ReadWriteStart

The talk of the venture capital and entrepreneurial towns these days is the Open Angel Forum which after its second event in Boulder, Colorado is now announcing two more events in New York and San Francisco. Brainchild of Jason Calacanis, the Open Angel Forum (OAF) is an opportunity for startups to get face-time with active big-time venture capitalists and angel investors - all for the low, low price of free.

If you've been a geek your whole life then you understand the term "Canadian girlfriend." The Canadian (or sometimes British) love interest is the person you talk about when a member of the opposite sex inquires about your dating status. The story is that you met online, you've formed a solid bond and you'll probably break up with your online girlfriend when a girl in your vicinity decides she likes you. The idea is to drive up the value of your perceived social stock. In the startup world, the same principle is used in "ham and egging."

Between Y Combinator's Startup School, the influx of seed fund incubators, the list of legendary mentors and investors and the dotcom bust's school of hard knocks, is there really any reason to go to grad school? At ReadWriteWeb we're supportive of lifelong learning and universities that coach entrepreneurs, but a recent post by Venture Hacks founder Naval Ravikant has us wondering, "What is the value in grad school?"

We are all told to never judge a book by its cover, but let's face it, when we find ourselves at an ugly website, we automatically make assumptions about the quality of the services that site provides. A topic we have begun to cover more often, and one that we strongly believe in, is the importance of design for startups. In the last several weeks we've provided tips and best practices for sign-up buttons and registration processes, as well as an inside look into at Boxee's user experience overhaul.

While successful technology entrepreneurs like Bill Gates and Steve Jobs founded their respective companies after dropping out of college, research universities have still succeeded in fostering their own innovative technologies. Currently, however, when a professor or student develops a particularly extraordinary idea or product, the process of spinning-off the intellectual property into its own company is usually a slow and expensive process. David B. Lerner, an entrepreneur, angel investor and director of Columbia University's Venture Lab/Spin-Off program, recently proposed that universities work to reverse this trend and better facilitate startup spin-offs.

As the first week of February closes out and football fans gather in living rooms and sports bars across the nation for the Super Bowl, for us here at ReadWriteStart its the time of the week when we take a look back at the more popular posts from the past week. In this week's Weekly Wrapup we discuss the debate between freemium and subscription models, the best practices for an effective "sign up" button, running online contests, networking with entrepreneurs online and some tips for public speaking.

In the words of legendary investor Mark Suster, "Entrepreneurs don't noodle, they do." While it's important to be analytical in your decision making, it's also important to act when opportunities arise. Yesterday over drinks with some investors and entrepreneurs, I marveled at the difference between the life of a startup founder and the life of an investor. Founders manage multiple staff and stakeholders with heavy emphasis on operational issues. Meanwhile, investors manage multiple portfolio companies across a number of industries. The common trait amongst both is decisiveness.

A year ago we launched the ReadWriteWeb Guide on Community Management with the knowledge that "Community Manager" would become an increasingly popular job title. Since then, the requirements of keeping your customers engaged have become more demanding. According to one report, contests are becoming increasingly popular. ReadWriteWeb caught up with Strutta CEO Ben Pickering, to find out what businesses can do to generate more participation from their contests.

Social media maven and "average Joe" wine connoisseur Gary Vaynerchuk is the author of "Crush It!: Why NOW Is the Time to Cash In on Your Passion", a step-by-step how-to guide for taking advantage of the Internet and social networking to create a powerful and influential personal brand. While any web savvy entrepreneur knows the importance of social media, this book is great for those looking for a crash course and an insider's view into what it takes to create a thriving business from a personal passion.

In any relationship, business or personal, first impressions are critical to getting off on the right foot. For startups, if a user gets a bad first impression of your website, that same sentiment will carry through to their opinion of your service. A few weeks ago we told you about some pointers to make sure your site's registration process isn't scaring away users. A recent post on web development blog Six Revisions focuses in on this issue by providing some techniques and best practices for creating and designing the perfect registration button.