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EXPERIENCE IS AN ODD QUALITY to quantify. Mentors and Advisors to entrepreneurs are often sought not for their in-depth expertise, but for their experience. This is that fuzzy combination of: been-there-done-that, connections, worldly awareness of the history of graveyards, gut feel about strategies, the ability of empathic listening, and calm-in-the-storm under fire. It is not what the mentor started with in early life, that was more related to expertise, but is suited to their stage in later life. Go find a mentor, young entrepreneur! View in LinkedIn

MEDICAL DEVICE INDUSTRY OPTIMISTIC IN LARGE SURVEY. This is a good sign for the healthcare sector. I am waiting to see more confluence between devices and drugs, and devices and diagnostics in the coming two years. There are great opportunities to use the tremendous advanced in handheld iPhone devices to marry with a range of diagnostic applications. One small Barcelona company has a cancer breath test, that uses a small plug-in to the iPhone to analyze the data; and a TED series entrepreneur developed a urine analyte iPhone readout system. Watch this space, as I am wont to say. http://lnkd.in/BQEwC7 View in LinkedIn

BUILDING SUSTAINABLE AGRICULTURAL PRACTICES IN POOR COUNTRIES, is a worthy task, here undertaken by an MIT group. Not all brain power needs to be applied to tough first world issues. There are enough really challenging business problems that need solving in the developing world. Please keep us posted! http://lnkd.in/X_hzcj View in LinkedIn

PICTOGRAPHIC OF SURVEY OF 3.000 EARLY STAGE COMPANIES and reasons why they fail. Quite a useful read to see data on failure. Worth studying carefully, with the provision that it's hard to mix tech companies and non-tech companies. http://lnkd.in/XGdZWa View in LinkedIn

TEXAN CANCER AGENCY FUNDING FREEZE THAWS, one more small cumulative signal of an economic recovery in the US. I was in San Francisco last week, and the bay area is showing no signs of the Crisis (except the underclass, whose woes have deepened), with 25% increases in house prices in Marin, restaurants with lines outside, and shopping Malls at capacity parking. Little by little, it is starting. http://lnkd.in/JziZCi View in LinkedIn

IT IS TIME FOR EARLY STAGE BIOPHARMA TO THINK GLOBALLY, since there is an appetite in developing countries to use this economic jumpstart to stimulate their job growth and wealth creation. View in LinkedIn

THE ONLY REASON ELECTRONIC MEDICAL RECORDS DON'T EXIST IN THE US is because those with vested interest don't want transparency and accountability, and keep throwing up the specter of immense difficulty when challenged on it. I live in a small Spanish village. For decades they have had no paper in their medical clinic. They are 100% electronic. This US debate is sheer nonsense, and the sooner the public sees through the smokescreen, the better. Lack of transparency protects differential billing, duplication of services, and every inefficiency that gives the US off-the-charts medical costs. http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/1567935605/ref=redir_mdp_mobile/191-2330943-1101115 View in LinkedIn

IN M&A NEGOTIATIONS, VALUATION IS USUALLY A HOT TOPIC. You may elect to avoid the topic entirely by structuring your deal as an EARN-OUT. This structure is silent on valuation, except implicitly in the percentage allocations, but a small percent of a large future sum is often more palatable than a tiny valuation at the start. View in LinkedIn

IN A FUTURE OF PRIVATIZED WATER SUPPLIES, this is a useful start for rural communities in developing countries. The privatization of water has already insidiously crept upon us with bottled water, unlabeled regarding its ingredients and impurities, and driven by a distrust of public water supplies. The concept of an aquifer output being privatized is at best troubling. This is one great challenge of this next 50 years. http://lnkd.in/6ivutr View in LinkedIn

GRAVEYARDS CAN SPOOK INVESTORS. Where an industry segment has had a history of several well-known failures, most investors will run a mile, regardless of whether the failures were different from your invention. Graveyards spoil fresh markets and are very difficult to enter. It is your job to know these histories, and it is prudent to avoid them. You do not need controversy to plague your funding. This is a shame because most graveyards have untapped markets and significant opportunities. View in LinkedIn