Have you learned anything about business from the Facebook story? Let us know in the comments.

Think Like Zuck: The Five Business Secrets of Facebook’s Improbably Brilliant CEO Mark Zuckerberg is a Wall Street Journal bestselling book about a topic which is made fairly obvious by its title. While it was just published in December it could go on to be considered one of the major works dealing with entrepreneurship in the age of the social network. We had a conversation with author Ekaterina Walter, a “social media innovator” at Intel and board member of the Word of Mouth Marketing Association, about what it means to “think like Zuck” and how doing so can help entrepreneurs build the best businesses possible.

“‘Think Like Zuck’ is an analogy of a leader who follows his/her passion, leads with purpose, builds great teams, and strives for continued excellence in his/her product (or services) and partners smartly,” Walter tells WebProNews. “It is a mentality that drives great leaders to build successful businesses and the approach they use to do so.”

The one trait Mark Zuckerberg holds that entrepreneurs should strive to emulate, Walter says, is “Long-term strategic outlook and the courage to stand up to the pressures (both internal and external) that would veer him away from his vision.”

“For example, everyone was saying NewsFeed was a bad idea and now it is the feature we can’t live without,” she says. “People were saying Facebook becoming a platform is not the right strategic and business decision and now 24.3 percent of the top 10,000 websites in the world have some form of official Facebook integration on their home pages.”

“It isn’t easy (especially when you are in your early twenties) to withstand those pressures,” adds Walter. “It is even harder to walk away from a billion dollar buy-out offer. But Zuck has a clear long-term vision of where he wants to go and where he wants to take this company and he is executing on that vision. Everything he does consistently supports his purpose of connecting the world and making it more open and transparent. Having a clear direction and focus is critical for a success of any company.”

For some, it’s become hard to remember what the Internet was even like before Facebook. Still, even today, Zuckerberg is only 28 years old, and he’s had far more success than most of us, including many entrepreneurs with years more experience, will ever see.

When asked what more experienced entrepreneurs can learn from Zuck, Walter says, “Creating the culture of urgency, staying in the state of permanent beta, not resting on [and] its laurels. That is something a lot of leaders are struggling with, especially once they reach some level of success. The hacker culture that Zuck created is the key to its continuous innovation and fluid adaptability.”

“Find and hire passionate people (independent of their age and sometimes experience) and offer them non-traditional career paths,” she suggests. “Zuckerberg understands the power of passion and the right attitude. Sometimes Facebook hires people just to have the right talent on board, and later on matches up their passions to the projects that they are best suited to work on.”

“Facebook runs hackathons where engineers can work on new ideas outside of their current projects and anything goes,” Walter notes. “A lot of traditional leaders a lot of times are afraid to give young and inexperienced a big chance and that’s where they are missing a huge opportunity to tap into passion and motivation of the entrepreneurial generation.”

As big and ubiquitous as Facebook has become, many wonder what direction the company would take, should Zuckerberg ever decide to step down from his role. Walter is not so sure Facebook could continue to thrive if someone else took over as CEO.

“Zuckerberg has always had this profound vision of where he wants to take the company,” she says. “He has made some unpopular decisions that ended up paying off big time. I believe the reason Facebook stayed so successful was because Zuckerberg maintained control over the company and a laser focus on his vision. How many leaders do you know have courage to stand up to the short-term pressures to create long-term value? And how many companies fell apart because they were bought out and/or changed leadership? More than we care to admit.”

Near the beginning of her book, Walter talks about how organizations need “intrapraneurs.” This is a term she credits Edelman Digital executive vice president David Armano with coining, and defining as “someone who has an entrepreneurial streak in his or her DNA, but choose to align his or her talents with a large organization in place of creating his or her own.”

So how can an employer foster this kind of development within its staff?

“Hire for attitude, not just skills,” urges Walter. “Skills can be taught; passion can’t. You need to get the right people on board. The right people are those people who share your beliefs, live your values, and strive for the same purpose.”

“Zappos is considered to be the company that not only treats its customers right, but also treats its employees right,” she continues. “Zappos has a rigorous screening process and intense 3-week training for new hires. But even with that, Tony Hsieh, CEO of Zappos, thinks bad hiring has cost Zappos more than $100 million. ‘This cost is a result of not only the bad hires we’ve made, but the decisions those people have made and how they have contributed to additional poor selections,’ he says. That’s why Zappos offers its new hires a substantial sum of money to leave the company if after the training they feel like this isn’t the right fit for them. You see, a great company not only has to focus on bringing the right people on board, but also make sure it leaves the wrong people behind.”

“Also, foster the environment of fearlessness, not fear,” she adds. “Empower your employees to innovate and execute on their ideas…passion, curiosity and sometimes naiveté prevail. Don’t dismiss ideas and believe in impossible.”

In the book, Walter says that when a company starts growing, it gets harder and harder to find employees who share the same bigger purpose or who fit perfectly into the unique environment created by its founders, but if building the right team around the values of the company is so important, how can employers overcome this challenge? How do you find the right people?

“First, look within,” says Walter. “Rally your employee base and involve them in finding the best candidates. Chances are if your employees are passionate about your brand and your mission, they connect with similar-minded people. In the early days every single employee at Facebook was serving a function of a recruiter. They were scouting their connections, universities, friends to see if they can find people who are passionate about what the company does and wanted to join them.”

Second, watch the industry closely,” she says. “Who are some of the people who write about the issues you are passionate about? Who are the ones that are being mentioned in the hallway conversations?”

“Third, invite the candidates in. Events like the Hacker Cup that Facebook puts together every year brings a lot of like-minded people together. That is an amazing (and elite) candidate pool to choose from.”

“Be creative in building communities internally and externally that would allow you to identify and single out the most passionate people,” Walter says.

That’s a handful of the things you can learn from Zuckerberg, but of course, there are enough to fill a book. On the other hand, as another book (and the film that adapted it) taught us, some have different views of Zuck’s principles.

Do you consider Mark Zuckerberg an inspirational figure? Let us know in the comments.

This includes: Campus London, Google for Entrepreneurs Week, Women 2.0, Startup Weekend, Women Entrepreneurs on the Web, Google Sudo, 1871, Start with Google, NewME Accelerator, Global K-Startup, Google for Entrepreneurs in Israel, Eleven, Jagriti Yatra, Umbono, Le Camping, City of Minneapolis STEP-UP Summer Jobs Program, Startup America Partnership, Portland Incubator Experiment, P@SHA Fund for Social Innovation, AFCECO, Google For Entrepreneurs Day San Diego, Google For Entrepreneurs Day Nashville, Grunder-Garage, Women’s Initiative Fellowship Program, Google For Entrepreneurs @ Google I/O, Arab Developer Network Initiative, Idea Village, iHub and Accelerate Your business. More on all of these can be found here.

Google says the focus is on partnerships with strong organizations that serve entrepreneurs in local communities, Google-led programs to bring its teams and tools directly to entrepreneurs, and placing relevant Google tools in the hands of startups as they’re getting off the ground and ready to scale.

“These 30 extraordinary risk-taking companies and their leaders are pushing boundaries and making money in the process,” said Inc. editor in chief Eric Schurenberg. “From helping parents with kids in college, to growing gourmet mushrooms in recycled coffee grounds, to challenging credit card companies on behalf of small business, they represent the best of what those under 30 can and do accomplish. It’s humbling.”

This is the list that featured Facebook Mark Zuckerberg in 2006, when he was 22. Those who make the list are generally honored to do so. Here’s the list for 2012, as presented by Inc.:

• Jeremy Johnson, 2tor (which offers online degrees in partnership with major universities)
• Steve Espinosa, AppStack (a mobile app for small businesses)
• Nikhil Arora and Alejandro Velez, Back to the Roots (makers of Grow Your Own gourmet mushroom kits)
• Amy Jain and Daniella Yacobovsky, BaubleBar (an online retailer selling designer jewelry for 60% off retail)
• Craig Cordes and Antonio LaMartina, Big Easy Blends (which makes frozen, portable, pre-mixed cocktails)
• Fan Bi and Danny Wong, Blank Label (makers of custom shirts)
• Ilya Pozin, Ciplex (which focuses on web design and marketing for small companies)
• Zach Sims and Ryan Bubinksi, Codeacademy (a web platform for teaching computer programming languages)
• Joe Coleman, Shane Snow, and Dave Goldberg, Contently (a marketplace connecting writers with companies to create quality content marketing)
• Ben Milne, Dwolla (a versatile payment platform that works on mobile devices)
• Ray Land, Fabulous Coach Lines (a motorcoach tour company)
• Adam Pritzker, Matthew Brimer and Brad Hargreaves, General Assembly (a co-working space that offers classes on business, design and technology)
• Amber Case and Aaron Parecki, Geoloqi (location-aware technology for businesses and governments)
• Desiree Vargas Wrigley, GiveForward, (a crowdfunding platform for people facing medical emergencies)
• Jude Gomila and Immad Akhund, Heyzap (a mobile app for the gaming community)
• Jesse Thomas and Leslie Bradshaw, JESS3 (a creative agency specializing in data visualization)
• John Hering, Kevin Mahaffey and James Burgess, Lookout Mobile Security (a mobile security app for iPhone and Android phones)
• Aza Raskin, Massive Health (a mobile app that encourages healthy eating)
• Andrew Lafoon, Aryk Grosz, Mixbook (which creates photo books with a social spin)
• Nathan Sigworth, PharmaSecure (mobile software that helps stop drug counterfeiting in the developing world)
• Ben Silbermann and Evan Sharp, Pinterest (the social image-sharing site that is now one of the world’s largest networks)
• Allison Lami Sawyer, Rebellion Photonics (whose fluorescent imaging camera can detect leaks on natural gas rigs)
• Rachel Weeks, School House (maker of U.S.-made fashion-forward college gear)
• Yoav Lurie and Justin Segall, Simple Energy (designer of web-based social games that reward energy conservation)
• Daniel Ek, Spotify (the wildly popular streaming music service)
• Lucas Buick and Ryan Dorshorst, Synthetic, (maker of Hipstamatic, the popular photo app.)
• Kfir and Elram Gavrieli, Tieks (maker of foldable leather ballet flats)
• Alfredo Atanacio and Rodolfo Schildknechkt, Uassist.ME (matches bilingual virtual assistants with Hispanic executives)
• Sarah Schupp, University Parent Media (print and online publisher of helpful information for parents of university students)
• Ziver Berg, Zivelo (the second largest kiosk maker in the world)
• Daniel Epstein, Tyler Hartung and Teju Ravilochan, The Unreasonable Institute (our not-for-profit honoree — an incubator for social enterprises devoted to solving big world problems)

Inc. makes a point to note that the winners come from 13 states, including some not typically thought of as entrepreneurial hot spots. These include Idaho, Indiana, and Florida.

Le Camping actually takes place in what used to be the French Stock Exchange building. Every six months, 12 promising new startups are chosen, then they are educated by over 60 business savvy experts who are focused on making the startups a success.

Google comments on their work the past year with Le Camping and the Silicon Sentier association:

We’ve already seen great success from the program. Out of the 24 teams from first two seasons, 40 percent of the startups have raised funds, 60 percent have paying clients and all of the startups belong to a strong and reliable community. The program does not take equity in the startups or charge them to take part; all that’s required is vision, passion and the desire to address a global audience.

This is just one of our efforts to support entrepreneurs in France. Last year we also launched Startup Cafe, an online platform which provides access to educational video content from several business schools designed for entrepreneurs, tools to help start a business and, with the help of the Agency for the Creation of Entrepreneurs, a map of public organizations that can help entrepreneurs.

We believe that the Internet and entrepreneurship are key drivers of economic development. A study from the European Commission highlighted that small enterprises are the driver for growth and employment: they generate nearly 70 percent of jobs in Europe and 60 percent of economic value added. McKinsey’s “Impact of Internet on the French economy” reported that when French SMEs use more web technologies, their growth is faster, their operating revenues are higher and their profitability is stronger.

This is only the third season of Le Camping, but the program has been enormously successful. Essentially, there’s still six more months of the current season and the startups have a long way to go. The following video shows us a little more about what goes on during Le Camping and how it influences the participants.

Take a look:

According to the Google blog, this Saturday, March 10, the group will be working with Make It Right–Brad Pitt’s foundation–to rally supporters around the globe during the charity event. Pitt has been a huge supporter of New Orleans since Katrina and has built hundreds of green, sustainable homes with his foundation. At 8 p.m. that evening, the Make It Right Google+ Page will host a live hangout with Brad Pitt and will include visits from special guests Ellen DeGeneres, Randy Jackson and Aziz Ansari. Afterwards, live updates from the event will be posted on the Google+ page along with photos and videos, and fans can ask celebrity guests questions.

Says Google New Orleans Outreach lead Tara Canobbio, “Our sponsorship of NOEW 2012 is one piece of our ongoing work supporting entrepreneurship in New Orleans. Other support includes bringing a major partner, Startup Weekend, to NOLA as well as increasing Accelerate with Google in the region. We look forward to contributing to the entrepreneurship ecosystem to provide real economic opportunities for the New Orleans community, its people and its businesses.”

The program is divided into five groups of study, or “circles”, which were created with different levels of web knowledge in mind:

• Building an online presence: creating a website, a YouTube channel, and a business page on a social network like Google+
• Collaborating effectively: tools like Gmail, Calendar and Docs
• Connecting with customers: hosting Google+ Hangouts, creating and distributing targeted offers and discounts
• Promoting organization: online product demos, creating viral videos on YouTube, advertising through AdWords and AdSense
• Tracking and optimizing your online presence: Google Analytics, Google Alerts, ripples on Google+, the +1 button, webmaster tools

More than 300 women have signed up for WEOW to date, and Google hopes to up that number exponentially in the near future as word of mouth spreads.

As part of the launch event, Yolanda Mangolini–head of diversity and inclusion at Google Hyderabad–spent a day with 30 female entrepreneurs talking about the program and what it means for them. Below is a video from that meet-and-greet.

Mark Cuban, (entrepreneur, VC, Dallas Mavs owner, blogger, Landmark Theatres owner, Magnolia Pictures owner, HDNet chairman, etc.) posted some thoughts on on patent law on his blog BlogMaverick. His solution to patent law is basically summed up in two steps:

1. End all software patents
2. End all process patents

“It is easy to complain,” he writes. “Much harder to come up with solutions. Many won’t like what I propose, but who wants to make lawyers happy anyway?”

He proposes that copyrights are enough to protect software, and the benefit of creating a new process is creating the idea and using it in a business to your advantage. “ Afraid that some big company might steal the idea ? That is life,” he says. “When you run with the elephants there are the quick and the dead.  That is a challenge every small company faces.”

He goes on to list benefits of eliminating process and software, such as: reducing courtroom costs, improving the efficiency of the patent office, ending “the ridiculousness current patent arms race,” saving jobs, etc.

Naturally, Cuban’s comments are drawing plenty of discussion in the industry. He’s been actively engaged in the discussion in the comments on his blog post, and has responded to a couple people on Twitter:

Larry Dignan at ZDNet says that despite all the “whining,” any reform on software patents is unlikely. “Nothing is going to happen. Congress is a mess. Patents will always take a back seat to things like making interest payments, debt downgrades, elections and an economy that is sucking wind,” he says. “As a result, the thermo nuclear patent game will continue. Companies can whine about lawsuits and sky-high bids for patent portfolios all they want. Their time may be better spent acquiring patents.”

In the meantime, the public “whining” will likely go on. It’s quite interesting to see how the big players have taken to not only public means of dispute, but their own PR vehicles (like the Official Google blog).

The word disruption is thrown around way too much.  It’s often used to describe ideas that are not disruptive.  Recently though, I’ve noticed a trend of YCombinator backed startups that follow a similar theme: Go after an industry or process that is excruciatingly painful and make it better. Sure all startups are about solving a pain point, but in the case of Hipmunk and others, the pain is chronic and unbearable.  

Find Something Tied To A Process That Consistently Sucks

Some things are just a pain and never ever change. The industries that can be hipmunked are ones that you repeatedly ask yourself "Why hasn’t anyone made this better?" It can’t be a temporary cure either, it needs to be a full blown relief of pain. In the case of HelloFax , it seemed like a silly idea at first to most. Fax machines are a thing of the past it would seem, but in reality they aren’t. With all of the innovation we’ve had, trying to send a fax is still a pain. EFax is cumbersome and real fax machines are far worse. Every blue moon, there is no way to do anything other than send a fax. It’s still horrible. With HelloFax, they took a process that consistently sucks and made it just work.

Simple And Clean Interfaces Come First

One of the best ways to make a product enjoyable and easy to use is with an interface that is simple+clean. Give the user what they want, the bare essentials, and make the information easy to digest. It’s not about being the prettiest either. I love the hipmunk interface, but it’s not whiz bang beautiful. It’s clean, simple, and organizes information well. The flow of information should come first and foremost in a clean interface. Problematic and painful industries usually have a high amount of friction between the customer and information. They usually want to access or deliver information in a fast manner, but it often takes way longer than they would like.

It Will Probably Be Unsexy…So Make It Sexy

The industries most ripe for disruption are usually the unsexy ones that no one wants to touch. That’s okay, look at it like the startup version of the popular teen movie "She’s All That". Find the ugly one and turn them into something absolutely beautiful. It’s not in the DNA of unsexy industries to think about everything else in this article. That’s why they’re unsexy and people despise them. The travel industry? Absolutely boring. Look at email. Everyone thinks that email is long dead and gone, but at the end of the day it’s still widely used. Companies like Groupon and Thrillist are growing faster than any other company before. They figured out how to leverage an unused, unsexy asset and make it work for the user.

Take a look at Square.  Payment processing is a sleezy, unsexy, and just headache of an industry.  Square took that and turned it on its head.  They added a beautiful interface and made it frictionless for real world merchants to have a payment processing engine without the headaches involved.  

Call Out Your Competitor

Don’t be afraid to call out your competitor and wage war. You should be respectful of course, but it’s okay to stir the pot. Look at Salesforce. They proclaimed the end of downloadable desktop software and Marc Benioff was no stranger to letting the world know the companies that are his enemy. His spat with Microsoft is supposedly one of the greatest things that ever happened to the company!

Deliver Great Support

Most unsexy industries don’t have a love for customer support. It’s not that they deliver bad customer support, it’s just that they don’t deliver GREAT customer support. Zappos for example… they sell shoes. Who would have ever thought that a shoe retailer could be an iconic company? Well, Zappos is really a company with great customer service that happens to sell shoes. If you have a passion for support that mirrors Zappos, you can extend the great experience you deliver with your application to the real human interaction you may have with customers.

Look For An Industry That Rarely Changes

I’ve always believed that those who get comfortable and think they are immune to disruption are the most likely to be disrupted. Having a large customer base makes large incumbents feel like they will never leave. In actual reality, they will, but they just need a great solution… your solution. Problems don’t make people change. Problems make people search for a solution. Until a good solution exists, they stick with the current one. It’s like a do while loop of seemingly neverending pain. Do deal with pain while looking for a better solution, until you find a better one.

Work Towards Building Fanatics

The hipmunk mascot is barely a year old I believe, but boy do people love that little critter. Some have even created fan art! In a short period of time, Hipmunk has created valuable brand equity and fanatical customers. Some companies never get to achieve that. If you’re able to resolve pain, finding fanatical customers will happen a lot faster.

Be Disruptive, But Respectful

It’s fun to shake things up, call out your competitors, and make a lot of noise, but always be a gentleman or a classy lady. Have logic and let people see the rationale behind your argument. You should always have an answer that is more than "just because". Show those trapped in the Matrix why your solution is better and will free them from the pain that currently exists. Use a loud mouth and PR to get the world’s eyes on you, but deliver sound logic. There is a thin line between being passionate and just being insane. Rationale is usually the difference.

Focus On Power Users

Not every solution should do this, but I noticed that it worked very very well for Hipmunk. A lot of the people that I know who are Hipmunk users, travel VERY often. Sometimes you just want to focus on the normal users, but you can get fanatical users and strong advocates by solving the pain for those that have it the most often. A person that travels multiple times a month with long flights is much more likely to want your solution when you first launch/unproven than a person that travels a few times a year, often for vacation+light work travel. Hipmunk, padmapper, hellofax, and others are just the start. The number of processes that are beyond painful run deep and present a world of opportunity for aspiring entrepreneurs. What other industries are ready to be "hipmunked"? My vote: the domain purchasing industry. Someone should "hipmunk" Godaddy .

Originally published on OnStartups

You’re Doing Something You Love

This is key not only early on, but for the long haul. I know it sounds cliche and you hear this from everyone, but it’s one of the most true and consistent pieces of advice given out in the startup world. Startups are a marathon and even though you often hear about the good times, you will rarely hear about the difficult times. There are always more difficult times than good times. Any normal person would just give up, pack it up, and return to the real world. If you absolutely love what you do, then there is a higher motive there that will keep you going on. The work you do needs to transcend being "work" and become even more than that.

You’re Making Revenue

Getting somebody to give you their credit card and their hard earned cash is way harder than most think. For some companies it will happen easily, but for most, it just doesn’t. If you start making revenue that can pay your most basic expenses, you’re on the right path. The difference between zero dollars and one dollar is huge. If you have figured out how to bring your first dollar in, you might be ready to take things to the next level. If those dollars are rapidly growing, even more reason to continue onwards.

You Know The BIG Vision

This is key and often an awkward point for most aspiring entrepreneurs. It’s a side project, two guys in an apartment, nights, weekends,etc., so how is it possible to imagine going from that to being a multi-billion dollar company? It just feels really weird thinking about that, right? DON’T LET IT. It’s a point you can get to, but it will never happen if you don’t start to formulate those thoughts. Zuck started FB at one college with one photo, but I bet you he knew exactly what it could become one day. Having a larger vision to aspire to will motivate you to accomplish something grand. It will make you feel as if you are taking on the world, which you often will be. Realize that it doesn’t happen overnight, but it does happen to great companies. Here is the one question I ask all startups I meet that ask me for in-depth advice: "If you succeed to your fullest extent, how will the world be a different place in five years?"

Your Big Vision Does Not Have A Ceiling

The problem with big visions is that the excitement of this big vision can often cloud the ceiling that it may have. You have to be going after a vision in a large market that has a very high ceiling. You won’t get 100% penetration or possibly anything near it, so the market has to be large enough that you can continue going forward. Niche businesses can be nice, but they often lead you down a path of boredom. You hit your peak, make your money, but soon realize there isn’t much more left to be done. You do either of two things: get bored, quit, and give up OR you try a new riskier direction. The riskier direction option can work, but it means that your initial business wasn’t large enough. Find the big vision within a large market that has a lot of untapped potential.

You Are Ready To Be Selfless

This is a lesson I’ve recently spent a lot of time thinking about. I think it’s one that not enough people talk about and is the most important thing an entrepreneur can know before going full time on a startup. You have to be 100% selfless. It is no longer just about you. You are really last on the totem pole. You have responsibility to more than just yourself or another cofounder. It’s such an important piece of the puzzle that it needs to be broken down into three further points below.

You Have A Responsibility To Employees

Everything you do has to have the well being and care for your employees in mind. Every decision you make will have a small impact on your life, but it will have a large impact across the lives of so many others. It might even be 5 people at first, but those 5 people have family members, kids, loved ones, and many more that depend upon them. If you make a selfish or poor decision, it will end up having an impact on a large chain of people. Expand from 5 to 50 then 500 and you are now responsible for the lives of many many people. One of the people working with us hard at Onswipe has a young kid. One night on Skype when we were announcing our plans to expand I saw their kid walk into the room. That moment forever changed my life. I realized I was now responsible for so many more people than myself. If I screw this up, it impacts so many other individuals.

You Have A Responsibility To Customers

Customers will depend on your service working in order to do business and some core functionality of what makes them tick. You need to realize that the decisions you make will have an impact on those customers and their customers. They have trusted a core piece of their business to you. The product decisions and pricing decisions often have an impact on companies. Your customers trust you to perform a function and you need to keep yourself healthy for the long haul.

You Have A Responsibility To Investors

Your investors have probably been pitched by hundreds of other entrepreneurs throughout the year. They chose you and maybe a select few others to go take on the world. You have a responsibility to do well by them. If they are angel investors, they have trusted you with the money they have earned through the same exact hard earned blood, sweat, and tears you are currently going through. If they are venture investors, their job is to pick the best of the best. They have to provide returns to their LPs and also risk their reputations on your company. Yes, many venture backed companies fail, but they will go in expecting the worst, but hope for the best.

Keep in mind, you don’t need to hit all of these points. You may just be at the idea stage and be nowhere close to achieving anything listed above. That’s okay as I wish I had these points when I started as an entrepreneur. The points in this essay were adapted from a talk I gave at Plusconf. I will be giving a more polished and refined version of this talk at Columbia University in New York City at 7 pm this Friday – Details: http://bit.ly/gLzVHK.

Originally published on OnsStartups.com

Partners will contribute funds to "existing proven models or develop new programs and efforts to help entrepreneurs." Partners include Google, Facebook, Intel, HP, and IBM (see full list here). 

Facebook will host 12 "Startup Days" this year aimed at providing early-staged companies with engineering and design support on the Facebook platform. These are monthly events for building apps and sites that incorporate social technologies. 

"In addition, we plan to stay active within open source communities and are proud of what we’ve contributed in the past," says Facebook’s Doug Purdy. "Open source technologies continue to be important to startups that are scaling and growing quickly. They allow entrepreneurs to spend more time working on their products."

"Over the past few years we’ve been contributing to a wide range of existing projects, from PHP to memcached to Varnish and many others," adds Purdy. "We also open source our own projects, ranging from major pieces of infrastructure (most recently HipHop for PHP) to small tools that make developing all sorts of software faster and easier (such as XHP and Three20)."

Intel is committing $200M of new investment in U.S. companies for the project, and is serving on the board. IBM is investing $150 million to fund programs that promote entrepreneurs. HP is investing $4 million. Google’s contributions have yet to be revealed.

"America’s story has been forged in large part by entrepreneurs who have against great odds created innovative products and services that have changed the world – and created millions of jobs," said Steve Case. "Our nation once again looks to these creative risk-takers to unleash the next wave of American innovation, and I am pleased that President Obama has made supporting and celebrating entrepreneurs a major priority of his economic strategy. I am honored to chair the Startup America Partnership, and look forward to working with the White House to champion the creation of new start-ups, and help accelerate the growth of speed-ups."

The partnership will not target specific entrepreneurs, but will spotlight and connect programs and institutions that directly target entrepreneurs. So says this FAQ page.