Patent disputes are in the tech news all the time, but last week when Google and Microsoft got into a heated public debate, it drew a lot of attention and discussion around the nature of patents. Mark Cuban, (entrepreneur, VC, …

hipmunk [hip-muhnk],   1.  verb:  To bring sexiness and simplicity into an existing industry with a fresh approach that delights people.  Example:  The real estate mortgage industry really sucks.  Someone should hipmunk it.  2. noun:  Startup funded by Y Combinator that makes it easier to find flights. 

The word startup seems to be used too loosely in this day and age. Some people think something built in a weekend or over the course of time on the side is a full fledged startup, when it is often just a side project. Building things is great, more people should do it and do it often. The problem is, most people either take the leap at the wrong time OR they don’t take a leap at all, when the signs are there.

Today, the White House announced the launch of the Startup America Partnership as part of a national strategy to stimulate economic growth and create jobs. The initiative is being chaired by AOL co-founder Steve Case, and will receive funding from the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation and the Case Foundation. Carl Schramm, CEO of the Kauffman Foundation, will serve as a founding board member. 

A common feeling for entrepreneurs when building a web application is the fear of failure in launching one that nobody will use. This fear usually causes the entrepreneur to delay launching to add more product features in order to make their product “better” or more impressive.

This feeling usually just persists though. How does one get over this fear? I think there are a few key points to consider:

Foursquare CEO Dennis Crowley likes to lend advice to entrepreneurs. A quick glance at his Quora activity makes this pretty clear pretty fast. In fact, this is a perfect example of why Quora has been covered in the press so much lately, as a valuable source of content. 

Amazon.com has announced its third annual Amazon Web Services Start-Up Challenge, a contest for entrepreneurs and start-ups.

The winner of the contest will receive $50,000 in cash, $50,000 in Amazon Web Services (AWS) credits, mentoring sessions, and premium gold support for one year. The winner may also receive an investment from Amazon.

All finalists will receive $5,000 in AWS credits and all qualified participants will receive $25 in AWS credits.

eBay aims to "spark the entrepreneurial spirit" among its sellers with today’s launch of the eBay Sellers Challenge. The challenge is for sellers to answer the question: "How would you use $25,000 go grow – or start – an eBay business?"

The common belief that all entrepreneurs who start tech companies are in their 20s or teens is being challenged by a lengthy study that started in 1995 thru 2005 which found that only 1 percent of American founders were teenagers.

The study by Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation and researchers at Duke and Harvard found that most U.S. born technology and engineering company founders are middle-aged, with the average and median age of 39.

If you’ve got a great idea, but lack a cash flow – or if the opposite happens to be true – Vator.tv may be just the place for you.  The site, which launched yesterday, intends to let “[a]nyone, across all industries, at any stage … share ideas, products, services and businesses with the rest of the world, mainly through video.”

It’s a well-known fact that Google frequently lets its employees do their own thing on company time.  Many of those employees then come up with brilliant ideas, but the search engine giant – wealthy as it is – doesn’t have money to pursue them all.  In the long term, do those employees go on to get rich, or get screwed?

A little while I ago, I wrote an article on this blog titled

These tips are ideas that I have used successfully and often recommend to other creative entrepreneurs.

For most of us there comes a day when we toy with the idea of starting a small business; work stress and frustrated career goals can often leave us thirsting for autonomy and starting a small business seems to fit the bill.

I was just over at Robyn Tippins blog. She blogs for B5 Media and reports that Duncan Riley, vice president of development for B5 Media has left B5.

“Trend following” is a strategy normally associated with trading. You won’t see it associated with Top Web Entrepreneurs. This is surprising.

It’s hard to avoid certain mistakes, especially when you face a situation for the first time. In fact, many of the following mistakes are hard to avoid even if you’re an old hand.

Yeesh. Women outpace men in new businesses about 2 to 3. Latina women in particular are entering entrepreneurial ranks full speed ahead, outpacing every other demographic group.

Every year, many one-man online Web sites and small e-tailers close their online business doors and drop out of the internet marketing race without giving themselves a fair shot at success because of Irritable Online Marketing Syndrome (IOMS).

I had the honor of speaking at a women’s business association luncheon on the topic of entrepreneurship.

When I mentioned to my wife the day before that I was speaking to group of women entrepreneurs she asked, "Why on earth would they ask you to speak?" In her defense, my dear wife has no idea what I do for a living.

New ecommerce entrepreneurs can find them confused and confounded by the tax and accounting requirements of their venture.

“Every individual…intends only his own gain….By pursuing his own interest he frequently promotes that of society more effectually than when he really intends to promote it.”