Business Alliance Grubstake Breakfast - Tarrin Pakes MBA ’10 introduces ChicksWithKids CEO, Kirsten Knull, at a Business Alliance Grubstake Breakfast last semester.

MBA Students Gain Inside Track to Securing Venture Funding

What more could budding entrepreneurs want than an insider’s view to the process of receiving venture capital? Lectures and required readings are often the outline for most business courses, but at Mason, MBA students have the opportunity to work with the entrepreneurial community to gain first-hand knowledge of the process of the solicitation of second stage angel and venture funding for new businesses, evaluation of the applications for funding, consultation for entities seeking funding and the negotiations for obtaining funding.

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Sept 10, 2009	Business Alliance's Annual Fall Networking Event Discussion Topic: "Big Picture Regarding Our Economy" - Including insight regarding Obama initiatives and an international view
Sept 14, 2009	"How to Win SBIR Funding" Workshop SBIR grants (Small Business Innovation Research) and it’s sister STTR grant program (Small Business Technology Transfer) provide $100K - $900K in early stage R&D funding. 11 participating federal agencies use this program to fund early stage technology development that will help them meet their missions. This workshop is lead by one of the leading SBIR instructors/consultants in the country, Mr. John Davis of The SBIR Resource Center.
Sept 15, 2009	NVTC Premier Titans Series - Steve Forbes We proudly announce the next premiere Titans speaker to be Steve Forbes, Chairman & CEO of Forbes Media and Editor-In-Chief of Forbes magazine. Mr. Forbes will deliver the keynote address titled "What Now for the Economy?" for the first Titans event of 2009-10 on September 15. Forbes's appearance is in conjunction with NVTC's Northern Virginia special ad section in the August 24 issue of Forbes.
October 2, 2009	Incubators and Other Sources of Early Stage Capital Presented by the NVTC Capital Formation Committee
October 9, 2009	Entrepreneurship Center Event Series This event will be a win-win for all types of companies. Established companies will have the opportunity to meet smaller companies and learn about some of the innovative technologies they are developing, while smaller companies will have the opportunity to learn about doing business with the prime contractors, the types of companies each of the larger companies are looking for as partners and subcontractors, and future opportunities.
October 15, 2009	Business Development, Marketing and Sales Event Presented by the NVTC Business Development, Marketing and Sales Committee
October 30, 2009	Business Alliance Grubstake Breakfast Featuring presentations by selected companies seeking $250k - 2M in investment capital and remarks by venture experts

Mason Enterprise Center to Host Business Incubation Roundtable

The Mason Enterprise Center will host the Northern Virginia Roundtable for the Virginia Business Incubation Association on September 23, 2009, at its Fairfax location.

Spotlight on New Start-up, Euraeka!

We recently interviewed Georgi Dinkov, Co-founder, of Euraeka, a high-tech start-up based in Washington, D.C. Originally from Bulgaria, Georgi first came to the U.S. to pursue undergraduate studies at Georgetown University. Since then, Georgi has received two bachelor's degrees, one in Computer Science and the other in Mathematics, from Georgetown, and a master's degree in Computer Science from George Mason.

Amplified Blog: "As Old Media Dies Should We Dance on Its Bones?"

Earlier today I participated in an interesting comment string on Facebook. This is happening more and more to me, and I am sure that I am not alone.  As information flows through our lives, via Facebook, Twitter and so on, the ability to share our thoughts and have them shaped by others becomes more efficient and quicker.  There is no doubt that these changes facilitate better communication about the trivia of our lives also.  But, recently, I have also been having some second thoughts about whether this is always a great thing.

Sales and Marketing:

Higher Sales Quotas Won't Overcome Bad Risks and Faulty Assumptions

On August 7th, The Wall Street Journal reported “Sirius has been hurt by plunging auto sales as many new subscribers come on board with the purchase of a new vehicle.” (Sirius’s Loss Widens as Subscribers Slip)

Ooops. People were fat, dumb, and happy when cars were selling and subscriptions were growing. A drop in automobile demand took away the fat and the happy part, and what’s left isn’t pretty. Did Sirius anticipate the car-purchase pothole? No doubt it looks like a crater, now that it’s visible in the CEO’s rear view mirror.

Image Recognition

With no way to insure the integrity and ownership of their works, artists and designers today often worry about their digital images being stolen via the internet. With the invention of Image Recognition Software, images can be tracked using fingerprint IDs from the original image.

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Award & Funding Opportunities

Lemelson-MIT Program

Funded by the Lemelson Foundation and administered by MIT's School of Engineering, the Lemelson-MIT Program recognizes outstanding inventors, encourages sustainable new solutions to real-world problems, and enables and inspires young people to pursue creatives lives and careers through invention.

Kauffman Foundation Outstanding Postdoctoral Entrepreneur Award

The Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation and the National Postdoctoral Association are accepting nominations for the inaugural Kauffman Foundation Outstanding Postdoctoral Entrepreneur Award, which recognizes and celebrates a scientific researcher who has successfully commercialized his or her discoveries through entrepreneurship.

Kauffman Dissertation Fellowship Program

The foundation has announced that the 2009-10 Kauffman Dissertation Fellowship Program's online Request for Proposal is available. The Kauffman foundation will award up to fifteen Dissertation Fellowship grants of $20,000 each to Ph.D., D.B.A., or other doctoral students for the support of dissertations in the area of entrepreneurship.

Emerging Leaders International Fellows Program

The center's Emerging Leaders International Fellows Program provides nonprofit sector leadership training through seminars, applied research, and mentorships. The program is open to young scholars and practitioners interested in building third sector capacity in their home countries or regions. Fellows are based at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York.

Enterprise-based Solutions to Poverty Request for Proposals

The SEVEN (Social Equity Venture) Fund, a nonprofit organziation that works to promote enterprise-based solutions to poverty, has published its second annual open Enterprise-based Solutions to Poverty Request for Proposals.