Google Launches Hub Network to Boost Startups

 
Over at CNET, Richard Nieva writes that Google will be partnering with co-working spaces and startup hubs at various locations, starting in London and Tel Aviv. Sponsored by the Google for Entrepreneurs arm of the company, the hub network will provide young companies with access to office space, mentors, and other resources to help them grow.

Google will back these hubs “financially and technologically,” said John Lyman, head of partnerships at Google for Entrepreneurs (though he wouldn’t elaborate on the “financially” part, other than that it won’t take any equity from the tech hubs or the startups). Technologically, companies at these hubs will have more access to Google products, including cloud storage, a credit on Google App Engine, and increased access to the Google Maps API.

Read the Full Story.

Global Startup Youth To Gather 540 Young Entrepreneurs From 90 Countries

 

Today the Global Startup Youth (GSY) event announced that 540 youth (18-25) from at least 90 countries will work over 3 days to ideate and launch new projects that will hopefully evolve into ventures that are globally sustainable.

This event harnesses the power of youth, their cultural diversity, their domain expertise and their deep conversations about today’s world problems to accelerate them into ventures, ready to be taken to market and scaled,” said Dash Dhakshinamoorthy, entrepreneur and Founder of StartupMalaysia.org. “The teams will get to interact with entrepreneurs and leaders from all over the world as well as hear President Obama’s keynote address. This is an amazing opportunity for all of the chosen participants.”

Read the Full Story.

Podcast: Robert Scoble on How to Pitch Your Startup

 
In this podcast from DRT FM, Robert Scoble explains the best way to get the attention of journalists and investors. He reveals how to craft your story, the importance of social proof and why working the system to your advantage is necessary to succeed.

It all starts with building a great product. If you build a product that people want all the other stuff takes care of itself. You can really screw up your PR but if you have a product that people want, it will still spread.”

Listen to the Podcast * Subscribe on iTunes

Startup Opportunities in Digital Healthcare

In this panel discussion from the Health 2.0 conference 2012, Dr. Abel Kho from Northwestern Memorial Hospital and John Hoesley from Silicon Valley Bank discuss Startup opportunities in digital healthcare.

Shadow Project on Kickstarter Helps You Remember Your Dreams

 
We see a lot of Kickstarter ideas here at inside-Startups, but every once and a while something comes across the desk that really sparks the imagination. Over at Wired, Liz Stinson writes about one such project called Shadow, an app that helps you record and remember your dreams.

Created by designers Hunter Lee Soik and Jason Carvalho, Shadow is an app that makes recording and remembering your dreams extremely simple. On its most basic level, Shadow is an alarm clock/digital dream journal, but the designers ultimately hope to create the largest dream database in the world. Users set the clock before they go to sleep at night, and in the morning, gradually escalating volume and vibration gently rouses you awake. Most of the time, alarm clocks abruptly blast through your consciousness, ripping you from the depths of sleep. In contrast, Shadow’s alarm system gradually transitions users through their hypnopompic state, that not-quite-asleep, not-quite-awake phase, which has be proven to help you better remember your dreams.

Read the Full Story.

CPUsage Launches Massive Scale Cloud Computing Platform at TechCrunch Disrupt

Portland’s own CPUsage has announced the launch of public beta for their high-performance and high-throughput computing platform. Fresh from a recent round of funding to the tune $925,000, CPUsage offers an easy-to-use Platform-as-a-Service for researchers. CPUsage eliminates the need for months of upfront engineering effort and the hours of weekly maintenance it takes for other cloud computing platforms, making powerful cloud computing available and affordable for any size organization.

CPUsage works by enabling users to compute across hundreds or thousands of compute instances, with the ease of working in a single, familiar environment. Simply install any high-performance or high-throughput application in a CPUsage sandbox. Then, run a simple command that builds and deploys your application and connects to your data. The CPUsage platform enables user to build in minutes what previously took months of custom development and maintenance.

Read the Full Story.

Mark Cuban’s 12 Rules for Startups

Over at Entrepreneur Magazine, Mark Cuban has listed 12 interesting rules for Startups, including a rather jaded view of PR.

Never hire a PR firm. A public relations firm will call or email people in the publications you already read, on the shows you already watch and at the websites you already surf. Those people publish their emails. Whenever you consume any information related to your field, get the email of the person publishing it and send them a message introducing yourself and the company. Their job is to find new stuff. They will welcome hearing from the founder instead of some PR flack. Once you establish communication with that person, make yourself available to answer their questions about the industry and be a source for them. If you are smart, they will use you.

You can read more of Cuban’s lessons in his book, How to Win at the Sport of Business: If I Can Do It, You Can Do It.

Video: Breaking Through as a Startup

In this video from Campus Party #3 in London, Diane Pearlman from Microsoft presents: Breaking through as a Startup.

How Your Passions Increase Your Luck Surface Area

Over at Codus Operandi, Jason Roberts from TechZing writes that your passions just happen to drive your “Luck Surface Area.”

If there’s one thing I’ve discovered in recent years it’s this. The amount of serendipity that will occur in your life, your Luck Surface Area, is directly proportional to the degree to which you do something you’re passionate about combined with the total number of people to whom this is effectively communicated. It’s a simple concept, but an extremely powerful one because what it implies is that you can directly control the amount of luck you receive. In other words, you make your own luck.

Read the Full Story.

Framework One and the Startup Scene in South Africa

In this video, BizSpark interviews Microsoft Network partner Alexander Mehlhorn from Framework One to learn more about the technology economy in South Africa.