Want a mentor? This group says maybe you don't

T he concept of finding a mentor to help guide you through whatever challenges you're currently facing is very in vogue right now. There are thousands of organizations that proclaim to connect mentors with potential mentees.

And nowhere do you see it more than in the discussion of women in business and women in technology. Add that to the startup world, where many people inexperienced in business  ...

Can tax incentives turn Oregon into angel investing paradise?

O regon may be falling behind other states when it comes to encouraging angel investment in homegrown startups.

A new report by the Technology Association of Oregon outlines a critical missing piece when it comes to a thriving startup ecosystem: incentives for angel investors to make high-risk investments.

More than half the states have incentives such as immediate tax credits for qualifying  ...

Here's why this woman left a cushy job at Microsoft to help teach more women to code

C ynthia Tee spent 16 years mentoring women in engineering roles at Microsoft, but her full-time job was always developing software. So when she saw a job posting that would let her support female engineers full-time and also teach them how to build software, she jumped on it.

Tee was named the executive director of Ada Developers Academy last week. The Seattle academy trains women to be  ...

New ‘syndicate’ targets investments in Israeli startup community

F irst things first: no, the Israel Syndicate isn’t an Israeli version of the Mafia. Rather, it’s a new U.S.-based group made up of investors targeting the ever-growing community of Israeli startups.

Israel has emerged as a major hub of innovation, startups and shareholder wealth creation, according to the Syndicate, which is one of several groups featured on the AngelList U.S. website that  ...

"G" Chahal's startup gobbles ad tech company; is he targeting the startup that fired him?

G ravity4, the ad tech targeting company founded just last year by Gurbaksh "G" Chahal, the serial entrepreneur who was fired from another of his companies after pleading guilty to beating a woman, said Monday it has made its ninth acquisition, a nine-year-old Swedish paid search platform called AdX Search.

Chahal, a flamboyant advocate for dreaming big and shooting for the stars, is alleged in a  ...

She pitched a plan to billion-dollar-idea man Kevin Ryan. Three years later, he pitched her back

S erial entrepreneur Kevin Ryan founded Gilt Groupe, the invitation-only flash-sales site for luxury women’s apparel and accessories, in 2007. It was a model that changed the way millions of people shopped. Three years later, the company wanted to grow its user base with new verticals.

One idea tossed out — a food and wine division — piqued the interest of product manager Shan-Lyn Ma.  ...

Will Silicon Valley love Carly Fiorina? That question, and 8 more have-to-read links

C arly Fiorina didn’t exactly set the world on fire when she ran for office in California. But that’s not deterring the former CEO of Hewlett-Packard from making a try for the presidency. She declared this morning she’s seeking the Republican nomination. Which brings up the question: Will Silicon Valley’s tech elite peel away from their big money support of Democrats with one of their own  ...