If there’s one thing you can count on, it’s that there’s never a shortage of news about the hottest startups, the latest gadgets and useful tips to help grow your startup.

That’s why I’m happy to introduce The Coffee Table – a weekly roundup of the hottest startup stories to hit the blogosphere.

Handpicked by yours truly – I hope this roundup helps you discover useful new content you may have missed during the week.

The Coffee Table will be short and sweet so can read it while sitting back and enjoying a warm cup of coffee (or tea).

With that said, here’s the weekly roundup of what happened in the startup world:

With VentureHealth, InCube Ventures thinks crowd funding can blend with traditional VCs: You’ve probably heard of Kickstarter and Indiegogo. And this week InCube Ventures launched a new equity crowd funding platform for biomedical technology companies at all stages. 

Momentum debuts ‘first ever’ equity-free mobile accelerator program: Started by the folks behind Mobile Monday, Momentum offers a free 12 week program to support promising mobile startups. In this post, Rebecca Grant also lists the first 5 startups accepted into the program. 

8 Things VCs Think About When Valuing Your Startup: Curious about how VCs come up with their valuations? Then you gotta check out this post from Dani Fankhauser over at Mashable for more detailed look into their rationalisations.

4 Things I Didn’t Know About Investors Before I Took Their Money: Felecia Hatcher – author of How to Start a Business on a Ramen Noodle Budget – talks about how you shouldn’t get blinded by the money on offer and instead do your due diligence to make sure your investors are a right fit for you.

The Startup Money Hunt: When Entrepreneurs Bring In Investors (Infographic): I came across this info graphic earlier in the week and found it be an interesting illustration of the funding process from idea to IPO. Check it out below and tell us what you think.

Infographic by San Francisco-based startup community organisation Funders and Founders

Found anything interesting this week? Please share your own discoveries by commenting below.

Advertorials, magazine cover ads and the reply card – are a reminder to us all of how reaching a large audience required a large marketing budget. Even today, KLM inflight magazine charges €17,815 for a single page ad to reach 2.1 million passengers a month. When we look back at print advertising, you couldn’t measure how effective your campaign was and the only way to grab people’s attention was through pure creative genius.

Enter Technology and Data-Driven Marketing

What I’m saying here is that technology’s tendency to break out of its silos has given everyone the opportunity to become a publisher. It has enabled marketers to set up and build their own platforms from which they can reach an audience that can potential dwarf KLM’s 2.1 million passengers.

Today we’re spoilt for choice! Or should I say data. It’s no longer hit or miss and now you can make educated marketing decisions – especially with the amount of data available.

For instance if you were selling running shoes online, you’d start with Google’s Keyword Tool to help you identify keywords people are using in order to rank highly in search engines. You’d also set up Google Analytics to measure how your website is performing.

The point is that while print advertisement was deprived of actionable metrics, its emphasis was on the creative side of marketing. Now with the wealth of data available, marketers need to combine the two and find that sweet spot to compete in a rapidly changing marketing environment.

This infographic highlights the need for marketers to be both artist and scientist in today’s marketing world. Have a look and please share your thoughts in the comments below.

This infographic by Matt Wesson - a Marketing Content Specialist at Pardot - originally appeared at http://blogs.salesforce.com

Image by Happy Batatinha

If there’s one thing you can count on, it’s that there’s never a shortage of news about the hottest startups, the latest gadgets and useful tips to help grow your startup.

That’s why I’m happy to introduce The Coffee Table – a weekly roundup of the hottest startup stories to hit the blogosphere.

Handpicked by yours truly – I hope this roundup helps you discover useful new content you may have missed during the week.

The Coffee Table will be short and sweet so can read it while sitting back and enjoying a warm cup of coffee (or tea).

With that said, here’s the weekly roundup of what happened in the startup world:

4 Things Your Startup Needs to Attract Venture Capital: Venture capital can get a startup racing out of the starting blocks like Usain Bolt. In this post, Elisha Hartwig discusses what’s required from startups to get their hands on some much needed investment.

How To Go From $0 To $1,000,000 In Two Years: This was the post to kickstart your Monday morning! James Altucher spoke with Braintree founder Bryan Johnson about how he got his startup to the million dollar milestone in two years.

3 [Awesome] Ways to Identify Your Biggest Fans & Collect Customer Testimonials: Happy customers are usually the best people to sell your product. In this post, Lindsey Kirchoff outlines 3 ways to help you identify who those happy customers are and put your word of mouth marketing on steroids!

Mark your calendars! Our guide to the best Berlin conferences this summer: Venture Village has a habit of delivering some handy lists. And this one is no different. With the summer approaching Berlin plays host to some interesting events worth checking out if you’re in the area.

The Pitch Deck We Used To Raise $500K For Our Startup: I just love it when folks share startup stories and resources like this. This post written by Buffer cofounder Leo Widrich is a must read for anyone who wants to get a feel of what it takes to raise $500K

Singapore the big sucker for foreign startups?: Sillicon Valley feels like it’s always in the news! This post however describes the ecosystem in South East Asia and some neat perks the Singaporean government handouts to foreign startups.

Space Entrepreneurs Taming the Final Frontier: I won’t deny it – I’m a big Star Trek fan! And while some of these companies aren’t exactly young, you’ve got to praise them for what they’re aiming to achieve. Plus it’s pretty darn cool!

Found anything interesting this week? Feel free to share your own discoveries by commenting below