Saturday, December 15, 2007

Why Dyslexics Make Great Entrepreneurs

It's not clear whether dyslexics develop their special talents by learning to negotiate their disability or whether such skills are the genetic inheritance of being dyslexic. It's a question Shaywitz plans to explore, along with trying to change the way dyslexia is viewed in the educational system and the business world. One project at the center will be an education series to train executives to recognize outside-the-box thinkers who don't perform well on standardized tests.

Shaywitz recently tested a well-known CEO (whom she declined to identify) for dyslexia. The man confessed that he'd hired an outside company to help identify future leaders within the organization by administering a reading test. "'The irony is,' I told him, 'you're eliminating and sifting out all the people like yourself who might actually be the ones to be creative and make a difference.'"

Coping Skills
That kind of rejection, along with a penchant for creativity, may help explain why so many dyslexics are inclined to become entrepreneurs. Julie Logan, a professor of entrepreneurship at Cass Business School in London, believes strongly in the connection.

In a study to be published in January, Logan found that 35% of entrepreneurs in the U.S. show signs of dyslexia, compared to 20% in Britain. Logan attributes the gap to a more flexible education system in the U.S., vs. rigid tracking in British schools, and better identification and remediation methods. "Most of the people in our study talked about the role of the mentor and how important that had been," Logan says. "The difference seems to be somebody who believes in you in school."

The broader implication, she says, is that many of the coping skills dyslexics learn in their formative years become best practices for the successful entrepreneur. A child who chronically fails standardized tests must become comfortable with failure. Being a slow reader forces you to extract only vital information, so that you're constantly getting right to the point. Dyslexics are also forced to trust and rely on others to get things done—an essential skill for anyone working to build a business.

Via-BusinessWeek

OurStage is the only democratic competition where the fans decide who's best in emerging entertainment

What Company Is Offering:
OurStage is the only democratic competition where the fans decide who's best in emerging entertainment. That means fans have the real voice - because our patent-pending judging system eliminates cheaters. Artists get a fair shot. The bottom line is, if you're really the best, the fans will drive you to the top.

They are the only place online where the fans, and only the fans, decide who's great in music and film. 100% fair, 100% democratic, 100% about talent.
OurStage gives away great prizes each month to talented musicians - like festival slots, mentor sessions with established artists, and $5,000 Grand Prize every month.OurStage was started and funded by enthusiasts and angel investors who are really passionate about one thing: bringing true democracy to entertainment. Their aim is to make sure that artists gets a fair shot... and that fans can find emerging artists they’ll love.


How It Works:

As an artist, your first step is to upload your music or video and decide which channel competition to enter. Then, fans judge the work side by side with the work of others. Our unique judging capability (called Peer Relative Ranking, but don't worry about that) makes sure that each piece is judged fairly by the real audience no rigging, no cheating, no celebrity judges. At the end of each month, the top 20 and the top 10 in each channel go head-to-head in a special judging channels to determine the winner of that channel, and then a site-wide judging contest to determine our Grand Prize winner. For more information about that, see the Judging section below! As a fan, all you have to do is listen to some great music and give feedback about just how great you think it is. You can win prizes too for doing this .
More at:http://www.ourstage.com/

Brio---Web Conferencing Tool

What Company Is Offering:
Brio is a web meeting service built with collaboration in mind for individual professionals and small businesses. With Brio, you can instantly communicate and collaborate through an easy-to-use, easy-to-access online personal meeting room.

How It Works:

Brio operates inside most popular web browsers, so you can start a meeting without worrying if others have a compatible system or the right software.
Whether it is an ad-hoc meeting with remote colleagues or a sales call, Brio gives you the tools to conduct a meeting as if you were in the same room. See how you can reduce travel costs, save time and increase productivity by using Brio today.

Unique Features:

Host unlimited online meetings with up to 3 meeting participants.
Interact with easy-to-use screen sharing, chat and whiteboards.
Access your meeting instantly with a personalized, easy-to-remember URL.
Distribute documents and files to meeting participants.
Use integrated VoIP, teleconferencing and multi-point video.
More at:http://labs.adobe.com/

Pet-files is a social network for pets and pet lovers

What Company Is Offering:

Pet-files is a social network for pets and pet lovers.

How It Works:

It allows you to:
Create unlimited profile pages for your pets.
Publish unlimited photos of your pets.
Publish unlimited videos of your pets.
Create beautiful slideshows for your blog.
Present your adoptable and for-sale pets.
Comment, rate and send private messages.Send lovable e-cards to your friends
Pet-files is user-friendly, easy to use, fun, and it will be free for ever!

More at:http://www.pet-files.com/

The Southeast Venture Conference

The Southeast Venture Conference (SEVC) announces the first round of companies selected to present at the upcoming conference scheduled for February 27th-28th, 2008 at the Ritz Carlton in Tysons Corner, Virginia.


The companies will present to an audience of regional and national investors and executives. A total of 40 companies are expected to be showcased at the second annual conference. Currently, there is over $40 billion under management represented by investors already registered for the conference.

The first round of announced presenting companies include:

Camero - Vienna, VA; www.camero-tech.com

clearTXT - Morrisville, NC; www.cleartxt.com

Cybera - Franklin, TN; www.cybera.com

Cyveillance - Arlington, VA; www.cyveillance.com

Digitalsmiths - Beaufort, SC; www.digitalsmiths.com

FortiusOne - Arlington, VA; www.fortiusone.com

Kajeet - Bethesda, MD; www.kajeet.com

M3 Technology Group - Charlotte, NC; www.m3tg.com

NovaVision - Boca Raton, FL; www.novavision.com


Passport Health Communications - Franklin, TN; www.passporthealth.com

Prenova - Marietta, GA; www.prenova.com

Real Digital Media - Sarasota, FL; www.realdigitalmedia.com

Recordant - Alpharetta, GA; www.recordant.com

Ruckus Networks - Herndon, VA; www.ruckus.com

Steelbox Networks - Atlanta, GA; www.steelbox.com

Suniva - Atlanta, GA; www.suniva.com

Yap - Charlotte, NC; www.yapme.com

More on these presenting companies can be found at www.seventure.org

Invidi ,a provider of targeted advertising for broadband TV services, has raised $25 million in third-round funding

WhatCompany Is Offering:
INVIDI provides cable, satellite and IPTV operators the opportunity to position their services as the most comprehensive source available for targeted television advertising and promotion. INVIDI’s powerful suite of advanced tools enables operators to selectively target television viewers with the same pinpoint accuracy as direct mail and database marketing — without compromising viewer privacy and, thereby, enhancing existing revenue streams and cultivating significant new revenue opportunities.
How It Works:

INVIDI’s proprietary technology enables television service providers to simultaneously deliver multiple and distinct commercial streams to different households or individual set-top boxes during a single commercial break while also controlling reach, frequency and separation of the commercial assets. This increases advertising inventory and revenue opportunities for operators, while providing advertisers and media buyers with the first truly measurable and accountable way to place television advertising in front of the desired viewer demographic. With INVIDI, advertisers can select specific households and individual audience demographics and target them with specific numbers of commercial impressions.
How Much They Got From VCs:
Invidi Technologies Corp., a Princeton, N.J.-based provider of targeted advertising for broadband TV services, has raised $25 million in third-round funding. WPP Group led the round, and was joined by return backers EnerTech Capital, InterWest Partners and Menlo Ventures.
More at:
http://www.invidi.com/

Finding the right mobile device just got a lot easier With TryPhone.com

What Company Is Offering:

TryPhone gives you the ability to try before you buy. Use their fully interactive online virtual handsets to test-drive mobile devices, applications, content and services, as well as watch demos - right from the comfort and convenience of your own computer. No pressure, no salespeople, no product uncertainty and no features you don't understand. Try it, then go buy it... on your terms.


How It Works:


TryPhone provides onscreen simulations of handsets and shows how different button presses let you navigate through the user interface. You can try any of the functions simulated, including making a call, taking a photo, adding contacts, or sending text messages. You can also try out some of the customization options, but they don't actually take effect on the phone demo itself. There are also demos of key functions available, so you can use as an online tutorial after the purchase. Perhaps users will also be able to generate their own walkthroughs.
More at:http://www.tryphone.com/

Babelgom is a B2B messaging platform---Connecting Your Trading Partners

What Company Is Offering:

Babelgom is a B2B messaging platform. It transports your messages to/from your partners across various communication protocols (AS2, SMTP, FTP, etc). It transforms messages into/from the respective data standards used by your applications and those of your partners. Babelgom offers the most simple and efficient way to automate data exchange with your trading partners.

How It Works:
Babelgom is a simple and fast online tool to connect multiple applications, internal or external.

It supports a large range of connection needs, including all usual communication protocols and all data transformation requirements. It provides rich management mechanisms, including monitored infrastructure, quality assurance, alert notifications, update management and detailed usage activity reporting. One of its most useful characteristics is that a new exchange flow (called “channel” in Babelgom) can be created from any other flow made by any other Babelgom user, saving days and weeks in information gathering and development efforts.


Babelgom enables data exchange regardless of the technical reqs and proficiencies of a company’s trading partners. No software installation is required. There are three major componenets: the messaging engine which routes, monitors, transformsa dn measures data traffic; the self service, a web based console use to set up parameters and user authorizations; then there’s the catalogue, a repository of all channels created by Babelgom users. Babelgom is offerin its 1.o version at no cost; as it’s in semi private beta, you’ll have to send them an email in order to gain access to the site.
More at:http://babelgom.com/

Boredat--Locate Your School Or Company

What Company Is Offering:
The idea was to create a place for free speech where users could post their thoughts anonymously. when boredatcolumbia took off, students at other schools began requesting their own boredAt sites as well. jp has since been opening up to different colleges and universities across the country.They are on a mission to democratize the thoughts and ideas of communities, attempting to shed light on the question 'what are the people around you really thinking?'.

How Is It Different:

What makes boredat unique is that there are no signup requirements, accounts, profiles to fill out, or personal information to divulge. students or employees who are physically on campus or in the office can instantly post, chat, and share videos, links, photos, and listings. a thumbs up / thumbs down voting system lets users surface the top content.
More at:http://www.boredat.net/

AdReady--Low Cost Ad Shop

What Company Is Offering:
AdReady is an advertising technology company focused on making online display advertising accessible and effective for advertisers of all sizes. Through AdReady's data-rich library of proven creative, real-time ad customization tools, and intuitive web-based interface, marketers are learning that AdReady makes it easy to build and run effective online display ad campaigns in minutes.

How It Works:

AdRead's goal is to develop a better way to do display advertising that works for marketers at all levels of expertise and all budgets. The company is led by a talented team of internet veterans and backed by Madrona Venture Group.
AdReady has launched a service for small- and really small-sized marketers to get in on the act.

Rather than hiring an ad agency, which typically costs thousands of dollars upfront for creative design,AdReady allows advertisers to pick and customize remarkably professional-looking ads for free.


Sound good? Jump into the AdReady Performance Ad Library right now and create a custom ad that will help you grow your business TODAY! It's free to check it out.
More at:http://www.adready.com/