Published November 29, 2011 – BizTimes Daily

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BizStarts Milwaukee announced today that the organizations Inspirational Entrepreneur Award has been renamed The George Dalton Inspirational Entrepreneur Award.
Dalton, a co-founder of Fiserv Inc. and founder of Novo 1, was an original BizStarts board member and a recipient of the award in 2010.He passed away on Nov. 17.
Daniel Steininger, president and co-founder, and John Torinus, chairman of the board of BizStarts announced the dedication of the award to Dalton today.
The award has been our opportunity to recognize the innovation, creativity and success of our regions entrepreneurs. Now, it will carry the name of George Dalton, one of our communitys most gifted, generous and successful entrepreneurs, and a true visionary.This is a fitting tribute to an extraordinary business leader and philanthropist, Steininger said. George was a driving force in launching BizStarts and in defining its mission. He offered frequent counsel and recruited a number of our valued Board members. He had the vision to transform opportunities and potential into highly successful products and services.But more than that, it was just as important to him to support, share, listen and encourage others who needed his direction, support and understanding. He was an inspiration to me and to all who knew him.He will be greatly missed.
The award honoring Dalton will be announced at BizStarts quarterly Inspirational Entrepreneur Event on Thursday, Dec. 1, at the We Energies Auditorium, 231 W. Michigan Ave., Milwaukee from 4 to 6 pm To register, visit http://conta.cc/ryqfeb.
Dalton received the BizTimes Bravo! Entrepreneur Lifetime Achievement Award in 2005.

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The top trends are indicators of business strength and areas of opportunity, said Amy Cosper, vice president and editor in chief of the publication. Examining how they are working for others today can influence how other entrepreneurs can adapt and enhance their companies for the future.

Leading companies are positioning themselves as decision engines that fuel invention and purchases. They also take advantage of collaborative commerce such as sharing, lending and renting, and let consumers indulge their creativity, customize their experiences and receive personalized recommendations. An example is Blurb, which allows users to put together and publish books.

The Hartfords recent Small Business Success Study found that the majority of entrepreneurs are optimistic about the next two years, with 70 percent of respondents reporting that they felt successful despite hiring difficulties, regulatory barriers and funding obstacles.

The company has received praise from Entrepreneur magazine as a home based franchise, ranking it #34 on Entrepreneur magazines 2011 Franchise 500 Home Based Franchises list. Oxi Fresh significantly rose in the ranks on the Home Based Franchises list, climbing more than 50 spots since it last appeared on this list.

This is the second time Oxi Fresh has been honored by Entrepreneur magazine as a top home-based franchise. We were ranked #85 last time we appeared on the list, and its great to see how our growth as a franchising system is being nationally recognized, said Jonathan Barnett, Oxi Fresh founder and president.#xA0;

With a total investment ranging between $34,000 and $57,000, Oxi Fresh is an affordable franchise opportunity for entrepreneurs thanks to the home-based nature of the business coupled with the lack of inventory needing restocking. In a related listing, Entrepreneur magazine ranked Oxi Fresh #26 in low-cost franchises in 2011.

Oxi Fresh employs a green carpet cleaning process which uses low-moisture levels and non-toxic cleaning agents, one of which has even received the EPAs coveted Design for the Environment certification.

For additional information, visit www.oxifresh.com.

Full press release available here: http://www.oxifresh.com/news/oxi-fresh-ranks-34th-entrepreneurs-franchise-500-home-based-franchises-list

About Oxi Fresh Carpet Cleaning#xAE;:

Using innovative products and technology, Oxi Fresh Carpet Cleaning#xAE;, one of the nations fastest-growing#xA0;carpet cleaning companies, offers oxygen powered cleaning. Their process cleans all the way down to the bottom of the carpet pile, transforming carpet right before customers eyes. In 2011, Oxi Fresh was ranked #126 in#xA0;Entrepreneur#xA0;magazines Franchise 500 as well as ranked #3 in their Top New Franchises.#xA0; They also were featured as one of 20 to Watch in 2011 by#xA0;Franchise Times. #xA0;Oxi Fresh has more than 235 carpet cleaning franchise locations in 45 states, with more locations currently in development.

SOURCE Oxi Fresh Carpet Cleaning

Roberg will offer his perspective on technology entrepreneurship in the region and his advice for entrepreneurs looking to scale up.

He is responsible for the entire sales function at HubSpot, increasing revenue over 6,000 percent and expanding the sales team from one to 100 employees in four years. These results placed HubSpot at #33 on the 2011 INC 500 Fastest Growing Companies list.

Roberg was also awarded the 2010 Salesperson of the Year at the MIT Sales Conference. Prior to HubSpot, Roberg founded and/or held executive positions at start-ups in the social media and mobile sector. He began his career as a technology consultant with Accenture.

He holds an MBA from the MIT Sloan School of Management where he was a semi-finalist in the 2005 MIT $50K Business Plan competition and was awarded the Patrick McGovern award for his contributions to entrepreneurship at MIT. He holds a BS in mechanical engineering from Lehigh University. Narragansett Beer is sponsoring beverages for the evening.

Register at www.SNEEF.org.Cost is $20, $25 at the door. Join SNEEF and attend the event free.

KANSAS CITY, MO, Nov 14, 2011 (MARKETWIRE via COMTEX) –
The Urban Entrepreneur Partnership Inc. (UEP), a national program
of the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation, has received top honors in
the 2011 MarCom Awards. The international competition, administered
and judged by the Association of Marketing and Communication
Professionals (AMCP), recognizes outstanding creative achievement in
200-plus categories.

The Urban Entrepreneur Partnership competed successfully against more
than 6,000 entries from the U.S., Canada, and other countries, taking
two Platinum Awards and two Gold Awards for the UEP’s informational
brochure and media kit, “The Building Box.”

A complete list of platinum winners can be found at

www.marcomawards.com .

This year’s MarCom winners ranged from individual communicators to
media conglomerates and Fortune 500 companies. Joining the UEP in the
winners circle were the United States Navy, the Kennedy Space Center,
Ernst and Young, Omni Hotels & Resorts, Toyota Motor Sales Inc.,
Google, The Coca-Cola Company, Booz Allen, Walmart Foundation, and
Rotary International, among others.

“We are thrilled and honored that the AMCP has recognized our
marketing and communication efforts,” said Lena T. Rodriguez, the
UEP’s chief marketing and development officer. “As a young
organization working with a small budget, it’s especially gratifying
to share the limelight with Fortune 500 firms and other world-class
organizations.”

About the UEP

Distinguished by a unique and innovative one-to-one coaching model,
the UEP offers a suite of business solutions that help entrepreneurs
grow their businesses, create new jobs and help to revitalize the
economy.

Operating as a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, the UEP is a program
of the Kauffman Foundation and is supported by public, private and
nonprofit-sector resources. For additional information on Urban
Entrepreneur Partnership (UEP) programs, contact
Lena T. Rodriguez
at (816) 581-2900 or LRodriguez@uepkauffman.org or visit

www.uepkauffman.org .

About the Kauffman Foundation

The Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation is a private nonpartisan
foundation that works to harness the power of entrepreneurship and
innovation to grow economies and improve human welfare. The Kauffman
Foundation empowers individuals to attain economic independence by
advancing educational achievement and entrepreneurial success.
Founded by the late entrepreneur and philanthropist Ewing Marion
Kauffman, the Foundation is based in Kansas City, Mo. For more
information, visit
www.kauffman.org , and follow the Foundation on

www.twitter.com/kauffmanfdn and
www.facebook.com/kauffmanfdn .

CONTACT:
Jaime Simmons
(816) 581-2912
Email Contact

SOURCE: Urban Entrepreneur Partnership

http://www2.marketwire.com/mw/emailprcntct?id=887CCAC314A88E53

Copyright 2011 Marketwire, Inc., All rights reserved.

Silicon Valley is mourning today for Zhitomirskiy, a recent NYU grad dropout, who by all accounts was a bright, motivated geek with big ambitions. Every time I saw Ilya he had a new plan to save the world. He was optimistic without irony, wrote Twitter design researcher Karina van Schaardenburg.

In September of last year, Zhitomiriskiy told New York Magazine that Diaspora was a project of pure passion. Theres something deeper than making money off stuff, he said. Being a part of creating stuff for the universe is awesome.

But many are also asking the obvious question: Did the pressure of running a struggling, much-hyped start-upnot just any start-up, but a Facebook killercontribute to Zhitomirskiys death?

Burnout is one thing but serious depression is another altogether, writes Bill Patrianakos on Hacker News, a sort of digital water-cooler for the tech industry. The pressure of starting a small local business is enough to drive a person mad. Just think about the guys being covered… the widely known ones, the stars of the tech startup world.

Zhitomirskiy and his three co-founders have been very much rising stars in the tech startup world. Diaspora burst onto the scene by rasing more than $200,000 on the crowdfunding site Kickstarter while they were still at NYU. They attracted breathless coverage from TechCrunch, and managed to sneak a dirty nerd joke into a glowing New York Times profile. Prominent New York Venture Capitalist Fred Wilson kicked in a substantial donationeven Mark Zuckerberg contributed.

Diaspora promised to give users ultimate control of their personal information and privacyunlike Facebook. Share what you want, with whom you want, went the slogan.

But development of Diaspora stalled soon after the initial burst of publicity, as the reality of developing a social networking site from scratch hit the inexperienced teams admirable goals. When Diaspora released its source code, hackers howled at its gaping security holes. Outside of a few appealing screenshots and a closed alpha, Diaspora has only resurfaced recently to ask supporters for a second round of donations because it was running out of money.

Diasporas continuing obscurity has been met with rising criticism among tech insiders. Last month, Newsweeks Dan Lyons wrote off Diaspora as cool, but the sad fact is… most people will still go to Facebook simply because thats where all their friends are. Even the post on Hacker News about Zhitomirskiys death is haunted by Diaspora haters. Its a laughing stock, wrote Hacker News user josteink. As a social network this is a failure on absolutely every aspect I can find measures for.

Zhitomirskiys death adds a tragic undertone to the tech industrys obsession with young founders. Venture capitalists ache for the next Mark Zuckerberg, the bright young guy with an idea that will change the world. The tech press is filled with relentlessly sunny stories about kids who can barely drink selling their startups for obscene amounts of money; Peter Thiel has his crazy scheme to pay kids to drop out college and launch a startup.

As thrilling as it is to watch brilliant young people make cool stuff, its equally as wrenching when things go horribly wrong.

[Photo by Karina van Schaardenburg/Flickr]

SHANGHAI, Nov. 13, 2011 /PRNewswire via COMTEX/ –
Madhouse Inc, China’s leading mobile ad network and mobile marketing service provider has announced that its Founder and CEO Joshua Maa, was awarded “Silicon Dragon’s The Entrepreneur of the Year 2011″ in Shanghai, China.

The Silicon Dragon Entrepreneur Award (Shanghai, Beijing, Hong Kong) is aimed at recognizing entrepreneurs who fit three distinct criteria. First, they must have created an innovative product or service in a technology or related area. Secondly, the candidate must be a dynamic and passionate leader who has brought his or her company to an industry leading position. Finally, the candidate’s company must have achieved rapid growth over at least two years consecutively as a startup or emerging company. The Award was sponsored by KPMG.

At the event, Rebecca Fannin, the Silicon Dragon host, as well as the author of Startup Asia (2011) and Silicon Dragon (2008), and Forbes contributor mentioned: “I’ve interviewed dozens of startup founders in China, and Joshua well represents the Silicon Dragon entrepreneur characteristics – drive, courage, ambition, passion, and talent all wrapped in one. He is managing to scale his Shanghai-based company Madhouse to a powerhouse brand in the intensely competitive mobile communications space. We wish him the best on his journey.”

Li Fern Woo, Partner, KPMG China, said: “We are very pleased to be involved with this award, as we are strong supporters of innovation in technology, drive, creativity and entrepreneurship skills, which have been admirably demonstrated by Joshua’s business. We wish him all the very best and we look forward to continuing to support these awards.”

At the Awards ceremony, Joshua Maa expressed both his gratitude as well as his vision for the development of mobile marketing in the coming years. “I am extremely honored to be recognized by an organization as exceptional as Silicon Dragon. Over the past 6 years, Madhouse has built a commanding leadership position in China, the world’s largest mobile market. During this time, Madhouse has contributed positively to the development of the industry as a whole and built a strong bench of talent to support our customers and partners. Over the next several years, I see the company spreading its footprint beyond the China market. In fact, we already have a couple of key initiatives in this area. We believe that the operational and product advantages that we’ve built will help us to become a major player in the global market. Since the beginning, the ambition has been to cover the global market, not just China.”

Criteria for Selection “Must haves” to the Silicon Dragon Entrepreneur Award

An innovative product or service in a tech or related area: mobile communications, e-commerce, social networking, Internet, online games, cloud computing, outsourcing, cleantech, healthcare

A dynamic, passionate CEO/founder with some international company experience and/or education at a top university

A high-caliber management team with fully staffed positions for CTO, CFO, Sales and other top executive posts

Raised at least one round of venture capital from a prominent firm

Reported fast growth at least two years in a row for startup or emerging company

A market leader, with sizeable market share that can be documented by an outside industry source

Profitable or on a quick path to profitability

A highly qualified board of directors from the industry

English-language fluency

A surprise factor such as a major milestone or accomplishment that seemed impossible

Advisory council*: Richard Dasher, Director and Consulting Professor, U.S.-Asia Technology Management Center; Stanford University; Kwok Shum Leung, Professor, Hong Kong University SPACE; Poh Kam Wong, Professor, National University of Singapore and Director, NUS Entrepreneurship Centre; Chris Evdemon, General Manager, Incubation Programs, Innovation Works

About Rebecca A. Fannin and Silicon Asia

With 15 years’ experience covering technology, entrepreneurship, venture investment and innovation in Asia’s emerging markets, journalist and author Rebecca Fannin is a noted authority on global tech trends, a consultant, public speaker and guest commentator. Her book, Silicon Dragon, was well received and translated into several languages.

As a contributor to Forbes.com, and a former international editor at Red Herring and the Asian Venture Capital Journal in Hong Kong, she has developed a deep understanding of the issues and trends in entrepreneurial, digital media and investor circles.

Silicon Asia gains insights into the market by conducting in-depth, on-site interviews with leading entrepreneurs and investors in the Bay Area, India, China and frontier markets.

Silicon Asia provides a comprehensive and insightful analysis of news, research and trends that covers innovation and investment in the world’s emerging tech and innovation hubs.

For more information, please visit:

http://siliconasiainvest.com

About Madhouse Inc. and Joshua Maa

Madhouse is China’s largest and most intelligent mobile advertising network and the leading mobile marketing total solution provider. Headquartered in Shanghai with offices in Beijing and Guangzhou, Madhouse now consists of more than 180 professionals.

Madhouse is privately held and venture funded by TDF Capital, Gobi Partners, and JAFCO Asia. Strategic investors include D2 Communications Inc. and Nokia Growth Partners.

Joshua Maa is the Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Madhouse Inc. and a Founding Member and Board Director of MMA APAC (Mobile Marketing Association, Asia Pacific Region), Co-Chair of Global Mobile Advertising Committee, a co-founder and a board member of MMA China Council.

Before founding Madhouse, Joshua Maa was EVP at TOM Online, where he managed the Wireless Business & Operations and International Business Development teams, and helped Tom become the largest Wireless Value-Added Service Provider by revenue in China in 2005. Prior to TOM Online, Joshua was the Founding CEO of Rock Mobile Corporation, Greater China’s leading Mobile Music Entertainment Service Provider. Joshua has over 20 years of managerial experience in Greater China’s New Media, entertainment, and Consumer Marketing industries.

For More Information, please visit:

http://www.madhouse.cn

For Further Press Require, Please Contact: Miss. Wendy Wang Corporate Communications Madhouse Inc. Tel: +86 21 5160 0278 ext. 6651Fax: +86 21 6218 9599Email: wendywang@madhouse-inc.com

SOURCE Madhouse Inc.

Copyright (C) 2011 PR Newswire. All rights reserved

Not all who major in entrepreneurship go on to establish their own businesses, of course.

Some simply wish to cultivate the skills that will best position them for employment opportunities post graduation — ingenuity, improvisation, risk tolerance.

That’s particularly true for part-time MBAs, who are working and studying at the same time.

“The demand for creative solutions in their current careers, puts a premium on acquiring the mindset and skills of the entrepreneur, says Crisp.

Degrees in entrepreneurship typically include classes that help students identify viable business opportunities, develop feasibility studies and write a business plan.

The Florida Entrepreneurship Center, which offers both undergraduate and graduate level programs, also helps students discover their own passion and fine-tune the 90-second elevator pitch.

Likewise, the Center for Entrepreneurship at Belmont University in Nashville, Tenn., teaches students about  bootstrapping a start-up business, cash flow management, securing financing from friends and family, and the importance of social capital — building that critical network of relationships (bankers, suppliers, etc.) that will help sustain their business.

Avoiding Dilbert Land

An unprecedented 30 percent of incoming freshman at Belmont’s business school this year declared entrepreneurship as their major.

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