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In some ways, the term "big data" belies the challenges that startups face in tackling the subject. That adjective "big" tends to get a lot of the attention, often at the expense of the noun "data." In other words, we spend a lot of time talking about issues of the quantity of data and less time addressing issues of quality.

Some of those issues were addressed today at Web 2.0 Expo when Factual CEO and founder Gil Elbaz gave a talk on the challenges of big data. The subtitle of his talk is key here: "Getting Some." It isn't simply a matter of storing data, but rather how companies, particularly startups, can access data.

Tara Hunt's recent talk at TEDxCorcordia is available online, and we've pasted the video below. It's a pretty frank and inspirational talk about the investment - and no, not the financial investment - that entrepreneurs must make.

Hunt (@missrogue on Twitter) is the co-founder of the shopping data startup Shwowp, and in her TEDx talk, she talks about some of the struggles necessary in building a company, in convincing others of its potential, and of moving forward.

I'm just returning from another really great year at SXSW. It's always fun to meet up with so many new and old friends in just a few days in Austin. Beyond that, one of my favorite things is bumping into so many entrepreneurs I've never met who are working on interesting problems. However, this year I met a concerning number of entrepreneurs who wouldn't tell me anything about their business. They explained they were building it "stealth". I fear this has become the default course of action for far too many startups and in many cases it's not the best plan.

Interestingly, very active angel and COO at Square, Keith Rabois weighted in on Quora in response to the question: "What are some concrete reasons for *actively* stealthing a startup?" last year.

Seedcamp, often described as the European equivalent to Silicon Valley's Y Combinator, has announced a partnership with Facebook to help support socially-oriented startups. The partnership means that Seedcamp participants get product, technical, and design support, as well as early access to beta programs on the Facebook platform.

Seedcamp says that many of its companies are already work closely with the Facebook platform, and the closer partnership will give those startups a boost. As Seedcamp notes on its blog, "Since many of our portfolio companies use parts of Facebook's offerings in their setup, talking to the folks working on these products directly will be a massive help. In addition, an early look at what is coming up will enable Seedcamp companies to be ahead of the market and to play with cool new features first."

Steve Blank, author of Four Steps to Epiphany, has helped formulate the thinking behind the Lean Startup methodology, together with Eric Ries. I had an opportunity to meet him during a discussion around the Startup Genome project. He observed that most startups that succeed aren't lean: their goal is to have an exit rather than a scalable business. What would be the methodology for startups that simply want to flip?

Flip startups are agile startups that aim to exit quickly. Unlike Lean startups, their priority isn't to learn in order to create a scalable business model. Instead, their goal is to create a promising product. For example, it could be a successful single app or game. The idea is to build a hit that would make the founder(s) an appealing and quick talent acquisition (sometimes referred to as an acq-hire). This is lean development without any customer development. The focus is on building. Recent examples include Blindtype, Hipster or About.me. All three were bought before or right after launch.

StartMate, a new seed fund that has brought the Y Combinator-model of incubator program to Australia, has just graduated its first class of startups.

StartMate's three-month program offers mentorship and investment to five selected startups. The program culminates in a two-week trip to Silicon Valley, which the startups are now in the middle of. And like most incubators, StartMate culminates in a Demo Day, one in Sydney and one in Silicon Valley, where participants in the program get an opportunity to present in front of early stage investors.

This week's One Million by One Million roundtable was our 75th session, and we worked today with three entrepreneurs from the Midwest region of the United States. Our co-host for the program was TiE Midwest, based in Chicago.

First up, Priyanshu Harshavat, from Evanston, Illinois, presented Socioclean, a service for cleaning up your reputation on social networks. The company addresses a widely-experienced pain: employers are now using social networks for background check on issues such as comments about prior employers, substance-usage, and general image issues that may come across as red-flags to a prospective employer. Jobseekers, therefore, need help cleaning up their social media profiles so that objectionable material does not find its way to these background check scenarios, disrupting their chances of getting hired.

Women 2.0 announced today that, thanks to its success, its Founder Labs pre-incubator program will become its own, separate organization. Moreover, the program will expand from its current San Francisco location to New York City, with the first East Coast program set to begin in May.

Founder Labs has been a core piece of the Women 2.0 mission: that is, to increase the number of female founders of tech startups. The pre-incubator program lets participants keep their day jobs, with its sessions held on nights and weekends. It's a fast-paced, five-week program, focused on building mobile apps, giving participants hands-on experience validating an idea, and working with others.

It's that time of year again, when college seniors start thinking about the next phase of their lives. In other words, that means it's time to start looking for a job, polishing up the resume, and hitting the campus career fairs.

As we've discussed here before in relations to internship programs, many campus events and recruitment efforts still cater primarily to large, established companies. This can make it challenging for startups looking to hire new talent and difficult for graduates hoping to find work opportunities at small or new companies.

The NYC Startup Job Fair - scheduled for the afternoon of April 8 - hopes to address this with an event expressly aimed at matching graduates with startups.

A new incubator program, Imagine K12, launched today in Palo Alto aimed specifically at building entrepreneurship in the education space. Founded by three Silicon Valley veterans - Tim Brady, Alan Louie, and Geoff Ralston - Imagine K12 will support early stage ed-tech startups through a funding and mentorship program.

Describing itself as "unabashedly inspired by Y Combinator," Imagine K12 will bring that YC model of business and technology development to education technology. The program was created in close consultation with YC's Paul Graham, who endorsed the efforts of the new incubator program on his blog today: "If you want to start a startup building things for schools, we encourage you to apply to Imagine K12, because frankly, we couldn't help you they way they can."