May 24, 2012 | Business Insider

Many observers of the venture capital industry have questioned whether its best days are behind it. They are frustrated by the past decade of subpar returns for the sector. The most recent report to weigh in on the troubles of the industry was produced by the esteemed Kauffman Foundation. Looking at the next decade I'm excited by what I believe will be viewed as one of the best and most rational investment periods for venture capital due to seven discrete factors:

May 24, 2012 | peHUB/Reuters

Artists are not renowned for financial savvy, but their success in raising money on the Internet through donations to crowdfunding websites like Kickstarter and Indiegogo could lead the way for a new class of investing. Soon investors will be able to pile money into startups through such sites with the hope of getting more than a lousy t-shirt in return.

May 26, 2012 | New York Times

Noam Wasserman, a Harvard Business School professor, wants you to survive. For more than a decade, he has been hunting for reasons that explain why start-ups and their founders self-destruct. He has surveyed nearly 10,000 founders from 3,500 ventures, compiling his results in a huge database that he has mined for patterns.

May 24, 2012 | Slate

This article arises from Future Tense, a collaboration of Slate, the New America Foundation, and Arizona State University. On May 21, Future Tense will host an event in Washington, D.C., called “How To Save America’s Knowledge Enterprise.” We’ll discuss how the United States approaches science and technology research, the role government should play in funding, and more.