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As an entrepreneur, it's important to stay in-the-know about the venture capital industry and how new data compares to previous years. Thanks to some recently released numbers from the National Venture Capital Association (NVCA), we can clearly see some continuing trends in the industry that could affect startups and their ability to raise capital. As the first half of 2010 comes to a close, funds raised by VC firms trended downward while IPOs, mergers and acquisitions continued to build momentum.

Here on ReadWriteStart we are often providing resources and tips for young companies looking to raise funding from venture capitals and angel investors. This week's recommendation for our Weekend Reading series, Money Magnet: How to Attract Investors to Your Business by Jacoline Loewen, is a book aimed at helping entrepreneurs learn how to deal with financing and how to make their businesses attractive to investors.

The semantic web is one of the leading trends we track here at ReadWriteWeb, so it was big news to us earlier this month when Evri announced it was acquiring Twine creators Radar Networks. Following the announcement, Twine CEO Nova Spivack wrote an inspiring and lengthy farewell blog post detailing the acquisition, and the story behind the development and growth of Twine. Towards the end of the post, Spivack outlined some lessons for budding entrepreneurs based on what he learned through his startup experience.

Unfortunately, you can't always explain why a venture capitalist chooses to invest in one startup and not in another. Despite what some will claim, there is no magic formula that entrepreneurs can follow to assure them funding 100% of the time; these are just guidelines to follow to increase your chances, but in the end, a VC's decision is not always about the quality of the company, idea or founders. It's like in a relationship when one party breaks it off by saying, "It's not you, it's me," only for VCs they actually mean it most of the time.

Over the last few months, as data has been released by the National Venture Capital Association, we have spoken about how the venture capital industry struggled in 2009. Though things appear to be returning to normal, 2009 was still a tough year for both VC investments and fund raising. Investor Seth Levine offered his opinion Monday on where he thinks the industry is headed and raised some interesting points on how VC firms will be funded in the future - an issue which could impact the way startups get funding.

More often than not, an entrepreneur with a great idea looking for funding will pitch his or her startup dozens, if not hundreds of times to potential investors. There is an endless amount of resources out there for entrepreneurs looking to learn the best practices for their pitch, including what to include in their decks, how long to speak, and what pitfalls to avoid. By the time an entrepreneur actually gets funding, they've probably mastered their pitch to a point where they could recite it in their sleep and provide advice of their own to newcomers. The problem with this is they can get stuck in their pitch mentality and it can creep into areas of their business that need the ole straight talk express.

We hear a lot about how starting a company takes some serious entrepreneurial DNA with traits like ambition, drive, relentlessness, and above all, passion. But some might argue that these are just the good sounding attributes that can lead to success; what about the other characteristics that may not sound so great? According to WePay co-founder Rich Aberman, starting a company also requires some arrogance and naïveté, so here's his advice on founding a startup straight from the entrepreneurial front-lines.

As an entrepreneur raising funding, it's easy to get into the mentality of pitching to anyone who will listen, but an active discussion amongst the investment community has sparked considerable debate on whether or not entrepreneurs should be more respectful of the chain of command. Should startups be pitching associates directly or should they be waiting for general partners to take notice?

With large daily newspapers filing for bankruptcy left and right, it is no secret that the journalism industry is going through a severe period of change. Old business models focused on advertising and classifieds have been eroded by more target online ads and by the rise of sites like Craigslist. This era of journalism renaissance has ushered in several non-profit startup news organizations, like ProPublica, an investigative journalism organization, and Spot.us, a site which fosters "community funded reporting".

One site, however, the Center for Independent Media (CIM), a non-profit online journalism network, has taken a different approach to the non-profit journalism model, one which has helped them raise $11.5 million in just four years.

Earlier today Venture Hacks announced the launch of the AngelList - a curated list of angel investors with an interest in early-stage funding pitches. According to a blog post by Venture Hacks cofounder Babak Nivi, legendary investors like FF Fund angel Dave McClure, Techstars' Brad Feld and SoftTech VC's Jeff Clavier are among the site's first participants. ReadWriteStart caught up with Nivi to find out why he was moved to create the resource.