Weekend Entrepreneur Links: Rockstar Angels, World Cup and More

by Nathaniel Whittemore · 2010-06-06 17:49:00 UTC
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The world is gearing up for one of our great global sporting events. I could have filled all of these links with interesting stories about social justice and the world cup. But there was more going on than that this past week, including some great conversations about angel investment (in Silicon Valley and in Africa).

Kick-Off!: frog design's "Design Mind" blog is one of my favorite creative content hubs on the web. Tons of people across their organization blog, and they'll often put together coherent sections all about a specific topic or conference. They've just launched a blog that's all about looking at social innovation and design in the context of the World Cup, and if the early posts are any indication, it will be a must-read.

Help for Startups! - A semi-complete list of startup accelerator programs: This is like the holy grail -- a really, really comprehensive list of programs to help your startup grow, learn, get mentored, get funding and more. It even has a section for the social change programs like the Unreasonable Institute. Is he missing any? Help make this list complete.

Fringe with Benefits: A good piece from Appfrica's Jon Gosier. The basic thesis here is that Africa is an amazing spot for risk tolerant, socially-minded, tech-focused investors, and that companies and multi-nationals should stop sprinkling "pocket-change" and actually pump money into the incubators, accelerators and other support structures helping Africa's tech entrepreneuership scene come to life. Money quote: "I guarantee the last idiotic Twitter clone to raise millions in San Francisco was a worse bet than putting $50,000 to work with someone with a proven track record, but limited resources in Africa."

Angel Investors as the New Rock Stars: An interesting post from a consistently smart writer over at peHUB, this piece identifies the emerging cultural status (at least in the startup world) around the super angels. It's a not inaccurate description of how the cult of personality (for good and ill) is an important element of today's angel landscape. The good news is that I think this is bringing more people to the field, and letting it grow.

Photo credit: Cameron Cassan

Nathaniel Whittemore is the founder of Assetmap. Previously he was the founding director of the Northwestern University Center for Global Engagement.
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