Startup Revolution?

BusinessWeek Viewpoint features the idea of giving visas to startup founders. As the writer argues, "instead of encouraging the first brain drain in U.S. history, the country should create a program to welcome funded startup entrepreneurs." Read more here.

Abu Dhabi Invests in Learning

Gulf News quoted an entrepreneurship expert who stated that sharing a clear vision for the future by bringing different ideas together and learning from different countries is the recipe for economic and social prosperity and peace across the world.

Abu Dhabi is doing just that, having recently hosted the Festival of Thinkers as well as beginning a partnership between the Centre of Excellence for Applied Research and Training, a private education provider based in Abu Dhabi, and the Wharton School. MORE

I Choose You

In starting a business, one very crucial decision lies in who you decide to make a co-founder. Whatever decision you make will change the very DNA of your business: so how do you choose? TechCrunch recently featured guest author and Meebo CEO Seth Sternberg, and his advice is don't look to people who are just like you. Find out more here.

2009 Collegiate Entrepreneur's Organization Conference

The Collegiate Entrepreneurs’ Organization provides young entrepreneurs with networking opportunities, chapter activities, and the national conference to help them start their own businesses.

The 2009 National CEO Conference will be held on October 22 – October 24 at the Hyatt Regency McCormick Place in Chicago, Illinois. Over 80 outstanding entrepreneurs and business leaders share their ideas and expertise with students on how they launched their businesses, the lessons they've learned, and where they are today. Go here to learn more and register.

The New Business School Stats

BusinessWeek reported some recent findings of the annual applicant study of QS World MBA Tour, a group that holds global MBA fairs. Women now make up 46% of worldwide MBA candidates and there have been shifts in preferred program length (more opt for one-year programs) and post-MBA career plans (the No.1 goal is to start a business), as explained by Wharton MBA alumnus Quacquarelli. Read more here.

Looking for a Productivity Booster?

iCyte, an online tool that aids in web content organization, was featured in an article on smallbiztechnology.com, a site which provides small to medium sized businesses with information on how to use technology to grow their business.You can read the article online here. 

What Makes An Entrepreneur

The Kauffman Foundation recently released a new study entitled "The Anatomy of an Entrepreneur" that aims to discover the family backgrounds and motivations of American entrepreneurs. The study found that unlike the Bill Gates genius high-school dropout entrepreneur, most company founders tend to be middle-aged and well-educated from middle-class or upper-lower-class backgrounds. Read more findings here.

Look to the Web

Looking to start your own business? First step: the Web. As stated in The Philadelphia Inquirer column "Web Wealth: Starting your own business," the Web is "full of oportunities to learn how to develop a business idea, how to get funding..." and much more. Check out the column, which links to several of those opportunities, here.

Rapping About Business

RJMetrics is a Business Intelligence Dashboard for database-driven websites used by professionals to monitor key business metrics and trends. RJMetrics is also an aspiring rap duo. The group recently released a Business Intelligence Rap Video which also contains advice for tech startups. Check it out here.

Entrepreneur offers Build a Website column

Entrepreneur Magazine has just added a Build a Website column, which focuses on Web site management, usability and design. Check out the first topic "Start a Blog For Your Business" in the May issue here.

Super Angel Status

Alumni venture capital firm First Round Capital has become the country's most active seed-stage investor, according to BusinessWeek. Among other "super angels" such as Baseline Ventures and Felicis Ventures, First Round is funding startups and entrepreneurs at a time when large VC firms are holding back. Read more here.

Reinvention Success

Recently featured on Inc., Flocabulary, a study-guide publisher that aimed to teach history through hip-hop, had a great idea, but no business. Read their story about how UPenn graduate Harrison and Tufts graduate Rappaport reinvented themselves, began to grow, and now have their study-guides used in 100 school districts.

"Get It Started!"

This month's stories focus on the Wharton Business Plan Competition, with a feature on winner NIR Diagnostics and a video on the Venture Finals 2009, and an interview with the co-authors, Wharton professor of innovation and entrepreneurship Ian MacMillan and Columbia Business School professor Rita Gunther McGrath, of their new book Discovery-Driven Growth: A Breakthrough Process to Reduce Risk and Seize Opportunity. Check out the newsletter here.

TechnicallyPhilly Tells All

TechnicallyPhilly has filled the Philadelphia technology community gap with a recently launched blog that publishes daily with updates, profiles, reviews, and listings. Read their play-by-play account of the Venture Finals of the Wharton Business Plan Competition where NIR Diagnostics, one of eight competing groups, came away with the Grand Prize and the People's Choice Award here.

Follow By Example

Product Planner, a new site that aims "to help people understand and create user flows for their web products," provides over 100 visually mapped "flows" of the web's most successful sites, such as Google and Facebook, for your benefit. Read TechCrunch's review here.

StealthRowing: Company to Watch

StealthRowing, a VIP company that designs and makes specialized training equipment that allows rowers to get the effect of rowing on the water while training indoors, took the top prize last Friday at PennVention, the University of Pennsylvania annual inventors competition, winning $5,000. Read more here.

The 2009 Wharton Business Plan Competition Venture Finals

On Wednesday, April 29, eight finalists will compete for $70,000 in prizes at the annual Venture Finals, an event sponsored by MentorTech Ventures which attracts over 200 entrepreneurs, venture capitalists, investment bankers, alumni, faculty and students. A few of the competing plans include the next generation artificial eye, programmable robotic toys, and diabetes monitoring "jewelry". Find out more and register to attend here.

"Do Something Awesome"

Tekzilla, a Web video show, featured Twitter co-founder Evan Williams in a live interview at the Web 2.0 Expo. In the video, seen here on TechCrunch, Williams offers advice for tech start-ups, the first being to "just do something awesome."

WEP Co-Director Talks Risk

A YouTube posted video of WEP co-director Prof. Raffi Amit highlights his lecture on risks facing start-up companies during the economic crisis. He argues that, in addition to affecting funding for new ventures, the credit crisis is removing lifelines for established startups in this segment of his lecture for Wharton's new course, "The Economic & Financial Crisis: Causes, Consequences, and Policy Options." Watch it here.

Startup Central

Wharton alumni company ChubbyBrain, the "world's largest user-generated database of innovative startups", just launched its public beta. The platform currently contains over 13,000 startups, 900 investors, and 800 reviews of emerging business models, technologies and companies. Startups on the platform span from clean/green tech to nanotech to web to mobile to social entrepreneurship (and everything in between).