Ron Conway‘s success with a payroll tax initiative demonstrates a profound transformation playing out in San Francisco’s business corridors and its halls of power. As startups blossom, attracting a wave of entrepreneurs and investment dollars, the tech industry is wielding newfound clout in local politics.

The key to success in business is execution, whether you run a sprawling multinational or a 12-person startup. So measuring how your company stacks up against the best and brightest in your space is crucial. If you are a seed or early stage company executive, you know the following: Sooner is better than better. This [...]

With all their resources and talent, why do big companies have trouble innovating? How can a Blekko exist when there is a Google? Or a Tapulous when there is an Electronic Arts? Even more puzzling, why couldn’t Yahoo create Facebook with Yahoo 360 instead of losing out to a 20-year-old kid from Harvard? A lot [...]

A lot of incubators and accelerators focus on Internet and technology startups where companies are founded with fast-moving ideas and small sums of money. Here is a new accelerator targeting health care and offering a $20,000 infusion of seed money to startups and a three-month mentorship program. BluePrint Health is kicking off a winter program [...]

Startup incubators and accelerators are all the rage. Y Combinator in Silicon Valley, TechStars in New York and elsewhere. The Cambridge Innovation Center in Boston. They are fostering a new generation of young companies sometimes on a shoestring and shifting the axis of company creation away from VCs. Just this week, Dave McClure’s 500 Startups [...]

Carnegie Mellon University said it will launch an entrepreneurship program at its Silicon Valley campus aimed at encouraging students to germinate their own startup projects. The accelerated one-year program will offer students a master of science degree in software management and teach management, metrics, product definition and strategy. The first program is to begin Aug. [...]

The Plug and Play Tech Center is expanding its overseas reach. Next up: building stronger ties with some of America’s top universities. Saeed Amidi, chief executive of the Silicon Valley incubator, said that last year, 60 companies from Europe, Asia and other parts of the world spent three months at Plug and Play’s facilities, as [...]

Cisco Systems said Wednesday it will acquire privately-held Pari Networks. The privately held Milpitas, Calif., company, provides network configuration, and change and compliance management products to complement Cisco’s network management offerings. The company has part of its workforce in Hyderabad, India. PRESS RELEASE Cisco Announces Intent to Acquire Pari Networks SAN JOSE, Calif. – January 26, [...]

Last year was the year of the cloud, with more than $500 million in venture money going into 68 U.S. based cloud startups. There is room for more. One industry subsector ripe for venture investing is what Siki Giunta describes as software tools and services that help corporations take existing apps to the cloud. Giunta [...]

The Angel Capital Association trade group in North America elected five new directors and expanded its Board of Directors from nine to eleven members. Here are the new additions: PRESS RELEASE Angel Capital Association Elects Five New Directors and Chair North American alliance of angel groups expands board from nine to eleven members Kansas City, [...]