy schedule and making quick, tough decisions:

1. Try to get three important things done every day.
Write them down on a sticky note in the morning and carry them with you. Get them done. After that, it's simple: Be happy, feel like you made progress, don't forget to eat, laugh at least once, and get exercise every day.

2. Focus, focus, focus--but only on things that really matter.
Talk about them all the time. Get them done. Don't worry about the noise of little things; just make quick decisions on them and don't lose sleep over them. Focus on the big ones.

3. Help the people who help you, thank them all the time, and stay humble.
Realize that you are lucky to be where you are, and recognize that at any second, everything you have worked so hard for could be taken from you. Don't be afraid of that fact--just remember that there are so many incredibly talented people who never had an opportunity to do what you are doing, and keep them in mind whenever you are tired or whenever you find yourself complaining about little things.

By the way, all three of these things I learned not from VCs or serial entrepreneurs I know and work with. Rather, I learned them from my most important mentors of all: My parents.

Jordan Fliegel is founder and CEO of CoachUp.com, the nation's leading private coaching company. He also founded Bridge Boys, a seed-stage technology investment firm in Boston.

Some entrepreneurs need to overhaul their lifestyle, but everyone can benefit from small tweaks to their routine.

When we posted a new trick for shoehorning healthy habits into your schedule, LinkedIn lit up with several comments from business owners going to heroic lengths to stay fit.

Scheduling your life to accommodate good health can be a challenge for many. But why does it have to be difficult?

Trevor Gibbs, a former engineer turned health blogger, says it doesn't. Simple but effective interventions are often overlooked, especially by those who feel a need for bigger change. People can "build the movement habits first, and look for opportunities to move, stretch, and be mobile," he says. From there, he offers some useful tips to get started:

• Park at least five minutes away from the office so you'll walk more
• Use the stairs instead of elevators
• Set up a standing workstation

"Oh please," you might be thinking, "these small things might be decent first steps, but they're hardly going to make a dent in my health." But Gibbs isn't the only person saying little changes can have big impacts. The iDoneThis blog recently offered more examples from some big names in business.

Ryan Hoover, a grown-up who knows he should take his vitamins but somehow always forgets, is one of them. "I made a small change," he explains in a post. "I took the jar out of the cupboard and placed it on the countertop. Since then, I haven’t missed a day of taking my vitamins."

Again: Tiny change, big impact.

Hoover notes how other entrepreneurs are taking small steps toward big change:

• Buffer’s Leo Widrich sets gym clothes on top of his alarm clock so he's forced to move around.
• Google increases employees' water consumption by rearranging the fridge--Googlers go for the visible water that's within arm's reach.
• Simplicity author Leo Babauta says flossing-challenged people should only do one tooth per night.

These small behavior tweaks won't disprove the fact that many of us are in need of a major lifestyle change. But the key point still stands: Don't overlook simple but effective changes because you're searching for a silver bullet.

What small change can you make today?

The truth about sales compensation, customer complaints, and other sales basics

When you run a company--especially a start-up--it can be a 24-hour job. But no matter how busy you are, there's one crucial part of your operation you should never ignore: sales. Not every entrepreneur instinctively understands this part of the business, but if you keep these four things in mind as you lead, you’ll have happier, more productive sales reps and plenty of loyal customers.

1. A good sales team can be as important as a good product.
We’ve all heard it: “Create a better mousetrap and the world will beat a path to your door.” But often it does take effort to demonstrate how great your mousetrap is to potential customers. Even the best products have to be sold, and that’s where your sales team comes in. Astute leaders recognize the value of their sales teams, and they ensure that their teams are made up of top performers.

2. Sales reps should be paid well--maybe even more than you.
Many people ask me what they should pay their sales reps. The answer is simple: What’s a sale worth to you? Professional, well-trained, and skillful salespeople help ensure consistent revenue growth. And for many companies, sales reps are the primary contact between the company and customer. They are responsible for the customer’s primary impression of the company. You definitely don’t want a group of cut-rate employees handling this pivotal part of your business.
In nearly every high-performance, publicly traded company I’ve worked with, the top salespeople’s income routinely rivaled or exceeded that of the CEO. So don't be resentful or envious if your top salespeople earn more than you do. Instead, recognize the immense benefit they bring to your organization.

3. Yes, the customer is always right.
Some entrepreneurs still debate whether or not this maxim is true. But the customer is the ultimate judge of a business and votes with his or her pocketbook. Business owners who stay close to their customers and pay attention to what they have to say will far outperform those who don’t.

4. Customer complaints can be a blessing.
No one likes handling a disgruntled customer, but a complaint can actually be a good thing, because it means that the customer wants to continue doing business with you. And, if you manage the complaint in a timely and efficient manner, 95% of complainers will continue doing business with you. That’s what put Nordstrom on the map. The company gave an unconditional guarantee that if a customer was unhappy with a purchase for any reason, Nordstrom would provide a replacement or a refund--without any red tape--100% of the time. Like Nordstrom, you can turn complainers into loyal customers.

Everywhere from New York City to Omaha would like to be the next tech start-up capital. Here's what actually makes Silicon Valley and San Francisco hotbeds of tech start-up activity.

I didn't grow up in Silicon Valley. My parents weren't engineers. My dad was a Navy pilot; my mom was a mom. I learned to program computers in the sleepy suburbs of San Diego.

I moved to San Francisco in 1994, because my wife had landed a great job there. Everything changed. Suddenly I was surrounded by a ton of people who were already doing exactly the same thing I wanted to do: create software that used the Internet to do amazing things. I jumped right in.

I'd been an entrepreneur since my teens. My first company had created inventory control software for small local businesses--a safe bet that made me enough immediate income to pay for college and an apartment, but little more. But that was then. This was entirely different. Now, parked in a 300-square-foot office near the San Francisco Caltrain station, with four crazy guys in the suite next door creating one of the first 'I-S-P's (nobody even knew what that meant back then), I made a little videoconferencing program with equally little hope of generating revenue. I sold that company to another then-little software company called RealNetworks, and in 1999 used the money from RealNetworks going public to start Second Life.

These things would not have happened in San Diego.

Not being from Silicon Valley, I was fascinated by what was so different in the Bay Area, and what exactly it was that was so helpful to me as a 26-year-old software developer when I arrived here.

Seems everyone has an opinion about what it is that makes Silicon Valley generate so much value and so many crazy start-ups, but I think a lot of those easy explanations are full of hubris and miss the real magic of what is happening here. Yes, Stanford is a fine engineering school, but that probably doesn't have much to do with it. And yes, there is a fantastic well-oiled network of smart VCs and investors here, but the vast majority of start-ups (even in Silicon Valley) are still funded by second mortgages and family friends. Finally, I also don't buy the theory that Northern California attracts low-serotonin thrill-seekers who love creating businesses as risky as their skiing habits.

I think the magic of Silicon Valley (and, most visibly, San Francisco) is not in fostering risk-taking, but instead in making it safe to work on risky things. The phenomena is larger than the people: having traveled a lot, I would argue that the entrepreneurs and engineers in San Francisco are pretty much the same sorts of people as the ones you'd find anywhere.

But there are two things happening in Silicon Valley that are qualitatively different from New York or London (or pretty much anywhere else): First, the sheer density of tech entrepreneurs per capita is 10 times greater than the norm for other cities, and second, there is a far greater level of information sharing between entrepreneurs here. Putting a sharper point on that second one: In New York City they ask you to sign NDA's, and in San Francisco we don't. And what may feel a bit risky for the one turns out to have a big positive benefit for the many.

Working with my team at Coffee & Power, we discovered that we could query LinkedIn to tell us the number of tech founders and co-founders in a major metropolitan area, and that by dividing that number by the overall population, we could get an index of founders per capita. Looking at a graph of how the Bay Area compares to other metro areas in this index is immediately telling--San Francisco has about twice the density of the next-highest city (Boston), and about five times the density of New York.

In a founder-dense city like San Francisco, which further has two peak neighborhoods where tech companies congregate (SoMa and the Mission), what this means is that you can't walk down the street without (almost literally) running into someone else who is starting a tech company. If you are sitting in a coffee shop or a bar, it means you are sitting across from someone else who might be able to hire you.

So in practice, if you are young software developer or entrepreneur in San Francisco, you can choose to work at a start-up that will have a more than 50 percent chance of going out of business in the next 18 months without risking the embarrassment of running out of money and having to move back in with your parents. Because when that start-up does fail, you will park yourself back at that coffee shop, open your laptop, and wait. Within one week you will most likely have another job or will have found another co-founder, and be back in business. Since you probably have two or three months of living expenses saved up, if you can get a new job in a week, this isn't actually risky at all. While tech ventures are individually risky, a sufficiently large number of them close to each other makes the experience of working in start-ups safe for any one individual. I like to visualize this as a series of lily pads in a pond, occasionally submerging as their funding runs out. If you are a frog, and there are enough other lily pads nearby, you'll do just fine.

The graph of founder-density by city suggests a classic power law, which we see in network effect systems where "the rich get richer." And that is what we see in the graph--so apparently the benefits of having a lot of entrepreneurs in one area increase with their numbers. Beyond simply having a lot of people near you to work with, I believe that the openness and willingness to share inherent to Silicon Valley is a big driver in this effect.

That's because once you reduce the risk of failure by having a lot of people around who will hire you next, everyone becomes more open and friendly about what they are working on, which then further amplifies the benefits of having a lot of people around. In other words, if you are a 3-D developer looking for a new 3-D project to work on (like my new company, High Fidelity!) and people are talking a lot about what they are working on, you will find that project even faster.

If you want to create a vibrant start-up ecosystem somewhere else that is competitive with San Francisco and Silicon Valley (and this is starting to happen right now in places such as Boulder and Austin), you want to do two things: You want to pack the people working together into as dense an area as possible, with public areas and co-working venues where they will see each other constantly, even when they aren't working in the same company. And then you want to encourage them to let down their guard and be as open as possible about what they are doing.

Also, consider this: If the magic of San Francisco is simply driven by the natural result of having so many of the same sort of people pile up in one place, then this means that as technology continues to inexorably lower the communication barriers between us, we will see more of these magical places pop up, as we are seeing with Boulder and Austin.

Finally, if virtual reality at some point offers the ability to communicate in as natural and compelling a way as we do face-to-face in San Francisco, we can expect a sudden disruption as the biggest "city" of the tech future goes 100 percent online.

This year, when checking in with my New Year's resolutions, I changed one way I'd been thinking. It might make all the difference for your business.

How are you doing with this year's goals and resolutions? Remember those?

The things you committed to back in fourth quarter and on New Year's Eve? Here we are, mid-second quarter already; it's a good time to assess your progress--or, to try something different altogether.

There's something about that final quarter of the year that gives us new hope. We see a lot of wonderful, inspirational posts and articles on creating new and next-level goals for the New Year. Being a coach, I'm a sucker for that sort of thing and, like you, I have my annual process and in place. In past years I mapped out what I called my 10 Most-Wanted List. Naturally, I would aim for the sky. Needless to say, disappointment often set in when all of those wishes didn't come to fruition. So this year, I did something a little different, and it's working!

Instead of my 10 Most-Wanted list I created a Who Do I Have to Be? list. First, I listed my dream goals. Then, I asked "how does this goal fit in to my life and business plan?" Does it take me off path? Will it enhance my life or add to the bottom line in my business? Many of my goals did not fit my big picture vision; they were just things that I thought I should do. Did I really have to take on another volunteer position? Did I really have to attend three networking events a month? No, I didn't.

Now I had a list of crucial goals that serve me well. As I examined each goal I then asked, "Who do I have to be to make this happen?" This question opened the door to exploration, imagination, and new hope. I explored the reasons that some of my important goals remained undone. When I explored the one thing on my list that was most important to me I learned that I had to become a person who will ask for help, share my dream, and expand upon this already sizeable goal. That's right. I had to make my incomplete goal even bigger!

Beginning each goal statement with "Who do I have to be to _________" gave me a different perspective on my aspirations. Here's how it worked for me.

For the last two years I have dreamed about launching a series of women's conferences. I even had a name and logo, but that's as far as I had gotten. This year, instead of bullying myself into a commitment to make it happen, I asked "who do I need to be in order to create this conference in 2013?" This question opened the door to exploration and honest communication between my left, logical brain and my right, creative brain. After writing, thinking, and a bit of talking to myself, I realized what I was missing. I faced the fact that I simply didn't want to do this alone. It's an exciting process and I wanted to share it with someone.

Prior to asking my magic question I thought I was just making excuses about not having enough time and energy to do the conference. But the deeper I looked, the more I understood. This conference is bigger than I am. The idea needed to be set free to grow and reshape itself. It was time to collaborate with someone who could lend her expertise and talents to expand upon the vision. This idea was no longer my own. It was time to find a "Make It Happen" partner and set my idea free!

Reframing this huge goal to a question about change helped me to look the problem right in the eye and find a solution.

Problem: I felt alone and overwhelmed at the thought of producing and presenting this conference on my own.

Solution: Find someone who has an equal passion and talent for helping people succeed and share the journey.

And that's exactly what I did. Today we are on track to Make It Happen on September 20, 2013! (You are invited! If you are a woman with a dream, please join Deb DiSandro and me on September 20.)

I feel a weight off my shoulders because my dream is coming true and it's filled with fun, creativity and collaboration. How can you reframe your goals and turn them into something that excites you and will not lead to disappointment in a year from now?

Who do you have to be to make it happen? Please share!

Hiring the best and brightest can be surprisingly tricky. These things are catnip to young talent.

The recent news that America has one of the highest rates of youth unemployment in the developed world may be horribly discouraging, but it's hardly surprising. For years we've been bombarded with stories of young people--even college educated ones--languishing in parents' spare bedrooms or menial jobs.

It shouldn't be hard to hire the best and brightest, but paradoxically many business owners report it is.

"The biggest single challenge will be recruitment, as the world's population ages and companies seek specialists in fields such as technology," concluded a survey from Odgers Berndtson and Cass Business School cited by CNN. Meanwhile, plenty of entrepreneurs have shared stories of their heroic efforts to attract the cream of the crop, particularly grads with in-demand tech skills.

But while unemployed young people may seen like a dime a dozen, highly talented Gen Y job candidates willing to come work for you can be a rare commodity. How can you attract more of them?

A good place to start is your job ad, Jason Dorsey, a self-described Gen Y expert, told the blog SmartRecruiters. Sure, you're probably working your network, using social media and perhaps reaching out to local colleges, but you're almost bound to put out a good, old fashioned notice when you begin hiring. Do it poorly, and the best of Gen Y will ignore it. Do it well, and you'll reap the rewards.

Here are three things that draw Gen Y to a job ad, according to Dorsey:

Real pictures: "Everybody shows fake pictures. It’s a total turn off."

Stories: "Interview your ACTUAL employees of different ages talking about what it’s like to work there and what they really like," he says.

Challenges: "In your job descriptions, talk about the challenges candidates will face in the first year," says Dorsey. "Everybody talks about responsibilities, or they talk about pay or all this stuff. Gen Y is very challenge-driven, so they want to know when they show up what kind of challenges they’ll have to face."

It may sound counter-intuitive to put the good and the bad on display, but Dorsey insists that by telegraphing accessibility and authenticity, you'll end up with a younger--and awesome--pool of talent.

Do you buy his ideas?

T-shirt mogul Johnny Earle explains how he went from a teenager selling gag gifts and candy to launching a multimillion-dollar "baking" business.

This group is uniquely positioned to provide an endless pool of talent, innovation, and insight to start-ups in the United States. This is where you come in.

By Lisa Nicole Bell, the founder and CEO of Inspired Life Media Group.

Silicon Valley has long been lauded as a meritocracy that values achievement and hard work. In many ways, tech has been seen as a place of inclusion, where cool is determined by what you do instead of how you look.

But the tech space has a long way to go in creating a truly inclusive environment. And one of tech's fastest growing minorities--black women--is uniquely positioned to provide an endless pool of talent, innovation, and insight.

Black women consume significant amounts of digital media. We're frequently the early adopters for new software and hardware. Essence magazine's 2008 research found that five times as many black women--36 percent--use cell phones for three or more hours per day. The study asserts that black women are more likely than other female consumers to spend time using technology and the Internet as tools of empowerment and self-expression. This level of usage creates a familiarity and understanding of technology and its many use cases that can be ideal for all kinds of businesses.

A recent Pew study revealed that blacks "over-index" on Twitter and Instagram. Couple our consumption of digital media and use of technology with our growing interest in the business of tech and start-ups, and you have a unique opportunity for businesses that value innovation and diversity.

Still, the challenges of creating space for black women in tech run deeper than just changing hiring practices. Here are a few key areas thought leaders have identified:

Education: The Pipeline Problem

Education seems to be the most promising means of both increasing the number of black women active in tech. With a paucity of black women choosing to major in computer science and related studies, there has to be more done to encourage black girls to see themselves as producers in addition to being consumers.

Sian Morson, the CEO and founder of Kollective Mobile, an Oakland-based premiere mobile agency, says black girls need to see examples of careers in tech to expand their concept of what's possible.

"It's important for those of us who are in tech to reach back and encourage and mentor young girls," she says. "If they don't see successful women of color in technology, then they won't consider it to be a viable career option."

Mira Lowe, senior editor for features at CNN Digital, agrees that education is imperative. "More girls and women need to be encouraged to pursue interests and careers in digital," she says. "If women are not engaging in the technology world, they will ultimately not be contributing to the world at large."

This need is the driving force behind Black Girls CODE, an organization founded by Kimberly Bryant, a technical project manager based in San Francisco. She acknowledges the issue of visibility and agrees that girls need the appropriate training and exposure to develop a passion for technology as well as its possibilities.

"There is definitely a very serious pipeline issue. The K-12 infrastructure does not currently provide adequate access to training in computer science," she says. "Once we can better feed the tech pipeline with women and other diverse candidates, we can begin to move the needle and change the face of tech as these students move on to attend college, pursue careers in tech, and eventually become the tech leaders, builders, and mentors for the next generation."

Visibility: The Unicorn Problem

While grooming black girls to take their rightful roles in tech addresses the future, there's also the present issue of expanding the visibility of the women who are already making waves in technology fields. Morson points out the perception issue for black women in tech.

"Although we exist, and there are more of us than ever before, I think that we're not seen because it's a perception problem," she says. "We're perceived as 'unicorns.'"

Instead of being perceived as anomalies, black women should be seen as any other minority in tech: an individual interested in using pixels and code to make the world a better place.

Bryant encourages women to not be afraid of standing out: "We have to let folks know we are in the room. This means finding opportunities to highlight your skills and abilities, become a thought leader in your field, step out and build your own company, and get involved in the open source community."

Peer Mentorship: Making the Right Connections

Bryant's assessment also highlights the need for more connections and visibility among women working in the digital space. For black women interested in pursuing a career in tech, Lowe recommends surrounding yourself with people who are as passionate about technology as you are.

"Don't be afraid to be 'the only.' Don't be afraid to fail. Immerse yourself in digital and learn as much as you can. Network with people in the field. Develop and preserve your digital footprint. Believe that you can make a digital difference."

Morson encourages black women to pursue their dreams with urgency. "Go for it! Now is the time. We're really at a critical time in history, I believe. This is a time of tremendous opportunity, and that includes black women."

What We, as Founders, Can Bring to the Table

So how can your company contribute to a more diverse workforce and enjoy the benefits of diversity?

Lisa Nicole Bell is an entrepreneur, executive producer, and media personality. Lisa is the founder and CEO of Inspired Life Media Group where she and her team meld art, social change, and commerce to create economically viable media properties.

Don't get so caught up in the idea for your start-up that you fail to think about the basics.

Starting a business is a daunting task. As a serial entrepreneur, I can relate with the late-night number crunching, garage-based shoestringing and general uncertainty that comes with launching a new venture.

A 2012 study from Statistic Brain puts the first year failure rate for businesses at 25 percent, with more than 44 percent failing by year three. I've had my share of successes and failures, the latter of which provided the best opportunity for learning. I've found that there are a few basic things to ask yourself before you launch a new business that can provide a bit of clarity and set you up with a better chance for success:

The answer shouldn't be business-centric. Think about what you really want out of life--your personal ambitions--then decide how your business venture can facilitate that. Do you actually want to start and grow a company or do you just have a product or idea to sell for someone else to develop and market? Maybe your goal in life is to make $1 billion--that's okay. I think about what I would want people to say about me after I'm gone. That becomes my "center line."

I refer to E-Myth to answer this one. There is fundamental blocking-and-tackling needed for business success. A garage start-up won't have all of these fine tuned or even in place, but awareness of the these elements (leadership, marketing fundamentals, fulfillment, lead conversion, etc.) will make for a smooth transition from start-up to small business.

At the beginning, you'll be wearing all of the hats--entrepreneur, manager, and technician--but eventually you'll be able to bring in experts to develop and grow your business. Going back to question No. 1, knowing who you are as a person will tell you where you should focus your efforts in the company as it grows and what types of people you need to bring into the company first. An entrepreneurial type that is spending more time in operations is probably starting as many fires as he or she is putting out. Know your strengths and own them.

If there was a tried-and-true recipe for success, we would never have failures. Every venture will have its own tribulations to overcome, but having a clear idea of why you're doing it, what you need to do and how you can best facilitate that will at least lessen the roadblocks and speed bumps you're sure to face.

Has your business graduated from those crazy early days? Congratulations! Now make sure your business and personal finances are firmly separated.

No one checks their hair when fleeing a burning house, and no one worries too much about legal niceties in the early months of launching a startup. When you're fighting for survival, survival is the only thing that matters.

But just as you'd call your mother as soon as you're safely away from that fire, it's important for start-ups leaving that first frantic stage to sort out their personal and professional finances, warned attorney Emily Chase Smith on Under30CEO.

As part of her business helping start-ups clear up their legal issues, Smith has seen just what can happen if you delay disentangling those personal and professional assets.

Specifically, it breaks her heart when she meets founders who "are facing a personal lawsuit for a commercial space that’s multiple six figures and their homes, their assets and their family’s savings is [sic] on the line," she writes.

So what sort of messes do these founders often make? Chase Smith outlines a few, from putting business expenses on a personal credit card to guaranteeing a lease and borrowing money from family and friends.

If you used your personal cash to help bootstrap the business, that was bold and probably necessary. But even if things go well, those financial ties could stop the sale of your business--or take you down financially if something goes terribly wrong.

So how should you proceed sorting out those questions? Check Chase Smith's post to see her helpful advice.

Are your business and personal finances entangled?

Make customer experience your number one priority, says co-founder Alexis Maybank.

Building a loyal fan base, even while scaling a business in hyper-growth mode, can only work with a constant focus on customer experience, said Alexis Maybank, co-founder of flash sale company Gilt Groupe, speaking at the Women Entrepreneurs Rock the World Conference in New York on Thursday.

The six-year-old company sells products from close to 50 brands and has accumulated seven million customers, 60 percent of whom joined Gilt because a friend invited them. While it's easy to become intoxicated by fast growth and tempting to focus on that, nothing is more important than a relentless focus on the customer's experience, Maybank said.

Part of Gilt's allure is its flash nature: Sales of limited time offer items start at noon Eastern time, and sometimes sell out. Logging on checking out what's new becomes a part of the customer's daily routine--and getting ahold of the best stuff before it sells out is addictive.

"Psychology wise, [shoppers] know they have to move quickly," said Maybank. Gilt customers are competitive and shopping is "kind of fun that way." Seventy percent of Gilt's daily sales come in the first 90 minutes of the day's sales.

Like many fast-growing businesses, the Gilt team found that their site was not prepared for the volume of traffic during that 90 minute window, and its customer support team could not keep up with calls. So for three months the company didn't reach out to new vendors to expand inventory, didn't build out more services, and didn't solicit new customers. Instead, the entire team focused on improving and scaling the site and customer support services.

"We had to stop business operations and really rebuild infrastructure of our site. That was a really painful thing to do, to say stop," said Maybank. However, it was a necessary move to maintain the quality of customer experience and to sustain their customers' demand.

In e-commerce, it often comes down to scale, how big can you get as fast as you can, said Milbank, but what can set you apart from the competition is your focus on the customer.

"Competition keeps you on your toes, and you have to ensure to provide the best customer experience," she said.

Want to grow your business? Be prepared to "become obsessed" with being a great salesperson, says one successful entrepreneur.

You may believe your business is fundamentally about the product or service you're offering. Think again.

"If you are really serious about entrepreneurship, if you are really serious about growing your business, you will become obsessed with what it means to be a salesperson," said Amanda Steinberg, founder of personal finance site DailyWorth.com, speaking at the Women Entrepreneurs Rock The World Conference in New York Wednesday. After all, a great product doesn't mean much until it's in users' hands.

"How you make money for your business is an important part of the conversation," said Steinberg. If entrepreneurs are not making enough money for their business and are not able to fulfill their dreams, they "will burn out and it's not going to be pretty."

Here are the five steps entrepreneurs need to take become better salespeople:

1. Learn how to prospect.

Becoming a salesperson is "finding those who want to buy your product, making connection with them and taking their money," Steinberg said. On average, in order to close one deal salespeople meet with 100 prospects.

"If any of you are exhausted and are wondering why you are not making enough money, it's because you haven't talked to enough people," said Steinberg.

2. Realize that no doesn't mean no forever.

Don't be complacent with rejections, advised Steinberg.

"All too often that 'no' is 'No, not right now.'" Hearing no or not right now stings. However, entrepreneurs must develop a reflex that enables them to say 'Ok, but I'll be back later.'

3. Understand why you are not closing deals right now.

If prospects are interested, but are saying that they can't close a deal right now, "you really have to find out why and what it's going to take to close," said Steinberg. She suggests asking the prospects directly, in person or over the phone, not over email where it's easy for someone to deflect.

This information will give you a better understanding of your target market, of their hesitations and needs and wants.

4. Make sure your market can afford to pay you.

Steinberg emphasized that entrepreneurs must consider their total market opportunity. Trying to sell services or products within a limited market makes it difficult to find the 100 prospects you need to make a sale. Don't set yourself up for failure at the outset because your pool of prospects is too small.

5. Learn how to deal with rejection--and the move on.

"This is entrepreneurship. It's not kind a world out there. You can suffer for weeks on end, months on end," said Steinberg.

Steinberg sets a two hour limit on dealing with major rejections. "It's intense. It's sobbing, and crying, and the darkness. And then it's 'All right, what's next? Who is the next prospect?'" she said.

Before you strive to be the next Steve Jobs or Richard Branson, start with being a leader to yourself.

The topic of leadership can get pompous pretty quickly as names like Steve Jobs to Abraham Lincoln are bandied about. But if you're just starting out, this sort of inspiration can seem more than a little out of reach. You're just a young person with business dreams, after all.

Plus, leadership gurus have a tendency to speak in riddles--"plans mean nothing, but planning is everything"-- or platitudes--"life is a marathon, not a sprint"--which may very well be true, but can seem less than actionable to a budding business person. Isn't there more practical advice for entrepreneurs just starting out?

There is, and it can be found in Lead Yourself First, a new book by Vancouver-based leadership strategist Michelle Ray. In a recent post in The Globe and Mail, writer Leah Eichler summarizes a key takeaway: start by leading yourself. Leadership means knowing your own values and being able to translate that into a vision for yourself and others, writes Ray. Think of it as navigating a ship. There could be a hundred people on board or perhaps you're alone. How do you chart the course and keep from sinking?

Rather than glean inspiration from CEOs of Fortune 500 companies, Ms. Ray draws her examples from more relatable people, like Stan, a security guard she met at a nearby airport. “A leader is someone who is clear about their values and applies them on a regular basis," he said. For him, leadership has little to do with moving up the management ladder or even being in the workplace, but it's a vision even the greenest entrepreneur can adopt right now.

Figure out what you believe in and run your business according to those principles. You might be a solopreneur. You might have no revenue. You might be 22-years-old and scared silly. But you can still take the steps to become your own leader.

As Ray points out, you don't have to pull your nation out of a civil war or launch a computer company and steer it to greatness. You can just be a dreamer with a great idea and the courage of your convictions. And still, in a small way, you can begin to cultivate this essential basis of leadership. You can start by being a leader of one.

Do you agree the process of becoming a leader begins before you have anyone to lead?

True innovators get people to do new things, not just buy new stuff.

Innovation is not invention. An invention is generally a product or a process and something you can see. Innovation is different. To innovate, we must ask ‘why’ someone does something rather than asking ‘what’ he or she does. We must design with the intent to influence or persuade, and then deliver an experience that is both meaningful and measurable to the buyer or user. That then becomes the value proposition.

Here are three important principles to consider when trying to design an innovative product, service, or company:

Change is a step-by-step process. You want to start with the commonplace and convince users to take baby steps, not giant leaps. ZocDoc started with something everyone does - calling the doctor for an appointment. The company matches requests with doctors who have open slots, and delivers the results online for easy access. Simplicity is key to change and action.

The environment shapes behavior. The context is as important as the information we deliver. It’s about changing the relationship of someone doing something. Of course the internet has changed our behavior, but other platforms can do the same, especially those that encourage communication and collaboration. Companies such as PatientsLikeMe provide a safe and secure platform for people to share their personal experiences with their treatments, and for other patients to either corroborate their experiences, become more aware of treatment options, and learn from others.

Information is useless without action. Design of your product or company should focus on a new action, not the avoidance of an old habit. A value proposition to change behavior might be “the ability for a patient to communicate and collaborate with anyone, anytime, anywhere, sharing all their own health information.” This contrasts nicely with the existing paradigm, where patients are passive and wait for someone else to guide their health care. This new action gives patients confidence, control and a feel-good behavior they want to repeat.

True innovation requires a simple, personal behavioral change. A strong value proposition influences, persuades and delivers an experience that is meaningful and measurable.

A growing number of big companies want to fund small businesses in their industries, but be careful of the terms.

Every small business worries about having its lunch eaten by its largest competitors. So it's a big step to go from eyeing your most formidable competition warily to depending on them as a source of financing.

Although banks are beginning to re-open the spigots now for small business loans, the recent recession spawned a boomlet in alternative financing like factoring and asset based lending from non-bank sources. One alternative that's blossomed recently is financing from large companies, some of which have begun to sponsor accelerator programs for startups in their industries.

So far, about half a dozen big companies have done this, choosing a handful of businesses each year to support. While that's a drop in the bucket in terms of small business' overall financial needs, the programs address a seed funding gap for startups that banks and venture capitalists don't address. The financing typically comes as a loan or a stake in the fledgling company.

Small businesses benefit not only from the cash but from the access to a group of knowledgeable mentors within their industry. The big businesses benefit by having a direct path to innovators. But repayment terms can be higher than traditional financing, and some of the programs force nascent companies to give up equity right out of the gate.

Microsoft and Nike, for example, offer financing to as many as 10 startups annually, in partnership with start-up accelerator TechStars. Both companies give the startups $20,000 in return for TechStars taking a 6 percent stake. The entrepreneurs go through multi-month business courses, perhaps in marketing or finance. These courses are usually offered at or near the corporate campuses, where the companies are also given space to work. At the end of this mentoring process, they are introduced to potential venture capital investors. In return, the bigger businesses get access to a promising company that may be useful to them in the future.

"Corporations have traditionally struggled with innovation, so you're seeing a few examples of them outsourcing this activity" through these programs, David Cohen, chief executive and founder of TechStars wrote in an email.

Others, like beer Boston Beer Company, which produces the Samuel Adams brand, offer micro-loans to brewers and other companies in the food industry. Its Brewing the American Dream program has assisted some 230 small businesses with about $2 million in total loans since 2008.* The loans are generally less than $10,000, have interest rates between 10 percent and 11 percent, and are repaid within three years. (Although bank loans have proved quite difficult for small businesses to find in the past five years, their interest rates are generally two to three perentage points lower.)

"The best applicant we get is somebody who has a small business and is doing fine, but they have an opportunity to expand and they need money for it," says Jim Koch, founder and chief executive of Boston Beer Company.

One such company is microbrewery ROC Brewing Company, of Rochester, New York, which received a microloan of about $8,000 from Boston Beer in 2011. ROC specializes in golden ales, English pale ales, and Cullan's Irish reds. It produces about 600 barrels of beer annually, and part of its production is outsourced.

Founders Jon Mervine and Chris Spinelli had rounded up $150,000 in financing from family and friends to start the company, which broke even after the first six months. To make sure ROC stayed on top of quality control, the company needed a keg washer to scrub out the barrels. But there wasn't a lot of extra free cash for the $10,000 item. Banks didn't really understand ROC's need for the washer, but Boston Beer did, Mervine and Spinelli say, and in April of 2011 Boston Beer gave them the equipment loan.

"It allowed us to do larger scale production, and without that our business would not have been able to grow," Mervine says.

Today, ROC, which is staffed only by Mervine and Spinelli, has revenues of $170,000.

For his part, Koch says the program is mostly philanthropic and actually loses money due to origination and administrative costs. But Koch feels strongly about continuing to offer the program, he says, from his own years as the owner of a start-up who wished he could access mentors who could help with specific problems.

"When I started out, there were two things I would have loved to have that were not available: one was loan money and the other was nuts and bolts business advice," Koch, a Harvard Business School graduate and former Boston Consulting Group consultant, says.

Small business finance experts generally laud these programs, saying the mentoring and advice small businesses can get from seasoned industry experts is invaluable. So, too, is the seed financing for startups, which is generally in short supply. But that doesn't mean start-ups should get involved without a second thought; they should carefully consider the terms.

"I don’t like to see any early stage company give out any percentage, if at all avoidable, because once you start diluting the ownership it affects longer-term access to capital," William Brigham, director of the Small Business Development Center at the University at Albany-SUNY, which offers its own loan program and takes into account character analysis, among other qaulifying factors.

"But there are so many pitfalls and weaknesses that small businesses can fall into, and having somebody who has been through this, mentoring you in these areas, that is where the value comes from," Brigham says.

*An earlier version of this story understated the total dollar amount of Boston Beer's micro-loans. The correct amount is $2 million.